Fourth Excerpt

My latest novel, A Diamond Found on Paradise, was released this month. Here’s another excerpt.

from Chapter IV

[Soupy’s first conversation with the gladifer sa Mrenep we Lelemle]

When his call came Soupy was already seated in front of her screen so she took it immediately. He was sitting in the same position and wearing the same apron as when he’d left the earlier message. He sat so motionless that for a moment she wondered if she was looking at a still image, but still she said, “Hello, sa Mrenep we Lelemle.”

He answered, “Hello, Suprastella. I want to question you.” As before, he spoke in Gladilatian with the Paradisan translation appearing as text on the screen.

She said, “By all means, do.”

He asked, “Were you searching for a diamond?”

“No. I had no idea there would be a diamond in that stream.”

“Were you searching?”

“No. I was just walking through the woods.”

“Did you carry a diamond in the past?”

“I have a necklace I sometimes wear which has several diamonds on it, but I never wore it as regularly as I now do this.”

“Why do you habitually carry this diamond?”

“Because it continues the journey I embarked upon when I lifted it out of the stream. It is not a chosen journey, but nevertheless it is one which, finding myself upon it, I cannot abandon without that abandonment becoming a detour in my life as great as the journey itself, as great but without its coherence.”

Mrenep didn’t say anything at first and Soupy was wondering if she’d made herself clear when he asked, “Is that the meaning of this?” and reached offscreen with his hand.

A small image of Soupy appeared on the corner of the screen. It was from the Ish Ester interview, and said, “It’s vra, as the gladifers would say, it’s fitting that I wear it, in fulfillment of its discovery’s serendipity.”

“Yes,” Soupy answered, “precisely.”