Ball of Suet: Selected Short Stories by Maupassant

Chapter 21 Orla (3)
That's the whole story of the whole thing.This experiment left me at a loss as to what to do, so that when I came back, I couldn't even eat.

July 7th—There are many people who know this matter now. I told them, but the response they gave me was ridicule.What should I be thinking?I can't even figure it out myself. "Perhaps?" said the philosopher.

July 7st—Today I intend to dine at Bougival first, and then I will spend the whole evening at the Gondolier's Ball.Location and context are obvious determining factors.On an island in the Gorénouilles amusement park, only a madman would think that he could find something supernatural around him... What if the location were moved to the top of Mont Saint-Michel? ...what if the location was shifted to India?Everything around us is acting on our bodies, and the consequences of this are nothing short of terrifying.I'm going home next week.

July 7th—Yesterday, I got home.There were no surprises.

August 8nd - Nothing unusual happened.Today is a sunny day, and from morning to night, I have been looking at the Seine River flowing in front of my house.

August 8th—The servants say that someone broke the glass in the cupboard during the night, and they quarreled over it.My valet said it was done by the cook, who said it was done by the washermaid, who said it was done by the valet and the cook.Who is the culprit?Does anyone know the answer!
August 8th - This time, I'm really not crazy.I saw it... I saw it... I really saw it!No doubt... I did see it! ... My whole body is completely cold, even my fingernails are cold, and it is still the same until now... I am trembling all over, this trembling has penetrated into my bones... I really saw it! ...

It's two o'clock in the afternoon, and I'm strolling the paths in my family's rose garden, soaking up the afternoon sun...it's autumn and the roses are in full bloom.

A rose plant had three beautiful large flowers, so I stopped by to watch them.Suddenly, the stem of a rose next to me seemed to be bent by an invisible hand, and then it seemed that the hand had plucked the rose because it was completely detached from its own stem.Next, the rose began to rise upwards, and the route was arc-shaped.Then, it came to rest in the transparent air, suspended there out of thin air, as if lifted to the lips by that hand.I watched the scene, seeing it so clearly, that the rose became a hideous red spot, which remained three paces from my eyes.

I was terrified, and I wanted to catch it with all my heart, so I jumped towards it!It's a pity that all I caught was air, and the rose was gone.No sane person should have such hallucinations, and I did, and I was very angry with myself for it.

But is that really just an illusion?I turned back, and at once I saw the rose, unharmed, on its stem, squeezed between the other two roses.However, it had already been picked a moment ago.

On the way home, the panic in my heart still did not subside.There is an invisible man with me, and I am now sure of that, just as I have no doubt that night will come when the day is over.This invisible man has the performance of matter, because it can drink water and milk, it can touch objects, and can change the objects themselves and their positions.It lives with me in my home, but I cannot perceive it with my human senses...

August 8th - My sleep quality is good.It didn't bother me while I was sleeping, it just drank the water from the carafe.

Have I lost my mind?That's what I'm thinking about.Not long ago, I was walking along the banks of the river, enjoying the sunshine.All of a sudden, I began to question my sanity, a question that was utterly definite and specific, not superficial like the previous ones.I haven't seen a madman.Some lunatics are not only crazy in one aspect, but in other aspects, whether it is work or life, they are very sober and rational.They are able to discuss a wide variety of topics, and their views are clear, thoughtful, and flexible.However, as soon as they hit that hidden reef, the source of their madness, their spirits would be broken immediately, scattered into countless pieces, and swallowed by the rough sea. It whizzed past, rolling up huge waves that soared into the sky, surrounded by a thick fog.This is what people call "mental illness".

In my own case, I now have complete control.I can even analyze it very rationally and explore its essence.If it wasn't for this, I would really think I'd gone crazy.I can be a delusional person and get dominated by my own delusions at times, that's all.There may be some inexplicable confusion happening in my head, and my logical thinking is severely cracked.Physiologists today are working hard to unravel this confusion.When we dream, all the devices of our minds have stopped working, only the imagination keeps going.Therefore, we are never surprised by seeing all kinds of fantastic visions in our dreams.This confusion in my head is very similar to the principle of dreaming.Is a button in my brain dead, and that button is of the hard-to-find kind?After experiencing a sudden accident, some people will have selective amnesia. What they lose may be the memory of proper nouns, it may be the memory of verbs or numbers, and it may be the memory of dates.Scientific research has now proved that various parts of the brain are in charge of different thinking abilities of human beings.In this way, it is not surprising that I now temporarily lose the ability to distinguish whether some phenomena are hallucinations!

