This is reminding me of “The Little Prince.” In certain ways, at least. For one, I’m pretty sure they’re on a geometrically precise, perfectly round planet about 40 feet across. For two, that ‘s self-evidently a baobab tree, and those things are well-known destroyers of small, spherical worlds.If I was living on a geometrically precise sphere 40 feet wide, I’d seriously talk to my landscaper about using any plant much larger than creeping thyme.
“Oh John, it’s perfect! Except…”
“Except, oh love of my life?”
“It’s a small thing.”
“Give me the word, and I will fix it. Anything for you.”
“Well…”
“This was to be our dream house, Martha. Live the dream.”
“I can’t fit my shoulders through the front door. And the windows are on the small side as well, small and shingled over. And the roof looks not so much like a roof, but more like a Jello Pudding Pop left in the sun for 10 minutes, just long enough to start melting a bit but before the ants show up. And I’m not sure about that tree. I think it might be a toilet paper tube. A BIG toilet paper tube, with twigs and coconuts stuck in the top. One of them fell off and rolled around the planet.”
“So…we should probably just start over then, is what you’re saying.”
“I’d not rule it out.”
“We do have great access to the sun, you know. That was in the brochure.”
“Maybe that’s why the roof is falling over, some sort of a collision on a low pass.”
Theory #2, and this is almost always theory #2–it’s an allegory for death. I mean, look, the guy’s wearing a halo and the girl’s got a strange radiant aura and may in fact be bigger than a house, which you won’t be able to fit into. Sounds like a Sartre play to me.
Goodwill on 2222 and Lamar, Austin
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