Interlude II

Confused yet? Don't worry, we'll get there. This is a real story, and those are tricky to understand. Real stories are twisty and clever, darting out of sight behind pillars and slipping out of reach. They thrust you into the action and then pull you back out again just as quickly.

Real stories, my friend, are almost as complicated as real life. All the little threads, the backgrounds and bridges and connections, the motives and lies. No real story can be unfolded, one layer preceding the next preceding the next. You have to work for it, starting in the middle of the string and finding both ends, or finding where they connect to others and slowly, ever so slowly, making sense of the whole picture. In real stories, nothing is an ornament. No detail is too small, no character too insignificant.

Pay attention - I won't say this more than once.