Febiola, interior designer in Jakarta

  1. Home. Late at night a girl works at her drafting desk. Her small dog brings his ball and nudges her; she pats him without looking up, and falls asleep over her drawing.
  2. Gone. The storm bangs the door open and the dog slips out. She wakes to his ball on the floor and the room gone grey, takes the lantern and follows his paw prints into the forest.
  3. The edge. A rainforest at night. Lightning shows how vast it is. She pushes a dead tree across a ravine, crosses it, and pulls free of thorns.
  4. The storm. Wind, falling branches, a rope bridge that snaps behind her. She swims a river, and the current carries her lantern away. Lightning fells a tree behind her and she runs, lost in the dark.
  5. Lost. Under a great tree she sits down in the rain and curls up. Lightning shows his fresh prints in the mud, leading on toward a warm light. She gets up and follows them.
  6. The hotel. The prints lead into the Goodrich Hotel, warm and full of people: a family by the fire, a guest asleep on a sofa, guests inthe Royal Suite andthe Executive Suite. His prints climb the grand stair to the top window, where dawn is breaking.
  7. The square. Below, at the street-food cart Pasaria, among neighbours with lanterns, he sits waiting. She runs out to him and holds him.
  8. Home. They walk back at dawn. The grey room blooms with pattern and copper light, and she sits on the rug and plays with him.

Febiola

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