It would be difficult to know why Avigail has chosen this precise moment to re-open the whole ‘oyster-shell-strike/non-strike farrago’.

Hmm.

What is the story that Avigail is living now about this situation?

Or – perhaps more pertinently – what is the story that we are living now about what Avigail is living now about this situation?

Is it Avigail’s Toxic Super-Ego suddenly declaring war on her newly-blissed-out/faith-infused Adult/Inner Child?

Is Avigail feeling weird (and – quite frankly – inexplicable) pangs of jealousy due to the sudden bond being forged between Ying Yue and Charles? Is her apparent antipathy to Charles actually a subconscious rejection of a surreptitious unconscious attraction to Charles?

Is Avigail simply displacing the social/emotional anxiety (recently generated by Denny Neale suddenly/randomly using the word ‘testicles’) by reverting her attention back to another socially/emotionally contested incident from earlier on in the viewing?

Yes.

All of the above.

No.

None of the above.

Actually, both.

Yes, both. At the same time.

Because people are, by their very nature, contradictory.

Because people are, by their very nature, paradoxical.

Aside from Wang Shu, that is.

Wang Shu is terrifyingly single-minded.

Wang Shu is possessed of an almost supernatural coherence.

But where is the oyster shell?

Huh?

Was there actually an oyster shell?

Huh?

Is Ying Yue currently in possession of said oyster shell?

Huh?

Gyasi ‘Chance’ Ebo actually researched online (when he was still featured in the novella – although not while ‘on page’, but while ‘off-page’) and discovered that seagulls do habitually drop oysters from great heights to smash them and devour their innards, but very rarely – if ever – do they carry them beyond the confines of the beach to do so. Gyasi ‘Chance’ Ebo shared this information via Snapchat with a group of his friends, none of whom have had the chance to read the novel I Am Sovereign yet (and none of whom have been invented by The Author yet) because the book is still actually being written (this will be difficult for The Reader to understand, as they hold a perfect copy in their hand, but it makes perfect sense to The Author as she types this sentence, so The Reader will just have to suspend judgement and go with it) and – let’s face it – Gyasi ‘Chance’ Ebo is a relatively insignificant character in I Am Sovereign who has now been virtually expunged from the narrative by The Author.

Damn him.

Damn Gyasi ‘Chance’ Ebo and his fatuous interruptions.

Damn Gyasi ‘Chance’ Ebo and his persistent thrusting for narrative significance/insignificance.

The Author knows FOR A FACT that Gyasi ‘Chance’ Ebo’s glasses are knock-off Burberry Doodle Square Frame Sunglasses, not Tom Ford Dimitrys, as stated earlier in the text.

The Author has also (only recently) come across the sentence:

‘What are the stories, the fictions, from which you derive your sense of self?’ in Eckhart Tolle’s Stillness Speaks and thinks that this may actually be the original source of Richard Grannon’s sister’s yoga teacher’s phrase.