Threads of Infinity

Every traveller tied a thread to the rhinoceros before entering the maze. ‘Bring me back,’ each said, and the woman on his back guarded the enormous bundle. Soon the knots were heavier than the travellers themselves. The rhinoceros could not turn without dragging someone’s fear, promise or unfinished goodbye.

At the centre of the maze he collapsed. The woman searched the bundle and found one black thread tied around her own wrist. It was labelled: IF YOU LET GO, THEY WILL LEAVE. She cut it first.

The other knots loosened, not because love vanished, but because it could breathe. Travellers began carrying their own ends. The rhinoceros rose. They left the maze connected by choice, no longer tethered by panic.