That the official and the criminal are inextricably aligned should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the workings of their government, but … - Lucius Shepard

Doubt concerning their mental well-being creeps in. Is this an instance of healing or a freak scene? Are they two very different people who have connected on a level new to both of them, or are they emotional burnouts who aren’t even talking about the same subject and have misapprehended mild sexual attraction for a moment of truth? Just how much difference is there between those conditions?

Every object, the old man had said, is but an interpretation of every other object. There is no sure knowledge, only endless process.

Doesn’t that sound like God to you? This big stupid, invulnerable thing that resembles us and whose creations are more intelligent than it is? The Bible left out that part, but it would explain a great deal.