Page 319 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Chapter 47.

A nightmare from an imaginary creation

(It’s the middle of the night. Half-Wit Tozzo shakes actual Aurelio awake with shouting and
great gesticulations. Aurelio is not pleased.)

Tozzo: The demon! The demon on the cover! He’s got the face of a lion, but the wings of
a bat, and, and a garland in his hair. He’s a tetra-whatever-you-called-it! He’s
Christ! He’s not a demon, he’s Christ! The bat wings, they represent, um,
mammals who can fly, like, like, like, well I don’t know of any other mammals
besides a bat which can fly, so maybe the bat represents a bat. Oh, wait, there’s a
squirrel which can fly, right? Glides from tree branch to tree branch, this squirrel.
And, oh, oh! Our paint brushes, they’re made from squirrel hair. So the wings,
they represent our paintbrushes, which can fly. Our flying paintbrushes, they’re
you and I, Aurelio. You’re the right wing, and I’m the left, and Santi’s the middle
wing. Wait, I had this. The garland, that’s...no. It had something to do with fish.
But now I’m, I’m...it’s suddenly not making any sense. Sorry I woke you.

(Aurelio goes back to sleep.)

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