He had planned a transcription of the Enigmatic Man's venerable answers to the Interrogator when the clouds again turned to darkness. A darkness in silence. With haste Alfredo sent him a message about Amalia de la Vega that did him much good and rained solitude pleasantly upon his forehead. But not to worry, there will be not one reference to Morency's paroles nor Sara's horse nor you-know-whose yellow arrows of regrets.

Finning madly through a querulous pantheon of names, a legion of beloved shadows arose, their dormition's one obligation was for him to observe a variform silence for days. This silence, self-explanatory, rising above everyone, agreed to its own end by burning acacia for the year 2010 in hopes of deterring the looming demons dancing a hora for 2011.

Now he's no option but to segue into homage to his intimate friend and guide Guido with a new (sempre forte and passionate) reading of Aldana's epistolary hendecasyllables.

Time he harbors below a protective parasol of solar pondering, and for the umpteenth instance he'll tell Manning and the needles of this blog (lost in hay) how he met Aldo. Like Fierro who spoke eloquently in Manning's portfolio of betrayal, every New Year he's surrounded by more shadows than realities. Present are Juan Carlos Paz and José Viñals. Present are Felisberto Hernández and Juan Carlos Onetti. And the mythical María Elena Walsh sadly now present.