Fenn to Kinna:
"'...it has to be a zero-kelvin secret. No word, no hint to your parents, to anybody, no, not to Taffimai Metallumai or the wind.'" (pp. 277-278)
I have said that the wind often seems to comment and even to become a character. Fenn almost acknowledges it as such.
Kinna's response:
"She made a curious gesture, right forefinger flitting from left to right shoulder, then from brow to breast." (p. 278)
I had to repeat this gesture myself to see what Anderson was getting at. See here.
They enter a domed life-support shelter on the rim of a Martian crater and remove their helmets. At a dramatic moment in their conversation, they confront each other and:
"Without their helmets, they could not hear the Martian wind, and the dust devils afar spun in silence." (pp. 279-280)
Conversation is punctuated this time not by the sound of the wind but by its silence and by silent spinning dust devils.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I repeated Kinna's gesture myself, and it's not exactly the sign of the Cross as used by Latin rite Catholics: touching forehead, breast, left and then right shoulder. I assume Kinna gave no explanation for the meaning of her gesture?
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
No explanation.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Then we don't know what Kinna's gesture means.
Ad astra! Sean
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