decided everything? Although “knew” was perhaps an exaggeration. It was nonsense
to think they knew anything at all. Wasn’t it only her father who let them know
things?
Still, the problem was the same however you looked at it. As soon as Sophie
and Alberto “knew” how everything hung together, they were in a way at the end of
the road.
She almost choked on a mouthful of food as she suddenly realized that the same
problem possibly applied to her own world too. People had progressed steadily in
their understanding of natural laws. Could history simply continue to all eternity once
the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle of philosophy and science had fallen into place?
Wasn’t there a connection between the development of ideas and science on the one
hand, and the greenhouse effect and deforestation on the other? Maybe it was not so
crazy to call man’s thirst for knowledge a fall from grace?
The question was so huge and so terrifying that Hilde tried to forget it again.
She would probably understand much more as she read further in her father’s birthday
book.
“Happy birthday to you ...,” sang her mother when they were done with their ice
cream and Italian strawberries. “Now we’ll do whatever you choose.”
“I know it sounds a bit crazy, but all I want to do is read my present from Dad.”
“Well, as long as he doesn’t make you completely delirious.”
“No way.”
“We could share a pizza while we watch that mystery on TV.”
“Yes, if you like.”
Hilde suddenly thought of the way Sophie spoke to her mother. Dad had
hopefully not written any of Hilde’s mother into the character of the other mother?
Just to make sure, she decided not to mention the white rabbit being pulled out of the
top hat. Not today, at least.
“By the way,” she said as she was leaving the table.
“What?”
“I can’t find my gold crucifix anywhere.”
Her mother looked at her with an enigmatic expression.
“I found it down by the dock weeks ago. You must have dropped it, you untidy
scamp.”
“Did you mention it to Dad?”
“Let me think ... yes, I believe I may have.”
“Where is it then?”
Her mother got up and went to get her own jewelry case. Hilde heard a little cry
of surprise from the bedroom. She came quickly back into the living room.
“Right now I can’t seem to find it.”
“I thought as much.”
She gave her mother a hug and ran upstairs to her room. At last—now she could
read on about Sophie and Alberto. She sat up on the bed as before with the heavy ring
binder resting against her knees and began the next chapter.
Sophie woke up the next morning when her mother came into the room
carrying a tray loaded with birthday presents. She had stuck a flag in an
empty soda bottle.
“Happy birthday, Sophie!”
Sophie rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She tried to remember what had
happened the night before. But it was all like jumbled pieces of a jigsaw
puzzle. One of the pieces was Alberto, another was Hilde and the major. A