I said that the club had spread over the entire earth, and this is a fact. Its three members fled from one another with genuine horror. Nowhere could they find peace. Each of them lived in constant fear that one of the others might still come to see a bit of the country he lived in and desecrate it with his depraved representation of it. And when they had already arrived at three opposite points on the earth’s rim, to each of them came the inconsolable notion that his sky, the sky he had painstakingly taken possession of through his growing uniqueness and originality, was still within reach of the others. In this moment of crisis, they began, all three at the same time, holding their easels, to walk backward. Had they gone five steps farther, they would have fallen off the edge of the earth into the infinite, and would now be obliged to execute with headlong speed the double orbiting movement around the earth and the sun. But the empathy and attention of God prevented this cruel fate. God saw the danger and at the last moment (what else could He have done?) stepped out into the middle of the sky. The three painters recoiled with fright. Then they planted their easels and set up their palettes. This was an opportunity that could not be missed. The dear Lord does not appear every day and also not to everyone. And of course each of the painters believed that God was posing for him alone. And soon they were becoming more and more absorbed in this interesting work. And every time God wants to go back into heaven, Saint Luke requests Him to remain outside for a while longer so that the three painters can finish their pictures.

“And these gentlemen have doubtless already exhibited and perhaps even sold these paintings?” asked the musician in the gentlest tones.

“What can you be thinking of?” I countered. “They’re still working on their God paintings, and surely will continue to do so until their own ends have come. However, should they (and I consider this to be out of the question) come together again while they’re still alive and show each other the paintings they have painted of God in the meantime, who knows: perhaps these pictures might be barely distinguishable.”