A dead man finds his way into our heartssimply by opening the door and walking in.He pours himself a drink, speaks aimlesslyabout hunting or some bats he sawon the way over, wheeling around each other.Look how they spin, he says, it’s like theripples atoms make as they hurl past each otherin the space between their bodies.We mention the eels at the aquarium, howtheir bodies knot while mating. The dead manwas a boyscout once, and tied a lot of knots.His favorite was the one with the rabbitand the hole, and the rabbit going in and outand around the tree. The dead man liked itbecause he liked to pretend that the rabbitwas running from a fox, and the rabbitalways ended up safe, back in his hole.
+The dead man finds his way into our heartsby opening the door and walking in.
+He pours himself a drink, something likeGerman cognac, from the mini-bar. He starts talking
+aimlessly about hunting or some bats he sawon the way over, wheeling around each other
+like x-rays around bones and soft tissue.The dead man can see x-rays now, he says,
+a perk of his condition.It’s not so bad, he says, though
+he stops short of saying it’s as good asbeing alive, an omission we can, ultimately,
+forgive. There’s a short silence where nothingis said, we’re just looking at him as he looks
+at the ceiling or through it. He looks goodfor being dead. We mention this to him
+but he just looks embarrassed. He mentionseels he saw in the aquarium earlier, how they knot
+while mating. For hours, it’s just a huge massof eel flesh, he says, undulating in the water.
+We nod, waiting for what he’ll say next. He seemsuncomfortable carrying the conversation, but we
+can’t think of anything either. Now it’s his turnto look at us, and ours to stare at the ceiling
+or wherever. Finally, we mention the knots we tiedin Boy Scouts, especially the loop—a noose? he asks—
+but we say no, the one with the rabbit in its holeand the tree it goes around. The dead man
+knows that knot, he says, it’s a good knot. But whathe really likes is the rabbit, coming out of its hole
+in the morning, eating some grass, and a fox creepingout of its hiding place and chasing the rabbit around
+the tree, back into its hole, where it always ends up safe.