The first feature made the audience fall asleep (excepting the Shadowy Figure, who showed up as mysteriously as he always did and remained fully alert). The spirit of Mr. Love hovered, unperceived but intuited, a few inches from Mr. Love Jr.

Mr. Love Jr. felt a presence so palpable that, to make sense of it, he lingered in the lobby after everyone was seated. Whatever it was impressed him as an aggressive nothingness, and after some minutes of considering it he headed upstairs to project the first feature.

Given that he operated a failing business, Mr. Love Jr. wasn’t used to complex questions being hurled at him in rapid succession. He did his best.

Everyone arrived at Shadowlands at exactly the same time.

You’ll recall that we left Pim and Bim in the desert, searching for an idea of what to do next.

Really, it was ages since Gwyneth had thought of the Well-Dressed Albatross. Shopping for tea one morning she’d found Gim languishing between two crates of Lapsang Souchong. She’d brought Gim home to care for and ever since they’d been as inseparable as Pim and Bim.

By the merest accident the Well-Dressed Albatross passed Joaquín’s haberdashery on Calle Galileo. Believing that Gwyneth would be moping over an endless trickle of tea and longing for his return, the WDA moved quickly past her window.

Despite Ukifune’s fair cookie sales and Brad’s bewildering impulse to teach himself Hungarian, the two were hard up for activities (the more so since it was clear that no one else intended to join the Intentional Community.)

It is a truth universally acknowledged that those relegated to the outskirts will eventually move towards the urban core. So it was for the Well-Dressed Albatross.

Meanwhile Mr. Love’s mind (or spirit, if that sits better with your metaphysics) continued its disembodied movement, like ignis fatuus hovering over the dark places of the Earth.