Believing

I track believing and not believing through the short to discover A truth.

pg. 1: The narrator says about Harriet's story of her mother being taken away to an alien planet: "at least that's what we she wanted to believe".  The narrator believes the story of Harriet's mom that her own mother tells her before she divulges that Harriet told her what she, herself, believes in the last panel of page 1.  It is interesting that the father "disappears" into a black box (doorway) in the illustration of that frame, showing how Harriet really lost both her parents into a "vacuum" - one of actual space (mom) and one of disengagement (dad).

pg. 2: "I learnt more from Harriet than whatever science lessons I got at primary school."  The narrator has invested her believing in Harriet's knowledge even though that knowledge may be confusing or inarticulate (as depicted by Harriet's "noise" thought bubble in panel 2).

As Harriet pursues proof of extraterrestrial life, the narrator's increasing interest in science and a transforming read of "The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan, the narrator's "belief structure vanished": "I Learnt what it takes for ideas to be verified, and I became happy to not believe." I paused here for a long while and wondered if this could also mean "believe in nothing" - and that believing and not believing really mean the same thing. 

Back to the elephant in the piece (mom's disappearance by extraterrestrial abduction OR running away) and I think the narrator can't quite believe the former and doesn't want to believe the latter for the obvious reason that no child or teenager would.

pg. 3: Mysterious Harriet wanders to the outskirts and people speculate and a boy claims to have followed her and watched her.  Harriet shares her photographic proof of extraterrestrial life with the narrator, who laughs at her, THEN Harriet disappears. No one knows what happened but the opening panels on page 4 describing the search for her belies what everyone believes - she was abducted by a stranger.

pg.4:The narrator states the truths she believes: Harriet was a defenseless sixteen year old; Harriet went into the countryside alone at night; there's no evidence of extraterrestrials.  And then the narrator says, "Still; sometimes I lie awake at night, trying to believe." One read implies that she wants to believe that Harriet was abducted by extraterrestrials.  Another read (since believing and not believing can mean the same) leads me to the narrator lies awake trying to NOT believe that Harriet fell to the probable fate of human-stranger abduction.

But what I actually believe the narrator is telling us in the last panel, through the art and not the words, is that she wants to believe that Harriet escaped it all and fled of her own accord.  She is carrying a satchel, she has a determined expression set on her mouth and her fist is clenched in resolve.  It's the only image of Harriet where her hair is in her face--she usually has a clear view (focus) on a task or thought--but here, her hair tousled in the night, reads as a women hitting the road.  I choose to believe that Harriet escaped, got her degree from MIT and works at NASA. She is going to be so surprised if she ever stumbles across this short that features her!

Darin