oberon

You don't even know if she really likes you, Oberon said as we exited and I unlocked my bike. She could be doing her customer service routine and stringing you along in hopes of a big tip the next time you come in. With dogs you just go up and smell their asses and you know where you stand, it's so much easier. Why can't humans do that?

I dispelled my invisibility for a few seconds in his full view, a finger resting provocatively on my lower lip, giving him a come-hither look under a streetlight. His jaw and the bottle of Żubrówka dropped at the same time. It shattered, drawing his eyes to the sidewalk, and I took the opportunity afforded by his distraction to disappear again."That was mean," Oberon said, watching the man look wildly around for me and pawing at his eyes as if to clear them.Why? I asked. I__e done him no harm."Yes, you have. You will haunt him for the rest of his life. I know from experience."You__e haunted by someone flashing you on a street corner?"No. It was a dog park. Atticus and I were just arriving and she was leaving."Oh, here we go."She was so fit and her coat was tightly curled and she had a perfect pouf on the end of her tail like a tennis ball. I saw her for maybe five seconds, until she hopped into a Honda and her human drove her away. And now I can__ see a Honda without seeing her."But that__ a good thing, isn__ it? Kind of romantic? A vision of perfection you can treasure forever, unspoiled by reality."Well, I don__ know. In reality I__ like to try spoiling her, if she was in the mood."Look, Oberon, that man is lonely. He__ too skinny and sweaty, and I__ willing to bet you five cows that he__ socially awkward or he wouldn__ be staggering drunk at this hour. But now, for the rest of his life, he will remember the na**d woman on the street who looked at him with desire. When people treat him like something untouchable, he will have that memory to comfort him."Or obsess over. What if he starts wandering the streets every night looking for you?"Then he__ misunderstood the nature of beauty. It doesn__ stay, except in our minds."Oh! I think I see. That__ true, Clever Girl! Sausage never stays, because I eat it, but it__ always beautiful in my mind.

I__e never run this far before," he said at one point. "Or this fast for so long. It__ better than sticking your head out a car window, that__ for sure."My theory is that Oberon might be a master of Tao. He always sees what we filter out. The wind and the grass and something in the sky, sun or moon, shining on our backs as we run: They are gifts that humans toss away like socks on Christmas morning, because we see them every day and don__ think of them as gifts anymore. But new socks are always better than old socks. And the wind and grass and sky, I think, are better seen with new eyes than jaded ones. I hope my eyes will never grow old.

I don__ remember the whole thing, because it was very long, but Atticus recited it for me once, and there was a line that went like this: __ry ham hock and let slip the hogs of war!_ I know you might not agree, but for me that was the best thing Shakespeare ever wrote."You mean, __ry havoc and let slip the dogs of war_ from Julius Caesar?"No, I don__ think that__ it. There was ham in there; I__ sure he was talking about ham. They were going to battle hunger."I think you might have been hungry when you heard it, Oberon.

I saw Oberon charge into the fray on a huge black warhorse, glamour swirling around him, and sweep a hand toward the thickest of the fighting. Vines and roots erupted from the ground, coiling around the Iron fey, strangling them or pulling them beneath the earth. Atop a rise, Mab raised her arms, and a savage whirlwind swept across the field, freezing fey solid or impaling them with ice shards. The armies of Summer and Winter howled with renewed vigor and threw themselves at the enemy.

I inhale and a zephyr enters my body. The earth tilts its axis, changing my view of the heavens. Two clouds appear in the shape of trumpets. They part and rays of sunlight burst in. The sunlight speaks, 'Seek a new experience.