21: Aftermath
Although Juggins enters the magic therapy box, it is Masongill who emerges. He will surely never again forget who he is or think himself a travelling valet in the sponge and press business. Of course, that is a good thing and what they hoped for when the members of the Potting Shed Committee bought, using their precious breakfast fund, the finest psychological therapy that IKEA supplies
But Alcock suddenly realises that Masongill has also lost Juggins’ optimism, his joie de vivre, and his happy confidence in following his sponge. Juggins’ ‘light’ has left him. Alcock is unhappy about this because Masongill is, indeed, very much sadder than Juggins was. Masongill has remembered who he is and that is not a happy mole.
Alcock suddenly thinks of a song his eccentric father Howard the platypus used to sing to him when he was a puggle. (Baby platypuses are called ‘puggles’!)
The light pours out of meThe cold light of dayPours out of meLeaving me blackAnd so healthyThe light pours out of meThe light pours out of me.
Like many songs or poems, it is not entirely obvious what this means but, it seems to suggest that while the dazzling light that shone out of the therapy box, stripping away the ‘false’ personality ‘Juggins’, has left Masongill saner and healthier, perhaps he has lost something too.
Thinking about this, Alcock suddenly realises how this story, the story of Juggins, who may or may not after all have been false, has to end.