C H A P T E R 10

THE RIVER IN THE BOAT

While the Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol Play was being performed

in the front verandah and Kochu Maria distributed cake to a Blue

Army in the greenheat, Ambassador E. Pelvis/S. Pimpernel (with a

puʃ) of the beige and pointy shoes, pushed open the gauze doors to

the dank and pickle-smelling premises of Paradise Pickles. He

walked among the giant cement pickle vats to ɹnd a place to Think

in. Ousa, the Bar Nowl, who lived on a blackened beam near the

skylight (and contributed occasionally to the ɻavor of certain

Paradise products), watched him walk.