Synopsis OVER THE BORDER or THE ADVENTURES OF FOOTFRUIT Footfruit, a healthy, happy man, crosses the border from the wilderness. He is approached by an official, who seems to have risen out of the dust at his feet. Far from interrogating Footfruit, the official becomes more and more fascinated by this happy creature and his answers. But he determines all the same to get him into the same mould as everybody else. Because they don't like people being different. News spreads about him and more officials arrive. They are all agreed that they must do something about him; i.e. he has the wrong things on, and his nose is wrong, yet he was whistling and humming to himself. Only Footfruit's dog is passable. They cannot understand how he can be so ignorant, and yet so happy. Why did he leave his home, they ask. He had after all enough food, drink and laughter. 'Adventure can be a voice.''A Voice?' 'Yes, in the night, my dear friends. I have been advised to leave the border, and stand upon the margin of civilization.' [Mervyn Peake]