Juniper Loa [antikvár]

1 In the early hours presaging the dawn Silok's large frame sprawled upon the white sheet of his bed, while his mind wandered. He was caged in a white fine-mesh mosquito net which hung down from a circular bamboo frame like a festoon. In the hot Singapore night he slept all but naked, with only his shorts on. For cover, he had a hard pillow, some four feet long and a foot in diameter, sometimes called a Dutch wife, used to protect the belly from catching cold or to rest one's legs on. It did not cling to the body as even a light sheet would. He had passed a restless night. Lazily and by habit, he reached for a cigarette. Without opening his eyes fuUy, he looked across the verandah outside his window, where a reed mat had been left half rolled up, and saw the street lights stiU shining and, beyond, the pearl-gray sea of the Singapore harbor. There was not the slightest movement of sea or clouds. The familiar high-pitched calls of the sea gulls which usually began at about five had not started yet. He pulled the well-tucked mosquito net from under the mattress, twisted it around, and threw it over the headboard, the circular frame above swinging with it. The air was palpably cool at this moment, although in a few hours' time the tropical sun would beat down and the sea would glare and dazzle like a sheet of molten silver or hot glass. He had a splitting headache and a bitter taste in his mouth . . . from last night's dinner, of course. In his predawn half-awake state of mind everything seemed a little insubstantial, unreal . . . even the throbs in his head, which he knew would pass away. Even Hamsun's kiss, which had the quality of some raw, exotic, strong liquor. S.