The Plate
The sheet is an engraving of a beetle on a leaf, in color, and the beetle has been cut out.
The hole is clean at the edges. It has the shape of the two wing covers, shut, and of the head, and of the shield behind the head. A hand's width below it, on the same leaf, the beetle's grub lies curled, fat and pale. Its back is banded, and a narrow piece has been taken out of the bands.
You lay the sheet on the table with both hands. The leaf on it is the leaf printed faintly on the page behind the beetle.
A second sheet lies under the plate, with a deckled edge.
- Lift the plate and read the sheet under it. Found in the seam “A thumbprint in a color you have never seen on a thumb.” this page is not cut yet; the path bends to Shut
- Slide the plate back under the book and close it.
The book · Colophon and credits
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