A bandons …

»We don't talk about Bruno, no, no, no…«

»Who is Bruno?«

»Ahm, I wanted to say, we don't talk about Claude, ode, ode, ode…«

»Claude who?«

»This professor dude, Claude de Bussy.«

»Burnside.«

»Sideburns!«

»I don't like sideburns.«

»But he said something about treasure and a City of Gold.«

Professor Sideburns is not listening to all this chitchat. His focus is on reading letters and words on the back of the green treasure map.

And while llama, Kylie and Nigel are singing and dancing a flamenco kind of dance to a tone only they can hear - No, No, No - I keep looking over the archaeology professor's shoulder.

»What are those signs?« I ask. »Can you read them?«

Professor Sideburns is rubbing and cleaning his round glasses with the sleeve of his white shirt.

»It's been a long time since I saw some of those«, he whispers more to himself. »And I am not sure if I ever saw some as old as these. They are like an archaic and long forgotten accent.«

He wipes his forehead from imaginary sweat putting his glasses back on his nose.

»We don't talk about Bruno, no,no, no…«

»Does not work with Claude, ode, ode, ode…«

»Not half as good.«

»Professor?« I ask softly.

»Maybe it's best translated like this, I think.«

And he reads the words,

»Bored of the life in the City of Gold
He'd left and let nobody know.
Gone were the towers he had known from a child,
Alone with the dream of a life
He travelled the wide open road,
The blinkered arcade,
In search of another to share in his life.
Nowhere.
Everyone looked so strange to him.«

🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔🕔

Today is Friday, the 17th of June 2022.

Bruno in the City of Gold.