10-17-2019, 04:25 PM
“Maybe.” A continuation of the weighted “no shit” tone that was fast becoming his default for communicating with the kid.
What did the third Courtland Farr actually recall about the second? Which scraps of memory would he be willing to swear were unaltered by time and outside influence -- the shadow of his mother’s opinion; his own repetitions, gathering new exaggerations each time like tiny mutations that end in a new species after generations? Fleeing The Reaches, although Courtland didn’t really feature in the scene on the driveway. Before that, the book flying across the room, hitting its mark, landing open to a sketch of minarets against the sky. Daddy against a whole backdrop of books, the library at their own home like a movie set, floor to ceiling weathered spines, telling Near that if he didn’t know the damn word he needed to write it down and look it up in the dictionary. Like he had taken as much pleasure in not being comprehensible without a bibliography as he had in being right, in winning out. And maybe he was no Everett (after all, who was?), but he’d liked his puzzles, too, his riddles, his strategy games, his correspondence chess with the engineer in Belarus. Near had learned not to touch the pieces on the board after the first time.
These were the memories that had left no space for wondering, when the source of the messages became clear, if the sender might have simply lost his mind. He had known without having to think about it that of course there was something in there, some knotted-up message. It had pissed him off then and continued to piss him off now that it had to be cryptic, which was part of the reason that he hadn’t made any effort to unravel it even though the thought had crossed his mind that succeeding might lead to treasure, to Nazi gold, whatever. His interest in treasure was less pressing than his interest in not giving Courtland the satisfaction of knowing that he’d succeeded in forcing his son to dig up his worn copy of Utilitarianism or research the Boer War from afar.
"No mystical insights into whether that something is related to this plan of yours?"
What did the third Courtland Farr actually recall about the second? Which scraps of memory would he be willing to swear were unaltered by time and outside influence -- the shadow of his mother’s opinion; his own repetitions, gathering new exaggerations each time like tiny mutations that end in a new species after generations? Fleeing The Reaches, although Courtland didn’t really feature in the scene on the driveway. Before that, the book flying across the room, hitting its mark, landing open to a sketch of minarets against the sky. Daddy against a whole backdrop of books, the library at their own home like a movie set, floor to ceiling weathered spines, telling Near that if he didn’t know the damn word he needed to write it down and look it up in the dictionary. Like he had taken as much pleasure in not being comprehensible without a bibliography as he had in being right, in winning out. And maybe he was no Everett (after all, who was?), but he’d liked his puzzles, too, his riddles, his strategy games, his correspondence chess with the engineer in Belarus. Near had learned not to touch the pieces on the board after the first time.
These were the memories that had left no space for wondering, when the source of the messages became clear, if the sender might have simply lost his mind. He had known without having to think about it that of course there was something in there, some knotted-up message. It had pissed him off then and continued to piss him off now that it had to be cryptic, which was part of the reason that he hadn’t made any effort to unravel it even though the thought had crossed his mind that succeeding might lead to treasure, to Nazi gold, whatever. His interest in treasure was less pressing than his interest in not giving Courtland the satisfaction of knowing that he’d succeeded in forcing his son to dig up his worn copy of Utilitarianism or research the Boer War from afar.
"No mystical insights into whether that something is related to this plan of yours?"