Elysium Read Online Free PDF Page A

in a steam so thick she could hardly breathe. Nothing held her, only the moist air. She was lost in time, surrounded by a warm humidity, while thoughts of Antoinette, buried and decomposing in the soil, whirled in her mind. She hugged herself and rocked as if in prayer, then leaned against the wet tile, moaning softly to herself.
    “Hey, you all right in there?” Helen shouted from the other side of the door.
    “I’m fine,” Adrianne said too quickly, with a flash of fear that Helen might come inside.
    “You’re so quiet. … Okay, take your time. When you come out, I have a surprise for you.”
    Adrianne sat on the toilet and let the warm pee stream out of her. Then she stood and stared, mesmerized by her yellow creation. She flushed. Her moist hand wiped the fogged mirror of the medicine cabinet. Facing back was her and not her. She was somebody else. Someone she didn’t recognize. Someone she didn’t want to recognize.
    “Sweetie?” The door quietly opened and Helen’s head came into view. “Oh, honey …” she said as she let herself in. She put her arms around Adrianne’s shoulders, then brushed back her wet hair.
    “I’m getting you out of this morbid place. At least for one afternoon you’re going to forget all this.”
    “But I don’t want to forget.”
    “You can’t live like this.” They stared at each other in the mirror.
    Adrianne nodded.
    “Come on and get dressed.” Helen led her back to the bed to sit while she rummaged through the closet. In her right mind she would have told Helen to get the hell out of there. Nobody touched her clothes. Or told her how to dress. But that was before. The hangers scraping against the wooden closet pole sounded like birds screeching. At last Helen emerged with her silk red blouse and a dark blue pair of pants. She held the outfit up proudly. “I always liked you in this shirt, and these will look good with it, don’t you think?”
    Adrianne took the clothes and began putting them on without questioning Helen’s taste.
    “I’ve got a surprise for you,” Helen said. “I scored two tickets to this afternoon’s games, and you and I are going!”
    Adrianne made a questioning face.
    “It will be fun! There might even be some celebrities in the audience.”
    Adrianne didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. She had never known Helen to have an interest in sports. Adrianne sighed. The small breath released some of her melancholy.
    “But first, there is lunch. I know this cute little place downtown where we can sit outside and eat and watch the people go by.”

    The smells of the city were strange — new — different. The faintest hint of fresh dung lingered from somewhere. Adrianne remembered that smell from when she was a kid and the neighbors spread manure on their vegetable garden. It was a sweet, stinky smell she found secretly pleasant. Maybe there was a horse-drawn carriage or a police horse nearby? But they were a bit far from the park where such things could be found. Her mind drifted as she sat across from Helen in an open-air cafe on the sidewalk, corralled by large potted plants and velvet ropes outside a restaurant with dining tables and flowers and menus and customers who ate and laughed and drank and smoked and were as carefree as she felt careworn.
    “What are you having?” asked Helen.
    “What?” said Adrianne.
    “What are you going to order?”
    The menu lay in front of her, ignored.
    “I’ll have whatever you’re having,” Adrianne said.
    “Come now, don’t be so boring. Pick something for yourself. How about the soup?”
    “Sure, the soup will be fine.”
    She went back to searching the street for the source of the mysterious scent. Something rustled in the bushes across the street. She squinted into the leaves to see what was there. A pigeon? A sparrow? A rat? Helen was speaking. Adrianne heard the words but found herself mesmerized by a bird flying above. It circled around and around, dipping and coasting,