Page 352 - The Grotesque Children's Book

Now, while Aurelio is looking for final clues in the landscapes, the agile-minded puzzle
solvers among you will undoubtedly want yourselves to search, trying to find the landscape
before Aurelio does. (Four peaks, three hills, two goats, one Omega, and maybe some flying
putti or birds). You solvers might in fact have long ago found it, especially if you are familiar
with the charming Swiss town of Vierspitzen. But Aurelio needed one last eureka before he
found the landscape. After searching for what seemed to Aurelio like hours, he felt he was no
more closer than he had been in his search for goats. He might even have felt further away. For
at least the goats rewarded him with the stench of iconography. A landscape, however, to
Aurelio, was nearly devoid of symbolism. Clouds, storms, sunshine, those he understood. But
some bit of fantastical mythological classical-looking archway or colonnade, or a ruined temple
or wall, these images didn’t speak very loudly to Aurelio. Nor, Aurelio knew first-hand, had
they spoken to Santi. So as a result, the landscapes, as a group, felt to be not very meaningful to
Aurelio. The mountain as Mother, yes, yes, thought Santi, the wood of the cross, Nature the
Great Leveler, and so on and so on...but where are my execrable jewels!? Where is my Omega?

Aurelio froze. What did I just say? Where’s my Omega? ‘I am the Omega. I am also
the Alpha.’ Isn’t what the girl says to the gold demon? She’s the beginning; she’s the end. The
landscape is with her! The goats are with her, at the end!

Aurelio went back to the fresco of the girl who was touching the blue-red-green banners,
and looked at the landscape. There were no goats in the landscape here. He’d looked at this one
before. There has to be goat here. There was an Omega-shaped arch, and there was a lonely-
looking figure in the foreground (looking for jewels?). There might be four mountain peaks.
Hard to tell; they were fairly indistinct. There were definitely only two hills. And no goats.

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