Thousand: Seven Hundred Eleven

sharp bend in the corridor finds the fat guardian waiting for her before another gate. The guardian fans herself with a collapsible fan painted with a scene from the line at a supermarket check-out stand. She arches her back slightly, grimacing, rubbing her back with the other hand, and seems to awaken only vaguely when the girl presents herself, apologizing for getting distracted along the way. This new gate bars the way to a sunny garden, glimpses of which giant ferns crowded around the gate allow when a grudging breeze stirs their fronds. When a silence threatens to extend into