6/20/2023 0 Comments Quarantine by Jim Crace![]() ![]() She rubbed his eyelids and his lips with honey water. She wiped her husband's forehead with a dampened cloth. He received the treatment that she - five months pregnant, and in some discomfort - deserved for herself. She sat cross-legged inside their tent with Musa's neck resting on the pillow of her swollen ankles, his head pushed up against the new distension of her stomach, and tried to lure the fever out with incense and Her husband, Musa, was being baked alive. She put her hand on to his chest it was soft, damp and hot, like fresh bread. The devil's eggy dinner roasting on his breath she heard the snapping of the devil's kindling in his cough. When, at last, she lit a lamp to discover what was tormenting him, she saw his tongue was black - scorched and sooty. Miri's husband was shouting in his sleep, not words that she could recognize but simple, blurting fanfares of distress. ![]()
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