Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty

"On a summer evening, especially in a park, the purpose of the sun setting," said a voice earnestly, "is to enable the eyes to see the bouncing up and down of the girl's breasts more clearly. I believe that is the case." Arthur and Finchchi walked by, giggling face to face.For a moment she held him tighter. "And I am sure," reasoned the young man with flaxen curly hair and a long thin nose, sitting in a chaise longue next to the serpentine, "that if anyone came to this conclusion, he would find that this theory has nothing to do with the nature of things. It fits perfectly with the logic." He emphasized to his dark-haired companion, who slumped in the recliner next to him, listening despondently to his point. "That's what Darwin did. Unmistakable. Undisputed. And—" he added, "I like it."

He turned suddenly, squinting at Finchchi through his glasses.Arthur led her away, and he felt her tremble slightly. "Guess again," she said, and stopped laughing. "Come on." "Well," she said, "your elbow, your left elbow. There's something wrong with your left elbow." "Wrong again," she said. "Not at all. You're going in the wrong direction entirely." The sinking summer sun was shining through the trees in the park, and it was like—let's get on with it.Hyde Park was getting blurry.Everything is blurred except for the Monday morning trash.Even the ducks have become blurred.If anyone had walked through Hyde Park on a summer evening without being moved by all this, he was probably sleeping in an ambulance with a white cloth over his face.

This park, more than anywhere else, invites unusual behavior.Arthur and Finchchi saw a man wearing only a pair of shorts, standing under a tree practicing bagpipes by himself.The bagpiper stopped to chase an American couple as they cautiously dropped a few coins into his bagpipe box. "Don't!" he yelled at them. "Go away! I'm just practicing." Then he resolutely began blowing into the windbag again, and even the noise did not affect their mood. Arthur put his arms around her and continued walking slowly. "I don't think it's your butt," he said after a moment. "There doesn't look like anything wrong there."

"Yeah," she agreed, "there's really nothing wrong with my hip." They kiss for so long that Piper has to go to the other side of the tree to make contact. "I'll tell you a story," said Arthur. "OK." They found a lawn where there were relatively few couples entangled with each other, so they sat down and looked at the blurred duck, the sun sinking in the west made ripples on the water under the blurred duck. "Tell a story." Finchitch wrapped his arms around hers. "This story is about something that I went through. It's absolutely true."

"You know sometimes people tell a story that it happened to their wife's cousin's friend, but it's probably totally made up." "Well, it's the same story, except it happened and I know it happened because I was the one who went through it." "Same with the lottery ticket." Arthur smiled. "Yes. I was going to catch a train," he went on, "and then I got to the station." "Did I tell you," Fenchurch interrupted, "what did my parents do at the station?" "I did," said Arthur, "you did."

"just asking." Arthur glanced at his watch. "I think we should consider going back," he said. "Tell me that story," Finchitch said firmly, "you got to the station." "I was about twenty minutes early. I got the train wrong. I thought it was at least equally likely—" he said after a moment's thought, "that British Rail got the train wrong too. Time. I've never missed it before." "Go on," she said with a smile. "So I bought a newspaper, did the crossword puzzle on it, and went to the snack bar to get a cup of coffee."

"Are you doing crossword puzzles?" "yes." "What kind?" "Usually in the Guardian." "I think that's a little too hard. I like the one in the Times. Have you made it?" "what?" "Crosswords in The Guardian." "I haven't had time to look at it yet," said Arthur. "I'm still buying coffee." "Fine then. Then you buy coffee." "I bought coffee, and at the same time," said Arthur, "bought some biscuits." "which type?" "Strong tea brand."

"good." "I like the brand. I sat down at the table after I bought these. Don't ask me what the table looked like, it's been a while and I don't remember. Probably a round table." "Ok." "Let me tell you about the situation at that time. I was sitting on the edge of the table. To my left was the newspaper. To my right was the cup of coffee. In the middle of the table was the bag of biscuits." "I totally understand." "What you don't understand now," said Arthur, "that is, what I haven't mentioned, is a man who is already sitting at the table. He's sitting opposite me."

