Chapter 30 The Harlequin... he crept into the village like a poisonous snake...

Old Floyd got up, walked across the hall to the door, opened the front door, and looked out into the dark night.I followed behind him. "There is a brilliant starry sky above my head, and there is also a brilliant starry sky under my feet." he said softly. I see what he means.The sky above our heads was very clear, with sparkling stars everywhere.In the valley below our feet, every household in the village was lit with lamps. From a distance, it looked like a cluster of stardust falling from the sky to the ground. "The starry sky under our feet is as unfathomable as the one above our heads." The old man stretched out his arm and pointed to the village in the valley: "Who are they? Where did they come from?"

"I think they're asking that question themselves," I said. The old man turned suddenly to face me. "No, you can't!" he yelled. "He" but..." "Once they know who made them, they can no longer live with me. Do you understand?" We went back into the house, closed the door, and sat down at the table facing each other. "These fifty-two characters have different appearances and personalities," the old man returned to the topic just now. "But what they have in common is that they never ask who they are or where they come from.

Therefore, they are able to merge with nature.They live in a garden with lush flowers and trees, carefree, free and happy like a group of animals.However, the clown just broke in at this moment.Like a poisonous snake, he sneaked into the village. " I hissed. "After all the fifty-two cards are gathered, everyone has lived a few years of peace." The old man Floyd continued. "It never occurred to me that a clown would suddenly come to our island, although there was such a card in my deck of cards. I thought I was the clown. One day a clown walked into the village Come in. Diamond J sees him first.

The arrival of the clown caused a commotion among the villagers, which had never been seen before. This guy was dressed in a funny and weird outfit, with many bells on his clothes, which jingled as he walked.He does not belong to any of the four families in the village.What worried me most was that he would challenge the dwarves of the village by asking them questions they couldn't answer.Soon after arriving in the village, he began to live alone, building a small wooden house outside the village. " "Does this clown know more than the other dwarfs?" I asked. The old man took a deep breath and sighed: "One morning, I was sitting on the steps in front of the house, and saw him jump out from the corner of the room. He stretched his hands and feet and did a big somersault, then shook the bell on his body, jumped Hopping ran up to me, tilted his little head and said to me: Lord, there is one thing I don't understand... I was shocked when I heard him call me 'lord', because other dwarves on the island They all call me by my first name, Frod. And, when talking to me, don't; just say 'there's one thing I don't understand'. Once you find out that there's one thing you don't understand, you don't think much about it check it out.

"The bouncing clown cleared his throat and said to me, 'There are four houses in the village, four kings, four queens, and four squires. Besides, there are four from number one to ten, isn't it?' I said: 'That's right.'" And the clown said: 'So there are four of each kind.However, since they are divided into four categories: diamonds, hearts, clubs, and spades, each category also has thirteen. '" For the first time, someone has made such an accurate analysis of the organization of the gnome society on the island. I am dumbfounded. "The clown asked again: 'Who designed this well-ordered society?' "I had to lie: 'This is probably a coincidence! You throw a few sticks into the sky, and when they fall, they will A figure is formed on the ground. As for what this figure represents, it is a matter of opinion. '" The clown said: 'I don't think so.' "For the first time, someone on the island dared to challenge my authority.What I am facing now is not a card, but a living person.Strange to say, I was not annoyed, but a little pleased, because this clown might make a good conversation partner.But, I'm also worried—what if all the dwarves on the island suddenly realize who they are and where they come from?" I asked the clown: 'In your opinion, what is going on here? What?" The clown stared straight at me with his eyes open.Although his body was motionless, one hand trembled, and the bells on his body jingled.

"He was silent for a while, and finally he spoke, pretending to be calm and said: 'Everything is carefully planned and very well organized. I think there must be a force behind the scenes manipulating all this. He is considering whether to Don't flip these cards over, throw them all on the face.'" In ordinary conversation, the island gnomes like to use some card-playing terms to express their meaning more accurately.At the right time", I will also answer them with 'card words'. "The clown got excited for a moment, and turned several somersaults one after another, making his bells jingle.

"He exclaimed: 'I am the clown card] Lord, and you must never forget that. You see, I am not like the other cards. I have no definite identity or affiliation; I am neither king nor king. A page, nor diamonds, clubs, hearts or spades. "The clown's words made my feet tremble and sweat all over my body, but I knew it was not the time to turn up my cards. The clown stepped forward and kept asking: 'Who the hell am I? Why do I become a clown? Where did I come from and where am I going?'" I decided to take the plunge.I said to the clown, 'You've seen all the things I've made with materials from the island.If I told you that I created all the dwarves in the village, including you; how would you react?'" The clown stared blankly at me, his little body trembling, his clothes The bell hanging above shook more and more frantically.

"After a long silence, he said with trembling lips: 'Then, I have no choice but to kill you, my lord. Only in this way can I regain my dignity.'" I laughed a few times and said:' Of course, you have to do it.Luckily I was just kidding, I didn't create you guys. 'The clown stood in front of me, looked at me suspiciously, then turned around and ran away suddenly.After a while, he appeared in front of me again, holding a bottle of rainbow soda in his hand.Over the years, I've kept my rainbow soda in a cupboard away from the midgets. "The clown raised the bottle and saluted me: 'Cheers! Tsk, tsk, it tastes good!' He put his mouth on the bottle and started drinking.

