Abstract
Yev always called on Ruhlma, never the other way around.
Every evening for a double-handful of months, he'd arrive, soot-smudged and foundry-stinking, after the last of her clients had slunk from the parlour, their tense limbs newly loosened under her practiced touch. The poor stoop of their shoulders nearly straightened. the kinks in their bellies, poked and kneaded, bent around grease-papered bundles. those who still had legs fit for travel would clutch parcels of mettwurst, chorizo, animelle, pancetta, while stumbling down the three steps from Ruhlma's porch to the alley; those who didn't might commando-crawl away or scuff-walk on hardened palms, swinging their abbreviated trunks above the cobbles before disappearing into tenement shadows. Upright or hunkered, the odd rhythm of their gait was a sure sign they'd been to see the salumitrix. That she'd worked her magic on their desperate bodies, cured what ailed them. For now.
Every evening for a double-handful of months, he'd arrive, soot-smudged and foundry-stinking, after the last of her clients had slunk from the parlour, their tense limbs newly loosened under her practiced touch. The poor stoop of their shoulders nearly straightened. the kinks in their bellies, poked and kneaded, bent around grease-papered bundles. those who still had legs fit for travel would clutch parcels of mettwurst, chorizo, animelle, pancetta, while stumbling down the three steps from Ruhlma's porch to the alley; those who didn't might commando-crawl away or scuff-walk on hardened palms, swinging their abbreviated trunks above the cobbles before disappearing into tenement shadows. Upright or hunkered, the odd rhythm of their gait was a sure sign they'd been to see the salumitrix. That she'd worked her magic on their desperate bodies, cured what ailed them. For now.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Looming Low |
Subtitle of host publication | Being An Anthology of Original Weird Fiction |
Editors | Justin Steele, Sam Cowan |
Place of Publication | Carmichal, CA: USA |
Publisher | Dim Shores |
Pages | 157-168 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Volume | 1 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780999143018 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Anthology
- Fiction anthology
- fantasy literature
- Australian fantasy literature