The Lava in My Bones Read Free Page A

his fist once against the inside of Franz’s throat.
    Both men looked at each other. It was impossible to tell who was more surprised.
    Around them, life went on. The woman at the beverage table stirred hot chocolate. Scientists quarrelled before the exhibition booths; the Finn put his finger on a graph-line. Outside, the traffic light was red, then green, then red. Pedestrians crossed streets. In the sky, CFCs gobbled the ozone layer. At the outer tips of the world, sunrays sliced the Earth like razors.
    After a moment, both men came to.
    â€œYou just swallowed a rock,” said Sam.
    Franz began hyperventilating.
    â€œThat’ll rupture your oesophagus—or shred your stomach muscles! It could kill you! ”
    Stunned, Franz could only gawk at the palms of his hands.
    â€œAmbulance!” Sam shouted. “We need an ambulance!”
    Sam sat beside the Swiss stranger on the way to the hospital. He said, “Why the hell did you do that? Who are you, anyway?”
    He expected Franz to gasp in pain, but his voice emerged a resounding baritone. “Ich weiss nicht. I don’t know—I’m horrified. I expected I’d do something here but not that. You awoke this in me. Thank you,” and again he touched Sam’s hand. “I get so tired of fighting myself.” The ambulance went over a bump, and the stone rattled in his oesophagus. “I told myself not to risk a conference on nature, but I came. I got filled up with this intense craving yesterday at nine o’clock.” Sam’s plane had landed at nine o’clock.
    At the hospital, X-rays showed that Franz’s rock had miraculously dissolved and been absorbed into his bloodstream. Astonished, Sam gazed at the translucent sheet lit up like the iridescent forms of the aurora borealis. Sam immediately felt he was in a fairy tale that he had never read but would one day be written.
    Ecstatic, Franz turned to Sam. “How long are you in town for?”
    â€œOne month.”
    â€œJust a month? Good. Let’s experiment with this. Can I ask you on a date?”
    â€œA date?” Then he understood. “I’m not … that way.”
    â€œCome now, are you serious?” Franz rolled his eyes.
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?” Sam retorted angrily. How could this man know anything about him? Sam became confused. Interest in someone of his own sex seemed too violent a break with his placid past. Still, like the compounds of the Earth, we are not one thing but several. If someone thought he was gay, fine. Homosexuals are marginal, and Sam liked being marginal.He examined Franz’s muscled torso spread out on the stretcher. Impressive. Yet Sam knew there was more to it than this. He had to uncover Franz’s secret. Here was a man who had struggled with stone and conquered it. Sam wanted to get closer to his power.
    â€œFine,” answered Sam. “Let’s meet.”
    â€œTomorrow morning at nine. I want to hear about the country you live in.”
    The country he lived in? Sam came from a place people rarely visited and which, for some, hardly existed. He immediately saw himself alone in an empty field, crouched and staring at a rock in his hand, yet as winds blew all about him, he dared not lift his head to see where he lived because, if he did, the precious stone he clutched, its glittering crystals and asymmetrical ridges, would dissolve into dust and vanish in the wind.

    Sam had experienced flings before. He’d spent the night with women who were like breezes that scuttle along the Earth’s surface, disturbing not a leaf. He’d had discussions with scientists who’d forget him. He’d written articles few people read. He was a man who lived in a basement apartment and looked through a microscope lens and never asked for anything more.
    Sam hadn’t always been so placid. Years ago he’d been in love with a girl. Esther. She was in his grade five