2 <i>There is but one problem --
3 the only one in the world --
4 to restore to men a spiritual
5 content, spiritual concerns....</i>
6 <b>-- A de St. Exupery</b>
9 The customs inspector had a round smooth face which
10 registered the most benevolent of attitudes. He was
11 respectfully cordial and solicitous.
12 "Welcome," he murmured. "How do you like our sunshine?" He
13 glanced at the passport in my hand. "Beautiful morning, isn't
15 I proffered him my passport and stood the suitcase on the
16 white counter. The inspector rapidly leafed through it with his
17 long careful fingers. He was dressed in a white uniform with
18 silver buttons and silver braid on the shoulders. He laid the
19 passport aside and touched the suitcase with the tips of his
21 "Curious," he said. "The case has not yet dried. It is
22 difficult to imagine that somewhere the weather can be bad."
23 "Yes," I said with a sigh, "we are already well into the
24 autumn," and opened the suitcase.
25 The inspector smiled sympathetically and glanced at it
26 absent-mindedly. "It's impossible amid our sunshine to
27 visualize an autumn. Thank you, that will be quite all
28 right.... Rain, wet roofs, wind...
29 "And what if I have something hidden under the linen?" I
30 asked -- I don't appreciate conversations about the weather. He
32 "Just an empty formality," he said. "Tradition. A
33 conditioned reflex of all customs inspectors, if you will." He
34 handed me a sheet of heavy paper. "And here is another
35 conditioned reflex. Please read it -- it's rather unusual. And
36 sign it if you don't mind."
37 I read. It was a law concerning immigration, printed in
38 elegant type on heavy paper and in four languages. Immigration
39 was absolutely forbidden. The customs man regarded me steadily.
40 "Curious, isn't it?" he asked.
41 "In any case it's intriguing," I replied, drawing my
42 fountain pen. "Where do I sign?"
43 "Where and how you please," said the customs man. "Just
45 I signed under the Russian text over the line "I have been
46 informed on the immigration laws."
47 'Thank you," said the customs man, filing the paper away
48 in his desk, 'Now you know practically all our laws. And during
49 your entire stay -- How long will you be staying with us?"
50 I shrugged my shoulders.
51 "It's difficult to say in advance. Depends on how the work
53 "Shall we say a month?"
54 'That would be about it. Let's say a month."
55 "And during this whole month," he bent over the passport
56 making some notation, "during this entire month you won't need
57 any other laws." He handed me my passport. "I shouldn't even
58 have to mention that you can prolong your stay with us to any
59 reasonable extent. But in the meantime, let it be thirty days.
60 If you find it desirable to stay longer, visit the police
61 station on the 16th of May and pay one dollar... You have
64 "That's fine. By the way, it is not at all necessary to
65 have exclusively a dollar. We accept any currency. Rubles,
67 "I don't have cruzeiros," I said. 'I have only dollars,
68 rubles, and some English pounds. Will that suit you?"
69 "Undoubtedly. By the way, so as not to forget, would you
70 please deposit ninety dollars and seventy-two cents."
71 "With pleasure," I said, "but why?"
72 "It's customary. To guarantee the minimum needs. We have
73 never had anyone with us who did not have some needs."
74 I counted out ninety-one dollars, and without sitting
75 down, he proceeded to write out a receipt. His neck grew red
76 from the awkward position. I looked around. The white counter
77 stretched along the entire pavilion. On the other side of the
78 barrier, customs inspectors in white smiled cordially, laughed,
79 explained things in a confidential manner. On this side,
80 brightly clad tourists shuffled impatiently, snapped suitcase
81 locks, and gaped excitedly. While they waited they feverishly
82 thumbed through advertising brochures, loudly devised all kinds
83 of plans, secretly and openly anticipated happy days ahead, and
84 now thirsted to surmount the white counter as quickly as
85 possible. Sedate London clerks and their athletic-looking
86 brides, pushy Oklahoma farmers in bright shirts hanging outside
87 Bermuda shorts and sandals over bare feet, Turin workers with
88 their well-rouged wives and numerous children, small-time
89 Catholic bosses from Spain, Finnish lumbermen with their pipes
90 considerately banked, Hungarian basketball players, Iranian
91 students, union organizers from Zambia...
92 The customs man gave me my receipt and counted out
93 twenty-eight cents change.
94 "Well -- there is all the formality. I hope I haven't
95 detained you too long. May I wish you a pleasant stay!"
96 "Thank you," I said and took my suitcase.
97 He regarded me with his head slightly bent sideways,
98 smiling out of his bland, smooth face.
99 "Through this turnstile, please. <i>Au revoir.</i> May I
100 once more wish you the best."
101 I went out on the plaza following an Italian pair with
102 four kids and two robot redcaps.
103 The sun stood high over mauve mountains. Everything in the
104 plaza was bright and shiny and colorful. A bit too bright and
105 colorful, as it usually is in resort towns. Gleaming
106 orange-and-red buses surrounded by tourist crowds, shiny and
107 polished green of the vegetation in the squares with white,
108 blue, yellow, and gold pavilions, kiosks, and tents. Mirrorlike
109 surfaces, vertical, horizontal, and inclined, which flared with
110 sunbursts. Smooth matte hexagons underfoot and under the wheels
111 -- red, black, and gray, just slightly springy and smothering
112 the sound of footsteps. I put down the suitcase and donned
114 Out of all the sunny towns it has been my luck to visit,
115 this was without a doubt the sunniest. And that was all wrong.
116 It would have been much easier if the day had been gray, if
117 there had been dirt and mud, if the pavilion had also been gray
118 with concrete walls, and if on that wet concrete was scratched
119 something obscene, tired, and pointless, born of boredom. Then
120 I would probably feel like working at once. I am positive of
121 this because such things are irritating and demand action. It's
122 still hard to get used to the idea that poverty can be wealthy.
123 And so the urge is lacking and there is no desire to begin
124 immediately, but rather to take one of these buses, like the
125 red-and-blue one, and take off to the beach, do a little scuba
126 diving, get a tan, play some ball, or find Peck, stretch out on
127 the floor in some cool room and reminisce on all the good stuff
128 so that he could ask about Bykov, about the Trans-Pluto
129 expedition, about the new ships on which I too am behind the
130 times, but still know better than he, and so that he could
131 recollect the uprising and boast of his scars and his high
132 social position.... It would be most convenient if Peck did
133 have a high social position. It would be well if he were, for
135 A small darkish rotund individual in a white suit and a
136 round white hat set at a rakish angle approached deliberately,
137 wiping his lips with a dainty handkerchief. The hat was
138 equipped with a transparent green shade and a green ribbon on
139 which was stamped "Welcome." On his right earlobe glistened a
141 "Welcome aboard," said the man.
143 "A pleasure to have you with us. My name is Ahmad."
144 "And my name is Ivan," said I. "Pleased to make your
146 We nodded to each other and regarded the tourists entering
147 the buses. They were happily noisy and the warm wind rolled
148 their discarded butts and crumpled candy wrappers along the
149 square. Ahmad's face bore a green tint from the light filtering
150 through his cap visor.
151 "Vacationers," he said. "Carefree and loud. Now they will
152 be taken to their hotels and will immediately rush off to the
154 "I wouldn't mind a run on water skis," I observed.
155 "Really? I never would have guessed. There's nothing you
156 look less like than a vacationer."
157 "So be it," I said. "In fact I did come to work"
158 "To work? Well, that happens too, some do come to work
159 here. Two years back Jonathan Kreis came here to paint a
160 picture." He laughed. "Later there was an assault-and-battery
161 case in Rome, some papal nuncio was involved, can't remember
163 "Because of the picture?"
164 "No, hardly. He didn't paint a thing here. The casino was
165 where you could find him day or night. Shall we go have a
167 "Let's. You can give me a few pointers."
168 "It's my pleasurable duty -- to give advice," said Ahmad.
169 We bent down simultaneously and both of us took hold of
171 "It's okay -- I'll manage."
172 "No," countered Ahmad, "you are the guest and I the host.
173 Let's go to yonder bar. It's quiet there at this time."
174 We went in under a blue awning. Ahmad seated me at a
175 table, put my suitcase on a vacant chair, and went to the
176 counter. It was cool and an air conditioner sighed in the
177 background. Ahmad returned with a tray. There were tall glasses
178 and flat plates with butter-gold tidbits.
179 "Not very strong," said Ahmad, "but really cold to make up
181 "I don't like it strong in the morning either," I said.
182 I quaffed the glass. The stuff was good.
183 "A swallow -- a bite," counseled Ahmad, "Like this: a
185 The tidbits crunched and melted in the mouth. In my view,
186 they were unnecessary. We were silent for some time, watching
187 the square from under the marquee. gently purring, the buses
188 pulled out one after another into their respective tree-lined
189 avenues. They looked ponderous yet strangely elegant in their
191 "It would be too noisy there," said Ahmad. "Fine cottages,
192 lots of women -- to suit any taste -- and right on the water,
193 but no privacy. I don't think it's for you."
194 "Yes," I agreed. "The noise would bother me. Anyway, I
195 don't like vacationers, Ahmad. Can't stand it when people work
197 Ahmad nodded and carefully placed the next tidbit in his
198 mouth. I watched him chew. There was something professional and
199 concentrated in the movement of his lower jaw. Having
200 swallowed, he said, "No, the synthetic will never compare with
201 the natural product. Not the same bouquet." He flexed his lips,
202 smacked them gently, and continued, "There are two excellent
203 hotels in the center of town, but, in my view..."
204 "Yes, that won't do either," I said. "A hotel places
205 certain obligations on you. I never heard that anything
206 worthwhile has ever been written in a hotel."
207 "Well, that's not quite true," retorted Ahmad, critically
208 studying the last tidbit. "I read one book and in it they said
209 that it was in fact written in a hotel -- the Hotel Florida."
210 "Aah," I said, "you are correct. But then your city is not
211 being shelled by cannons."
212 "Cannons? Of course not. Not as a rule, anyway."
213 "Just as I thought. But, as a matter of fact, it has been
214 noted that something worthwhile can be written only in a hotel
215 which is under bombardment."
216 Ahmad took the last tidbit after all.
217 'That would be difficult to arrange," he said. "In our
218 times it's hard to obtain a cannon. Besides, it's very
219 expensive; the hotel could lose its clientele."
