WEBVTT

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As he eased into
the sea, the island

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didn't look as close as before.

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He waded out until the chill
climbed to his testicles,

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then began to swim.

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Joseph didn't like to put
his face in the water,

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like A.H. he did the side stroke.

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The island was sliding
away in a current.

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Finally, panting, he
drew within yards.

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Then he was stepping among flung
limbs, buttocks of every size

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and shape, breasts
that flowed and puddled

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like melting deserts.

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His father was wrong,
it wasn't boring,

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it was like a crazy dream.

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From here the beach
seemed impossibly far.

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He found a narrow spot
between two bodies that

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smelled of salt. If
he wasn't back soon

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he guessed A.H.
would come for him.

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They'd side stroke
in together, Joseph

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in the lead of
his father's body.

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The people surrounding him
seemed asleep, their size

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joining the shush of the waves.

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These walls of flesh
made Joseph feel

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as though he were again unborn,
the fetus in his mother's

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poems.

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Later, when he reached
for his shoulder trying

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to brush off something prickly,
he knew that he'd slept too.

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That was stupid.

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He was going to be sunburned.

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Joseph slid into the water
and swam steadily for sure,

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but the heavy current
hardened against him

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until it wasn't water at all.

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He felt helpless, a downed moth.

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He could drown right then.

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Then it wouldn't
matter who he was,

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dead people were all the same.

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His body would wash ashore,
polished smooth and impersonal

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as plastic.

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Politely, he cried out for help.

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A huge Great Slavian,
buoyant as a walrus

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was swimming vigorously
past, but his English

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was a squawk, a meow.

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His foot began to grow
and he kicked the water

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until he was gasping.

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The one who came then
wasn't A.H. as he expected,

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side stroking and spitting, thin
hair floating, it was Olivia.

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She came to him naked in
the water, crying his name,

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reaching with arms
and buoyant breasts.

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She leaned to be an icon.

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Brother to those saints in the
museum at Musafirhana.

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Super-duper, said the
Zamenik.

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He winked down at Joseph lacing
banana fingers across his belly

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and asked Joseph's father,
"Would you write us a report?"

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A.H. had come to sign
some final papers.

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Afterward, the officials
shook his hand,

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then Olivia's, and finally,
without irony, Joseph's.

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That made him feel
suddenly older.

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"We're having a party today",
the Zamenik

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remarked.

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He pointed to a plate
of crumbled pastries.

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"It's for me!

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The director", he winked,
"has asked me to resign.

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He's Kalemegdanian,
and you know him.

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I'm Zabljak.

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We are historic enemies now".

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Both men laughed without mirth.

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"Would you support my
immigration to America?"

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Their last purchase
in Great Slavia

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was the soccer ball
with the comet.

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It didn't fit in the duffel bag.

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Joseph wouldn't let
them deflate it,

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so he held it in his arms the
whole way home on the plane.

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At the customs desk in
JFK, while one agent

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inspected their
Musafirhana prayer rug

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and Zabljak carvings
and Most Begova brass,

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another held the ball close to
his ear and shook it curiously.

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That night, home in his own
bed, Joseph was afraid to sleep.

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If his foot swelled
in America, he

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thought he'd still be
crippled in the morning.

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His parents stood
over him, asking,

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what the matter was, promising
that he was safe now.

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Joseph thought about telling
them and then he did.

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Imagination, said Olivia,
was Lord and ruler of us all.

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The only way to
save yourself was

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to write the entire
experience down.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But his father, as Joseph
had known he would,

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believed him, he too he
said, had felt strange

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in that strange country.

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Now that they were home
again, they would all

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be physiologically perfect.

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After they left holding hands,
Joseph squeezed his soccer ball

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and watched the window where
the American moon was rising.

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While they'd been
gone, it had changed.

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It looked dented like
somebody kicked it.

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Soon he heard his parents
whispering and laughing.

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They were happy to be home.

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At last, Joseph
could hear them laugh

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and their soft voices
sifted through walls

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and rose up through his pillow.

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At last, Joseph could hear
them laugh and whisper.

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Inside the soccer ball, still
hard with the air of Great

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Slavia, and there he
thought, he'd keep them safe

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and have them with
him under the covers,

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even after people
and nations died.

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Thanks.

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[APPLAUSE]

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