SA4QE 2015 - Alida Allison - Colorado, United States

My first quote for 2015 is from Hoban’s 1975 The Sea-Thing Child. The second quote is from the novel Pilgermann, published in 1983, set during the Crusades, and said by the Jewish Pilgermann to his Muslim friend Bembel Rudzuk near the end of the story.

That night the sea-thing child heard the air humming. He looked up at the sky for the star that he always looked at, but it was blotted out. He could not see the star with his eyes, but in the dark of his mind he saw it burning and flickering over the sea. The humming of the air grew louder, and the sea-thing child stepped out of his double circle and faced into the wind. The ocean was high and wild, and the sky and the sea roared together, heaving in the dark.

The sea-thing child spread his wings to keep from falling down, and the wind blew him backwards. He moved forwards against the wind, then he began to run, faster and faster. The beach slipped away under him, he laughed, and flapped his wings and flew up into the storm.

'To me it seems that the best we can hope for in this life is honesty of error; more than that is just not to be expected.'

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