"how does he look like?" "Very ordinary. Briefcase. Dress. He doesn't look like," said Arthur, "doing anything weird." "Oh, I know that kind of guy. What did he do?" "He did this. He leaned over the table, picked up the packet of cookies, tore it open, took a piece, and..." "How about it?" "Eat the biscuits." "what?" "He ate the biscuit." Finchchi looked at him in surprise. "Then what did you do?" "Well, in that case I did what every bloody Englishman does. I was compelled," said Arthur, "to ignore it."

"what why?" "Well, you didn't have such a thing in your education, did you. I searched my memory and found nothing in my education, all my experience, and even my primitive instincts that could tell me that if a person is so very How to react to him simply, calmly, sitting across from you, stealing a cookie from you." "Well, you can..." Fenqiqi thought for a while, "I can only say that I don't know what to do. Then what happened?" "I stared at the crossword savagely," said Arthur, "unable to see a clue, and I took a sip of my coffee, which was too hot to drink, and then there was nothing else to do. I mustered up my courage, Grabbed a biscuit and did my best not to notice that the package had somehow been opened..."

"But you're already fighting back, in a tough way." "In terms of my style, yes. I ate that cookie. I ate it very dignified and visibly so that he would have no problem seeing what I was doing. While I was eating the cookie," Arthur said, "That's how I ate the biscuit." "Then what did he do?" "He took another one. Honestly," Arthur emphasized, "that's what it was. He took another biscuit and ate it. It was as clear as the sky. As clear as we were sitting on the ground right now." Finchitch moved a little uneasily. "And the thing is," Arthur said, "wasn't saying anything before, so it's harder when it happens again. What should I say?" Sorry... I accidentally saw, uh... …' No. No, I’m going to ignore it, and if anything, it took a lot more energy to do it than before.” "You……" "Starting back at the crossword puzzle, still nowhere, so I'm showing a little of the spirit that Henry V showed at St. Crispin's Day." "how?" "I went into the fight again. I took it again," Arthur said, "another biscuit. Our eyes met for a moment." "like this?" "Yeah, uh, no. It's not like that. But the eyes met. Just for a split second. And then we all looked elsewhere. But I'm telling you today," said Arthur, "that there was a little spark in the air .There was some tension over the table. That was it." "I can imagine." "That's how we finished the bag of cookies. He, I, he, I..." "The whole package?" “There were only eight pieces in a pack, but at the time it felt like we had spent our entire lives dealing with these cookies. Gladiators could hardly have had a tougher experience.” "Gladiators," Fenchurch said, "have to fight in the sun. It's more physically unbearable." "That's right. Well. Then the biscuit bag was lying empty between us, and the man finally got up and left after his bad deeds. Of course I was relieved. At this time, the broadcast said that my train will be delayed for a while, so I finished my coffee, stood up, picked up the newspaper, under the newspaper..." "Ok?" "It's my cookie." "What?" Finchitch said. "What?" "it is true." "Oh!" she panted, and fell on the grass laughing. Then she sat up again. "You're a complete idiot," she said, laughing. "You're a complete idiot." She pushed him down, flipped onto him, kissed him, and rolled away again.She lightly surprised him. "Now tell me a story." "I thought," she said in a low, hoarse voice, "that you were in a hurry to go back." "No hurry," he said cheerfully, "I want to hear you tell me a story." She looked beyond the cabbage into the distance, thinking. "Well," she said, "just a short story. Not as interesting as yours, but . . . whatever." She looks down.Arthur could feel them sharing that moment again.The air around them seemed still and waiting.Arthur wished the air would roll away and go about its business. "When I was a kid," she said, "stories like this start tentatively, right, 'When I was a kid...' Anyway, that's how girls suddenly say, 'When I was a kid. . . When I was a kid' and then I started to let myself out. We have to start that way too. When I was a kid, I hung a picture at the foot of my bed... so far what do you think?" "I love the story. I find it moving. You've been decorating the bedroom early on and it's done really well. We can move on to that picture." "It's a picture that people think kids are supposed to like," she said, "but kids don't like it at all. It's all about cute little animals making out, you know?" "I know. I've been tortured by these pictures too. Rabbits in waistcoats." "That's it. The rabbits are all sitting on a raft, and some mice and owls. And