“You said that the dog had often been here.”
“Did I say that?”
She had to think now. She wanted to tell as much as possible, but she couldn’t
tell everything.
“You’re hardly ever at home,” she ventured.
“No, I’m much too busy.”
“Alberto and Hermes have been here lots of times.”
“What for? Were they in the house as well?”
“Can’t you at least ask one question at a time? They haven’t been in the house.
But they often go for walks in the woods. Is that so mysterious?”
“No, not in the least.”
“They walk past our gate like everyone else when they go for a walk. One day
when I got home from school I talked to the dog. That’s how I got to know Alberto.”
“What about the white rabbit and all that stuff?”
“That was something Alberto said. He is a real philosopher, you see. He has
told me about all the philosophers.”
“Just like that, over the hedge?”
“He has also written letters to me, lots of times, actually. Sometimes he has sent
them by mail and other times he has just dropped them in the mailbox on his way out
for a walk.”
“So that was the ‘love letter’ we talked about.”
“Except that it wasn’t a love letter.”
“And he only wrote about philosophy?”
“Yes, can you imagine! And I’ve learned more from him than I have learned in
eight years of school. For instance, have you ever heard of Giordano Bruno, who was
burned at the stake in 1600? Or of Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation?”
“No, there’s a lot I don’t know.”
“I bet you don’t even know why the earth orbits the sun—and it’s your own
planet!”
“About how old is this man?”
“I have no idea—about fifty, probably.”
“But what is his connection with Lebanon?”
This was a tough one. Sophie thought hard. She chose the most likely story.
“Alberto has a brother who’s a major in the UN Battalion. And he’s from
Lillesand. Maybe he’s the major who once lived in the major’s cabin.”
“Alberto’s a funny kind of name, isn’t it?”
“Perhaps.”
“It sounds Italian.”
“Well, nearly everything that’s important comes either from Greece or from
Italy.”
“But he speaks Norwegian?”
“Oh yes, fluently.”
“You know what, Sophie—I think you should invite
Alberto home one day. I have never met a real philosopher.”
“We’ll see.”
“Maybe we could invite him to your birthday party? It could be such fun to mix
the generations. Then maybe I could come too. At least, I could help with the serving.
Wouldn’t that be a good idea?”
“If he will. At any rate, he’s more interesting to talk to than the boys in my
class. It’s just that...”