273. The Borges Hat

Stitched inside the Borges Hat is a series of runes which one Dimitri Ornelas has translated in a limited edition monograph, with notes, in Mainz. Soon thereafter the Borges Hat disappears for 47 years, reappearing on the head of a British spy in Buenos Aires. It is at this point that dimensions of time wrinkle and suddenly you, Mademoiselle Rameau, take position of the hat. You wear it at a party on a yacht in Copenhagen. Late in the evening, your husband Josef, who insisted on wearing a red cumberbund that evening, tries to murder you. He is unsuccessful and arrested. In the disruption of the moment, the Borges Hat fell off your head. Someone picks it up and offers it to you. He is a wizened but fit man who looks like a retired stevedore. He asks if you are all right. Yes, thank you, you say. He says, "This isn't the first time the Borges Hat has provided important protection."