“Here. Take some more,” –Semitransparent Cloud said, sliding a silver tray over to Marta.

Last week Marta spent her time in the domain of Cloud. She was supposed to cross that foggy coastline in a few days, but she was stunned. And no longer counting the days and only occasionally opening her eyes, she reacted only to the white line of the drug handed to her on a silver tray by the Semitransparent Cloud, with the words: “Here. Take some more.”

Marta lost track of time. And she would have forgotten where she was going. If it wasn’t for the letters. 

Letters from the Blue Tiger came consistently and on time. The envelopes came on a silver chain with one end fastened to the wing (as we remember, Marta had a wing instead of a left arm). The end of the chain was pinned to Tiger’s tail. With each new mail, the sound of the silver links and the rapidly descending letter on the chain worried Marta. She shuddered, so she couldn’t stay in the cloud of dope. 

Marta did not read the letters from Tiger. She opened the wax seal, took a new gift out of the envelope, and threw away the scribbled sheets. Today’s gift was a medium-sized emerald. 

Marta put the stone in her pocket at first, but deciding that she’d sniffed out enough for a week and considering how expensive it probably was, she gave the jewel to Cloudy. He didn’t mind.

“I have to go”–Marta awkwardly and politely tried to say goodbye.

“Why?”–without genuinely understanding –”why”–Cloud asked.

“I’ve heard that they treat sensitivity in the south.”

“I can treat you, too”–Cloud said smugly, not opening his eyes.

“No, I don’t need that radical”–Marta shot him back.

After this rudeness, Cloud immediately lost interest in the girl with a wing instead of a left arm and went to the nearest brothel to molest his emerald. 

A new letter from Tiger caught up with Marta on the coast. Curious but holding back her speed, she unhurriedly unpacked this time, and pulled out a brief note: “I’m coming today. Stop being dumb. Don’t pack your things, we’ll leave lightly.”

If Marta hadn’t stormed off, she would have noticed a carved silver key fall out of the envelope.