FOURTH SEQUEL

When Mary came home from her walk she drank some water and opened her laptop.

She continued reading Everything has already started, a painstakingly slow and sometimes frustrating multimedia saga.

It reminded her of a pop-up storybook.

It also reminded her of J. D. Salinger's thoughts about constant digressions.

She looked at his portrait and felt pleased.

 

Salinger’s smile

will stay for a while

if the girl turns to him

without feeling grim.

He was touched by the smoke

and some recognitions awoke.

Commissioned to look for horses

by strong internal forces,

she’s searching for the best,

those that withstand the test.

She was sure that she would eventually find a good way to attach the verses to the frame.

She had just joined a course in picturepoetry.

After a short time of concentrated reading she called her classmate Kari.

They agreed to meet at the café in the afternoon.

She opened her mailbox and found a spam message in the junk sack.

Its twisted subject made her curious enough to open it.

Getting her a nice watch is the easiest way to make up for your fault.

The message continued:

No matter where you are, no matter what you do, you will always know the right time.

Come, enter, win

She glanced with satisfaction at her watch and saw that she was just in time for her course in advanced communication.

Afterwards she was exhausted but very glad to meet Kari and her mother Eli at the café.

She told them how she had awakened with a start at four in the morning by an extremely exciting insight.

She felt as if she was the editor of her own film of everything.

A crew always with her...

Kari and Eli said:

You are fantastic.

Mary said: 

You are fantastic.

 
Oh, look at that Catherine Wheel!

They turned to the TV on the wall.

  

Mary remembers that the accompanying music used to sound so happy.

Suddenly she felt tired and told them that she had to go home.

They agreed to meet again soon.

Mary watched some television before going to sleep.

She had already seen most of what was shown.

Changing channels created an interesting mix.

It reminded her of a drawing:

 

What am I, who comes from the depths of the cave?

What subtle movement will this moment crave?
Have I been standing here for an enormous time?
Only just now noticed in a manner so sublime?

She felt a bitter taste that she tried to erase by chewing some medium tears of mastic.

On her way to classes next morning she passed through the pine bay graveyard and watered the violets of Carl Fredrik Hill.

If I could grasp all this,
would it feel like a bliss?
The sun, the bones, the very atom
must really be hard to fathom.

She passed some nice drunk girls outside the Hermitage.

They had been denied entrance.

The day went on in quiet desperation.

On her way home that warm and sunny evening she bought a Schwarzwald cake.

It was of her favoured Swedish kind.

She chose the shortcut through the Black Forest.

At home she ate the whole cake with her fingers and it pleased her.

She phoned Henry about the search and they agreed to meet at Leve's house next morning.

She laid out her T-shirts on the bed and spent considerable time in choosing one for the next day.

She watched a film.

Then she went to bed.

THIRD SEQUEL

Henry had been sleeping deeply until midday.

He woke up still feeling tired, drank some water and went back to sleeping, this time restlessly.

Only when time neared the homecoming of Alice did he force himself to rise from bed.

He tried without success to listen to the radio, broadcasting about some urgent problems, while he started to prepare dinner.

Mi miaowed to come in.

He opened the kitchen door.

Mi made her usual sound when she hurried through the door opening.

That made him smile and attempt to speak her language.

Soon he was glad to hear Alice coming and then see her.

She carried her bicycle basket and some parcels.

After they had eaten Henry gathered some appropriate tools stored in the shed.

Alice brought the smaller ones from the cellar.

Now they both felt that they had all they needed for starting any time.

Then they decided to begin as soon as possible.





It was fortunate, since they would do much kneeling, that they each owned a pair of worker jeans with knee pads.

The next day it was Alice's friend Eli's turn to take care of the café for some days.

Alice hoped for good weather to work in the park.

Her first free morning happened to be on a day when a TV channel showed Bonanza.

That meant they started late in spite of the blue sky.

They filled the wheelbarrow with the smaller tools and carried the rest.

They reached the border of the garden, where the overgrown path leading to Leve's house began.

Henry realized that they would have to build a small shed for the tools.

It would be too cumbersome to transport them every time.

