Day Two.

The palace is nice in the afternoons, for a stroll through the grounds as people bustle by after a leisurely lunch. The gardens are dappled and sunny, softening the classic colonial style buildings. Not lavish, but elegant buildings nonetheless. At night it would cast shadows and fall silent, softly spooky, and people say they feel things if not see things. But during the day I only feel the soft rustle of wind. I intercepted the flower carts coming out of the palace, loaded with the flowers of yesterday’s banquet, and picked some still pretty ones for my desk. I believe it would be, however, on very rare occasions that I would take this stroll, for my primary destination, the palace cafeteria, serves tasteless food. So there go my delusions of palace gourmet.