220 "Hotel Florida also lost its clients in its time.
221 Hemingway lived in it alone."
224 "Ah... but that was so long ago, in the fascist times. But
225 times have changed, Ivan."
226 "Yes," said I, "and therefore in our times there is no
227 point in writing in hotels."
228 "To blazes with hotels then," said Ahmad. "I know what you
229 need. You need a boarding house." He took out a notebook.
230 "State your requirements and we'll try to match them up."
231 "Boarding house," I said. "I don't know. I don't think so,
232 Ahmad. Do understand that I don't want to meet people whom I
233 don't want to know. That's to begin with. And in the second
234 place, who lives in private boarding houses? These same
235 vacationers who don't have enough money for a cottage. They too
236 work hard at having fun. They concoct picnics, meets, and song
237 fests. At night they play the banjo. On top of which they grab
238 anyone they can get hold of and make them participate in
239 contests for the longest uninterrupted kiss. Most important of
240 all, they are all transients. But I am interested in your
241 country, Ahmad. In your townspeople. I'll tell you what I need:
242 I need a quiet house with a garden. Not too far from downtown.
243 A relaxed family, with a respectable housewife. An attractive
244 young daughter. You get the picture, Ahmad?"
245 Ahmad took the empty glasses, went over to the counter,
246 and returned with full ones. Now they contained a colorless
247 transparent liquid and the small plates were stacked with tiny
248 multistoried sandwiches.
249 "I know of such a cozy house," declared Ahmad. "The widow
250 is forty-five and the daughter twenty. The son is eleven. Let's
251 finish the drinks and we'll be on our way. I think you'll like
252 it. The rent is standard, but of course it's more than in a
253 hoarding house. You have come to stay for a long time?"
255 "Good Lord! Just a month?"
256 "I don't know how my affairs will go. Perhaps I may tarry
258 "By all means, you will," said Ahmad. "I can see that you
259 have totally failed to grasp just where you have arrived. You
260 simply don't understand what a good time you can have here and
261 how you don't have to think about a thing."
262 We finished our drinks, got up, and went across the square
263 under the hot sun to the parking area. Ahmad walked with a
264 rapid, slightly rolling gait, with the green visor of his cap
265 set low over his eyes, swinging the suitcase in a debonair
266 manner. The next batch of tourists was being discharged
267 broadcast from the customs house.
268 "Would you like me to... Frankly?" said Ahmad suddenly.
269 "Yes, I would like you to," said I. What else could I say?
270 Forty years I have lived in this world and have yet to learn to
271 deflect this unpleasant question.
272 "You won't write a thing here," said Ahmad. "It's mighty
273 hard to write in our town."
274 "It's always hard to write anything. However, fortunately
276 "I accept this gladly. But in that case, it is slightly
277 impossible here. At least for a transient."
279 "It's not a case of being frightened. You simply won't
280 want to work. You won't be able to stay at the typewriter.
281 You'll feel annoyed by the typewriter. Do you know what the joy
284 "You don't know anything, Ivan. So far you still don't
285 know anything about it. You are bound to traverse the twelve
286 circles of paradise. It's funny, of course, but I envy you."
287 We stopped by a long open car. Ahmad threw the suitcase
288 into the back seat and flung the door open for me.
290 "Presumably you have already passed through them?" I
291 asked, sliding into the seat.
292 He got in behind the wheel and started the engine.
293 "What exactly do you mean?"
294 "The twelve circles of paradise."
295 "As for me, Ivan, a long time ago I selected my favorite
296 circle," said Ahmad. The car began to roll noiselessly through
297 the square. "The others haven't existed for me for quite a
298 while. Unfortunately. It's like old age, with all its
299 privileges and deficiencies."
300 The car rushed through a park and sped along a shaded,
301 straight thoroughfare. I kept looking around with great
302 interest but couldn't recognize a thing. It was stupid to
303 expect to. We had been landed at night, in a torrential rain;
304 seven thousand exhausted tourists stood on the pier looking at
305 the burning liner. We hadn't seen the city -- in its place was
306 a black, wet emptiness dotted with red flashes. It had rattled,
307 boomed, and screeched as though being rent asunder. "We'll be
308 slaughtered in the dark, like rabbits," Robert had said, and I
309 immediately had sent him back to the barge to unload the
310 armored car. The gangway had collapsed and the car had fallen
311 into the water, and when Peck had pulled Robert out, all blue
312 from the cold, he had come over to me and said through
313 chattering teeth, "Didn't I tell you it was dark?"
314 Ahmad said suddenly, "When I was a boy, we lived near the
315 port and we used to come out here to beat up the factory kids.
316 Many of them had brass knuckles, and that got me a broken nose.
317 Half of my life I put up with a crooked nose until I had it
318 fixed last year. I sure loved to scrap when I was young. I used
319 to have a hunk of lead pipe, and once I had to sit in jail for
320 six months, but that didn't help."
321 He stopped, grinning. I waited awhile, then said, "You
322 can't find a good lead pipe these days. Now rubber truncheons
323 are in fashion: you buy them used from the police."
324 "Exactly," said Ahmad. "Or else you buy a dumbbell, cut
325 off one ball and there you are, ready to go. But the guys are
326 not what they used to be. Now you get deported for such stuff."
327 "Yes. And what else did you occupy yourself with in your
330 "I planned on joining the interplanetary force and trained
331 to withstand overstress. We also played at who could dive the
333 "We too," said Ahmad. "We went down ten meters for
334 automatics and whiskey. Over by the piers they lay on the
335 seabed by the case. I used to get nosebleeds. But when the fire
336 fights started, we began to find corpses with weights around
337 their necks, so we quit that game."
338 "It's a very unpleasant sight, a corpse under water --
339 especially if there is a current," said I.
340 Ahmad chuckled "I've seen worse. I had occasion to work
342 "This was after the fracas?"
343 "Much later. When the anti-gangster laws were passed."
344 'They were called gangsters here too?"
345 "What else would you call them? Not brigands, certainly.
346 'A group of brigands, armed with flame throwers and gas bombs,
347 have laid siege to the municipal buildings,' " he pronounced
348 expressively. "It doesn't sound right, you can feel that. A
349 brigand is an ax, a bludgeon, a mustache up to the ears, a
351 "A lead pipe," I offered.
353 "What are you doing tonight?" he asked.
355 "You have friends here?"
357 "Well... then it's different."
359 "Well, I was going to suggest something to you, but since
361 "By the way, " I said, "who is your mayor?"
362 "Mayor? The devil knows, I don't remember. Somebody was
364 "Not Peck Xenai, by any chance?"
365 "I don't know." He sounded regretful. "I wouldn't want to
367 "Would you know the man anyway?"
368 "Xenai... Peck Xenai... No, I don't knew him; haven't
369 heard of him. What is he to you -- a friend?"
370 "Yes, an old friend. I have some others here, but they are
372 "Well," said Ahmad, "if you should get bored and all kinds
373 of thoughts begin to enter your head, come on over for a visit.
374 Every single day from seven o'clock on I am at the Chez
375 Gourmet. Do you like good eating?"
377 "Stomach in good shape?"
379 "Well, then, why don't you come by? We'll have a fine
380 time, and it won't be necessary to think about a thing."
381 Ahmad braked and turned cautiously into a driveway with an
382 iron gate, which silently swung open before us. The car rolled
384 "We have arrived," announced Ahmad. "Here is your home."
385 The house was two-storied, white with blue trim. The
386 windows were draped on the inside. A clean, deserted patio with
387 multi-colored flagstones was surrounded by a fruit-tree garden,
388 with apple branches touching the walls.
389 "And where is the widow?" I said.
390 "Let's go inside," said Ahmad.
391 He went up the steps, leafing through his notebook I was
392 following him while looking around. I liked the mini-orchard.
393 Ahmad found the right page and set up the combination on the
394 small disc by the doorbell. The door opened. Cool, fresh air
395 flowed out of the house. It was dark inside, but as soon as we
396 stepped into the hall, it lit up with concealed illumination.
397 Putting away his notebook, Ahmad said, "To the right is the
398 landlord's half, to the left is yours. Please come in. Here is
399 the living room, and there is the bar. In a minute we'll have a
400 drink. And now here is your study. Do you have a phonor?"
402 "It's just as well. You have everything you need right
403 here. Come on over here. This is the bedroom. There is the
404 control board for acoustic defense. You know how to use it?"
405 "I'll figure it out."
406 "Good. The defense is triple, you can have it quiet as a
407 tomb or turn the place into a bordello, whatever you like...
408 Here's the air-conditioning control, which, incidentally, is
409 not too convenient, as you can only operate it from the
411 "I'll manage," I said.
412 "What? Well, okay. Here is the bathroom and powder room."
413 "I am interested in the widow," I said, "and the
415 "All in good time. Shall I open the drapes?"
417 "Right you are, for no reason. Let's go have a drink."
418 We returned to the living room and Ahmad disappeared up to
419 his waist in the bar.
420 "You want it on the strong side?" he asked.
421 "You have it backwards."
422 "Would you like an omelette? Sandwiches?"
424 "No," said Ahmad, "an omelette it shall be -- with
425 tomatoes." He rummaged in the bar. "I don't know what does it,
426 but this autocooker makes an altogether astonishingly good
427 omelette with tomatoes. While we are at it, I will also have a
429 He extracted a tray from the bar and placed it on a low
430 table by a semicircular couch. We sat down.
431 "Now about the widow," I reminded him. "I would like to .
433 "You like the rooms?"
435 "Well, the widow is quite all right, too. And the daughter
437 He extracted a flat case from an inside pocket. Like a
438 cartridge clip it was stacked with a row of ampoules filled
439 with colored liquids. Ahmad ran his index finger over them,
440 smelled the omelette, hesitated, and finally selected one with
441 a green fluid, broke it carefully, and dripped a few drops on
442 the tomatoes. An aroma pervaded the room. The smell was not
443 unpleasant, but, to my taste, bore no particular relation to
445 "Right now," continued Ahmad, "they are still asleep." His
446 gaze turned abstracted. "They sleep and see dreams."
447 I looked at my watch.
449 Ahmad was enjoying his food.
450 "Ten-thirty!" I said.
