5
The garden kept him for itself awhile, penetrating his every pore. N. stood under a tree and absorbed the universe. It was hard to leave, even though there was no need to go anywhere.
And then it rained within the rain. Rain-dust seeped surreptitiously from the whitish sun-lined haze… And suddenly a hard, slanting rain pierced that dust, falling from gloomy, low slung clouds.
He had to go back inside. N. glanced at himself in the porch mirror and saw a strange, broad-brimmed hat perched on his head. When had he donned it, and where had he got it from? Well, the peculiar objects in this house had long since ceased to surprise him.
N. took off the hat, brushed the rain drops from it and hung it on an antler branching from the wall.
“Antlers may look like branches, but they rarely blos