maybe a reindeer." "On the raft." "On the raft. There was a boy on the raft." "Among the rabbits in the waistcoats and the owls and the reindeer." "Exactly. A happy gypsy boy dressed in rags." "Ok." "I gotta say, this picture makes me sick. There's an otter swimming in front of the raft and I often have sleepless nights lying there worrying about that otter having to pull that raft with so many people on it that shouldn't be on it A nasty animal, and an otter has such a thin tail, I think it must hurt when he pulls the raft like that. Makes me sick. Not particularly, but just vaguely, and always the same." "Then one day,--you remember I looked at this picture every night for years--I suddenly noticed that the raft still had a sail. I'd never seen it before. The otter was all right, it just followed a swimming." She shrugged. "Is the story okay?" she asked. "The ending wasn't great," Arthur said. "It made the audience go 'Yeah, what else?' The previous ones were good, but there should be a final climax before the credits." "It was all a sudden discovery. All the worries that Chance hadn't noticed for so many years disappeared. It was like a burden was lifted. It was like black and white suddenly changed to color. It was like a dead branch suddenly moistened. turned around and said to me: 'Put your worries aside, the world is good and perfect. It's actually quite simple.' You might think I'm saying this because I'm going to say I have the same thing this afternoon. Feeling or something, isn't it?" "Uh, I..." Arthur's composure broke suddenly. "Well, it's okay," she said, "it does. I do feel that way. But you know, I've felt it before, even more. It's unbelievably strong. I'm afraid I'm one of those... . . . " she said, looking into the distance, "a person who will receive a sudden and startling revelation." Arthur was too dazed to say anything, and at the same time he thought it wiser not to speak now. "It's weird," she said, in the same tone as when one of Moses' followers looked at the situation in the Red Sea and said it was a little weird after Moses swung his own staff. "Very strange," she repeated. "A while ago, I had the weirdest feeling, like I was going into labor. No, not really, it was more like I was slowly connecting to something. Together. No, it's not even like that, it's like the whole earth, through me, is going to..." "The number forty-two," said Arthur mildly, "does it mean anything to you?" "What? No, what are you talking about?" Finchitch exclaimed. "Just a thought," grunted Arthur. "Arthur, I mean it. It's all true. I'm not kidding." "I'm definitely not joking," said Arthur, "it's just that I'm not sure what the universe is all about." "What do you mean by that?" "Go on," he said. "Never mind if it sounds weird. Believe me, you're talking to a well-informed man," he added, "well-informed about weird things. I'm not talking about cookies." She nodded, seeming to believe him.Suddenly, she grabbed his arm. "It's very simple," she said. "It's strangely, extraordinarily simple, when it happens." "What is it?" Arthur asked quietly. "You see, Arthur," she said, "I don't know what it was. The loss is unbearable. If I try to recall, it flickers and jumps, and if I try too hard, I I would think about that teacup, and then I would pass out." "what?" "Well, it's the same story as yours," she said. "The main part happened in a coffee shop. I was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee. It was days after I had that feeling of being connected to something. Something happened. I thought I was humming softly. There were people working on a construction site across from the cafe and I looked over the glass and watched them through the window. I always thought it was watching others work The best way. And then all of a sudden, it just popped into my head, a message from somewhere. That message was very simple. And it worked for everything. I just sat there and thought, "Oh, oh, Now it's all settled. "I was so surprised that I nearly dropped my teacup, and actually I think I did. Yes," she added thoughtfully, "I must have dropped it. Do I understand? " "Everything down to the teacup is quite clear." She shook her head, and then shook her head again, as if to clear her head, and she really wanted to. "That's it," she said, "right down to the teacup. That's when the whole world exploded for me." "what?" "I know it sounds crazy, and everyone says it's an illusion. But if it's an illusion, then I should be in a huge three-dimensional screen listening to 16 channels of Dolby sound to create this illusion. , I should rent myself out to people who are tired of the Jaws movies. The ground seems to be splitting open right under my feet, and... and..." She patted the grass lightly, as if for reassurance, and then seemed to