Slow Children At Play

Writing to his psychologist, Gene describes two men living secretly on the top floor of his apartment complex.  He reflects on Mark and Joe, their peculiar habits, their childlike personalities, and their previous home among the nearby ruins.  

Proud of his efforts to protect Mark and Joe, Gene obscures their residency from each of the building’s caretakers. He characterizes Joe as slow in thought and deed and Mark as fidgety and unhinged.  

Seated in his apartment with Mark and Joe, Gene asks the men their origin.  Spreading his arms and legs in an uncanny imitation of winged flight, Mark explains that he descended from the sky and that Joe arose from the ground.  Joe offers a premonition of death.

Mark points to Gene’s westward-facing window and indicates the red glow of the sinking sun.  Reminded of the winter solstice, Joe panics at the loss of light.  Gene takes up a book of Greek history to distract himself from the window from which his friend, David Arimaspian, had fallen to his death.