451 Ahmad was enjoying his food. His cap was pushed back on
452 his head, and the green visor stuck up vertically like the
453 crest of an aroused mimicrodon. His eyes were half-closed. I
454 regarded him with interest.
455 Having swallowed the last bit of tomato, he broke off a
456 piece of the crust of white bread and carefully wiped the pan
457 with it. His gaze cleared.
458 "What were you saying?" he asked. "Ten-thirty? Tomorrow
459 you too will get up at ten-thirty or maybe even at twelve. I,
460 for one, will get up at twelve."
461 He got up and stretched luxuriously, cracking his joints.
462 "Well," he said, "it's time to go home, finally. Here's my
463 card, Ivan. Put it in your desk, and don't throw it out until
464 your very last day here." He went over to the flat box and
465 inserted another card into its slot. There was a loud click.
466 "Now this one," he said, examining the card against the
467 light. "Please pass on to the widow with my very best
469 "And then what will happen?" said I.
470 "Money will happen. I trust you are not a devotee of
471 haggling, Ivan? The widow will name a figure, Ivan, and you
472 shouldn't haggle over it. It's not done."
473 "I will try not to haggle," I said, "although it would be
475 Ahmad raised his eyebrows.
476 "Well, if you really want to so much, then why not try it?
477 Always do what you want to do. Then you will have excellent
478 digestion. I will get your suitcase now."
479 "I need prospects," I said. "I need guidebooks. I am a
480 writer, Ahmad. I will require brochures on the economic
481 situation of the masses, statistical references. Where can I
482 get all that? And when?"
483 "I will give you a guidebook," said Ahmad. "It has
484 statistics, addresses, telephone numbers, and so on. As far as
485 the masses are concerned, I don't think we publish any such
486 nonsense. Of course, you can send an inquiry to UNESCO, but
487 what would you want with it? You'll see everything for
488 yourself. Just hold on a minute. I'll get the suitcase and the
490 He went out and quickly returned with my suitcase in one
491 hand and a fat bluish-looking little tome in the other.
493 "Judging by the look on your face," he announced, smiling,
494 "you are debating whether it's proper to tip me or not."
496 "Well then, would you like to do it or not?"
498 "You have a healthy, strong character," Ahmad approved.
499 "Don't do it. Don't tip anybody. You could collect one in the
500 face, especially from the girls. But, on the other hand, don't
501 haggle either. You could walk into one that way too. Anyway,
502 that's all a lot of rot. For all I know you may like to have
503 your face slapped, like that Jonathan Kreis. Farewell, Ivan,
504 have fun, and come to Chez Gourmet. Any evening at seven. But
505 most important of all, don't think about a thing."
506 He waved his hand and left. I picked up the mixture in the
507 dewy glass and sat down with the guidebook.
510 <ul><a name=2></a><h2>Chapter TWO</h2></ul>
512 The guidebook was printed on bond paper with a gilt edge.
513 Interspersed with gorgeous photographs, it contained some
514 curious information. In the city there were fifty thousand
515 people, fifteen hundred cats, twenty thousand pigeons, and two
516 thousand dogs (including seven hundred winners of medals). The
517 city had fifteen thousand passenger cars, five thousand helis,
518 a thousand taxis (with and without chauffeurs), nine hundred
519 automatic garbage collectors, four hundred permanent bars,
520 cafes, and snack bars, eleven restaurants, and four first-class
521 hotels, and was a tourist establishment which served over one
522 hundred thousand visitors every year. The city had sixty
523 thousand TV sets, fifty movie theaters, eight amusement parks,
524 two Happy Mood salons, sixteen beauty parlors, forty libraries,
525 and one hundred and eighty automated barber shops. Eighty
526 percent of the population were engaged in services, and the
527 rest worked in two syntho-bakeries and one government shipyard.
528 There were six schools and one university housed in an old
529 castle once the home of crusader Ulrich da Casa. In the city
530 there were also eight active civilian societies, among them the
531 Society of Diligent Tasters, the Society of Connoisseurs and
532 Appraisers, and the Society for the Good Old Country Against
533 Evil Influences. In addition, fifteen hundred citizens were
534 members of seven hundred and one groups where they sang,
535 learned to act, to arrange furniture, to breast-feed, and to
536 medicate cats. As to per-capita consumption of alcoholic
537 beverages, natural meat, and liquid oxygen, the city was sixth,
538 twelfth, and thirteenth highest in Europe respectively. The
539 city had seven men's clubs and five women's clubs, as well as
540 sport clubs named the Bulls and Rhinos. By a majority of
541 forty-six votes, someone by the name of Flim Gao had been
542 elected mayor. Peck was not among the municipal officials.
543 I put the guidebook aside, took off my jacket, and made a
544 thorough examination of my domain. I approved of the living
545 room. It was done in blue, and I like that color. The bar was
546 full of bottled and refrigerated victuals so that I could at a
547 moment's notice entertain a dozen starving guests.
548 I went into the study. There was a large table in front of
549 the window and a comfortable chair. The walls were lined with
550 shelves tightly filled with collected works. The clean bright
551 bindings were arranged with great skill so that they formed a
552 colorful and appealing layout. The top shelf was occupied by
553 the fifty-volume encyclopedia of UNESCO. Lower shelves were
554 kaleidoscopic with the shiny wrappers of detective novels.
555 As soon as I saw the telephone on the table, I dialed
556 Rimeyer's number, perching on the chair arm. The receiver
557 sounded with prolonged honkings and I waited, twirling a small
558 dictaphone which someone had left on the table. Rimeyer did not
559 answer. I hung up and inspected the dictaphone. The tape was
560 half-used-up, and after rewinding, I punched the playback
562 "Greetings and more greetings," said a merry male voice.
563 "I clasp your hand heartily or kiss you on the cheek, depending
564 on your sex and age. I have lived here two months and bear
565 witness that it was most enjoyable. Allow me a few points of
566 advice. The best institution in town is the Hoity Toity in the
567 Park of Dreams. The best girl in town is Basi in the House of
568 Models. The best guy in town is me, but I have already left. On
569 television just watch Program Nine; everything else is chaff.
570 Don't get involved with Intels, and give the Rhinos a wide
571 berth. Don't buy anything on credit -- there'll be no end to
572 the runaround. The widow is a good woman but loves to talk and
573 in general... As for Vousi, I didn't get to meet her, as she
574 had left the country to visit her grandmother. In my opinion
575 she is sweet, and there was a photograph of her in the widow's
576 album, but I took it. There's more: I expect to come back next
577 March, so be a pal, if you decide to return, pick another time.
579 Music followed abruptly. I listened awhile and turned off
581 There wasn't a single tome I could extract from the
582 shelves, so well were they stuck in, or maybe even glued on,
583 and as there was nothing else of interest in the study, I went
585 Here it was especially cool and cozy. I have always wanted
586 just such a bedroom, but somehow never had the time to get
587 around to setting one up. The bed was big and low. On the night
588 table stood an elegant phonor and a tiny remote-control box for
589 the TV. The screen stood at the foot of the bed, while at the
590 head the widow had hung a very natural-looking picture of field
591 flowers in a crystal vase. The picture was painted with
592 luminous paints and the dewdrops glistened in the darkened
594 I punched the TV control at random and stretched out on
595 the bed. It was soft yet somehow firm. The TV roared loudly. An
596 inebriated-looking man launched himself out of the screen,
597 crashed through some sort of railing, and fell from a great
598 height into a colossal fuming vat. There was a loud splash and
599 the phonor exuded a smell. The man disappeared in the bubbling
600 liquid and then reappeared, holding in his teeth something
601 reminiscent of a well-boiled boot. The unseen audience broke
602 out in a storm of horse laughs. Fade out... soft lyrical music.
603 A white horse pulling a phaeton appeared out of green woods and
604 advanced toward me. A pretty girl in a bathing suit sat in the
605 carriage. I turned off the TV, got up, and went to look at the
607 There was a piny smell and flickering of germicidal lamps.
608 I undressed, threw the underwear into the hopper, and climbed
609 into the shower. Taking my time, I dressed in front of the
610 mirror, combed my hair, and shaved. The shelves were loaded
611 with rows of vials, hygienic devices, antiseptics, and tubes
612 with pastes and greases. At the edge of one shelf there was a
613 pile of flat colorful boxes with the logo "Devon." I switched
614 off the razor and took one of the boxes. A germicidal lamp
615 flickered in the mirror, just as it did that day in Vienna,
616 when I stood just like this studiously regarding just such a
617 little box, because I did not want to go out to the bedroom,
618 where Raffy Reisman loudly argued about something with the
619 doctor; while the green oily liquid still oscillated in the
620 bath, over which hung the steamy vapor and a screeching radio
621 receiver, attached to a porcelain hook for towels, howled,
622 hooted, and snorted until Raffy turned it off in irritation.
623 That was in Vienna, and just as here, it was very strange to
624 see in a bathroom a box of Devon -- a popular repellent which
625 did an excellent job of chasing mosquitoes, chiggers, gnats,
626 and other bloodsucking insects which were long forgotten in
627 Vienna and here in a seaside resort town. Only in Vienna there
628 had been an overlay of fear.
629 The box which I held in my hand was almost empty, with
630 only one tablet remaining. The rest of the boxes were still
631 scaled. I finished shaving and returned to the bedroom. I felt
632 like calling Rimeyer again, but abruptly the house came to
633 life. The pleated drapes flew open with a soft whine, the
634 windowpanes slid away in their frames, and the bedroom was
635 flooded with warm air, laden with the scent of apples. Someone
636 was talking somewhere, light footsteps sounded overhead, and a
637 severe-sounding female voice said, "Vousi -- at least eat some
639 Thereupon I imparted a certain air of disorder to my
640 clothes (in accordance with the current style), smoothed my
641 temples, and went into the hall, taking one of Ahmad's cards
642 from the living room.
643 The widow turned out to be a youthful plump woman,
644 somewhat languid, with a pleasant fresh face.
645 "How nice!" she said, seeing me. "You are up already?
646 Hello, my name is Vaina Tuur, but you can call me Vaina."
647 "My pleasure," I said, shuddering fashionably. "My name is
649 "How nice," said Aunt Vaina. "What an original
650 soft-sounding name! Have you had breakfast, Ivan?"
