Shall Machines Divide the Earth by Benjanun Sriduangkaew

Author:Benjanun Sriduangkaew [Sriduangkaew, Benjanun]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-60701-544-4
Publisher: Prime Books
Published: 2021-03-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Recadat leaves for her own room toward midnight. I almost ask her to stay, and know she would if I do. In the end I stop myself from saying anything, from indicating at all that I understood her. Instead I acted oblivious until she was gone; what else was there to do. Perhaps if I pretend I did not notice. Perhaps if I pretend that ten years ago I felt nothing for her. This way the cracks can be papered over.

To Daji I say, “I’m surprised you showed yourself to Recadat.”

“I like to mark my territory—it’s important for other women to know what is mine, and that I have the teeth to defend the fact. You know why she’s upset, don’t you?”

“I couldn’t possibly imagine why.”

She plays with one of the particulate grapes, pinching it between her fingers; juices run down her palm then disappear into nothing. “Oh, Detective, how did ever you survive without feminine intuition?”

“I’m a woman,” I say mildly, though I know what she means. There are women like me and Recadat, and there are women like Daji. The hard and the soft, the steel and the satin. “So what, according to your honed feminine intuition, got under Recadat’s skin?”

Her smirk is vulpine. “Haven’t you known her a long time? You should be able to answer that question.”

“We were colleagues and field partners, yes.”

“Tell me,” Daji says, “how you really felt about her all those years ago.”

I’ve never been in a position to feel interrogated; I do now. It’s not my habit to unburden myself, voluntarily or not. Thannarat, I’ve always . . . “Is it truly pertinent?”

“I’m particular. And I don’t share.”

So yielding in bed; so aggressive out of it. Were she any other woman, I’d have rebuked her, reminded her that I do not need her as much as she does me—that is the case for most of my casual relationships. “I was attracted to Recadat. I hid it well—I was not going to hurt my wife that way—and Recadat never noticed how I felt or pretended not to.”

“Or she returned your feelings.” Daji’s tone is carefully neutral. “But kept it to herself out of respect for your marriage.”

I know that, now; I can still feel Recadat’s fingers digging into my shirt. Holding on the way she’d hold onto a lifeline. Holding on the same way she did when I carried her out of that basement. I want to protect this, I remember thinking, because she was the only one I could save that terrible night.

“If you choose her,” my regalia goes on, “then I’ll not stand in the way of it. She’s important to you and now you have the liberty to pursue her. I’ll still fulfill my duties to you in the Divide.”

Here is a little piece of fiction I told myself: after Eurydice divorced me, I didn’t reach out to Recadat because by then, I’d taken on one client too many that belonged on the wrong side of the law. Contact

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.