Page 223 - The Grotesque Children's Book
P. 223
Tozzo: What about the banners on the other row, right across the birds? That’s a pattern:
blue, yellow, red. Blue, yellow, red. Ha! How smart am I!
Aurelio: But it’s blue-red-green we’re looking for, not blue-yellow-red.
Tozzo: I thought we were looking for a pattern.
Aurelio: Of blue-red-green.
Tozzo: But all those pretty birds...(Imaginary Tozzo counts on his fingers.) Fourteen of
them! And, and...awww, look at the widdle monkey! Hey, monkey, monkey...hoo,
hoo, hoo! You hungry? Want some food, want some food?
(Aurelio moves away from that section of the ceiling, looking at the other sections of banners
which might be in blue-red-green patterns, leaving Tozzo behind, hoo-hooing with the monkey
just adjacent.)
Translator’s Note. Solving puzzles like the original Italians. vid Italian
puzzle solvers would now at this point in their reading experience be feverishly
searching the twenty-seventh bay. Are you a solver? A reminder, if you want to
stay one step ahead of Aurelio that the girl in the story, Citia, the so-called Alpha,
also advised “Now stand back and observe.”
(Aurelio DeSolo stands looking and looking but, no, yellow banners will interfere!, and he sees
only blue-red-green-yellow, or blue-red-yellow. Half-Wit Tozzo comes trotting up, having
pretended to give the painted monkey some imaginary food.)
Tozzo: Say, Aurelio....
Aurelio: What’s that, Tozzo?
Tozzo: Did you see that “Leda and the Swan” right next to the monkey? Could that be a
clue? Weren’t you dreaming about Leda just a few days ago?”
Aurelio: First of all, Leda’s spoken for, and second, shhh, I’m thinking.
Tozzo: I’m inside your head. I’m not making any noise.
Aurelio: For not making any noise, you’re awfully noisy. So. I’m thinking about the clue in
the story. The girl says she’s the Alpha of making symbols, so I think we were
correct to start here, but she goes on to say, “Now stand back and observe.” I think
Santi means in spite of all the banners in Bay 27, we’re supposed to stand back and
observe the other bays as well.
Tozzo: (disheartened) There must be a thousand creatures to look at!
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