It was a hidden triangular world, isolated from the rest of the universe by a lid of blue, red and white clouds, two long patches of forest that met at one end, and at the other end a smelly swamp with green shrubbery, green grass, muddy dark earth, brown worms and emerald snakes, golden frogs and red crayfish, small silver crocodiles and gray rabbits. Most of the triangle housed a lake, which reflected the blueness, redness and whiteness of the clouds. Between the lake and the swamp there was a very old stone dam, which stood 5 meters tall on the side of the swamp and sloped lazily into the lake on the other side. Its surface was cracked and uneven, with patches of smooth concrete next to patches of pebbles or sand.
This world was always at dusk, and there was always a reddish spot of light coming from the clouds above the tip of the triangle. There were many birds and insects darting through the air, there were otters and dogs bathing in the lake, cats observing them suspiciously from the high end of the dam, and large animals, even people, forever relaxing on the reclining dam, or fishing, or hunting, or just wandering through the woods. Nobody seemed worried that the world they lived in was finite, hermetic and small, that the flow of time was undefinable. That a moment might come when there would be no more insects, because the frogs will have eaten them. And no more frogs, because the birds will have eaten them. No more cats, no more dogs, no more large animals. No more people, because the forest will have swallowed them, and no lake because the forest will have drowned it. And the swamp would sprawl over the dam and drink the lake, then it would dry out. And all that would be left would be an empty triangle under a lid of dark clouds.
They were all unperturbed by such notions, there was no straying from one’s business, no mind paid to anything else.
And maybe they were right to be so.
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