He already knew how to construct it from some old railway sleepers and mixed timber.

He decided to go back to bring some of the materials.

Alice would help him with the sleepers, but first she wanted to at least start clearing the path.

It seemed to be of some urgency to her.

She soon found out that the secateurs were not efficient.

She had to use a bow saw with a new blade to make some difference.

Although she was dressed to be protected from the thorns and worked cautiously, she received many painful scratches.

Soon she gave up.

She went home leaving all the tools behind, except the precious Japanese secateurs.

She hoped it would not rain during the night.

Henry could not help laughing when he saw her.

Her face had some thin red lines, as if she had been marked in a strange code.

Henry had not assembled the materials yet, but as he was also tired they both went inside.

They changed and sat down comfortably to watch TV.

Alice said:

Majestic meetings.

SECOND SEQUEL

The next day Alice bicycled to her café in the city.

It was on a narrow street somewhere around The Frick Collection and the Hermitage.

When she got tired she started to walk at a slow pace.

Passing the British Museum she spotted a bark baby under a huge tree.

She wrapped it in one of the knitted scarves that she sold at the café and put it carefully in the bicycle basket.

When she opened the door to the café she realized that she, as usual, had forgotten to lock it.
 
That pleased her since she also, as usual, had forgotten the key.

She put the basket on the counter and started to remove its contents.

She rarely baked something herself, since her baking facilities were very spartan.

The café consisted of one large square room.

A counter was placed to the right of the entrance.

A long table occupied the center.

  A few small tables were placed along the wall that faced the street.

A row of windows covered the upper half of that wall.

She had a private desk in the corner diagonally from the entrance, so that she could see anyone coming.

Next to the desk was a door leading to to a storage room, where she kept various things needed for her projects.

Next to that was the door to the toilet.

In the corner between the toilet and the counter stood a white tile stove.

Behind the counter she filled the tea and coffee pots with fresh water and put them to boil.

Then she picked up the scarf from the basket and only remembered the bark doll when she heard it fall to the floor.

The neck was broken.

She carried the basket and the two bark pieces to her desk.

She convinced herself that she had the glue needed to mend it.

On the way to the storage room to fetch it she turned on the TV hanging on the wall between the two doors.

She chose a music channel.

It was showing the end of Madonna's music video Don't Tell Me.

 After she found the wonderful Italian glue she sat down.

She soon realized that something more than glue was needed to make the mending secure.

She tore a piece of a superior quality duct tape.

Her husband had given it to her and recommended it for all sorts of purposes.

It was too wide, so she also had to tear it lengthwise.

She looked up.

Then she carefully put the duct tape around the baby's neck.

She now wanted to add something sophisticated that would enhance the suggestiveness of the mending.

She found a thin green silk ribbon, then strived to recall something.

She raised her gaze.

She remembered.

Many years ago she had visited the Royal Armoury.

There she saw some royal dresses with silk ribbons cut in a way she had never seen before.

The ends were cut into many incredibly thin and even jags.

Although she had excellent scissors she barely managed to cut three jags at one end of the thin ribbon.

Exerting herself even more she succeeded cutting four jags at the other end.

She tied a bow around the tape and was pleased with the outcome.

A man she knew, Johannes, and three boys entered.

They had finished their fencing classes in the old brick building that was situated in the park across the street.

All were carrying huge bags with equipment.

They chose the long table.

Not long after her great aunt Elsa came in.

She had a beautiful dark blue cane and a long alpaca scarf of nearly the same nuance.

She sat down with the others and soon they were all engaged in a discussion on fashion.

Alice went again to the storage room and found an oval lidded bandbox that she had made a long time ago.

It fitted the bark baby perfectly and would serve as a cradle.

In honour of the baby she recalled a verse.





If you find a bark baby
it’s no wonder that maybe
you’ll become more glad
and the baby less sad.


She lit a cigarette.

After she had said goodbye to the last guest she switched to a science channel.

They were talking about mitochondria.

Strange images appeared on the screen.

A coloured one showed the slight movements of a mother mitochondria.