651 "With your permission, I intended to have breakfast in
652 town," I said, and proffered her the card.
653 "Ah," said Aunt Vaina, looking through the card at the
654 light. "That nice Ahmad, if you only knew what a nice
655 responsible fellow he is. But I see you did not have breakfast.
656 Lunch you can have in town, but now I will treat you to some of
657 my croutons. The major general always said that nowhere else in
658 the world could you have such wonderful croutons."
659 "With pleasure," said I, shuddering for the second time.
660 The door behind Aunt Vaina was flung open and a very
661 pretty young girl in a short blue skirt and an open white
662 blouse flew in on clicking high heels. In her hand she held a
663 piece of cake, which she munched while humming a currently
664 popular song. Seeing me, she stopped, flung her pocketbook on
665 its long strap over her shoulder with a show of abandon, and
666 swallowed, bending down her head.
667 "Vousi!" said Aunt Vaina, compressing her lips. "Vousi,
669 "Not bad!" said Vousi. "Greetings."
670 "Vousi," reproached Aunt Vaina.
671 "You came with your wife?" said Vousi, extending her hand.
672 "No," said I. Her fingers were soft and cool. "I am
674 In that case, I'll show you all there is to see," she
675 said. "Till tonight. I must run now, but we'll go out this
677 "Vousi!" reproached Aunt Vaina.
678 Vousi pushed the rest of the cake into her mouth, bussed
679 her mother on the cheek, and ran toward the door. She had
680 smooth sunburned legs, long and slender, and a close-cropped
682 "Ach, Ivan," said Aunt Vaina, who was also looking at the
683 retreating girl, "in our times it is so difficult to deal with
684 young girls. They develop so early and leave us so soon. Ever
685 since she started working in that salon..."
686 "She is a dressmaker?" I inquired.
687 "Oh no! She works in the Happy Mood Salon, in the old
688 ladies' department. And do you know, they value her highly. But
689 last year she was late once and now she has to be very careful.
690 As you can see she could not even have a decent conversation
691 with you, but it's possible that a client is even now waiting
692 for her. You might not believe this, but she already has a
693 permanent clientele. Anyway, why are we standing here? The
694 croutons will get cold."
695 We entered the landlord's side. I tried with all my might
696 to conduct myself correctly, although I was a bit foggy as to
697 what exactly was correct. Aunt Vaina sat me down at a table,
698 excused herself, and left. I looked around. The room was an
699 exact copy of mine, except that the walls were rose instead of
700 blue, and beyond the window, in place of the sea was a small
701 yard with a low fence dividing it from the street. Aunt Vaina
702 came back with a tray bearing boiled cream and a plate of
704 "You know," she said, "I think I will have some breakfast
705 too. My doctor does not recommend breakfast, especially with
706 boiled cream. But we became so accustomed... it was the
707 general's favorite breakfast. Do you know, I try to have only
708 men boarders. That nice Ahmad understands me very well. He
709 understands how much I need to sit just like this, now and
710 then, just as we are sitting, and have a cup of boiled cream."
711 "Your cream is wonderfully good," said I, not insincerely.
712 "Ach, Ivan." Aunt Vaina put down her cup and fluttered her
713 hands. "But you said that almost exactly like the major
714 general... Strange, you even look like him. Except that his
715 face was a bit narrower and he always had breakfast in his
717 "Yes," I said with regret, "I don't have a uniform."
718 "But there was one once," said she coyly, shaking a finger
719 at me. "Of course! I can see it. It's so senseless! People
720 nowadays have to be ashamed of their military past. Isn't that
721 silly? But they are always betrayed by their bearing, that very
722 special manly carriage. You cannot hide it, Ivan!"
723 I made a very elaborate non-committal gesture, said, "Mm
724 -- yes," and took another crouton.
725 "It's all so out of place, isn't that right?" continued
726 Aunt Vaina with great animation. "How can you confuse such two
727 opposite concepts -- war and the army? We all detest war. War
728 is awful. My mother described it to me, she was only a girl,
729 but she remembers everything. Suddenly, without warning, there
730 they are -- the soldiers, crude, alien, speaking a foreign
731 tongue, belching; and the officers, without any manners,
732 laughing loudly, annoying the chambermaids, and smelling --
733 forgive me; and that senseless commander's meeting hour... that
734 is war and it deserves every condemnation! But the army! That's
735 an altogether different affair! Surely you remember, Ivan, the
736 troops lined up by battalion, the perfection of the line, the
737 manliness of the faces under the helmets, shiny arms, sparkling
738 decorations, and then the commanding officer riding in a
739 special staff car and addressing the battalions, which respond
740 willingly and briefly like one man."
741 "No doubt," said I, "this has impressed many people."
742 "Yes! Very much indeed. We have always said that it is
743 necessary to disarm, but did we really need to destroy the
744 army? It is the last refuge of manhood in our time of
745 widespread moral collapse. It's weird and ridiculous -- a
746 government without an army...."
747 "It is funny," I agreed. "You may not believe it, but I
748 have been smiling ever since they signed the Pact."
749 "Yes, I can understand that," said Aunt Vaina. "There was
750 nothing else for us to do, but to smile sarcastically. The
751 Major General Tuur" -- she extricated a handkerchief -- "passed
752 away with just such a sarcastic smile on his face." She applied
753 the handkerchief to her eyes. "He said to us: 'My friends, I
754 still hope to live to the day when everything will fall apart.'
755 A broken man, who has lost the meaning of life... he could not
756 stand the emptiness in his heart." Suddenly she perked up.
757 "Here, let me show you, Ivan."
758 She bustled into the next room and returned with a heavy
759 old-fashioned photo album.
760 I looked at my watch at once, but Aunt Vaina did not take
761 any notice, and sitting herself down at my side, opened the
762 album at the very first page.
763 "Here is the major general."
764 The major general looked quite the eagle. He had a narrow
765 bony face and translucent eyes. His long body was spangled with
766 medals. The biggest, a multi-pointed starburst framed in a
767 laurel wreath, sparkled in the region of the appendix. In his
768 left hand the general tightly pressed a pair of gloves, and his
769 right hand rested on the hilt of a ceremonial poniard. A high
770 collar with gold embroidery propped up his lower jaw.
771 "And here is the major general on maneuvers."
772 Here again the general looked the eagle. He was issuing
773 instructions to his officers, who were bent over a map spread
774 on the frontal armor of a gigantic tank. By the shape of the
775 treads and the streamlined appearance of the turret, I
776 recognized it as one of the Mammoth heavy storm vehicles, which
777 were designed for pushing through nuclear strike zones and now
778 are successfully employed by deep-sea exploration teams.
779 "And here is the general on his fiftieth birthday."
780 Here too, the general looked the eagle. He stood by a
781 well-set table with a wineglass in his hand, listening to a
782 toast in his honor. The lower left corner was occupied by a
783 halo of light from a shiny pate; and to his side, gazing up at
784 him with admiration, sat a very young and very pretty Aunt
785 Vaina. I tried surreptitiously to gauge the thickness of the
787 "Ah, here is the general on vacation."
788 Even on vacation, the general remained an eagle. With his
789 feet planted well apart, he stood an the beach sporting
790 tiger-stripe trunks, as he scanned the misty horizon through a
791 pair of binoculars. At his feet a child of three or four was
792 digging in the sand. The general was wiry and muscular.
793 Croutons and cream did not spoil his figure. I started to wind
795 "And here..." began Aunt Vaina, turning the page, but at
796 this point, a short portly man entered the room without
797 knocking. His face and in particular his dress seemed strangely
799 "Good morning," he enunciated, bending his smooth smiling
800 face slightly sideways.
801 It was my erstwhile customs man, still in the same white
802 uniform with the silver buttons and the silver braid on the
804 "Ah! Pete!" said Aunt Vaina. "Here you are already.
805 Please, let me introduce you. Ivan, this is Pete, a friend of
807 The customs man turned toward me without recognition,
808 briefly inclined his head, and clicked his heels. Aunt Vaina
809 laid the album in my lap and got up.
810 "Have a seat, Pete," she said. "I will bring some cream."
811 Pete clicked his heels once more and sat down by me.
812 "This should interest you," I said, transferring the album
813 to his lap. "Here is Major General Tuur. In mufti." A strange
814 expression appeared on the face of the customs man. "And here
815 is the major general on maneuvers. You see? And here --"
816 "Thank you," said the customs man raggedly. "Don't exert
817 yourself, because --"
818 Aunt Vaina returned with cream and croutons. From as far
819 back as the doorway, she said, "How nice to see a man in
820 uniform! Isn't that right, Ivan?"
821 The cream for Pete was in a special cup with the monogram
822 "T" surrounded by four stars.
823 "It rained last night, so it must have been cloudy. I
824 know, because I woke up, and now there is not a cloud in the
825 sky. Another cup, Ivan?"
827 'Thank you, I'm quite full. If you'll excuse me, I must
828 take my leave. I have a business appointment,"
829 Carefully closing the door behind me, I heard the widow
830 say, "Don't you find an extraordinary resemblance between him
831 and Staff Major Polom?"
832 In the bedroom, I unpacked the suitcase and transferred
833 the clothing to the wall closet, and again rang Rimeyer. Again
834 no one answered. So I sat down at the desk and set to exploring
835 the drawers. One contained a portable typewriter, another a set
836 of writing paper and an empty bottle of grease for arrhythmic
837 motors. The rest was empty, if you didn't count bundles of
838 crumpled receipts, a broken fountain pen, and a carelessly
839 folded sheet of paper, decorated with doodled faces. I unfolded
840 the sheet. Apparently it was the draft of a telegram.
841 "Green died while with the Fishers receive body Sunday
842 with condolences Hugger Martha boys." I read the writing twice,
843 turned the sheet over and studied the faces, and read for the
844 third time. Obviously Hugger and Martha were not informed that
845 normal people notifying of death first of all tell how and why
846 a person died and not whom he was with when he died. I would
847 have written, "Green drowned while fishing." Probably in a
848 drunken stupor. By the way, what address did I have now?
