————————————————

Rat: Down the road past the farm with the donkeys and past the ditch where the dogs run and past the bed and breakfast with the long driveway and continuing on past the green cabin with the musical ladies with the chickens and past the wooden sign with the charred letters you'll find Dunne Cliff. 

You can get there by float plane or by wooden boat, but float plane is advisable and much preferred by the residents… [Laughs] 

When you walk down the long dusty drive and stand up at the tip top of the rocky cliff you can look out over the Lake and sometimes it is calm and sometimes it is rough and when there is a storm the water might turn white and the sky might turn dark and the Hills across the Lake might glow red but on many mornings and many afternoons the Lake is calm and you can sit on the cliff and Paint the different spots of blue and green and you can consider the different shapes of the rocks along the outline of the water’s edge.

There are many residents at Dunne Cliff, and the Residents are not always visible but when they are visible they act in a great Opera Comique! [Laughs] And it is widely reviewed, with Great Discourse [1] to be heard around the bend and along the road into The Small Town. [2]

Indeed, when the Residents step out onto the stage and the sun begins to slide those Audience Members who sit before them in number are guaranteed, year after year, a “Good Show”! [3]

Neighboring residents from down the road past the farm with the donkeys come on foot during late weekend afternoons when it is not too hot and not too cold and sit out in the long dusty drive and watch the Opera. They laugh and clap and walk home at night in procession and from under lanterns they recall the Songs of the Opera while the youngest Residents run out in front and stumble over each other and play games and dare one another to linger behind as they fear the presence of the Bears of the Night. [4]

You might be able to sit in the Audience but if you fail to look or fail to listen too closely, or if you are occupied with pursuits beyond the Mind and instead dwell in thoughts of faraway problems such as pursuits of the world outside the shimmer and glimmer of the Opera, then the stories and the songs of the Residents might slip past your notice and you might find yourself lost in a dark wood or at minimum a dimly lit social event in an urban center.

Allison: You paint a bleak picture!

Rat: Indeed. The truth is, for a long time all went smoothly on the Stage at Dunne Cliff for many years. The Lake would warm in the days and cool in the evenings and the procession would return back into the Dark and the Residents would sing the songs of the Opera. 

Except for one year… [Laughs]

Allison: Now, tell me exactly what happened… in the order of it happening. And be careful not to recall it from memory in any other order!

Rat: The “problems” began when the Director [Aside: a few weeks ago he pulled me into a tight crevasse - an absolute nook and cranny - and asked me to say this, should the appropriate opportunity arise] became fixated with an absolute Idee Fixe - No joke - truly fixed on it! [Laughs] 

He required a new Tenor - an absolute Man of Honour we might say - to lead the troops into battle. “With a new lead comes a new pair of eyes and a new view of the horizon!”, he would say. And so he launched a righteous campaign to recruit “A Man of Charming Stature”.

Allison: I am on the edge of my seat!

Rat: Unfortunately, the rest must wait for another day… the sun is going down.

Allison: That’s disappointing. I will be back.

——————————————————

[1] This depends on who you ask - some reviewers of the Theatre of Life offer a more original and compelling perspective. Originality may be considered the essential common thread between these compelling thoughts on experience… bravely striking out without the use of Lazy-Single-Use-Thoughts constructed by A Quick Tippity-Tap into The Machine!

[2] For more about the widely controversial differences between The Small Town and The Big Town, please see the forthcoming Transcript 3021.

[3] “Gud-Sh-Oh” ; A show that entertains! As first said aloud with confidence and bravado at the first instance of Show by the original and incomparable witness to the First Ever Opera Comique in the Old Days upon the drop of the curtain and after - not a moment before - the finale of the final moment of the final movement of the final act!

[4] For more about the Bears of the Night, please see the forthcoming Transcript 3027.