Doll Model
 |
| Witchdoctor's building |
(In the jungle the
Witchdoctor holds up a doll-sized office building that’s been well made out of
old jungle mortars and mud. The Two Wives watch curiously from a safe distance)
TWO WIVES, whispering to
each other
That looks strangely
familiar!
Yes, it resembles our
husbands’ office building!
It’s an exact replica!
How far out!
How strange. What is the
____ (funny clown, rat-face)
going to do with it?
We’ll see.
Something good today, we
hope.
Oh, the Witchdoctor!
Oh, the Witchdoctor!
He is so wise!
He’s just blowing on that
building
on where we’re going to go.
Right there, I think!
Yes, somehow!
 |
| In the rock cave something is made |
Yes. This is somehow
special.
It’s where we’re going to
meet our husbands.
In their office tower.
An office tower that keeps
its shape.
Yes, and doesn’t leave.
But he’s got the whole
building
reduced in his hands.
Yes, he does.
And that’s how we’ll get
there.
How?
By whatever kind of magic he
can adore
and use us to go along with,
willingly.
I hope it’s not
uncomfortable.
(They observe him poking
at the model)
His boney fingers can’t get
in to there.
They can’t drag our two
husbands out from that building.
NARRATOR
That building is solid,
made of jungle muds and mortaring.
The Witchdoctor stares at it
stupefactedly because,
now that he’s got an
incantatory effigy of it,
he still can’t go inside
like an anteater’s sticky tongue,
to drag the Two Husbands
out!
ONLOOKER
So, in his mind,
what will drag them out
to meet their wives here?
NARRATOR
His clay model is too
stubborn, thick and rich
for the workers to emerge.
It can’t be inhabited here
in the jungle.
 |
| Witchdoctor and building |
(A little later, the
Witchdoctor cross-examines the Two Wives)
WITCHDOCTOR
What do your two husbands do
inside their building?
TWO WIVES
They work.
WITCHDOCTOR
What are the tools they use?
What most occupies their minds
as they work hard and most
concentrate?
(The Two Wives look at
each other with bewilderment and concern)
TWO WIVES
Well, numbers on pages.
And their giant graph where
all the numbers go.
WITCHDOCTOR
So, you would say that your
husbands
are most concentrating and
fixating their minds
on numbers that go up on the
wall
from their papers onto a
giant graph
to be transfixed and stare
blankly out?
(He turns away from the
Wives, thinking silently to himself
about the Two Husbands at
work)
Their two husbands
thinking and working
up in an office in a
building
above the city. Count the floors...
Up to nine or
ten...
Doing what are the two men? - working on numbers
and most
concentrating on their papers.
(Closing his eyes he
receives a clear vision of what will soon take place in their office space)
Soon, the numbers
magisterially
rise up into the air,
appearing larger on the
wall
amidst a giant net!
A giant net comes,
perfectly woven,
like a perforated black
shadow
cast over their heads and
desks.
The two men look up anxiously,
getting ready to throw
their risky bets
up on to the wall.
Then, like a whole school
of tasty fish,
their calculating numbers
are caught up
in the hovering,
organizing net.
Every single one of them
has its place
and is forced to stand up
nakedly
facing out, regularly and
evenly,
from every empty
square...
NARRATOR
Until they’re ready to drop
down
and bonkers those two guys
on the head again!
as they lose and their
calculations fail;
so that they’re seeing all
their numbers
dancing around their desks,
masquerading and mocking
them!
ONLOOKER
How does he affect their
numbers so?
(End of Chapter 21)
No comments:
Post a Comment