"I was gone for a long time," he says, filling in R's missing words as smoothly as possible. Guesswork makes his insides curl, and so he pretends that he is not guessing right now. R wants him to explain his absence. Simple. "You encountered me in the end, of course. You saw me while I slept."

Slept. This is how he prefers to think about it. Sleeping is also cruel and terrible, of course -- sleeping is half of death. But when Aunamee sleeps, he wakes up. He always wakes up.

"But I am a fixture, R." He always wakes up. "I am not the sort of person who goes away for good."

He leans over, just slightly, looking for R's eyes in the darkness.

"You spoke with Mr. Earp."