"Well, well" said the Rabbit, "you had
every reason to think your old friend
still likes you and thinks about you."
"Oh yes," said the Old Gull, "I was
quite sure of that."
They both sat silent for a moment,
listening to the waves.
"Maybe it was an oversight," said
the Rabbit.
"Maybe it was."
With no further comment, the Old
Gull flew off.
The Rabbit looked up and saw the
Old Gull flying by himself, making
a huge ellipsis in the air over
the ocean.
"He's a moody one, that Gull,"
thought the Rabbit. "Takes
everything to heart"
The Rabbit sat there awhile watching
the Gull make circles in the sky. He
liked to do that because he had the
feeling he knew what the Gull
was thinking about by the
way he flew around. But he
realized that probably
wasn't true
Still, watching the Gull in the
sky he could imagine conversations
that might be taking place between
the spoken words, just in gestures.
Often the Gull had told him that
no one is able to say exactly
what they mean, or feel. There
is a code to things that all
beings follow, like songs
that move towards expectable
refrains. Things keep happening,
the gull said,
things answering things.
responding to them whether
they knew it or wanted
them to. There
were always two conversations
going on at the same time,
the Gull explained.
There's the one that is
put into words and another
that is said with gestures
and decisions; sometimes the
gestures and choices were
mute, but the understandable
responses created results
that were not necessarily
being aimed for or were
even desirable.
The Rabbit often
produced an internal
smile when the Gull
would talk this way.
This was because The Rabbit
knew that no one could
ever completely nail down
what was being said in
these covert conversations,
but on the other hand, everybody
kind of knew what the underlying
situation was whether they
were acknowledging, or even
saying something about
some of these things.
The Rabbit had been thinking
so long he had not been
looking around.
The Gull had landed right
beside the Rabbit.
The Gull looked at the Rabbit
and said, "So what have
you been thinking about?"
"I've been thinking about
why you always fly off
as soon as we're having
a conversation. Then, when
you come back, it is as
if we never had a conversation
at all."
The Gull looked at the
Rabbit out of the side
of his eye. Meaning,
even more out of the side
of his eye than usual because
his eyes were on two
sides of his head anyway.
"But I was just trying to explain
that everything is a conversation."
The Gull had said this in a
very raspy voice, making little
effort to hide his irritation.
"I knew that," the Rabbit replied.
"But I am still curious as to
why you fly off."
"You know the answer to that."
"You always say you just like
to fly. But that's like saying
'Why did the Gull cross the harbor?'"
"Now I'm having a Deja Vu," the
Gull said.
"Oh, you're always having Deja Vus,"
the Rabbit answered.