GRGR 21 halfasum

[Lycidas at worldnet.att.net]

They have set out by barge along the Spree-Oder Canal,
headed at last for Swinemunde, Slothrop to see what Geli
Tripping's clew (clew? What clew?) 1. will lead him to in
way of a Scwarzgerat, Margetrita to rendezvous with a yacht
full of refugees from the Lublin regime, among whom ought to
be he r daughter Bianca. 

1. clew 1 (kl›) n. 1. A ball of yarn or thread. 2. Greek
Mythology. The ball of thread used by Theseus to find his
way out of the labyrinth. 3. clews. The cords by which a
hammock is suspended. 4. Also clue. Nautical. a. One of the
two lower corners of a square sail. b. The lower aft corner
of a fore-and-aft sail. c. A metal loop attached to the
lower corner of a sail. --clew tr.v. clewed, clew·ing,
clews. 1. To roll or coil into a ball. 2. Also clue.
Nautical. To raise the lower corners of (a square sail) by
means of clew lines. Used with up. [Middle English clewe,
from Old English cliwen.]
 clew2 (kl›) n. --clew v. Chiefly British. Variant of clue1.


There is some blockage in the canal, but this won't stop our
two friends as they are like dreamers in a dreaming convoy
across an impressionist's landscape on a rainy night's
screen, and the Berlin madness is behind and here they are
at a little red and white resort town, wiped through in
broad smudges by the War. It's Bad Karma and as they pull
into dock there are old men dressed in gray that would
probably look like chess pieces if I were dreaming. The town
has been washed down and in the ruins lilacs bleed their
color, their surplus life out over the broken stone and
brick. Margerita is very nervous, her pink gardenia is
shaking. The Spa is deserted except for few black figures,
Sothrop tags along in his Rocketman outfit.  The shadows are
nervous.  Now Margharita has turned to stone, Slothrop is
getting the chills and who is that rigid figure, a woman in
black, white face and a smile as they try to approach, she
watches them. In her black eyes all the malaise of a Europe
dead and gone. By the well at sundown, woman in black, Greta
is spooked and runs into the shadows of the Karhaus
(cure-house) as Slothrop accosts the lady at the well, but
she is changed, just another woman of the ruins. 

Slothrop climbs a stairs to the sky and looks around.
Margharita is gone. Maybe a few beers and some chow and wow
she materializes-it is a shy fade-in, as Gerhardt von Goll
must have brought her on a time or two and Greta may not
remember the black lady, but she has gone up and done a
little observing too, seen her daughter's boat.

Down to the quay go Slothrop and Margharita, the yacht, the
color of the mist, nears, a gilded winged jackal under the
bowsprit, but this is no marauding vessel but a moving
village seeking escape it has not defined clearly.
Margharits is aboard and we know Slothrop will get on too,
somehow, but first a little slapstick and polka music as
Slothrop gets out of his outfit and into a bunk on the white
Anubis with a girl. Her cheekbones excite him, her hair,
even her pubic hair, is white, she's maybe 18, her name,
Stefania Procalowska, wife of the owner of the Anubis.
Stefania gossips, Slothrop listens, Alpdrucken, Goebbel's
private collection, Bianca, who's the father, sleeping with,
daughter, sleep with Karel, business, guilt, S&M, always
enjoyed it too much, couldn't enjoy it any other way yap,
yap, yap, yap, Thantz. Miklos Thantz. Touring, a small band,
entertained SS. 

 ROCKET SITES? The hand of Providence creeps among the
stars, giving Slothrop the finger.