849 I returned to the hall. A small boy in short pants
850 squatted in the doorway to the landlord's half. Clamping a long
851 silvery tube under an armpit, he was panting and wheezing and
852 hurriedly unwinding a tangle of string. I went up to him and
854 My reflexes are not what they used to be, but still I
855 managed to duck a long black stream which whizzed by my ear and
856 splashed against the wall. I regarded the boy with astonishment
857 while he stared at me, lying on his side and holding the tube
858 in front of him. His face was damp and his mouth twisted and
859 open. I turned to look at the wall. The stuff was oozing down.
860 I looked at the boy again. He was getting up slowly, without
862 "Well, well, brother, you are nervous!" said I.
863 "Stand where you are," said the boy in a hoarse voice." I
864 did not say your name."
865 "To say the least," said I. "You did not even mention
866 yours, and you fire at me like I was a dummy."
867 "Stand where you are," repeated the boy, "and don't move."
868 He backed and suddenly blurted in rapid fire, "Hence from my
869 hair, hence from my bones, hence from my flesh."
870 "I cannot," I said. I was still trying to understand
871 whether he was playing or was really afraid of me.
872 "Why not?" said the boy. "I am saying everything right."
873 "I can't go without moving," I said. "I am standing where
875 His mouth fell open again.
876 "Hugger: I say to you -- Hugger -- begone!" he said
878 "Why Hugger?" I said. "My name is Ivan; you confuse me
880 The boy closed his eyes and advanced upon me, holding the
881 tube in front of him.
882 "I surrender," I warned. "Be careful not to fire."
883 When the tube dented my midriff he stopped and, dropping
884 it, suddenly went limp, letting his hands fall. I bent over and
885 looked him in the face. Now he was brick-red. I picked up the
886 tube. It was something like a toy rifle, with a convenient
887 checkered grip and a flat rectangular flask which was inserted
888 from below, like a clip.
889 "What kind of gadget is this?" I asked.
890 "A splotcher," he said gloomily. "Give it back."
891 I gave him back the toy.
892 "A splotcher," I said, "with which you splotch. And what
893 if you had hit me?" I looked at the wall. "Fine thing. Now you
894 won't get it off inside of a year. You'll have to get the wall
896 The boy looked up at me suspiciously. "But it's Splotchy,"
898 "Really -- and I thought it was lemonade."
899 His face finally acquired a normal hue and demonstrated an
900 obvious resemblance to the manly features of Major General
902 "No, no, it's Splotchy."
905 "And then it's really hopeless?"
906 "Of course not. There will simply be nothing left."
907 "Hmm," said I, with reservation. "However, you know best.
908 Let us hope so. But I am still glad that there will be nothing
909 left on the wall instead of on my face. What's your name?"
911 "And after you give it some thought?"
912 He gave me a long look.
916 "Lucifer," said I. "Belial, Ahriman, Beelzebub, and
917 Azrael. How about something a little shorter? It's very
918 inconvenient to call for help to someone with a name like
920 "But the doors are closed," he said and backed one step.
921 His face paled again.
923 He did not respond but continued to back until he reached
924 the wall and began to sidle along it without taking his eyes
925 off me. It finally dawned on me that he took me for a murderer
926 or a thief and. that he wanted to escape. But for some reason
927 he did not call for help and went by his mother's door,
928 continuing toward the house exit.
929 "Siegfried," said I, "Siegfried, Lucifer, you are a
930 terrible coward. Who do you think I am?" I didn't move but only
931 Turned to keep facing him. "I am your new boarder; your mother
932 has just fed me croutons and cream and you go and fire at me
933 and almost splotched me, and now you are afraid of me. It is I
934 who should be afraid of you."
935 All this was very much reminiscent of a scene in the
936 boarding school in Anyudinsk, when they brought me a boy just
937 like this one, the son of a sect member. Hell's bells, do I
938 really look so much the gangster?
939 "You remind me of Chuchundra the Muskrat," I said, "who
940 spent his life crying because he could not come out into the
941 middle of the room. Your nose is blue from fear, your ears are
942 freezing, and your pants are wet so that you are trailing a
944 In such cases it makes absolutely no difference what is
945 said. It is important to speak calmly and not to make sudden
946 movements. The expression on his face did not change, but when
947 I spoke about the stream, he moved his eyes momentarily to take
948 a look. But only for a second. Then he jumped toward the door,
949 fluttering for a second at the latch, and flew outside, dirty
950 bottoms of his sandals flying. I went out after him.
951 He stood in the lilac bush, so that all I could see was
952 his pale face. Like a fleeing cat looking momentarily over its
954 "Okay, okay," said I. "Would you please explain to me what
955 I must do? I have to send home my new address. The address of
956 this house where I am now living." He regarded me in silence.
957 "I don't feel right going to your mother -- in the first place,
958 she has guests, and in the second--"
959 "Seventy-eight, Second Waterway," he said.
960 Slowly I sat down on the steps. There was a distance of
961 some ten meters between us.
962 'That's quite a voice you have," I said confidentially.
963 "Just like my friend the barman's at Mirza-Charles."
964 "When did you arrive?" said he.
965 "Well, let's see." I looked at my watch, "About an hour
967 "Before you there was another one," he said, looking
968 sideways. "He was a rat-fink. He gave me striped swimming
969 trunks, and when I went in the water, they melted away."
970 "Ouch!" I said. "That is really a monster of some sort and
971 not a human -- he should have been drowned in Splotchy."
972 "Didn't have time -- I was going to, but he went away."
973 "Was it that same Hugger with Martha and the boys?"
974 "No -- where did you get that idea? Hugger came later."
976 He didn't answer. I leaned back against the wall and
977 contemplated the street. A car jerkily backed out of the
978 opposite driveway, back and forthed, and roared off.
979 Immediately it was followed by another just such a car. There
980 was the pungent smell of gasoline. Then cars followed one after
981 another, until my eyes blurred. Several helis appeared in the
982 sky. They were the so-called silent helis, but they flew
983 relatively low, and while they flew, it was difficult to talk.
984 In any case, the boy was apparently not going to talk. But he
985 wasn't going to leave, either. He was doing something with his
986 splotcher in the bushes and was glancing at me now and then. I
987 was hoping he wasn't going to splotch me again. The helis kept
988 going and going, and the cars kept swishing and swishing, as
989 though all the fifteen thousand cars were speeding by on Second
990 Waterway, and all the five hundred helis were hung over Number
991 78. The whole thing lasted about ten minutes, and the boy
992 seemed to cease paying attention to me while I sat and wondered
993 what questions I should ask of Rimeyer. Then everything
994 returned to its previous state, the smell of exhaust was gone,
996 "Where are they all going -- all at once?" I asked.
999 "I don't know either, but somehow you knew about Hugger."
1000 "About Hugger," I said. "I know about Hugger quite
1001 accidentally. And about you I know nothing at all... how you
1002 live and what you do. For instance, what are you doing now?"
1003 "The safeguard is broken."
1004 "Well then, give it to me, I'll fix it. Why are you afraid
1005 of me? Do I look like a rat-fink?"
1006 "They all drove off to work," he said.
1007 "You sure go to work late. It's practically dinnertime
1008 already. Do you know the Hotel Olympic?"
1010 "Would you walk me there?"
1014 "School is about to end -- I must be going home."
1015 "Aha! So that's the way of it," said I. "You are playing
1016 hookey, or ditching it, as we used to say. What grade are you
1019 "I used to be in third grade, too," I said.
1020 He came a bit out of the bushes.
1022 "Then I was in the fourth." I got up. "Well, okay. Talk
1023 you won't, go for a walk you won't, and your pants are wet, so
1024 I am going back in. You won't even tell me your name."
1025 He looked at me in silence and breathed heavily through
1026 his mouth. I went back to my quarters. The cream-colored hall
1027 was irreparably disfigured, it seemed to me. The huge black
1028 clot was not drying. Somebody is going to get it today, I
1029 thought. A ball of string was underfoot. I picked it up. The
1030 end of the string was tied to the landlady's half-doorknob. So,
1031 I thought, this too is clear. I untied the string and put the
1033 In the study, I got a clean sheet of paper from the desk
1034 and composed a telegram to Matia. "Arrived safely, 78 Second
1035 Waterway. Kisses. Ivan." I telephoned it to the local PT&T and
1036 again dialed Rimeyer's number. Again there was no answer. I put
1037 on my jacket, looked in the mirror, counted my money, and was
1038 about to set out when I saw that the door to the living room
1039 was open and an eye was visible through the crack. Naturally, I
1040 gave no sign. I carefully completed the inspection of my
1041 clothing, returned to the bathroom, and vacuumed myself for a
1042 while, whistling away merrily. When I returned to the study,
1043 the mouse-eared head sticking through the half-open door
1044 immediately vanished. Only the silvery tube of the splotcher
1045 continued to protrude. Sitting down in the chair, I opened and
1046 closed all the twelve drawers, including the secret one, and
1047 only then looked at the door. The boy stood framed in it.
1048 "My name is Len," he announced.
1049 "Greetings, Len," I said absent-mindedly. "I am called
1050 Ivan. Come on in -- although I was going out to have dinner.
1051 You haven't had dinner yet?"
1053 "That's good. Go ask your mother's permission and we'll be
1055 "It's too early," he said.
1056 "What's too early? To have dinner?"
1057 "No, to go. School doesn't end for another twenty
1058 minutes." He was silent again. "Besides, there's that fat fink
1060 "He's a bad one?' I asked.
1061 "Yeah," said Len. "Are you really leaving now?"
1062 "Yes, I am," I said, and took the ball of string from my
1063 pocket. "Here, take it. And what if Mother comes out first?"
1065 "If you are really leaving," he said, "would it be all
1066 right if I stayed in your place?"
1068 "There's nobody else here?"
1070 He still didn't come to me to take the string, but let me
1071 come to him, and even allowed me to take his ear. It was indeed
1072 cold. I ruffled his head lightly and pushed him toward the
1074 "Go sit all you want. I won't be back soon."
1075 "I'll take a snooze," said Len.
1077 <ul><a name=3></a><h2>Chapter THREE</h2></ul>
1079 The Hotel Olympic was a fifteen-story red-and-black
1080 structure. Half the plaza in front of it was covered with cars,
1081 and in its center stood a monument surrounded by a small
1082 flowerbed. It represented a man with a proudly raised head.
1083 Detouring the monument, I suddenly realized that I knew the
1084 man. In puzzlement I stopped and examined it more thoroughly.
