-a Whole World Can Lie Before Someone,

For The First Time, He Heard Something That He Knew To Be Music. He Heard People Singing. Behind Him, Across Vast Distances Of Space And Time, From The Place He Had Left, He Thought He Heard Music Too. But Perhaps, It Was Only An Echo.

It Is Very Risky. But Each Time A Child Opens A Book, He Pushes Open The Gate That Separates Him From Elsewhere.

Once She Read A Book But Found It Distasteful Because It Contained Adjectives.

Then I Went Home To Continue My Life, Which Had Changed A Little, As Lives Do Every Day, Inching By Microspecks Forward Toward Whatever Surprises Are Coming Next.

Now He Saw Another Elephant Emerge From The Place Where It Had Stood Hidden In The Trees. Very Slowly It Walked To The Mutilated Body And Looked Down. With Its Sinuous Trunk It Struck The Huge Corpse; Then It Reached Up, Broke Some Leafy Branches With A Snap, And Draped Them Over The Mass Of Torn Thick Flesh. Finally It Tilted Its Massive Head, Raised Its Trunk, And Roared Into The Empty Landscape.