The Lovers   ::   Фармер Филип Хосе

'

She smiled and said, 'I will set the table. You will see if I can cook or not. There'll be no argument about that.'

After the dishes were placed on the table, the two sat down. Hal joined his hands together, put them on the table, bowed his head, and prayed.

'Isaac Sigmen, runner before man, real be your name, we thank you for having made certain this blessed present, which once was the uncertain future. We thank you for this food, which you have actualized from potentiality. We hope and know that you will slay the Backrunner, forestall his wicked attempts to unshake the past and so alter the present. Make this universe solid and real, and omit the fluidity of time. These selves gathered at this table thank you. So be it.'

He unfolded his hands and looked at Jeannette. She was staring at him.

Obeying an impulse, he said, 'You may pray if you wish.'

'Won't you regard my prayer as unreal?'

He hesitated before saying, 'Yes. I do not know why I asked you. I certainly would not ask an Israeli or Bantu to pray. I wouldn't eat at the same table with one. But you... you are special... maybe because unclassified. I... I do not know.'

'Thank you,' she said.

She described a triangle in the air with the middle finger of her right hand. Looking upward, she said, 'Great Mother, we thank you.'

Hal repressed showing the strange feeling it gave him to hear an unbeliever. He slid open the drawer beneath the table and took out two objects. One he handed to Jeannette. The other he put on his head.

It was a cap with a wide brim from which hung a long veil. It entirely covered his face.

'Put it on,' he said to Jeannette.

'Why?'

'So we can't see each other eat, of course,' he said impatiently. 'There is enough space between the veil and your face for you to manipulate your fork and spoon.'

'But why?'

'I told you. So we can't see each other eat.'

'Would the sight of me eating make you sick?' she said with a rising inflection.

'Naturally.'

'Naturally? Why naturally?'

'Why, eating is so... uh... I don't know... animalistic'

'And have your people always done this? Or did they begin when they found out they were animals?'

'Before the coming of the Forerunner, they ate naked and unashamed. But they were in a state of ignorance.'

'Do the Israeli and Bantu hide their faces when they eat?'

'No.'

Jeannette rose from the table.

T cannot eat with this thing over my face. I would feel ashamed.'

'But...