Impossible Dreamers

Chapter 9 (sag): Sag types of Impossible

Rrrip .... rrrip .... rrrrip.

Liana and Herago were once again in the garden of the House of the Green Jewel, busily tearing up pictures of mountains, and finding other Impossible things to do for their showing. It was what they had agreed, but was it good enough? Liana was beginning to worry whether the whole idea would work.

'There needs to be more to it,' Liana said, looking at the pile of torn papers that now littered the garden. It was a cloudy day, and Liana's mood was not as sunny as it had been last time.

'What do you mean? There's plenty to it,' Herago said.

'Not really,' Liana said. She picked up a piece of paper, which had the peak of Greblara showing. She turned over the paper, as though there was something she needed to see on the other side, but it was quite blank.

Liana looked back at Herago. 'OK, you do something Impossible, then you do something else Impossible. Fine. But it's the same thing over and over again. I'm not sure it's interesting enough.'

'You might as well say "you sing a song, then you sing another song – it's the same over and over again"', said Herago.

'No, because songs are all different. And the point of this Impossible stuff is that it's a surprise. You can't keep surprising people over and over again.' Liana suddenly wondered what people would think if they saw her and Herago surrounded by all these bits of paper. She bent down to pick up some more. They really ought to clear up.

'Why not?' said Herago.

'Why not what?' Liana asked. She was thinking about where these pieces of paper should go. Had they done too much tearing up? She knew that wasting paper was a pretty awful thing to do, but at least old paper could be made into new paper again. She started to wonder if that was something to do with how Herago did this 'Impossible'. Could he have quickly formed the torn paper back into new paper? No, that surely wasn't possible. Then Liana remembered that, actually, she didn't want to know.

'Why can't you keep surprising people?'

Oh, yes. Liana remembered what she was saying. 'You can't keep surprising people because if they know they're going to be surprised, they won't be surprised.'

'But they can be surprised in different ways.'

Why didn't Herago understand? 'If you're surprised, you're surprised. There aren't different types of being surprised.'

'That's where you are wrong.' Herago smiled. 'There are quite a number of different types of being surprised. And there are a number of different types of Impossible.'

'A number? What number?' Liana asked.

'Tag,' said Herago.

Liana laughed. 'Tag?' She looked at the pieces of paper in her hand. Tag.

'What are these tag types of Impossible, then?' She spread the pieces of paper out, so that Herago could see easily that she had four pieces of paper in each hand.

Herago took one of the pieces.

'Ir,' he said. Ir was 'one'. 'Ir is the sort of Impossible where something vanishes.' Herago crumpled the piece of paper into a ball, and threw it across into his other hand. Then he threw it back. Once more he threw the ball of paper, but this time it seemed to disappear in mid flight. Liana opened her eyes wide.

'Deg,' Herago continued. 'That's where something...' Herago reached into the air just above the level of Liana's eyes, and there, suddenly, between his fingers, there was a bright red stone '... appears from nowhere.'