She marvelled at what the artist had achieved.




On the way home she stopped by a small shop dedicated to garden tools.

She found what she thought was needed for the clearing of the park.

FIRST SEQUEL

She reached the small cluster of houses.

She noticed, as she always did, the house that looked especially old and deserted.

In front of the house the grass was covered with fallen apples.

The mist and the unexpected warmth made everything somewhat friendly and unreal.

This might have been the cause that gave her courage to take the few steps across the gravel path to the nearest window.

The interior could hardly be fathomed.

Everything seemed disordered.

Probably it was a kitchen, but with all sorts of displaced objects.

She focused on a corner of a paper sheet on the window sill.

It was the beginning of a letter: 

My dear

Nothing more was visible.

She felt certain that it was a letter from a mother to her son.

Intrigued, she continued towards the backyard.

  She encountered the most beautiful opalescent silver blue Jaguar E-type, covered by dust.

She started writing Je t'aime on a side window.

It’s such a beautiful car, isn’t it?

She turned around and saw a man approaching her with an outstretched hand.

Taking gently his slightly moist hand she found nothing to say.

Can I offer you some coffee?

Without hesitation and not knowing why she answered:

Yes, please.

She followed him through the entrance which led directly to the main room.

Books, papers and objects of many kinds crowded the small room.

This was furnished by an enormous table with a few chairs in the centre and shelves along the walls.

Two old electric heaters, one under each window, showed red glowing grids and made the room comfortably warm.

He made room for her by gathering books and papers from a chair and the table.

  He stacked them on the already crowded floor.

She asked for the bathroom and he showed her the door next to the kitchen on the left side of the room.

Inside the bathroom she opened her worn and perfect handbag and took out a flask of russian vodka.

She drank some, hesitated, and drank some more.

Looking around her, she saw a bathtub and a hand-basin but no toilet.

She glanced at countless pieces of magazine clippings, photographs and postcards taped on most of the wall space.

She realized a faint smell of mould.

Back in the room, she sat down with her hands resting on the table.

Next to her right elbow was a dangerously high stack of magazines.

On top of it lay a written paper attached to a photograph with a strange brass clip.

She reached for them and studied the image and the words.






A damaged golden figurehead
is now considered lost and dead.
If you find her in the jean-blue sea
will she come alive at your plea?


She read the words twice before the man came in and served the coffee.

 He said:

The engine is broken.

My sister has tried to fix it.

She's been gone for a long time.

I come here now and then.

She felt relaxed and her hands were now steady enough to lift the cup. 

She said:
  
The bathroom is very nice with the copper panelling and the window with the wonderful view.

I guess the toilet is in the outhouse.

He said:

That’s right.

I had an argument with my sister before she left.

I wanted her to clear away much of her things.

There’s almost no room left to move.

I’m here now because I’d like to know what and how she’s doing.

She’s probably in the city, but I’ve no idea where.

She said:

Can I help? 

He answered:

Yes, please.

I’ve been sleeping most of the time for four months.

Today I felt wide awake and wanted to come here to see if there are any clues to her whereabouts.

Maybe you would like to help me with that? 

She answered:

I’d like that.

I already found this text attached to this photograph.

I pass by here often.

If I see a lamp burning I’ll know you’re here.

When I feel like it I’ll come in and help with the search.

He said:

Great.

I'm very tired.

Let's leave it for now.

Departing, she saw a picture of a glove with a heart woven into its palm.

A text was written with a lead pencil directly on the wall underneath.




Hand and heart
shall never part
When this you see
remember me


She continued her walk.

The man opened a gate to an extremely overgrown park and followed a narrow path leading to his home.

Although he wore gloves he cut his wrists bloody on the large rose bushes growing everywhere.

Coming home he told his wife that he now wanted to act on her thought to try open the park.

There had been paths connecting all the neighbouring houses.

His wife had some ideas on how to proceed and she offered to find the tools needed in the city the next day.



The girl will be called Mary, the man Henry, his sister Leve and his wife Alice.

The arrangers thank all contributors.
Apologies to those with rights that are violated here.
Copyrights are not claimed.