8.10pm. Still quite early. Time for a bit of reading before putting the boy
to bed. He pushed his "book" into the slot on the kitchen terminal and with a
few clicks loaded it. He went to the lavatory and made himself as comfortable
as was possible on the cracked plastic seat. He stroked the book's ON button
and the cover appeared. It was set to the "Medieval" scheme - gold lettering
on a rippled dark red surface like dried blood, stitched and tooled leather
corners and spine, and a narrow silk ribbon bookmark that stirred in a slight
breeze. He tapped at the cover. The end-paper appeared with its beautiful
swirling contour patterns in pink, sepia, ochre, and teal, which shifted as
he looked. He tapped again. There was the title page with its ornate lettering
on rough textured paper. He chose to read the book himself rather than have
it read to him. He stroked the bookmark which took him to his "place". He
started to read.
"During the days that followed his return home, Des Esseintes browsed through
the books in his library, and at the thought that he might have been parted
>from them for a long time he was filled with the same heart-felt satisfaction
he would have enjoyed if he had come back to them after a genuine separation.
Under the impulse of this feeling, he saw them in a new light, discovering
beauties in them he had forgotten ever since he had bought and read them for
the first time ..."
steve duffy
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