In The Garden (excerpt from The Sea of Lightning)

Session V: 05/13/99

(From the diary of Doctor Trieste)

I arrive in the garden fifteen minutes ahead. It is still dark and a little cold, and I am a little asleep, it is 4:30 a.m. I sit on a stone bench and wait. I scan the area for surveillance cams, but as usual, they elude me. Life begins to unfurl, a slow motion wave of excitement. Otto arrives, handled by an orderly on each side. They deposit her on the bench next to me and retire to a respectful distance. She sits silently, vacantly—I realize her body is still in the throes of medication:
“Good Morning Otto—”
“You mustn’t speak with her in that state Doctor—” one of the orderlies interjects, “she will take advantage of you—”
“Why is she under medication? How is she suppose to experience this?”
The orderlies exchange a look and make little attempt to hide their disdain for my ignorance,
“She’s aware—it’s just her body that is inert.”
I sit with her and wait sunrise. It is still dark when the birds, hidden in the trees begin an insane cacophony of twittering—there must be thousands of them. I wonder what it means to a swallow to sing when the sun comes up—is it just brute instinct—or is something germane actually being articulated—the onslaught is tremendous: upswells and cascades of twittering all of a sudden louder louder louder, space is opening up between space

I fall into a vacuum and expand
many things mere language won’t explain

My body humming
humming birds

mocking
birds

zip zip

Otto turns and smiles—
“You see doctor, there is a sky behind this sky and this is what they sing of: constellations and the tonal variations of outerspace, they are merely reducing the sky maps into a cantata. If you are privileged to watch them at sunset, you will see them maneuver and devise their flight plans, their configurations—their navigations; their quantum aspirations; their visions of hyperspace—”
I try to respond and realize Otto has not uttered a single word. She is still and vacant. The bird song subsides and the orderlies come and take her away.