THE SIXTH
As Zeno of Elea proved long ago, the arrow shot from its bow does not fly, but, rather, is stationary in each segment of its route. Because the same arrow can’t be in two places at once. No more could Martin, and so he remains there, in that one shattering moment, shirtless at the culm bank, with his stomach lifting and his eyes gazing round at the empty reaches of the surrounding world, which he must, now, take for his own. The inhabited world is small, contained in the hands of two people. The desert world is gigantic, spreading widely all around the borders of the inhabited world. If he hadn’t just split up with Eva, chances are he’d never have noticed this. He would have continued to move about happily, secure on the safety lines of all those telephones, messages and insiste
