Two Chapters, One Grudge

Wednesday. A party in Sydney told me today that they had sailed with me before, in Perth. They had come back for the sequel.

I was touched. I was also puzzled, because to me it is all one long argument with the Beast, and I do not think of it in chapters. But the management does. Chapter one: the Nautilus fails, the Beast circles, you mend her and rise. Chapter two: I go looking for the Beast and bring you with me, and I would rather not say how calmly. Two submarines, two sets, two different hours. Neither is a copy of the other.

They asked whether it matters which comes first. It does not. Plenty of parties have hunted the Beast with me without ever meeting the Nautilus in Perth. But those who have been through chapter one arrive knowing what the Beast is capable of, and they look at me with a certain sympathy. I like that look.

Barnacle points out that the Beast has been in both chapters and nobody has ever asked whether it minds. I have told him to stop taking its side.