It Was A Challenge To Concentrate
I figured that my family constituted enough of a sample size- whispering my name
- smack-bang in the middle
- I am innocent of the falsehood
- newly forged iron bolts
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It was a challenge to concentrate on puzzling out Jim’s game when I could still hear him and Oksana, who thought they were totally alone. He was mostly just murmuring agreeably, but she had warmed to her subject. “By the way, in Colloquilia no one would say he abdicated. They’d say he jumped the shark. Now lie back and I’ll show you something else that phrase often refers to.”
“I thought it was a periscope,” Jim said with a chuckle. Oksana replied at length explaining how it could be both, and I knew by the breathlessness in her voice that she was leaving none of his shark unjumped in the process.
Why try to broker an alliance with deposed monarchs of an enemy realm? I figured that my family constituted enough of a sample size to find some meaningful patterns. My own marriage to a Contrarian warlord’s daughter would be part of any such pattern, which must have been why the more I tried to focus on the riddle the more it seemed someone inside my skull was whispering my name, claiming the reason I couldn’t get the picture was that I was smack-bang in the middle of all of it.
Oksana reached a crescendo of sharks and/or periscopes, her ecstasy resonating through the passageways.
“Really?” Jim drawled.
After a small laugh, she said, “I am innocent of the falsehood so many women commit. You, sir, are quite the catch. And that is why I shall not be releasing you from the restraints. Oh, pull as hard as you like. Those are newly forged iron bolts holding the chains fast to the cavern floor. I can’t have you vanishing on me before I collect the winning bid.”
bonus points for using them in order