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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=crushtv@gmail.com
href="mailto:crushtv@gmail.com">James Wynn</A> </DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><BR>>
The first paragraph relates events AFTER he encountered and discoursed
with Krait. <BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>Last night I stopped writing because I could not bring myself to describe
the rest of that day, or the night that followed it, or the day that followed
that, the day on which I licked dew from the sides of the pit, lying on my
belly at first, then kneeling, then standing—and at last, when the Short Sun
peeped over the rim and the dew was almost gone, wiping the stone above my
head with fingers that I thrust into my mouth the moment they felt damp.
Altogether I got two mouthfuls of water, at most. No more than that,
certainly, and very likely it was less. </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>Yes.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>> The next event relates to EARLIER only shortly after he had
encountered Krait.<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>Earlier I had prayed, then cursed every god in my heart when the
rescuer they sent had proved to be Krait. On that day I did not pray, or
curse, or any such thing. <BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><BR>> NOW the rhythm of is telling upended. You have been tricked by
Wolfe's subtle story-telling</DIV>
<DIV>> (you are not the first, we've all been there). The next event takes
place even earlier. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>That paragraph seems to refer to two separate days: the day he prayed and
cursed and encountered Krait, and the next day, when he scraped dew getting only
two mouthfuls, and did not pray.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And on which, I think, the long-nosed man appeared. [Edit: I wrote “I
think”, but read to the end – it is proven.]<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>This is what I least wished to write about last night, but I am
going to try to write it down this evening. *Once*, as I lay there at the
bottom of the pit, it seemed to me that a man with a long nose (a tall man or
an immense spider) stood over me. I did not move or even open my eyes, knowing
that if I did he would be gone. He touched my forehead with something he held,
and the pit vanished. <BR>I was standing in Nettle’s kitchen. She was making
soup, and I watched her add a whole plateful of chopped meat to her kettle and
shake the fire. She turned and saw me, and we kissed and embraced. I explained
to her that I was not really in her kitchen at all, that I lay at the bottom
of a pit in a ruin of the Vanished People on an island far away, and that I
was dying of thirst. <BR>“Oh,” Nettle said, “I’ll get you some water.” <BR>She
went to the millstream and brought back a dipper of clean, cool water for me;
but I could not drink. “Come with me,” I told her. “I’ll show you where I am,
and when you give me your water there I’ll be able to drink it.” I took her
hand (yes, Nettle my darling, I took your hard, hardworking little hand in
mine) and tried to lead her back to the pit in which I lay. She stared at me
then as if I were some horror from the grave, and screamed. I can never forget
that scream. <BR>And I lay in the pit, as before. The Short Sun was burning
gold.<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><!--203-->
<DIV><BR>> This likely places the events with the long-nosed fellow (our
narrator) on the night </DIV>
<DIV>>before THIS happens (at the beginning of the chapter:<BR>>"Sunlight
warmed me. I kept my eyes closed, knowing that it would be painful to look at
the sun."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>How does that follow? “Once” does not designate any particular
time. Nor does he say the weather was cloudy on the day after Krait
came.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>And come to think of it, he tells us right there!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>**********************************************************</DIV>
<DIV>And I lay in the pit, as before. The Short Sun was burning gold.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It had crossed the pit and vanished on the other side an hour or two
before, when the inhumu returned. </DIV>
<DIV>***********************************************************</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So we have an exact timeline. The long-nosed man visited him the day
after Krait’s visit, and Krait visited for the second time some hours after his
astral trip.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This confirms what was already clear from the “thirst” clue.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Gerry Quinn</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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