FIFTH SEQUEL

It was a perfect day for spreading the ashes from the stoves, which had accumulated during two years.

The coming rain would wash much of them down into the earth.

Henry had received a mail from his sister Kristin.

In it she asked if they should start with their joint boat restoration project.

He was already feeling overwhelmed by all the things he wanted to do.

He would call Kristin in the evening to suggest that she could ask Johannes for help.

Johannes was Alice's friend, who besides fencing also enjoyed working with wooden boats and certain cars.

Attached to Kristin's mail was a filmed statement, mysterious even coming from her.

Henry noticed that she had changed the bottom line of Mr Dylan's song from there are no kings... to we are all kings...

He liked that.

There was a sparrow king outside.






Henry chose the long road surrounding the neighborhood to reach Leve's house.

He started the heaters and then went outside to pick some fallen apples.

Then he turned on Leve's computer and saw that the desktop was filled with all sorts of items.

He opened one titled Show me Mary.

Mary entered.

She looked different from last time.

He thought that she seemed exasperated.

She had brought Catherine Wheels, which she arranged on a Nobel plate that Henry placed on the table.





He showed her the desktop crammed with items.

He opened one called Alice.

He told Mary that his wife might join them later.

Alice was Leve's close friend and wanted to help in their search.

They decided to try a different approach for a while.

She asked Henry if he knew any of Leve's favourite scents.

He recalled that Leve liked the smell of blood oranges, just recently lit stearin candles and the oxygen after rain.

Mary followed him to the bathroom, where he showed her the perfume bottles.





Leve had inherited Mitsouko from her great grandmother, Joy from her grandmother and Femme from her mother.

They each took an apple and a few wheels and sat out in the sun on a wooden bench of a hemlock green colour.

Alice arrived and sat down beside them.

She had forgotten her sunglasses and asked Mary if she wanted to come with her inside and see Leve's shoe collection.

The door to the right led to a walk-in closet.

Its floor was covered by a coarse persian carpet with foreign symbols.

They studied each pair of shoes carefully.









Shapes, lines, materials and craftsmanship together with intangibles determined the verdicts.

 Alice found sunglasses to borrow.





They went back outside and talked about the feelings of being in different kinds of shoes.

They both had Indian moccasins.

One of them had sewn a pair of seal Eskimo muclucs and the other had found vintage Japanese geta on internet.

Henry remembered something important.

Yesterday he had found a poem for a painting.

First I see the man and then I see the moon.

Will that change anytime soon?

Will the man turn and get his coat
or begin to slowly turn the boat?
There are many containers afloat,
each carrying a very special note.

Has he just found one?


And this morning he found an oil pastel painting he made a long time ago.

One of his first.





It was very dusty but he could see the title B612 written in large thin script.

He knows nothing about it now.

He vaguely remembers seeing a moon eclipse but he thinks that the title refers to a star, maybe the almost central one.

He has not been able to find anything celestial with that name on any search engine.


It all baffles him.

Mary reminds him: 

The name is from The Little Prince.

They all embraced and went home to rest.

The night before Mary had chosen this T-shirt.