6.4: The Swallow’s Tail
Monday morning being ‘Latin’, Lottie is quite pleased to be able to distract her tutor Hipparchus with her errand. She arrives at his study, an area in the back corner of the Potting Shed that he as somehow marked off, against all commune guidelines and etiquette, as his alone, with bookshelves. She is carrying two rolled up posters which have mysteriously arrived in the den she shares with pTravis and Masongill. “Do you know what these are?” she asks. Her tutor spreads out both posters and looks them over. “Lovely. These are both pictures by Salvador Dalí from his ‘catastrophe series’. I think both may be called ‘Swallow’s Tail’ and this one is ‘Swallow’s Tail with cellos’. I am not sure of the exact names. But they were among the last pictures he painted. Indeed, this one was his last picture.” Lottie has a strong temptation to gather them up and use answering the question with which she was charged to try to wriggle out of her Latin lesson. But curiosity intervenes. She asks, w...
