Was this woman a sorceress, who had trapped the real Venice in her magic box and replaced it with the apparition outside? Xxnx Though she looked soft and womanish she felt strong, and the two of them fell on and over each other and twisted around in tight embraces and breathed each other in while outside the long, hot, Venice night stretched out like a dark mirror outside. The strange woman pushed back for a second. In the morning, a servant scattered Elena’s ashes over the canal. It was extraordinary! They went to a hall pantry with a trapdoor that opened onto a set of old stone stairs. His breathing was ragged. Elena didn’t care. She went to the balcony and realized she was in Venice, but it was a nightmare Venice of impossible buildings she didn’t know and blinding lights that sometimes flew through the
