Theogeny -- The Forked Stick

Marta Cranatseck. Born by the river, in rough country far above the city, eloped with a boatman in her youth, Anthony's lover for two long ardent summers, chowder-seller, translator, then hired so casually by the brown man with the satellite telephone.

Now Marta lies on her bed in her clean white room in the Technicate, reading the Times, and the sun slants in through the Venetian blinds and makes stripes on her skin.

The telephone is ringing, but she doesn't answer it, and she is high enough now in the hierarchy not to have an answering machine. So the bell rings and rings in the warm room, and Marta slowly turns the pages one after another and reads.