1085 There was no doubt about it. There in front of Hotel Olympic,
1086 in a funny old-fashioned suit with his hand resting on an
1087 incomprehensible apparatus which I almost took for the
1088 extension of the abstract-styled base, and with his eyes
1089 staring at infinity through contemptuously squinting lids, was
1090 none other than Vladimir Sergeyevitch Yurkovsky. Carved in gold
1091 letters on the base was the legend "Vladimir Yurkovsky,
1092 December 5, Year of the Scales."
1093 I couldn't believe it, because they do not raise monuments
1094 to Yurkovskys. While they live, they are appointed to more or
1095 less responsible positions, they are honored at jubilees, they
1096 are elected to membership in academies. They are rewarded with
1097 medals and are honored with international prizes, and when they
1098 die or perish; they are the subjects of books, quotations,
1099 references, but always less and less often as time passes, and
1100 finally they are forgotten altogether. They depart the halls of
1101 memory and linger on only in books. Vladimir Sergeyevitch was a
1102 general of the sciences and a remarkable man. But it is not
1103 possible to erect monuments to all generals and all remarkable
1104 men, especially in countries to which they had no direct
1105 relationship and in cities where if they did visit, it was only
1106 temporarily. In any case, in that Year of the Scales, which is
1107 of significance only to them, he was not even a general. In
1108 March he was, jointly with Dauge, completing the investigation
1109 of the Amorphous Spot on Uranus. That was when the sounding
1110 probe blew up and we all got a dose in the work section -- and
1111 when we got back to the Planet in September, he was all spotted
1112 with lilac blotches, mad at the world, promising himself that
1113 he would take time out to swim and get sunburned and then get
1114 right back to the design of a new probe because the old one was
1115 trash.... I looked at the hotel again to reassure myself. The
1116 only out was to assume that the life of the town was in some
1117 mysterious and potent manner highly dependent on the Amorphous
1118 Spot on Uranus. Yurkovsky continued to smile with snobbish
1119 superiority. Generally, the sculpture was quite good, but I
1120 could not figure out what it was he was leaning on. The
1121 apparatus didn't look like the probe.
1122 Something hissed by my ear. I turned and involuntarily
1123 sprang back. Beside me, staring dully at the monument base, was
1124 a tall gaunt individual closely encased from head to foot in
1125 some sort of gray scaly material and with a bulky cubical
1126 helmet around his head. The face was obscured behind a glass
1127 plate with holes, from which smoke issued in synchronism with
1128 his breathing. The wasted visage behind the plate was covered
1129 with perspiration and the cheeks twitched in frantic tempo. At
1130 first I took him for a Wanderer, then I thought that he was a
1131 tourist executing a curative routine, and only finally did I
1132 realize that I was looking at an Arter.
1133 "Excuse me," I said "Could you please tell me what sort of
1135 The damp face contorted more desperately. "What?" came the
1136 dull response from inside the helmet.
1138 "I am inquiring: what is this monument?"
1139 The man glared at the statue. The smoke came thicker out
1140 of the holes. There was more powerful hissing.
1141 "Vladimir Yurkovsky," he read, "Fifth of December, Year of
1142 the Scales... aha... December... so -- it must be some German."
1143 "And who put up the monument?"
1144 "I don't know," said the man. "But it's written down right
1145 there. What's it to you?"
1146 "I was an acquaintance of his," I explained.
1147 "Well then, why do you ask? Ask the man himself."
1149 "Aah... Maybe they buried him here?"
1150 "No," I said, "he is buried far away."
1152 "Far away. What's that thing he is holding?"
1153 "What thing? It's an eroula."
1155 "I said, an eroula. An electronic roulette."-
1157 "What's a roulette doing here?"
1159 "Here, on the statue."
1160 "I don't know," said the man after some thought. "Maybe
1161 your friend invented it?"
1162 "Hardly," said I. "He worked in a different field."
1164 "He was a planetologist and an interplanetary pilot."
1165 "Aah... well, if he invented it, that was bully for him.
1166 It's a useful thing. I should remember it: Yurkovsky, Vladimir.
1167 He must have been a brainy German."
1168 "I doubt he invented it," I said. "I repeat -- he was an
1169 interplanetary pilot."
1170 The man stared at me.
1171 "Well, if he didn't invent it, then why is he standing
1173 "That's the point," I said. "I am amazed myself."
1174 "You are a damn liar," said the man suddenly. "You lie and
1175 you don't even know why you are lying. It's early morning, and
1176 he is stoned already.... Alcoholic!"
1177 He turned away and shuffled off, dragging his thin legs
1178 and hissing loudly. I shrugged my shoulders, took a last look
1179 at Vladimir Sergeyevitch, and set off toward the hotel, across
1181 The gigantic doorman swung the door open for me and
1182 sounded an energetic welcome.
1184 "Would you be so kind," said I. "Do you know what that
1186 The doorman looked toward the plaza over my head. His face
1187 registered confusion.
1188 "Isn't that written on it?"
1189 "There is a legend," I said. "But who put it up and why?"
1190 The doorman shuffled his feet.
1191 "I beg your pardon," he said guiltily, "I just can't
1193 your question. The monument has been there a long time,
1194 while I came here very recently. I don't wish to misinform you.
1195 Maybe the porter..."
1197 "Well, don't worry about it. Where is a telephone?"
1198 "To your right, if you please," he said looking delighted.
1199 A porter started out in my direction, but I shook my head
1200 and picked up the receiver and dialed Rimeyer's number. This
1201 time I got a busy signal. I went to the elevator and up to the
1203 Rimeyer, looking untypically fleshy, met me in a dressing
1204 gown, out of which stuck legs in pants and with shoes on. The
1205 room stank of cigarette smoke and the ashtray was full of
1206 butts. There was a general air of chaos in the whole suite. One
1207 of the armchairs was knocked over, a woman's slip was lying
1208 crumpled on the couch, and a whole battery of empty bottles
1209 glinted under the table.
1210 "What can I do for you?" asked Rimeyer with a touch of
1211 hostility, looking at my chin. Apparently he was recently out
1212 of his bathroom, and his sparse colorless hair was wet against
1213 his long skull. I handed him my card in silence. Rimeyer read
1214 it slowly and attentively, shoved it in his pocket, and
1215 continuing to look at my chin, said, "Sit down."
1217 "It is most unfortunate. I am devilishly busy and don't
1218 have a minute's time."
1219 "I called you several times today," said I.
1220 "I just got back. What's your name?"
1222 "And your last name?"
1224 "You see, Zhilin, to make it short, I have to get dressed
1225 and leave again." He was silent awhile, rubbing his flabby
1226 cheeks. "Anyway there's not much to talk about.... However, if
1227 you wish, you can sit here and wait for me. If I don't return
1228 in an hour, come back tomorrow at twelve. And leave your
1229 telephone number and address, write it down right on the table
1231 He threw off the bathrobe, and dragging it along, walked
1232 off into the adjoining room.
1233 "In the meantime," he continued, "you can see the town,
1234 and a miserable little town it is.... But you'll have to do it
1235 in any case. As for me, I am sick to my stomach of it."
1236 He returned adjusting his tie. His hands were trembling,
1237 and the skin on his face looked gray and wilted. Suddenly I
1238 felt that I did not trust him -- the sight of him was
1239 repellent, like that of a neglected sick man.
1240 "You look poorly," I said. "You have changed a great
1242 For the first time he looked me in the eyes.
1243 "And how would you know what I was like before?"
1244 "I saw you at Matia's. You smoke a lot, Rimeyer, and
1245 tobacco is saturated regularly with all kinds of trash
1247 "Tobacco -- that's a lot of nonsense," he said with sudden
1248 irritation. "Here everything is saturated with all kinds of
1249 tripe.... But perhaps you may be right, probably I should
1250 quit." He pulled on his jacket slowly; "Time to quit, and in
1251 any case, I shouldn't have started."
1252 "How is the work coming along?"
1253 "It could be worse. And unusually absorbing work it is."
1254 He smiled in a peculiar unpleasant way. "I am going now, as
1255 they are waiting for me and I am late. So, till an hour from
1256 now, or until tomorrow at twelve."
1257 He nodded to me and left.
1258 I wrote my address and telephone number on the table, and
1259 as my foot plowed into the mass of bottles underneath, I
1260 couldn't help but think that the work was indeed absorbing. I
1261 called room service and requested a chambermaid to clean up the
1262 room. The most polite of voices replied that the occupant of
1263 the suite categorically forbade service personnel to enter his
1264 room during his absence and had repeated the prohibition just
1265 now on leaving the hotel. "Aha," I said, and hung up. This
1266 didn't sit well with me. For myself, I never issue such
1267 directions and have never hidden even my notebooks, not from
1268 anyone. It's stupid to work at deception and much better to
1269 drink less. I picked up the overturned armchair, sat down, and
1270 prepared for a long wait, trying to overcome a sense of
1271 displeasure and disappointment.
1272 I didn't have to wait for long. After some ten minutes,
1273 the door opened a crack and a pretty face protruded into the
1275 "Hey there," it pronounced huskily. "Is Rimeyer in?"
1276 "Rimeyer is not in, but you can come in anyway."
1277 She hesitated, examining me. Apparently she had no
1278 intention of coming in, but was just saying hello, in passing.
1279 "Come in, come in," said I. "I have nothing to do."
1280 She entered with a light dancing gait, and putting her
1281 arms akimbo, stood in front of me. She had a short turned-up
1282 nose and a disheveled boyish hairdo. The hair was red, the
1283 shorts crimson, and the blouse a bright yolk yellow. A colorful
1284 woman and quite attractive. She must have been about
1286 "You wait -- right?"
1287 Her eyes were unnaturally bright and she smelled of wine,
1288 tobacco, and perfume.
1289 She collapsed on the hassock and flung her legs up on the
1291 "Throw a cigarette to a working girl," she said. "It's
1292 five hours since I had one."
1293 "I don't smoke. Shall I ring for some?"
1294 "Good Lord, another sad sack! Never mind the phone .. or
1295 that dame will show up again. Rummage around in the ashtray and
1296 find me a good long butt."
1297 The ashtray did have a lot of long butts.
1298 'They all have lipstick on them," said I.
1299 "That's all right; it's my lipstick. What's your name?"
