"Yes, my dear. Let it go from you. You are a goddess. You are beyond the cruelty of this world."
"Oh, Rita!" she cried and fell into hysterical sobs.
"Stay calm, my dear. Don't fall from the bookshelf."
Gabriele regained her composure and smiled lugubriously at the moonlight as well as at her friend of the moonlight. Even though nature was sometimes cruel it was beautiful; and even if hallucinations were derangements this one was kinder than any reality she had experienced.
"Maybe I should go somewhere else, Rita. I could go away into the northern parts of Canada."
"Newfoundland?"
"Oh yes, Newfoundland! It sounds so beautiful."
"They cull seals there. They beat and impale them in the most inhumane manner. It is better than American culling of its unique people but no, cruel places like that are not for a goddess like you who has seen too much cruelty and pain as is."
"Look at my paintings, Rita/Lily," said Gabriele in retaining the nine years and deleting her thirty.
"Yes, beautiful my dear. You are so talented. What a beautiful artist you will be."