Page 178 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Aurelio: Not literally; it’s a metaphor. The person who’s making you haul the chariot...that a
symbol for whoever’s telling you what to do, and when to do it.

Tozzo: Well, that’s you. You conjured me. You’re telling me what to do and what to say
right now.

Aurelio: No, in the real world. Who’s telling us what to do all the time? Allori.

Tozzo: Santi is saying that Allori is going to kill me by sunset?

Aurelio: Well, maybe not by this sunset. And maybe not Allori. But yes, maybe Santi’s
saying he was afraid Allori was going to kill him.

Tozzo: Unless we run away before they kill us...we should run to, to, wherever that pasture
was. Santi’s saying “Run to the pasture, someone’s trying to kill you?”

Aurelio: Or maybe....”I’ve run to the pasture because someone’s trying to kill me.”

Tozzo: (stops; ponders; a little drool runs down his chin) Oh. I see that. Yes. Maybe.
Big difference.

Aurelio: And maybe Santi’s in a pasture already, waiting for us.

Tozzo: (shouting suddenly): Aurelio! Look out behind you! Someone’s got a knife!

(Aurelio whirls around, reaching out with his right hand for a weapon of some sort, but finds
only a soup ladle. But there is no one there; only his own shadow from the flickering unsteady
oil lamp.)

Tozzo: Too slow, Aurelio. He got away.

Aurelio: There wasn’t anybody there.

Tozzo: I definitely saw someone!

Aurelio: You’re a lunatic.

Tozzo: You’re the one who’s talking to himself.

Aurelio: Well, I wouldn’t be if you’d shut up.

Tozzo: Is that any way to talk to a poor half-wit?

Aurelio: I’m going to bed.

Tozzo: Take the ladle with you!

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