While thinking about this, I walked on the river bank.The river glistened in the sun, the air was fragrant, and everything in front of us was so beautiful.Love is a swift swallow that makes me happy, love is green grass that grows on the river bank, making a moving light sound, love fills my eyes, and I love my own life.

But again, I fell into anxiety, slowly and inexplicably.My senses are gradually paralyzed, I can't move on, I can only stay in the same place, I can only turn around, go back the same way, some kind of unfathomable force seems to be the culprit of all this.When you're away from home and feel a sense of foreboding—that your loved one's condition is suddenly taking a turn for the worse at home, you're eager to get home.At the time, I had exactly the same feeling, which was extremely painful.

I felt that when I got home I was bound to receive some bad news, perhaps a letter or a telegram.In such a situation, I could only brace myself and struggle to walk home.However, there was nothing unusual in the family.I was amazed but also deeply terrified, even if I witnessed that weird phantom again at this time, it would not make me so terrified.

August 8th—I had a tormenting night.Last night, I could feel it beside me, it was secretly watching my every move, ready to climb on top of me at any moment and turn my body into its puppet.However, it has never appeared, and it has been hiding in a certain place and refuses to come out. This only makes me feel more scared. I would rather it create some supernatural phenomena in order to prove its existence.

I finally fell asleep.

August 8th - I feel terrified even though nothing happened today.

August 8 - Still nothing happened today, but tomorrow?
August 8th——Nothing happened today. I want to go out. I can’t stay at home anymore. My heart is full of fear and all kinds of thoughts.

August 8th, at ten o'clock in the evening—I have not set off yet, though I have been preparing to do so from morning to night today.I just want to get out of here and go to Rouen by car, and it's such a simple action that I can't even do it.What is wrong with me?
August 8th—Once certain diseases invade the human body, the human body will lose all its elasticity and vitality, every muscle and bone will relax and soften, the bones are as soft as muscles, and the muscles are as soft as water Same.I'm annoyed because I feel like I've gotten into this state.My energy and courage were gone, and I had no way of moving on my own terms, let alone gaining total control over my body.My ideas have all disappeared, and I will unconditionally obey the ideas of others.

August 8th——I am completely hopeless!My soul has been completely possessed and controlled by someone!No matter what I do or think, I must obey this man's orders.With my own strength alone, I can't do anything.Right now, I am just a puppet trembling with fear, watching my body make various movements.I want to leave here, but my soul won't let me, so I can't go anywhere.The soul told me to sit in an easy chair, and I just sat there terrified, befuddled, not knowing what to do.In order to convince my body that I am its master, I wanted to pull my body up from the chair, but I couldn't do it no matter what!I and the chair, the chair and the ground, are already connected as one, unable to move an inch, no matter what force is driven by it, this situation will not change in any way.

All of a sudden, I had to, had to, had to go out into the garden and pick strawberries and eat them.I literally went out there and picked strawberries and ate them.what!Oh, God!Oh, God!Oh, God!Does God really exist?If you really exist, please redeem me!Please redeem me!Forgive my sins!Give me some sympathy!Please redeem me.what!What a pain!It's too painful!horrible!

August 8th—The poor cousin was obviously as lost and helpless as I am now, so she came to ask me to borrow five thousand francs.Another person's will existed in her body, just as another soul attached to her, making her completely subject to it.Could it be that the end of the world is coming?

But, who is this invisible man who turned me into a puppet?This elusive fellow who spies on me is obviously not of my kind, but who is it?
Thinking about it this way, there are indeed invisible people in the universe.Now that they have made themselves available to me in this way, why has there never been any clear evidence of their existence before?I can find no resemblance in any book of the events that took place in my home.what!Now if I want to redeem myself, I should leave this home, run to a far away place, and never set foot here. Unfortunately, I can't do this at all.

