Creation Lake

by Rachel Kushner

Still, the Thal’s heavy bones and sturdy, heat-conserving build were to be admired, Bruno said. Especially compared to the breadstick limbs of modern man,

Homo sapiens sapiens. (Bruno did not say “breadstick,” but since I was translating, as he was writing these emails in French, I drew from the full breadth of English, a wildly superior language and my native tongue.)

Bruno’s emails to Pascal covered a lot of ground but I had encountered nothing incriminating beyond Bruno’s assertion that water belongs in the water

table, and not in industrial holding bays.

Ha

the suspenders framing my large breasts, which do not require a bra. Are my breasts real? Does it matter?

“Hi.” “Hello.” “I’m Lucien,” he said. “I’m Sadie,” I said.

I even had an American passport with that name.

or he had just discovered the shortcut key Command-I, which sent his words slanting rightward, and he found this combination of keys and their applied effects fun.

to misunderstand the adult world, and to misuse it, are the precursors to innovation.

such glitches were perhaps by-products of Bruno Lacombe’s freedom from what enslaved most people. At the same time, he was an old person trying to use email.