change her mind about what she had to say. "Then I just woke up in the hospital. I felt like I'd been in and out of the hospital since then. That's why I was kind of neurotic," she said. Problem solved." She looked up at him. Arthur began to worry about his own affairs. He considered the strange situation around him after returning to his hometown, and marked these things in his mind as "things to think about—urgent". "The world is here," he said to himself, "the world, for whatever reason, is here, and it's here to stay. I'm in this world." But the world around him seemed blurry now.The world was just as blurry the night Fenchurch's brother told him in the car the stupid story about the CIA agent found in the reservoir.The trees are blurred.The surface of the lake is also blurred, but it's very natural, nothing to be concerned about, because that's what a gray goose landed on it.The geese rested comfortably without any answers to the questions they wanted to know. "Anyway," Finchitch said, suddenly narrowing her eyes and smiling cheerfully, "there's something wrong with me, and you have to find out what's wrong. Let's go back." Arthur shook his head. "What's wrong?" she asked. Arthur shook his head not to disagree with her proposal, he thought it was a very good proposal, one of the best proposals in the world, he shook his head because he wanted to get rid of a thought that came to his mind again, that When he least expects it, the universe will pop out from under a door and start laughing at him. "I'm just trying to get this sorted out in my head," Arthur said, "you said you felt as if the earth literally... exploded..." "Yeah, not just feelings." "Others say," he said hesitantly, "this is a hallucination?" "Yes, but Arthur, that's ridiculous. People think you just say 'illusion' and it explains everything you want to explain, and everything you don't understand disappears in the end. Actually, it explains everything No. It doesn't explain why the dolphins disappeared." "dolphin?" "yes." "All the dolphins," said Arthur, "are they gone?" "yes." "Dolphins? You mean the dolphins are all gone?" Arthur tried to put it clearly. "Is that what you mean?" "My God, where the hell have you been, Arthur? All the dolphins disappeared the day I..." She looked intently into his startled eyes. "what?" “No more dolphins. All gone. Gone.” She searched his face. "You really don't know?" His surprised expression clearly indicated that he didn't know. "Where did they go?" Arthur asked. "No one knows. That's why it's gone." She paused. "Well, there's a guy who said he knew, and people said he lived in Florida." She said, "And he's crazy. I want to see him , because it seemed like the only way to figure out what happened to me." She shrugged, then looked at him in silence for a long time, putting her hand on one side of his face. "I really want to know where you were," she said. "I think something bad happened to you. And that's how we got to know each other." She glanced around the park, which was already shrouded in dusk gloom. "Well," she said, "now you've got someone to listen to." Arthur let out a long sigh. "That's," he said, "a very long story." Finchchi leaned over him and picked up her bag. "Is this something to do with it?" she said.What she took out of the bag was old and broken, as if it had been thrown into a prehistoric river, baked by the fiery sun on the desert of planet Kakuravon, and on the planet San Traginos V. Half buried on the marble beach along the coast of the turbulent steam ocean, frozen into ice in the glaciers of Jagran II's moon, sat on, kicked around in the spaceship, dragged around, in short Abuse.Since the makers of this thing figured their product might have to go through these things, they put the thing in a tough plastic case with these four words written in large, friendly letters: "Don't Panic. " "Where did you get this thing?" Arthur was startled, and took it from her. "Oh," she said, "I think it's yours. It was in Russell's car that night. You lost it. Have you been to many of the places it says?" Arthur pulled it out of its sleeve, and it looked like a small, thin, flexible laptop.He pressed a few buttons and text appeared on the screen. "Been to a few," he said. "Can we go to these places?" "What? No," said Arthur sharply, and softened a little, but very carefully. "Do you want to go?" he said, and hoped she would say no.It was generous of him not to say, "You don't want to go, do you?" "Want to go," she said, "I want to know exactly what the message I lost and where it came from. Because I don't think—" She stood up and looked around the park, which was getting darker and darker. Adding, "That message came from this place." "I'm not even sure," she slid her arm around Arthur's waist, "I really know where this is."