Lena described him as reverting, which seemed to irritate him — connotations perhaps of a weaker man. The bench seat they shared was bedded right by a large pool of superheated water that had cut its own deep channel a good eighty yards to the river, forming a snake-like, yard-wide stream of boiling fury. The higher sulphur output made for a permanent stench. No place for sightseers. And yet, as Lena got to observe, a form of life — green algae — thrived in places, just on the fringes of pools, shallows at less than boiling point. She saw them as hopes surviving every one of life's disappointments. As a dream still with chance of coming true. To be able to converse fully was indeed a miracle. At first. And so too did the love-making take on more literal meaning, for Barney could express in words, take it beyond the physical, articulate the assumed. Tell her he loved her, how much he admired her strength. In this tree-guarded private domain, he now did most of the talking. She teased he couldn't be shut up.
