“Thank you for coming with me, Karoz Blogger. I mean, I’m sure Bogota didn’t leave behind anything *dangerous*; he was an honored guest of Collagesity.”
“No problem, Baker Blinker. You never know with an outside element.” Karoz then hoped that didn’t come across the wrong way.
“How about this “Celestial Handbook”, Karoz? Is that part of the gift he said he left behind?”
“No, that’s been there — it’s just been slid over a bit. I myself have been glancing through it every now and then, trying to take it all in. The universe, you know.” He thinks of spirals and holes here. “It seems no one else comes to the library any more. I heard Furry Karl say he’s going to come up here and check to see if they have the right version of his book. The one, you know, with the incorrect title. That’s correct now.”
“Hmph”, Baker Blinker responds. In her mind, she reviews, once more, the night Bogota finished Furry Karl’s “Blood Curdling Tells of the Forest” at her house, and what happened afterwards. She glances over at Karoz and his plain and pointy but still cute as a button grassy mug. *Can* she love two people at once? It’s something she’s been thinking about for days. Ever since that night.
“So it’s just “The Elegant Universe” and then this ball of string or twine…”
“And the picture of the cat,” Karoz reinforces to Baker Blinker, pointing to the wall to her right. “That’s where the De Chirico painting was hanging before. I’m sure of it.”
“Well, it’s all certainly something to ponder on”, Baker Blinker speaks after a pause. “I suppose… I’ll miss Bogota and his strange ways.” She was trying not to be too obvious about her feelings.
“We better go meet with Carrcassonnee now we’ve checked all this out,” Karoz says to move beyond the moment. “And we better take the ball of twine with us; may mean something deeper than surface appearances.” Both knew it was the same ball of twine — a miniature version thereof — the statue Shiny Hare was holding before its removal from Collagesity several weeks back, along with its accompanying, multi-colored tower. Karoz remembers Spongeberg saying to him that when the cat returned[ to Collagesity], so too would he. And now perhaps it has. “We’ll see soon enough,” he thinks as he holds the front door for Baker Blinker.
He then becomes distracted again.
Sunklands 