The World Behind the Door Read Online Free PDF

like people."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "I am losing my mind," he said. "For a few minutes there everything seemed to make sense, but clearly I have gone over the edge."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "The edge of what?" she asked curiously.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Of sanity."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "I think I had better take you home, Salvador, before you convince yourself that you've gone mad." She reached out and took him by the hand. "Come this way."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  She walked ten paces to the left, then ten to the right. Then she led him in a large circle.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "But we're right back where we started," said Dali, puzzled.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Do you really think so?" asked Jinx.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "It's obvious," said Dali.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Then why are you standing next to the door at the back of your closet?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  He turned and was astonished to find the door, standing all by itself, about ten feet from the birch tree. He reached out tentatively, half-expecting it to be an illusion, and his hand made contact with the knob.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "It's a door!" he whispered in awe.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Of course it is," said Jinx. "I told you I'd take you back to your home."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  He opened it, stepped through, and found himself standing in his closet. "Come along," he said to Jinx, waiting for her to join him before closing the door.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "This is a very strange place," said Jinx.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "In what way?" asked Dali.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "The rooms are square, the walls are straight, and all the rooms have ceilings," said Jinx, frowning in puzzlement. "It's like a very weird dream."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "It is?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Absolutely," she said. "I'll bet your chair doesn't even talk to you."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "No, it doesn't."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "And the rug—why is it so big?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "To cover the floor," said Dali.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Is the floor that ugly?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "No."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Then why don't you have a little rug, maybe the size of a pillow?" she asked. "You could just order it to keep moving under your feet whenever you walked, so you wouldn't have to walk on the wood floor unless you wanted to."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  Dali had been listening intently. Finally he smiled.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Can I get you something to eat or drink?" he asked solicitously. "I have a feeling we've got a lot to talk about."
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    Chapter 5: When the Ludicrous Isn't
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    Â Â Â Â Â Â  Dali prepared tea for Jinx and poured himself a glass of wine from two different bottles, one red, one white.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Why do you drink that?" she asked, indicating his miscolored wine, when he rejoined her in the studio. "It can't taste very good."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "I drink it because no one else does."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "But maybe there is a reason why no one else does," she persisted.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Reason and consistency are the twin hobgoblins of little minds," he replied disdainfully. "I do not smoke my cigarettes through a twelve-inch holder because it makes them taste better, or because it is easy to manipulate. I do it because it adds to all the things that make me Dali." He paused. "I do many such things. Once when I saw the carcass of a bat in the park, I ran over, picked it up, and took a bite, just to see what it tasted like."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "How could that possibly help you as a painter?"
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "I must experience things than no one else experiences if I am to paint things no one else paints."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "It sounds good," she admitted. "But I really don't see the connection."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "You are very young."
    Â Â Â Â Â Â  "Will a dead, rotting