Something big was trapped inside him, some great sadness, and he felt if he could cry, or even articulate it in speech, it would relieve the pressure and provide him some measure of relief. But he couldn't reach it. He couldn't find a way to address it. He wondered if it would become the thing that defined him.

Well, yeah, you listen to a talking snake and there's gonna be trouble.

And sometimes I believe your relentless analysis of June leaves something out, which is your feeling for her beyond knowledge, or in spite of knowledge. I often see how you sob over what you destroy, how you want to stop and just worship; and you do stop, and then a moment later you are at it again with a knife, like a surgeon.What will you do after you have revealed all there is to know about June? Truth. What ferocity in your quest of it. You destroy and you suffer. In some strange way I am not with you, I am against you. We are destined to hold two truths. I love you and I fight you. And you, the same. We will be stronger for it, each of us, stronger with our love and our hate. When you caricature and nail down and tear apart, I hate you. I want to answer you, not with weak or stupid poetry but with a wonder as strong as your reality. I want to fight your surgical knife with all the occult and magical forces of the world.

If you could see your whole life laid out before you, there__ be no reason to live it, right?

She rocked her hips into him and gasped. __o you have a sleeping cabin on this boat?_ His teeth brushed her ear. __es._ __o you have protection?_ Her question didn__ register through the haze of his hunger for her. __annons, a cutlass, and a few pistols._ She chuckled and kissed him again. __ow about condoms?

First rule of a pirate__ mate, keep yer eye on yer destination, not yer doom.