(urth) Mute: There Is No Out

[Dave Tallman]

Jill and Jimmy, brother and sister, are delivered by bus to the house where
their father is supposed to be. It seems to be empty, except that the
television in the front room is on and set permanently on "MUTE."

At the beginning of the story, Jill speculates whether the bus is a school
bus or a "pay-as-you-get-on" bus. This tells us that she has no memory of
boarding the bus.

The image of the innocent fawn with the long-haired girl is from *Through
the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There* by Lewis Carroll. She and a
fawn walk together when both have lost their memories. When they recover
them the fawn runs away. This is like the innocence and animal friendship in
the Garden of Eden.

The knight falling off his horse is also from *Through the Looking Glass*.
The White Knight is encumbered by all his inventions and frequently falls.
This suggests the fall of man after obtaining the knowledge of good and
evil. The rusty picture of the girl on the horse suggests lost innocence
also.

The father, whose ghost is seen and whose body they find, suggests being cut
off from the love of the Father, God. The "MUTE" TV also suggests being
unable to hear the voice of God.

Jill's nickname of "Jelly" is like the name "Candi Apple" in *Pocketsful of
Diamonds*, and it gives the first hint of incest between the siblings.

They are in a closed Klein-bottle world with no outside. They go from the
back of the house to a wall with a locked gate, and get inside it with
difficulty (Jill by squeezing through the bars, Jimmy by climbing with the
help of a fallen tree). Once inside, they climb a path and find themselves
in the front of the same house they started from.

It's odd that this was put into an end-of-the-world anthology. This seems to
be a pure horror story with echoes of the Genesis story of the Fall of Man.
Jill and Jimmy seem to be trapped in a private hell that gradually grows
worse. Their sin seems to be incest
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