'I am always present,' said the owl.
'How is that?' asked the rabbit.'It is because I am always absent,' explained the owl.
'I seem to remember you saying that you were only present when you were absent,' remarked the rabbit quizzically.'That also is so,' replied the owl with suavity, 'my relative absence is my absolute presence, and my relative presence is my absolute absence.'
'Somewhat confusing,' commented the rabbit; 'I experience no such transformations.''Nothing is transformed,' the owl responded severely; 'absolutely I am always present, relatively my apparent presence is my apparent absence as I.'
'Can't you decide which you prefer?' asked the rabbit, edging towards her burrow.'Preferences are relative and illusory,' snapped the owl; 'absolutely there is nothing to be either present or absent.'
'Then what are you?' asked the rabbit, preparing to dive.'Presence as such,' hooted the owl, raising his great wings. 'Absence as such; eternally neither present nor absent.'
'Why is that?' asked the rabbit, over her shoulder.'There is absolutely no "where" for any "thing" to be, nor any "thing" to be any "where",' cried the owl, flapping his wings ecstatically.
'And you?' queried the rabbit, peeping out of her hole.'From eternity to eternity I alone AM as I. Tooo-whaaat, tooo-wheere, tooo-whooo,' hooted the owl as he rose majestically, volplaning spirally in the empyrean.
'He is off!' commented the squirrel, from behind a tree.
'Relatively,' added the rabbit, peeping out of her burrow, 'but, Absolutely, UP.''Absolutely, daft!' concluded the squirrel, circling his tree and leaping from a bough to the tree beyond.
