It seemed to Nick that a sigh shivered through the darkened room. It blew through him like a breeze in a forest of young trees, and he felt his blood run hot and cold. A dim light, at first no more than the glow of torchlight in a mist, softened the darkness in the center of the room. It grew gradually as the voice soared and sang in words that were strange but in sounds that told of remembered sorrows and dark valleys, of jungle creatures and new loves and primitive passions.

1964.