SLPAD - 127 - “Low-Lands” - 38

[Michael Bailey]

What does he know?


“She looks like a child, Flange thought. And the rat like her own child.
And then: I wonder why Cindy and I never had a child. And: a child makes it
all right. Let the world shrink to a boccie ball.

 So of course he knew.

“Sure,” he said. “All right. I’ll stay.” For a while, at least, he thought.
She looked up gravely. Whitecaps danced across her eyes; sea creatures, he
knew, would be cruising about in the submarine green of her heart.”


So of course he knew?

What exactly did he know?

He knew he would stay?

His motivation is questionable, his thinking is murky, his actions are by
most standards irresponsible, so his knowledge - outwardly - wouldn’t seem
to count for much.

But the heart has its reasons, of which the mind knows nothing, so it’s
said.

His sense of a shrinking world, previously painstakingly detailed, is
completely obviated -
replaced by the ocean the sight of her evokes,

 and this transfiguration of course fulfills his most errant & compelling
desire: a love for the sea, which has plagued/enticed him throughout his
ineffective and infuriating sessions with Geronimo, who keeps
misinterpreting it - and made it impossible for him to settle into a
comfortable rhythm with Cindy, whose apparently landlocked sensibilities
clash with it.

Love finding its way across a disparity in height is not unheard of:

https://people.com/tv/amy-roloff-never-thought-average-size-man-would-be-interested-in-her/


The “gypsies in the dump” is not as easy to find a literal example for, but
objective correlatives certainly exist, ranging from anyone living “outside
the mainstream” to “back to the land” notions, or any of a gamut of
alternatives which people driven by a Flange-like discontent notably
discovered and rediscovered - especially in the decade following the
initial publication of “Low-Lands” - but also continue to explore.