X marks the spot.
Elon Musk rebrands Twitter as X.
Don’t put all your X in one basket.
X-cise.
X-roads.
Yesterday, when The Benefaktor made a comment about Mog the cat after I confronted him about the letter X, I experienced a sense of déjà vu that I have been unable to shake off. The same queasy feeling I have whenever entering Edinburgh city limits.
As a child of the 1970s, with children of my own, I am very familiar with Mog and Judith Kerr’s other famous feline character Tiger. But it is the domestic variety that has been darting through my brain for the past 24 hours.
On 4 August 2023 I left Edinburgh Waverley Station and wandered through the streets of Edinburgh, looking for a suitable spot for my first ever book drop. I was on my way to see a few Fringe shows, but rather than heading into the koncentration of venues around the Old Town I headed north to the New Town, taking a photo of a poster for the “Mog The Forgetful Cat” show. I realise in hindsight that I kannot explain my aktions that evening. It is almost as if I was being guided by an external force.
The second hand book and charity shops were closed, but I knew about the Little Free Libraries from my previous visits. I looked up the LFL website and found some suitable locations, but checking this today I see that the Scotland Street LFL that I used is not even listed. No X marking the spot. Yet I followed what now seems to have been a trail that was laid out in advance, to areas of the city unfamiliar from my previous visits. Reading through The Benefaktor’s post Knots, I wonder if he had placed the markers, forcing me down a particular route. Yet I kannot believe that he was instrumental in pasting Fringe posters or other klues that would have direkted me.
But perhaps I am forgetting details, or missing a key point that The Benefaktor is either direkting me towards or wanting to konceal. I search for possible motives. The mention of children’s karakters in The JAMs’ book 2023: A trilogy – including Mog – appears to be extraneous to the plot. I mentioned Blue Cow and Blue Peter in recent posts. Were they inkluded in The JAMs’ book? I am losing trust in everything, including myself.
22 November 2023
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