You've been pressing me to tell you how it began in the house by the church, so here it is.
They, all of them, are laughing, making fun of me as they always do. She is making a meal, a seafood meal, with a live creature, an octopus. I have always loved these creatures. I have discovered how intelligent they are, how sensitive they are with their gift of seeing by touching. I have always believed they belonged to another world, perhaps, even another dimension. I can't begin to tell you how upset, how frantic I am. I try to stop her. I cry and scream but they just laugh and she laughs. Then they take the small animal out of the pan of water and slap him on my back. He wraps himself around me and I can hear him desperately trying to breathe. I run from one room to another with him draped on my back. They laugh, running after me. I frantically try to save him, to find wet things, cloths and water, to keep him alive. Desperate, desperate. I finally get him into the bathtub and fill it with water, the wrong water, fresh water. But somehow he survives. He just lays there watching me and moves when I move. We look at each other for a long time.
Later, finally, I have him out and up, in a long coat, standing next to me. He is much bigger and longer than I realize and it is so difficult to support him, to keep him standing, but he does stand, alongside me, in a coat, standing upright, leaning against me, my arm around him. It is very dangerous because we are going to try to escape.
The rest you know.
Rune
