he did have something to say though it never could be heard living as he was in a world of creatures without ears it was sublime, his thought but alien to the business of emmets and required age, too great a maturity for the world he lived in but the thing was only a fragment it needed the kind of elaboration that cannot be made alone because reality is shared the thought perched on his lips for the lack of grounds to land on his mouth betraying its pertinence with only an enigmatic smile that the colonies surrounding him interpreted in their myriad, desultory ways or took no notice of, going about their business until their numbers faded still the thought lingered in his mind whilst he watched generation after generation of short-lived creatures pass from the realm until finally he stood alone in the world with his unshared thought, and that smile [5-III-25]