August 8th——Today, like a prisoner who suddenly finds that the prison door is unlocked, I fled the house in a hurry.I fled for two full hours, leaving the invisible man far behind, and I felt free at last.I am fleeing to Rouen, and I order the coachman to get the carriage ready. "Go to Rouen!" It was a joyous order to give to a man who obeyed his orders.

Walking in front of the library, I asked the coachman to stop the car temporarily.I went to the library to borrow a book by Herman Herstaus, which deals with all the creatures that have existed in the human world from ancient times to the present but are unknown to humans.

I got into the carriage and yelled: "Go home." My voice was so loud that it was no longer a word, but a cry.When the people around heard the sound, they all turned their heads and looked at me. I collapsed on the chair of the carriage, feeling flustered.In fact, what I really wanted to say was "Go to the station!" I was approached by it again, and it was firmly in my hands.

August 8th—ah!How the night was spent!How did it go!In fact, happiness seems to be the emotion I should have.Before one o'clock in the morning, I have been reading a book.Doctor of Philosophy and Theogony, Herman Herstaus wrote this book about all the invisible beings that are real around people or only exist in people's illusions, the book states It explains the historical origin, scope, presentation and powerful power of these invisible creatures.Except, the invisible man who bothers me so much is different from all of them.Human beings seem to have always had an ominous premonition that a brand-new species more powerful than human beings will appear on the earth and replace human beings in their current position.After human beings learned to think, this idea seems to have been lingering in the human mind.Although human beings can't imagine what this new species will look like, human beings seem to be under the threat of this new species that will appear all the time.As a result, human beings fell into panic, and used their imagination to create many mysterious new species. They are ghosts with unclear images, and fear is the breeding ground for their birth.

At one o'clock in the morning, I put down the book in my hands, went to sit by the open window.It was dark outside the window and there was no sound. I wanted to refresh my mind and clear my mind under the breeze.

It was a clear night and the temperature was perfect.Nights like this are my old favorites.

There is no moon in the black sky, only the twinkling stars hanging high above.What kind of creatures live on those planets?What did those planets look like, and what did the people, animals, and plants that lived on them look like?Do thinking beings who inhabit distant planets possess more knowledge than humans?Are they more capable than humans?What can humans not see, can they see?At the beginning, the Normans traveled across the ocean and came to foreign lands, and turned the alien people who were weaker than themselves into their slaves. Similarly, one of these alien creatures will one day pass through the barriers in the universe and come to the world. The earth, let human beings surrender under its feet.Man is so feeble, ill-informed, and insignificant, and the earth he inhabits is nothing but a spinning ball of earth and water.

The wind at night is so cool, I am thinking about it under the blowing of the cool wind, and I don't know when I have fallen asleep.

About four or ten minutes later, I woke up suddenly, because I suddenly had an unimaginable and vague feeling.My eyes are open, but my body doesn't move.At first, I didn't see anything unusual.At this time, the wind outside the window did not blow in, but suddenly, I saw that the book on the table that I had laid out there turned a page by itself without any external force.I watched this scene and couldn't help being surprised.After waiting for about 10 minutes, another page turned in front of my eyes, as if a hand was helping it to turn it, so that it fell on the previous page.This is what I have witnessed, and it is absolutely true.I know that someone is sitting in the armchair that belongs to me, reading a book, even though the armchair looks empty, as if it is empty.I was so furious that I jumped up and ran across the room, I was going to grab this guy, grab him like hell, and kill him!At that time, I looked like a beast. I could no longer stand the torture of my master, so I could only stand up and fight back, and rushed towards the master! ... At this moment, the armchair was overturned to the ground, the man seemed to have escaped, but I hadn't run there yet ... I saw the table shaking, and then the lamp fell to the ground and went out, and the window was closed immediately, The scene in front of me was like a robber who was in a panic, grabbed the two open windows, and jumped into the dense night outside the window.

In this way, it ran away because it was afraid of me, and it would actually fear me!
From this point of view... from this point of view...tomorrow...maybe later...One day, it will be firmly pressed to the ground by me, with nowhere to escape!Aren't some dog owners also killed by their own dogs?

August 8th—I have been thinking about it today. It is it that is in a strong position now. I will obey it and act cowardly. No matter what it tells me, I will obey it unconditionally.However, once the opportunity comes...

(End of this chapter)