Davey Dreamnation

Envoi(s)
The Way of Terror Nullius
Almonds
Eggs
Sugar
The Secret Ingredient
Method
 

Away with the join stools, remove the court cubbert, look to the plate. Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane …
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act I Scene V
Marchpane may be made after this manner. Boil and clarify by it self, so much Honey as you think meet; when it is cold; take [...]

IN THE NAME of Marzipan and of Persipan and of our Terror, Nullius!
Ahem!
O Master! Look down upon me, prostrate at your feet, imploring your Mercy both for myself and for those of my kin still living. Just as your own ascent to Glory was arranged, guarantee our safe return to Ahem, and procure for us [...]

Once upon a time heals all wounds let this story be true and let me tell it. Let the Merchant sitting at his table of content call for silence and may the other Figurines assembled there yodel their chorus of agreement or, more probably, their melodious wail-wall of drunkenness and abuse, with no cavern left [...]

The Midwife trudges down the lane, a trail worn by her mother’s line, the secret meandering path inducing in her a kind of daze, each step drawing her deeper into the spirals there, while also leading her closer to death, a Midwife’s true and only predator. The Forest rises and rides slowly above her. She [...]

The secret passage of the boat across the river causes tiny waves to lap at L– like a dog at a bowl of ink or a mapmaker at the dried cream surface of a chart. The boat is long and slender like an Almond in the water. The face of the man at the rudder [...]

Nullius! Yes, you too are just another object of conversation, here in the dim-lit house that contains our stories, as bricks or cornerstones dictate to a church. Feel the solid wood of the Merchant’s table of content, at which over the years a grim assortment of sailors, unemployed riggers, prostitutes, Cuckoos and Fictioneers has dined. [...]

Lady d’Almonde’s ruminations, interrupted by the sound of the wind changing direction, start up once again. The windowpanes bang flat against the opposite side of their frames. The fire has burnt down so far it now collapses on itself, ashes trickling through the grate, leaving a few blackened knots of burning ember. She watches calmly [...]

A small chamber fitted with several wooden chairs, the waiting room is in fact a front for the Harem of Confections, which the servant girl has never entered. Nor has she any need to do so; the bleached white expressions on the faces of her lady’s guests as they depart speak entire Novels to her. [...]

The Midwife’s got her eye on me, there’s a fact — she’s watching me through the cream-coloured curtain of snow shrouding the branch, has been for the past few hours, mumbling words all the while over that empty box down there in the lane. I return her gaze in my measured way: it’s me she’s [...]

Maybe I never did set foot on the ground before the day he caught me, my life consisting of swinging or jumping from branches, eating and listening to the Stories that sprang up out of the ground, choked with loud vines. When the Boy Catcher came up the River in his boat, in order to [...]

This one’s a secret, between us three. You, me and Buddha - our secret machine. A dim machine with four long limbs, two hearts and one desire. Explodes upon impact with water or fire. A new machine in time, its discernable hum. The clock that will not lock, an horizon’s tilt. A pink smoke machine, [...]

Ave mixes my pink meat into the broth using a wooden spoon, muttering some words to herself. The spoon swims gracefully through the steaming soup, its whorls refusing to touch the pot’s greasy rim, weaving its magic spirals, demonstrating dance steps. The swollen air shapes my essence into steam, infusing the scented vapours of the [...]