1301 She snapped a lighter and lit up.
1302 "And mine is Ilina. Are you a foreigner, too? All you
1303 foreigners seem so wide. What are you doing here?"'
1304 "Waiting for Rimeyer."
1305 "I don't mean that! What brought you here, are you
1306 escaping from your wife?"
1307 "I am not married," I said quietly. "I came to write a
1309 "A book? Some friends this Rimeyer has. He came to write a
1310 book. <i>Sex Problems of Impotent Sportsmen</i>. How's your
1311 situation with the sex problem?"
1312 "It is not a problem to me," I said mildly. "And how about
1314 She lowered her legs from the table.
1315 "That's a no-no. Take it slow. This isn't Paris, you know.
1316 All in good time. Anyway, you should have your locks cut --
1317 sitting there like a perch."
1318 "Like a who?" I was very patient as I had another
1319 forty-five minutes to wait.
1320 "Like a perch. You know the type." She made vague motions
1322 "I don't know about that," I said. "I don't know anything
1323 yet as I have just arrived. Tell me about it, it sounds
1325 "Oh no! Not I! We don't chatter. Our bit is a small one --
1326 serve, clean up, flash your teeth, and keep quiet. Professional
1327 secret. Have you heard of such an animal?"
1328 "I've heard," I said. "But who's 'we' -- an association of
1330 For some reason, she thought this was hilarious.
1331 "Doctors! Imagine that." She laughed. "Well, wise guy,
1332 you're all right -- quite a tongue. We have one in the once
1333 like you. One word, and we're all rolling in the aisles.
1334 Whenever we cater to the Fishers, he always gets the job, they
1336 "Who doesn't?" said I.
1337 "Well, you are wrong. The Intels, for instance, chased him
1338 out. 'Take the fool away,' they said. Or also recently those
1341 "The sad ones. Well, I can see you don't understand a
1342 thing. Where in heaven's name did you come from?"
1344 "So -- don't you have the sad ones in Vienna?"
1345 "You couldn't imagine what we don't have in Vienna."
1346 "Could be you don't even have irregular meetings?"
1347 "No, we don't have them. All our meetings are regular,
1348 like a bus schedule."
1349 She was having a good time.
1350 "Perhaps you don't have waitresses either?"
1351 "Waitresses we do have, and you can find some excellent
1352 examples. Are you a waitress then?"
1353 She jumped up abruptly.
1354 "That won't do at all," she cried. "I've had enough sad
1355 ones for today. Now you're going to have a loving cup with me
1356 like a good fellow...." She began to search furiously among the
1357 bottles by the window. "Damn him, they're all empty! Could be
1358 you're a teetotaler? Aha, here's a little vermouth. You drink
1359 that, or shall we order whiskey?"
1360 "Let's begin with the vermouth," said I.
1361 She banged the bottle on the table and took two glasses
1362 from the window sill.
1363 "Have to wash them. Hold on a minute, everything's full of
1364 garbage." She went into the bathroom and continued to speak
1365 from there. "If you turned out to be a teetotaler on top of
1366 everything else. I don't know what I would do with you.... What
1367 a pigsty he's got in his bathroom -- I love it! Where are you
1369 "No, in town," I replied. "On Second Waterway."
1370 She came back with the glasses.
1371 "Straight or with water?"
1372 "Straight, I guess."
1373 "All foreigners take it straight. But we have it with
1374 water for some reason." She sat on my armchair and put her arms
1375 around my shoulders. We drank and kissed without any feeling.
1376 Her lips were heavily lipsticked, and her eyelids were heavy
1377 from lack of sleep and fatigue. She put down her glass,
1378 searched out another butt in the ashtray, and returned to the
1380 "Where is that Rimeyer?" she said. "After all, how long
1381 can you wait for him? Have you known him a long time?"
1383 "I think maybe he is a louse," she said with sudden ire.
1384 "He's dug everything out of me, and now he plays hard to get.
1385 He doesn't open his door, the animal, and you can't get through
1386 to him by phone. Say, he wouldn't be a spy, would he?"
1387 "What do you mean, a spy?"
1388 "Oh, there's loads of them.... From the Association for
1389 Sobriety and Morality.... The Connoisseurs and Appraisers are
1391 "No, Rimeyer is a decent sort," I said with some effort.
1392 "Decent... you are all decent. In the beginning, Rimeyer
1393 too was decent, so good-natured and full of fun... and now he
1394 looks at you like a croc."
1395 "Poor fellow," I said. "He must have remembered his family
1396 and become ashamed of himself."
1397 "He doesn't have a family. Anyway, the heck with him! Have
1399 We had another drink. She lay down and put her hands over
1400 her head. Finally she spoke.
1401 "Don't let it get to you. Spit on it! Wine we have enough
1402 of, we'll dance, go to the shivers. Tomorrow there's a football
1403 game, we'll bet on the Bulls."
1404 "I am not letting it get to me. If you want to bet on the
1405 Bulls, we'd bet on the Bulls."
1406 "Oh those Bulls! They are some boys! I could watch them
1407 forever, arms like iron, snuggling up against them is just like
1408 snuggling against a tree trunk, really!"
1409 There was a knock on the door.
1410 "Come in!" yelled Ilina.
1411 A man entered and stopped at once. He was tall and bony,
1412 of middle age, with a brush mustache and light protruding eyes.
1413 "I beg your pardon, I was looking for Rimeyer," he said.
1414 "Everyone here wants to see Rimeyer," said Ilina. "Have a
1415 chair and we'll all wait together."
1416 The stranger bowed his head and sat down by the table,
1418 Apparently he had been here before. He did not look
1419 around, but stared at the wall directly in front of him.
1420 However, perhaps he just was not a curious type. In any case,
1421 it was clear that neither I nor Ilina was of any interest to
1422 him. This seemed unnatural to me, since I felt that such a pair
1423 as myself and Ilina should arouse interest in any normal
1424 person. Ilina raised up on her elbow and scrutinized him in
1426 "I have seen you somewhere," she said.
1427 "Really?" said the stranger coldly.
1429 "Oscar. I am Rimeyer's friend."
1430 "That's fine," said Ilina. She was obviously irritated by
1431 the stranger's indifference, but she kept herself in check.
1432 "He's also a friend of Rimeyer." She stuck her finger at me.
1433 "You know each other?"
1434 "No," said. Oscar, continuing to look at the wall.
1435 "My name is Ivan," said I. "And this is Rimeyer's friend,
1436 Ilina. We just drank to our fraternal friendship."
1437 Oscar glanced indifferently in Ilina's direction and
1438 nodded his head politely. Ilina picked up the bottle without
1439 taking her eyes off him.
1440 "There's still a little left here," she said. "Would you
1441 like a drink, Oscar?"
1442 "No, thank you," he said, coldly.
1443 "To fraternal friendship!" said Ilina. "No? You don't want
1445 She splashed some wine in my glass, poured the rest in
1446 hers, and downed it at once.
1447 "Never in my life would I have thought that Rimeyer could
1448 have friends who refuse a drink. Still, I have seen you
1450 Oscar shrugged his shoulders.
1451 "I doubt it," he said.
1452 Ilina was visibly becoming enraged.
1453 "Some sort of a fink," she said to me loudly. "Say there,
1454 Oscar, you wouldn't be an Intel?"
1456 "What do you mean, no?" said Ilina. "You're the one who
1457 had a set-to with that baldy Leiz at the Weasel, broke a
1458 mirror, and had your face slapped by Mody."
1459 The stone visage of Oscar grew a shade pinker.
1460 "I assure you," he said courteously, "I am not an Intel
1461 and have never in my life been in the Weasel."
1462 "Are you saying that I'm a liar?" said Ilina
1463 At this point I took the bottle off the table and put it
1464 under my armchair, just in case.
1465 "I am a visitor," said Oscar. "A tourist."
1466 "When did you arrive?" I said to discharge the tension.
1467 "Very recently," replied Oscar. He continued to gaze at
1468 the wall. Obviously here was a man with iron discipline.
1469 "Oh, oh!" said Ilina suddenly. "Now I remember! I got it
1471 She burst out laughing, "Of course you're no Intel! You
1472 were at our office the day before last. You're the salesman who
1473 offered our manager some junk like... 'Dugong' or 'Dupont..."
1474 "Devon," I prompted. "There is a repellent called Devon."
1475 Oscar smiled for the first time.
1476 "You are quite right, of course," he said. "But I am not a
1477 salesman. I was only doing a favor for a relative."
1478 "That's different," said Ilina and jumped up. "You should
1479 have said so. Ivan, we all need to drink to a pledge of
1480 friendship. I'll call... no, I'll go get it myself. You two can
1481 have a talk, I'll be right back."
1482 She ran out of the room, banging the door.
1483 "A fun girl," said I.
1484 "Yes, extremely. You live here?"
1485 "No, I'm a traveler, too.... What a strange idea your
1487 "What do you have in mind?"
1488 "Who needs Devon in a resort town?"
1490 "It's hard for me to judge; I'm no chemist. But you will
1491 agree that it's hard for us to comprehend the actions of our
1492 fellow men, much less their fancies.... So Devon turns out to
1493 be - What did you call it, a res...?"
1494 "Repellent," I said.
1495 "That would be for mosquitoes?"
1496 "Not so much for as against."
1497 "I can see you are quite well up on it," said Oscar.
1498 "I had occasion to use it."
1500 What the devil, thought I. What is he getting at? He was
1501 no longer staring at the wall He was looking me straight in the
1502 eyes and smiling. But if he was going to say something, it was
1505 "I don't think I'll wait any longer," he pronounced. "It
1506 looks like I'll have to drink another pledge. But I didn't come
1507 here to drink, I came here to get well. Please tell Rimeyer
1508 that I will call him again tonight. You won't forget?"
1509 "No," I said, "I won't forget. If I tell him that Oscar
1510 was in to see him, he will know whom I am talking about?"
1511 "Yes, of course. It's my real name."
