Tales within tales within tales.
It often occurs to me, as I go about a day, that I am visited by certain people I’m not sure are of this world. Odd passersby who stir awake sleeping giants deep within me. Sometimes, in the smallest of interactions, these enigmas will speak to me, or I will speak to them… A nod of the head. An excuse me. A simple hello. Occasionally, I will find myself midway through a conversation with a being who I believe to be of flesh and blood when I’m stricken by a sudden thunderbolt of madness which tells me this here is another one of one of them. A storyteller.
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In which a curious traveler learns to listen to his storytellers.
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In which the seven severed heads of Skull Tree experience the vicissitudes of death while discussing the legend of The Headhunter.
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In which a lonesome old visionary commentates the excruciatingly boring practice of watching corn grow, propelling the event into an extraordinary spectacle.
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In which a girl who claims to have met several thousand future versions of herself outlines her encounter with the future-self she most desires to become.
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In which a sailor who sails through time describes his expedition through The Deep Forever, a most elusive incognita in which the ghost of his long dead friend plagues and haunts him into embarking on a never-ending search through the minds of all who hear his tale.
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In which a lonely recluse monomaniacally devotes his life to solving an ultimate riddle — and succeeds.
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In which an unlikely hero details how he saved a doomed plane with his plumbing.
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In which a farmer, crushed by his son’s uncanny death, learns an unexpected truth while seeking vengeance.
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In which a woman learns to view her life through the lens of a kaleidoscope… a tool that rearranges her memories and reveals to her a garden of infinite delight.
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In which the reader learns how to listen to their own multitudes within.
The dream must secede to reality, and then the dream reigns supreme, then the dream becomes life, then life becomes the dream.
—Alexandre Dumas, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’
