“Yes, yes, a coin. Very good. And how many sides to the coin, Elli?”
“Why . . . two sides, of course.”
“Yes, yes . . . and why do you say ‘two sides, of course?’”
“Well . . . ” Elli shifted, as if uncomfortable in her cushion, as did Beatríz. “Because if you have one side to a coin, you have to have another side. There would be no such thing as a one-sided coin—that would make no sense!”
“Yes, yes! But not no sense—but nonsense! That is to say, what I’m telling you makes no sense; but that doesn’t make it not true! Indeed, quite to the contrary! Yes! Yes!
“No, no . . . Must have two sides—must always have two sides, if you have one! Yes, yes—very good, Elli. Now, look at the coin, and imagine that the coin is so thin that the two sides are as close to each other as possible, and tell me: how far apart are the two sides?” Elli bent over the coin in Aneht’s outstretched hand to get a good look at it—Beatríz already bent over to finger it.
Elli stared at the coin—and glanced at Beatríz, who was smiling, as if she understood perfectly, as if simply by touching the coin. “Beatríz . . . do you know the answer?”
“Yes, yes . . . I think so!” And all of them laughed at Beatríz’s involuntary mimicking of Aneht. “I think so! They are not far apart at all! They are not even apart at all! They are as close to each other as two things can be—they are connected, so that if you removed one side you would also remove the other side. No, they are not apart at all!” Elli smiled at Beatríz and squeezed her hand.
“Yes, yes, Beatríz! Yes, yes! But then, looking once more at the coin—I’ll now ask you: can you, if you are on one side, ever be on the other side?” Elli and Beatríz both stared in the direction of the coin, Beatríz fingering it once more, and furrowed their brows.
“Aneht . . . Is this a trick?” Elli said flatly, as if weary of the puzzling conversation.
“Yes, yes—no, no! I mean, yes, yes, I see why you would ask that, but no, no, it’s not a trick. Quite to the contrary! It is what is most real—and, dear girl, it is a reality to prepare you for war, in a world you must understand!” Elli and Beatríz sat straight up and turned to look at each other, wide eyed. They then returned to look at Aneht or, in the case of Beatríz, in the direction of Aneht’s voice.
“Aneht, I guess the logical answer is no, you can’t ever be on one side and also be on the other side!” said Beatríz.
“Yes, yes, very good . . . in that way, they are also infinitely far apart! Indeed, you cannot even go from one side to the other. You would have to leave one side to get to the other side, would you not?”
“Yes, I see that, I think, Aneht. It would be like trying to go around something without an edge, or like falling off the edge of one side to get to the other! And how would one get to the other side if one has simply fallen off the edge?”
“Yes, yes, Beatríz. Yes, yes! And, Elli?”
“And . . . If they are connected—infinitely close to one another—then there is no area of circumference to form, say, another side, perpendicular to the front and back sides, correct?—Although, I am not sure how to visualize it . . . ”
“Yes, yes, perfectly stated, Elli—and Beatríz! You have seen that each side is two-dimensional, not three—a side in space . . . And so a side without a side—except an opposite side, with no side perpendicular to the side in space to get you as a passage to the other side! Just a two-sided plane in space—and so no place at all for that perpendicular side! No, no! Yes, yes—you see?”
“I think so,” Elli said, in a tone suggesting that perhaps she didn’t—or that she was failing to see the relevancy of what reminded her of a geometry lesson in school.
“I think so, too,” offered Beatríz, “but . . . ”
“Yes, yes . . . so, since it is impossible either to be on one side and also on the other side, or even to travel from one side to the next, is it impossible to get from one side to the other, then?”
“Aneht!” blurted out Beatríz. “This sounds like magical realism—something I studied in Spanish literature class! Hee-hee!”
“Yes, yes! Well, I wouldn’t know about that, Beatríz, but it is sort of like being both magic—and real! It’s what one would call in Bairnmoor—or,” Aneht added in a subdued tone, “if only now in Sanctuary, a ‘probable impossibility!’”
Elli’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open on hearing from Aneht the exact words used by Butterfly, and wondered if the two were actually acquainted with each other. She reminded herself to ask later on.
“But, aren’t you asking a nonsense question, Aneht? I mean,” said Elli, “you just asked, didn’t you, whether it was possible to go from one side to the other, when you already just said that it was impossible to go from one side to the other?”
“Yes, yes! Of course! It makes no sense! It’s foolishness—and illogical—but hardly nonsense!—and it’s quite the case that something most real can seem to the mind most foolish!”
“Aneht,” Elli interrupted, thinking back on her similar conversation with Butterfly by the Lake of Imagination, and perhaps looking for confirmation, “this is becoming still more confusing! What is the difference between something ‘making no sense’ and something else ‘being nonsense?’”
“Yes! Yes! I see! I see! You see, to say accurately that it is nonsense is to say that it makes no sense when it ought to, if making sense determines whether it can be true or not. But, to say accurately that something is true that makes no sense means that it lies outside of those things that make sense!” Aneht rose and took the girls’ plates with two hands while pointing with the finger of a third toward the blue sky to emphasize her next words.
“If it is something that—truly—makes no sense,” Aneht announced, standing in front of the girls, “then it is an answer that is outside of rationality and logic, and seemingly foolish, but which nevertheless may be inside wisdom. The answer, dear girls, is that you get from one side to the other by going into one side and out the other!”
Abruptly Aneht spun entirely around and headed with the plates toward the Sanctuary kitchen, exclaiming, “I’m going to neaten things up a bit, and we all need a little break from our oh so heady conversation, yes, yes. And you two, goodness me, need time and the facilities to freshen up some, wash, comb hair, and get as clean as these plates I’m going to wash. And if the body needs refreshing, so the mind as well. For a while girls, no more rationality and logic and sense and nonsense or an opposite side, with no side perpendicular to the side in space to get you as a passage to the other side,” and at this juncture Aneht and the girls laughed as Aneht placed the dishes in a sink while directing the girls to enter through a curtained doorway. On the other side the girls discovered to their almost euphoric delight a large grub bathroom, with nothing grubby about it. From the shelves Elli and Beatríz took soap, slipped off their clothes, and stepped into a domed shower that was large enough for eight girls—or one ground grub! They found the soap for both body and hair to be aromatic and soothing as well as effective, and finished their cleaning with body lotion from earthen flasks that was tingling and renewing, smelling like the taste of fresh peaches. When they stepped from the shower they discovered their clothes, newly cleaned and mended!
Aneht was waiting for them, complimenting them on how transformed they’d become. “And now, as I was saying,” she said, while leading them back to the outside porch and their seats, “you get from one side to the other by going into one side and out the other! Now,” Aneht continued, folding her hands together over her substantial but firm abdomen, “how long would it take to get to one side through the other?” There was a long pause as the girls settled once more into their patio chairs.
“Well,