Oology

And then, the next time I saw her, she said it had all actually started with a letter from a certain Mssr. Parzudaki, in which he explained that he'd already written Mr. La Motte several times, who was however away on a hunting expedition with some friends, and for that reason he, Parzudaki, would only first be able to ask him about the eggs of the so-called Alca impennis upon his return voyage, which would usually bring him through Paris.

On the edge of this letter, the margin note: When my father returns from the country he will send you the egg of Cuculus glandarius.

For example, she continued, the so-called Scarborough Egg, which had been photographed under a blacklight, whereupon it was discovered that the words "A Penguin's Egg" had once been handwritten on its shell. Never mind that this was likewise an egg from the aforementioned Alca impennis, which is indeed said to have walked upright like a penguin or a human, but which has long only existed in old tales, ever since 1844, when - legend has it-the last two specimens were collected from a palagonite boulder in the Atlantic.

She claimed to have seen entire riverscapes on these eggs, imposing cascades that overran their surface, as if she had a satellite image before her, as if she were looking down at these things from a great distance above, at these non-self-luminescent objects.

Along the water's shore, she said, some animals were walking and grazing, something was moving across the broad, white surface, which reminded her of a vast salt pan, of the great basins of prehistoric oceans, what it was that transversed these almost lunar plains, she didn't know, maybe a Jeep, a wagon, or a lone, unidentified creature that she had never seen before. (...)

Dorothee Elmiger, 2021