72. Drawing a boundary line
This too is important: the golden, slippery feel of a poorly sliced piece of exotic fruit, a mango, and that odd bitter taste after the first wet and sweet mouthful. The world is not perfect and Roy cannot understand what kind of metaphor is being presented to him. Riza remembers the last time she ate a pomegranate (a scarlet globe filled with gelatinous seed casings, pulpy inexact centers, a cellular universe, almost embryo-like) and she will not make a clearer illustration of temptation for him; she has worn that she will never touch that fruit again.