Red Death Ball

On the beach, Gaius and Schopenhauer look for the smear spot.

It was here, says Schopenhauer. Just here, near that stone.

That's helpful, says Gaius, bending down and gazing intently.

Anything? asks Schopenhauer.

Nothing, says Gaius.

So much for science, says Schopenhauer.

........

At 'Hats on Salamanca', Beaudelaire will not look at Camus.

He is staring at Arthur

That beret doesn't suit you, says Beaudelaire.

I know, says Arthur, taking it off.

He offers Beaudelaire a whole fudge bar.

Kahlua Dream.

You monkey, says Beaudelaire. Do you still fight your friends with dead fish?

Bamboo sticks, says Arthur.

If you don't want that beret, says Unni. I'll have it.

He wants it, says Albert Camus.

Beaudelaire glares at his comrade.

..........

In the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Centre private salt water aquarium, Captain Louttit sheds the last bits of his shell.

Aah, that feels better. He flexes his soft parts. Ooh, ooh, ooh, aah.

He looks around at the bare walls of the laboratory.

No wait, they are not bare at all.

Near the door is a cork board pinned with notices and posters.

One is a red and black poster for MOFO.

Dark MOFO: The Red Death Ball. It's on this weekend.

Captain Louttit, lover of  Poe and his spine-chilling stories, makes a resolution to go.

...........

So much for science? says Gaius. You don't mean that. We're just getting started.

Are we? says Schopenhauer. I thought this was the end point.

An end point in science, says Gaius, is never an end point.

Then why is it called an end point? asks Schopenhauer (quite reasonably).

It was you who called it an end point, says Gaius ( just as reasonably).

True, says Schopenhauer. But may I ask, now what?

We consider why we have failed, says Gaius. In fact I have already considered it. We didn't follow the coastline.

Schopenhauer is impressed with this line of thinking which now seems so obvious.

They leave the beach, as the tide is coming in, to wash away the last traces of what it was Schopenhauer slipped on, wherever it happened to be, which was not in the place they were looking.

So much for an end point.