The Gutter

You get down on one knee at the table until the gutter of the book is level with your eyes. From here you can see what the creatures stand on.

Under each body there are two pairs of card strips, one pair behind the other. Each strip is creased near the foot into a flap, and the flap is glued flat to the page. The tops of the strips meet over the gutter along one ridge, and the body is carried on the ridge. On the firefly the strips are black, because its page is dark. On the others they are the cream of the page they stand on. The beetle, the leaf insect, the mantis and the firefly have a brass fastener at every hip and knee.

Cut from the same sheet as the page, the man with the brush says, without turning. In damp air they swell together, and nothing tears.

You do not touch the ridge. Under the far corner of the book a flat sheet sticks out, heavier than a page, with a rectangle pressed into it.