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Back Loop Save as PDF
Chapters (33)
  1. Loop
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. 12
  14. 13
  15. 14
  16. 15
  17. 16
  18. 17
  19. 18
  20. 19
  21. 20
  22. 21
  23. 22
  24. 23
  25. 24
  26. 25
  27. 26
  28. 27
  29. 28
  30. 29
  31. 30
  32. A note on the text
  33. Copyright

I wonder what the planets are like that the cat visits in his sleep. Like a box within a box, within a box, where does the cat travel to?

I’d live with you on any of those nine little planets, Jonás. The black cat could be the emperor of one of them. On that planet, there’d be a garden decorated with different-size pieces of quartz, in different shades of green, with a small pale-blue frozen lake we’d like to visit. The emperor Cat would learn that we enjoy strolling among the huge rocks of quartz, that black cat who watches us from his throne; he’d lick his paw and flex it to order the garden’s closure. ‘It’s mine,’ he’d say to his subjects. ‘No one else may walk between my rocks of quartz,’ he’d decree. We’d obey the orders in his kingdom, just as we obey them at home. We’d look for another place. It wouldn’t have different-size pieces of quartz in different shades of green, or a pale-blue frozen lake, but it would be a place we’d like to go to on the little planet the cat might visit in his sleep.

Maybe all this could be put another way, but if there’s no ideal person there are no ideal words. So there can be no ideal story.

14

14

A message from Ernesto, inviting me for lunch. Nothing out of the ordinary, though we don’t see each other very much. The only thing that really was out of the ordinary today was my doughnut sliding across my plate. I don’t know what effect, what optical illusion or law of physics allowed it, but it happened: the doughnut slid across the plate. I wonder if things like that happen on one of the planets the cat visits in his sleep, something like a planet where things move of their own accord. In keeping with the laws of that planet, the notebook would levitate now. On one of those planets, objects would have a mind of their own. Objects would have a voice.