In Amazed, one of the concluding episodes of The Mural Gazer, Harry, helped by Buddy, navigates his way to the centre of the Labyrinth in Waterwheel Park. The journey upsets and exhausts him, leaves him feeling confused and guilty about the world he’s leaving behind…
“I haven’t left you much to work with, have I?” Harry said, slumped in his walker at the very centre of the maze.
“Don’t say that!”
“Why not? It’s true, ain’t it?”
“I might have said so myself, if I hadn’t got to know you, if we hadn’t shared your stories.”
The old man sighed, so long and deep, Bud thought the expiration of breath would never end, that his old friend might collapse slowly, then and there, like the fabric of a tent with the poles unhooked.
“This-here maze, you know what it makes me think.” Harry glanced up, caught Buddy’s eye, and locked on for a moment. “Makes me think it’s a lot easier getting into a mess than it is getting out. Everything draws you in toward the centre, and there’s no turning back, once you’re there, cuz your past, it’s gone the second you stick your toe into the future… does that make any sense?”
Bud didn’t have an answer. But when Harry’s head sank toward his chest, and the old man seemed to be drifting-off, he panicked. Something needed saying, the old man needed a voice calling him back.
“The things you’ve told me, they’re an inspiration!” he shouted. “I couldn’t believe them at first. It’s like you were talking about some foreign land, where people needed qualities we’ve forgot: resilience, resourcefulness, courage, gumption… how-to-ness!”
Harry chuckled into his beard. “We had plenty of that, I’d say,” he mumbled.
“Everything’s done for us nowadays. We’ve got things to do things, and more things that make it easier to buy the things that do things for us. We’re overwhelmed with stuff. If only we could remember what it’s like to be self-reliant… reliant on each other… Sure, it’s like you say, we can’t go back Harry, but maybe we can plug a little bit of spirit from the past into our present?”
“Harrumph!” Harry’s head bobbed, then settled again into the pose of a crestfallen bird about to topple off its branch. “This time, where I’m going kid, you won’t want to follow,” he muttered.
Alarmed, Bud released the brakes and wheeled Harry’s stroller off the maze, onto the path out of Waterwheel Park. Your mobile, idiot! Call for help! He ignored the commandments of common sense, rattling on down the hill, across Alder Street and down Maple Lane toward Harry’s home, toward Bernice.