At times, Camp Century had a population of nearly 200 people living in a network of dozens of tunnels that connected the prefabricated buildings where they lived and worked in the underground caverns.
As I passed into the little alleyways behind the flames, I arrived at a warren of tiny streets, in which a shrunken candle burned in the dark of a bare earth cavern.
It's one of the many islets with which this sea is strewn. For ships a mere reef, for us an immense cavern. I discovered it by chance, and chance served me well.
I can't imagine what this casual brush-off must have done to my grandmother, who knew, in some back cavern of her heart, that her daughter was not the same as other children.
I was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at each momentary recovery, lost finally in the dark caverns of her throat, bruised by the ripple of unseen muscles.