(119) The abracadabrante story of Child Moon

   “In certain parts of the forest, where the trees grow older and the ground sinks into hollow dells, the scenery acquires a character truly awful. The massive trunks, shattered and blackened by the storms of centuries, stand as monuments of decay amidst the living wood. Their vast limbs, stripped of foliage, stretch out like the arms of some gigantic phantom. The air hangs heavy, and the mind, oppressed by solitude, begins to imagine forms amid the shadows. There is a solemnity here, a grandeur not cheerful but oppressive, which fills the soul with a reverence akin to fear. Nature, in such scenes, seems to assert her dominion not by beauty, but by power.”

William Gilpin, Remarks on Forest Scenery

Perfectly invisible—or at the very least sheltered from prying eyes—as though outside of time itself, somewhere upon an endlessly changing volcanic island, at the centre of an improbable clearing entirely occupied by a gigantic tree, Don Carrot, somewhat sceptical, and Warmblood, slightly exhilarated, are engaged in a dialogue concerning an enigma that has lodged itself in the latter’s mind after, according to his own account, encountering an arboreal donkey.

"Who am I if, awakening endlessly, day after day, I am pursued by the echo of words heard in my sleep: I am an infiltrator within a schizophrenic double agent that I am. Who am I if I am the one who says it, and who am I if I am merely the one who hears it? It was then that I understood how a labyrinth can be formed in only a few words."

— Let us begin again by asking ourselves: what does the unknown author mean by awakening endlessly?
— Might he be evoking the impossibility of recovering a stable state that is neither completely awake nor entirely asleep...?
— Would you call it an oscillating image?
— Yes, an image oscillating between two states...
— Between dream and reality?
— Precisely. Or between lucidity and confusion...
— And where would these images come from?
— They would be like echoes resonating within the waking state.
— Echoes coming from where?
— From what is heard during sleep, I suppose... and which probably represents obsessive ideas...
— Like a message!
— Exactly! A message encrypted by the unconscious and insisting upon being heard...
— Which would also represent a sort of endless awakening...
— Pursued by echoes!
— I would even speak of insistent echoes:
"I am an infiltrator within a schizophrenic double agent that I am."
— Would you agree that, regarding this final “I am,” there is a double meaning at work?
— You are right. A possible confusion between the verb to be and the verb to follow.
— You follow me then... or are you put off?
— Put off I certainly am... but I follow you nonetheless... more or less...
— I can expect nothing—and hope for little—from the humble confession of my ignorance and imperfection; yet know that, however slight the progress, I advance in your shadow, infinitely beneath you, and I do not despair of finding some key there!
— What admirable sagacity!
— Fie upon such suspicious praise, I beg you. Give us swiftly some luminous key that might enlighten us, yet not so brightly as to diminish the glory of our discovery!
— Pray forgive my lack of zeal... but it is not through boldness that we ought to make you ponder. As for what you ask of me, for the moment I possess no more of it than you do...
— Has the enigmatic creature, which did not hesitate to take its place upon our stage, offered you none? What are you waiting for? Put it to work at once!
— Sire, am I to take this missive as a sign of assent... one which I foresee will prove fruitful?
— Take care with your language. There are words that petrify the very one who utters them!
At this, a salutary silence descended... and though the mystery grew larger, tongues gradually began to loosen...