"I'm completely stunned. I'm not worried about myself. What I'm afraid of is that everything I created on the island will fall apart and disappear overnight. Come and go." "Is that really the case?" I asked. The old man said: "I found out that the clown stole the rainbow soda, and this magical drink suddenly made him sharper and more eloquent." "Didn't you say that rainbow soda can make you feel sluggish and confused?" I challenged again. "That's right, but the aftereffects don't come right away. When you first drink it, you're extra wide-awake and extra-intelligent, because all your senses are stimulated at the same time. Then, the drowsiness The feeling of laziness gradually spread on you. This is the point where this drink harms the body and mind."

"The clown drank rainbow soda, what happened?" "He yelled: 'I won't tell you any more now, see you later!' Then he ran down the hill into the village and offered every dwarf a sip of rainbow soda. From that day on, everyone in the village They all drink this drink. Several times a week, the plum gnome digs the rose nectar from the hollows in the tree, and gives it to the heart gnome to brew the red drink. The square gnome does the bottle." "After drinking this stuff, all the gnomes in the village are as smart as clowns?" I asked. "That's not true," the old man shook his head. "At the beginning, they really became very smart, and they almost saw through my hole cards, but after a few days, they returned to the previous muddleheaded behavior, and even became more confused. Today, what you saw in the village Dwarves, just the remaining good side of them."

Hearing what the old man said, I immediately thought of the colorful clothes and costumes on the dwarf.The red heart Yao Qianying in the yellow shirt appeared in my heart. "She is still so beautiful now!" I exclaimed. "Well, they are beautiful, but they are not clear," said the old man. "They belong to and are a part of the green nature, but they don't know it.Every day, they watch the sun rise and the moon set, and eat the food produced on the island, but they never realize that they are part of nature.They stepped out of the realm of chaos and became people with complete facial features and sound bodies and minds, but then they drank rainbow drinks and degenerated step by step into their original selves.They were still able to talk to me, of course, but they often forgot what they had just said as soon as they turned around.Only the clown still retains some of his original intelligence.The red heart has not completely degenerated.She told everyone that she was looking for her lost self. " "There's one thing I don't understand." I interrupted the old man. "What's up?" "You told me that when you drifted to the island, the first batch of dwarves appeared a few years later. However, they all look so young now, I can hardly imagine that some of them are almost fifty age." A mysterious smile appeared on the old man's face: "They won't grow old." "But--" "While I was living alone on the island, the dream images became more...more vivid. After a while, the images slipped out of my thinking and jumped into the real world. But they are still my fantasy now, and Fantasy has a wonderful power, that is, to preserve forever what it creates—to preserve its youth and vitality forever." "It's incredible..." "Boy, have you heard the story of Peter Pan?" I shook my head. "Then you must have heard the story of Little Red Riding Hood or Snow White?" I nod. "How old do you think they are now? A hundred years? A thousand years old? They're very young, but they're also very old, because these fairy-tale characters come out of people's imaginations. I never thought that these dwarves on the island would become gray-haired old men and old women. Even the clothes they were wearing had not been patched yet.Human beings in reality are not so lucky.We will grow old; our hair will turn gray.Our lives are wasted; we are all mortal.But our dreams will not go with us.Even after we leave this world, our dreams live on in the hearts of others. " The old man stroked his gray hair, then reached out and pointed to the worn jacket on him. "The biggest question in my mind is not whether the gnomes I imagined will age with age, but whether they really exist in the manor I built-in other words, the visitors who come to the island , Can you see them with the naked eye?" "There they are!" I said. "When I came to the island, I first met plum blossom two and plum blossom three, and then I met several square girls in the glass factory..." "Well……" The old man was lost in thought, as if he didn't hear what I said.After being silent for a while, he finally spoke: "Another question in my mind is, after I die, will they still survive on this island?" "What do you think?" I asked. "I don't have an answer to that question now, and I never will, because once I'm dead, I don't know if they're still alive or not." The old man fell into deep thought again, and did not speak for a long time.I suddenly wondered if all this was a dream.Perhaps, at this moment, I am not sitting in front of old man Floyd's cabin, but in a completely different world-everything exists only in my heart. "I'll tell you the other things tomorrow, boy," said the old man. "I've got to tell you about the calendar--and about 'Joker'." "Harlequin game?" "Talk to-morrow, lad. Now we must go to bed." The old man took me to a wooden bed covered with animal skins and blankets, and handed me a wool pajamas.It felt good to get rid of my dirty sailor uniform and put on clean clothes. That evening, our father and son sat on the balcony of the hotel overlooking the town below and the Gulf of Corinth.Dad seemed very preoccupied and didn't say much all night.Perhaps, he began to doubt the prophecy of Apollo's oracle that we will find mother in Athens. In the middle of the night, a bright moon rose from the eastern horizon, illuminating the entire dark valley and dimming the stars. It suddenly seemed to me that we were sitting in front of old man Floyd's cabin, looking at the dwarf village at the foot of the mountain.