The Quest for Corvo

A J A Symons

His becoming Catholic I could easily understand. The attraction of the Catholic Faith for the artistic temperament is a phenomenon which has been the subject of many novels, and is one of the facts of psychology.

Whatever is of good, a man must get not from a teacher, but from his own toil. The man who wants to write Good English will, ultimately, write good English, and his work will have the supreme merit of being rare.

The first Intervention occurred on May the 26th, 2009. The stop sign at the corner of Broad and Alabama was decorated with Christmas tinsel. Nobody noticed.
The second Intervention occurred on June the 9th, 2009. A parakeet in a cage was hung from the bus stop on the 1100 block of Thompson St. This also was a failure, although several people did take pictures and one woman got bird poop on her new coat.
The third Intervention occurred on June the 17th, 2009. The intersection of James and Duncan downtown was yellow-washed--lights, sidewalk, trees, street, benches, and even fire hydrants were painted yellow in the early morning hours. Somehow no one saw who did it. The police called it an act of vandalism. The media made a joke of it, were reprimanded by the mayor and obediently blamed the degenerate youth of this corrupt modern age. For some time, at least all day, the intersection became something of an attraction--people walking into the large yellowness and turning around, marveling at their surroundings. But people quickly forget.
The fourth Intervention occurred on July the 21st, 2009. Flower petals cleverly secreted into the ventilation system at the mall released bringing an indoor shower of petals that lasted for more than fifteen minutes. Children went wild. Even some adults surrendered their better judgment and began to throw petals about like people splashing in a pool or playing in the snow. The mall authorities did not know how to protect the shoppers or from what. There were outcries, mostly of joy. However, the mall was closed early and the shoppers sent home--without flowers. The mall stated that it would treat as theft of property any removal of petals by unauthorized individuals. The petals were evidence--the mall's evidence. This time all the local media picked up the story, and one intelligent reporter connected this act to the yellow-washing. Nobody listened. One of the mall security cameras had captured an image of the foot of the alleged miscreant. He was called a terrorist. The foot, in a white tennis shoe that looked more like a doggy chew toy, was deemed to be unequivocally terroristic. The city stationed police at the mall twenty-four hours a day, for a month. No more was heard of these particular terrorists. Many people however, in the weeks after the incident, found their gardens pillaged. Flower gardens all over town were depleted and some even noted a marked decrease in the number of dandelions around town.
The fifth Intervention occurred on August the 2nd, 2009. Every book in the public library (all three branches) was turned upside down. Minutes after opening, patrons came to library staff members commenting meekly that they just thought the librarians might want to know, but many of the books were turned upside down, well actually all of them were. The librarians handled the situation with grace and the patrons were quickly calmed, but the infection of the wound rooted itself in the librarians' pride. They made a public announcement. The recent wave of vandalism plaguing the city must stop. There was no doubt that these senseless acts were the rites of some new gang's initiation. The gang was probably Latino. The police chief, feeling somewhat slandered, asked, what acts? To which the librarians replied by drawing neat little connections between the upside down books at the library, the petals at the mall, the yellow intersection downtown, three car wrecks on the interstate, a bank robbery, the death of the chief reference librarian's dog, the recent rise in roadkill--especially of opossums--and finally the loss of morals in society. The chief of police said, Oh. now with several Interventions actually being linked, the game was on.