EIGHT SEQUEL

For some time Mary was having trouble with her eyes.

She thought that she had seen too much.

She was now wearing sunglasses all the time and closed her eyes whenever she could.

A few days ago Mary had thanked her professor of advanced communications.

  She told her that she would not come to any more lectures.

This evening she was on her way home.

She had just informed the teacher of picturepoetry that she would not attend his classes again.

On the other side of the street she saw a woman that resembled someone in a music video she used to watch.

The woman was walking in the opposite direction.

Mary stopped and bought her favourite chewing gum.

At home she composed a text to a recent drawing.


 
Open up this flaming gate,
for true love might be your fate.
Then return whenever you can
and give some to your fellow man.

She took off her Admiral's or Counter Admiral's jacket (she could never decide which it was).

The jacket made her feel braver and see herself as commanding a personal convoy.




A song came to her mind:

Most things seemed beyond her grasp.

But on occasion she would try to reach some of them.

She drew the curtains and went to bed.

 
A gang of fears torment my mind,

real fears of an invading kind.
I will dig myself a secret cavity
to hide in with utmost gravity
for otherwise I can not but fly
and not come back until I die.

Now the Herschel cryocover had been commanded to open so that the system can see.

 The lid had been closed to prevent contamination for a month after the satellite was launched.

After a sleep with a demanding dream appearing over and over she woke up in the morning with a start.





This African bear in the night
might well give you a fright
but in the morning and with a bow
he could sing for all I know.


Hearing explosions above she withdrew the curtains.

She called Henry.

When he told her that they were making some progress with the park she asked if she could come and see.

He gave her the directions.

On her way out she passed the desk where she used to sort things out.

Her hand accidentally brushed against something of the remaining unsortables.

She turned around and reached down to pick it up.

When she realized that it was the handkerchief from her confirmation she smiled and decided to leave it where it had fallen.





Maybe someone would be glad to find it and keep it, or give it back to her.

She bought a bag of roasted chestnuts.

When she neared the toolshed her eyes were hurting again.

She laid her coat on the ground to rest upon.

Sometimes she heard sawing and the voices of Henry and Alice in the distance – a soothing sound.

Much later she heard someone coming and sat up.

She saw a woman walking towards her.

She introduced herself as Elsa, Alice’s great aunt.

Mary offered her a part of the coat and Elsa gratefully sat next to her.

She had heard about the plans for the park and wanted to see what was being done.

When she was a child everyone knew stories about the interior of the garden.

Even then it was overgrown and impenetrable.

The stories were of varied credibility.

Mary gave the chestnuts to Elsa and asked her to tell Alice and Henry that she would come back another day.

They parted.

Soon afterwards Mary met a man named Johannes and a boy named Samuel.

They were there to try to fix Henry's Land Rover, but now wanted to see how the garden project was proceeding.

Samuel had heard that there had been a tennis court inside it.

As Mary walked home through the city she kept looking down.

She felt that she would fall headlessly if she tripped over the slightest obstacle.

A rug of many grounds
for prayers of various sounds.
But they might all unite
in their ceaseless fight
for the band of humankind
and each inscrutable mind.

At home she relaxed with embroidery and soon entered a suitable trance.

Her thoughts reached back and lingered on the tennis court that Samuel told her about.





When you play with a heart
you might not know how to start,
neither how to proceed
but you’ve got what you need.