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In Kevin […] the color was a pulsing, aortal red, and the feeling was fury…the paint in his foreground would gradually thicken, its hue coagulating to the sluggish black-purple of liver […]. Yet when Celia slid to hand. […] her aural color was light blue. I was overcome by the same clear-skied azure that had visited me when we made love.

Explanation and Analysis:

Eva gives birth to Celia and is shocked at how much easier the process is than it was with Kevin. Eva senses an “aura” when each of her children is born, and Kevin’s and Celia’s auras are strikingly different from each other. The term “aortal r...

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Original

Romeo

(aside) She speaks.
O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a winged messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art though Romeo?
Deny they father and refuse they name.
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

Modern

Romeo

(to himself) She speaks. Speak again, bright angel! For tonight you are as glorious, there up above me, as a winged messenger of heaven who makes mortals fall onto their backs to gaze up with awestruck eyes as he strides across the lazy clouds and sails through the air.

Juliet

O Romeo, Romeo! Why must you be Romeo? Deny your father and give up your name. Or, if you won’t change your name, just swear your love to me and I’ll give up being a Capulet.

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