Alphabetarion # Message | Patricia Highsmith, 1960

“He ran into a tree, hurting his shoulder and the right side of his head. It was vaguely familiar
to him, the action of running into a tree. Where? When? He went slowly back to the tree and
put his hand on its rough, immovable trunk, confident that the tree would tell him an important
piece of wisdom, or a secret. He felt it, but he could not find words for it: it had something to do
with identity. The tree knew who he was really, and he had been destined to bump into it. The tree had a further message. It told him to be calm and quiet and to stay with Annabelle. ‘But you don’t know how difficult it is to be quiet,’ David said. ‘It’s very easy for you—’.”

Patricia Highsmith, This Sweet Sickness, 1960