"Nowhere. Look at me do this." Beloved put her fists on her hips and commenced to skip on barefeet. Denver laughed.
"Now you. Come on," said Beloved. "You may as well just come on." Her black skirt swayed fromside to side.
Denver grew ice-cold as she rose from the bed. She knew she was twice Beloved's size but shefloated up, cold and light as a snowflake.
Beloved took Denver's hand and placed another on Denver's shoulder. They danced then. Roundand round the tiny room and it may have been dizziness, or feeling light and icy at once, that madeDenver laugh so hard. A catching laugh that Beloved caught. The two of them, merry as kittens,swung to and fro, to and fro, until exhausted they sat on the floor. Beloved let her head fall back on the edge of the bed while she found her breath and Denver saw the tip of the thing she always sawin its entirety when Beloved undressed to sleep. Looking straight at it she whispered, "Why youcall yourself Beloved?"
Beloved closed her eyes. "In the dark my name is Beloved."
Denver scooted a little closer. "What's it like over there, where you were before? Can you tell me?"
"Dark," said Beloved. "I'm small in that place. I'm like this here."She raised her head off the bed, lay down on her side and curled up.
Denver covered her lips with her fingers. "Were you cold?"
Beloved curled tighter and shook her head. "Hot. Nothing to breathe down there and no room tomove in."
"You see anybody?"
"Heaps. A lot of people is down there. Some is dead."
"You see Jesus? Baby Suggs?"
"I don't know. I don't know the names." She sat up.
"Tell me, how did you get here?"