1512 He bowed, and walked out at a deliberate pace,
1513 ramrod-straight and somehow unnatural-looking. I dipped my hand
1514 in the ashtray, found a butt without lipstick, and inhaled
1515 several times. I didn't like the taste and put out the stub. I
1516 didn't like Oscar, either. Nor Ilina. And especially Rimeyer --
1517 I didn't like him at all. I pawed through the bottles, but they
1520 <ul><a name=4></a><h2>Chapter FOUR</h2></ul>
1522 In the end I didn't wait long enough to see Rimeyer. Ilina
1523 never came back. Finally I got tired of sitting in the smoky,
1524 stale atmosphere of the room and went down to the lobby. I
1525 intended to have dinner and stopped to look around for a
1526 restaurant. A porter immediately materialized at my side.
1527 "At your service," he murmured discreetly. "An auto? Bar?
1529 "What kind of salon?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.
1530 "A hair-styling salon." He looked at my hairdo with
1531 delicate concern. "Master Gaoway is receiving today. I
1532 recommend him most strenuously."
1533 I recollected that Ilina had called me a disheveled perch
1534 and said, "Well, all right."
1535 "Please follow me," said the porter.
1536 Crossing the lobby, he opened a wide low door and said
1537 into the spacious interior, "Excuse me, Master, you have a
1539 "Come in," replied a quiet voice.
1540 I entered. The salon was light and airy and smelled
1541 pleasantly. Everything in it shone -- the chrome, the mirrors,
1542 the antique parquet floor. Shiny half-domes hung from the
1543 ceiling on glistening rods. In the center stood a huge white
1544 barber chair. The Master was advancing to meet me. He had
1545 penetrating immobile eyes, a hooked nose, and a gray Van Dyke.
1546 More than anything else he reminded me of a mature, experienced
1547 surgeon. I greeted him with some timidity, He nodded and,
1548 surveying me from head to foot, began to circle around me. I
1549 began to feel uncomfortable.
1550 "I would like you to bring me up to the current fashion,"
1551 said I, trying not to let him out of my field of view.
1552 But he restrained me gently by my sleeve and. stood
1553 breathing softly behind my back for a few seconds. "No doubt!
1554 No doubt at all", he murmured, then touched me lightly on my
1555 shoulder. "Please," he said sternly, "take a few steps forward
1556 -- five or six -- then turn abruptly to face me."
1557 I obeyed. He regarded me pensively, pulling on his beard.
1558 I thought he was hesitating.
1559 "On the other hand," he said, "sit down."
1561 "In the chair, in the chair."
1562 I lowered myself into its softness and watched him
1563 approach me slowly. His intelligent face was suddenly suffused
1564 with a look of profound chagrin.
1565 "But how is such a thing possible?" he said. "It's
1567 I couldn't find anything to say.
1568 "Gross disharmony," he muttered. "Repulsive... repulsive."
1569 "Is it really that bad?" I asked.
1570 "I don't understand why you came to me," he said, "since
1571 you obviously don't place any value at all on your appearance."
1572 "I am beginning to, from this day on," I said.
1574 "Never mind... I will work on you, but..." He shook his
1575 head, turned impulsively, and went to a high table covered with
1576 shiny devices. The back of the chair depressed smoothly, and I
1577 found myself in a half-reclining position. A big hemisphere
1578 descended toward me from above, radiating warmth, while
1579 hundreds of tiny needles seemed to sink into the nape of my
1580 neck, eliciting a strange combination of simultaneous pain and
1582 "Is it gone yet?" he asked.
1583 The sensation abated.
1584 "It's gone," I said.
1585 "Your skin is good," growled the Master with a certain
1587 He returned with an assortment of the most unlikely
1588 instruments and proceeded to palpate my cheeks.
1589 "And still Mirosa married him," he said suddenly. "I
1590 expected anything and everything, except that. After all that
1591 Levant had done for her. Do you remember that moment when they
1592 were both weeping over the dying Pina? You could have bet
1593 anything that they would be together forever. And now, imagine,
1594 she is being wed to that literary fellow."
1595 I have a rule: to pick up and sustain any conversation
1596 that comes along. When you don't know what it's all about, this
1597 can even be interesting.
1598 "Not for long," I said with assurance. "Literary types are
1599 very inconstant, I can assure you, being one myself."
1600 For a moment his hands paused on my temples.
1601 "That didn't enter my head," he admitted. "Still, it's
1602 wedlock, even though only a civil one.... I must remember to
1603 call my wife. She was very upset."
1604 "I can sympathize with her," I said. "But it did always
1605 seem to me that Levant was in love with that... Pina."
1606 "In love?" exclaimed the Master, coming around from my
1607 other side. "Of course he loved her! Madly! As only a lonely,
1608 rejected-by-all man can love."
1609 "And so it was quite natural that after the death of Pina,
1610 he sought consolation with her best friend."
1611 "Her bosom friend, yes," said the Master approvingly,
1612 while tickling me behind the ear. "Mirosa adored Pina! It's a
1613 very accurate term -- bosom friend! One senses a literary man
1614 in you at once! And Pina, too, adored Mirosa."
1615 "But, you notice," I picked up, "that. right from the
1616 beginning Pina suspected that Mirosa was infatuated with
1618 "Well, of course! They are extremely sensitive about such
1619 things. This was clear to everyone -- my wife noticed it at
1620 once. I recollect that she would nudge me with her elbow each
1621 time Pina alighted on Mirosa's tousled head, and so coyly and
1622 expectantly looked at Levant."
1623 This time I kept my peace.
1624 "In general, I am profoundly convinced," he continued,
1625 "that birds feel no less sensitively than people."
1626 Aha, thought I, and said, "I don't know about birds in
1627 general, but Pina was a lot more sensitive than let's say even
1629 Something bummed briefly over my head, and there was a
1630 soft clink of metal.
1631 "You speak like my wife, word for word," observed the
1632 Master, "so you most probably must like Dan. I was overcome
1633 when he was able to construct a bunkin for that Japanese
1634 noblewoman... can't think of her name. After all, not one
1635 person believed Dan. The Japanese king, himself..."
1636 "I beg your pardon," I said. "A bunkin?"
1637 "Yes, of course, you are not a specialist.... You remember
1638 that moment when the Japanese noblewoman comes out of prison.
1639 Her hair, in a high roller of blond hair, is ornamented with
1641 "Aah," I guessed. "It's a coiffure."
1642 "Yes, it even became fashionable for a time last year.
1643 Although a true bunkin could be made by a very few... even as a
1644 real chignon, by the way. And, of course, no one could believe
1645 that Dan, with his burned hands and half-blind .. Do you
1646 remember how he was blinded?"
1647 "It was overpowering," I said.
1648 "Oh yes, Dan was a true Master. To make a bunkin without
1649 electro-preparation, without biodevelopment... You know, I just
1650 had a thought," he continued, and there was a note of
1651 excitement in his voice. "It just struck me that Mirosa, after
1652 she parts with that literary guy, should marry Dan and not
1653 Levant. She will be wheeling him out on the veranda in his
1654 chair, and they will be listening to the singing nightingales
1655 in the moonlight -- the two of them together."
1656 "And crying quietly out of sheer happiness," I said.
1657 "Yes," the voice of the Master broke, "that would be only
1658 right. Otherwise I just don't know, I just don't understand,
1659 what all our struggles are for. No... we must insist. I'll go
1660 to the union this very day...."
1661 I kept quiet, again. The Master was breathing uneasily by
1663 "Let them go and shave at the automates," he said suddenly
1664 in a vengeful tone, "let them look like plucked geese. We let
1665 them have a taste once before of what it's like; now we'll see
1666 how they appreciate it."
1667 "I am afraid it won't be simple," I said cautiously, not
1668 -- having the vaguest idea of what this was about.
1669 "We Masters are used to the complicated. It's not all that
1670 simple -- when a fat and sweaty stuffed shirt comes to you, and
1671 you have to make a human being out of him, or at the very best,
1672 something which under normal circumstances does not differ too
1673 much from a human being... is that simple? Remember what Dan
1674 said: 'Woman gives birth to a human being once in nine months,
1675 but we Masters have to do it every day.' Aren't those
1677 "Dan was talking about barbers?" I said, just in case.
1678 "Dan was talking about Masters. 'The beauty of the world
1679 rests on our shoulders,' he would say. And again, do you
1680 remember: 'In order to make a man out of an ape, Darwin had to
1681 be an excellent Master.'"
1682 I decided to capitulate and confess.
1683 "This I don't remember."
1684 "How long have you been watching 'Rose of the Salon'?"
1685 "Well, I have arrived just recently."
1686 "Aah, then you have missed a lot. My wife and I have been
1687 watching the program for seven years, every Tuesday. We missed
1688 only one show; I had an attack and lost consciousness. But in
1689 the whole town there is only one man who hasn't missed even one
1690 show -- Master Mille at the Central Salon."
1691 He moved off a few paces, turned various colored lights on
1692 and off, and resumed his work.
1693 "The seventh year," he repeated. "And now -- can you
1694 imagine -- the year before last they kill off Mirosa and throw
1695 Levant into a Japanese prison for life, while Dan is burned at
1696 the stake. Can you visualize that?"
1697 "It's impossible," I said. "Dan? At the stake? Although
1698 it's true that they burned Bruno at the stake, too."
1699 "It's possible," he said with impatience. "In any case, it
1700 became clear to us that they want to fold up the program fast.
1701 But we didn't put up with that. We declared a strike and
1702 struggled for three weeks. Mille and I picketed the barber
1703 automates. And let me tell you that quite a lot of the
1704 townspeople sympathized with us."
1705 "I should think so," I said. "And what happened? Did you
1707 "As you see. They grasped very well what was involved, and
1708 now the TV center knows with whom they are dealing. We didn't
1709 give one step, and if need be, we won't. Anyway we can rest on
1710 Tuesdays now just like in the old days -- for real."
1711 "And the other days?"
1712 "The other days we wait for Tuesday and try to guess what
1713 is awaiting us and what you literary fellows will do for us. We
1714 guess and make bets -- although we Masters don't have much
1716 "You have a large clientele?"
1717 "No, that's not it. I mean homework. It's not difficult to
1718 become a Master, it's difficult to remain one. There is a mass
1719 of literature, lots of new methods, new applications, and you
1720 have to keep up with it all and constantly experiment,
1721 investigate and keep track of allied fields -- bionics, plastic
1722 medicine, organic medicine. And with time, you accumulate
1723 experience, and you get the urge to share your knowledge. So
1724 Mille and I are writing our second book, and practically every
1725 month, we have to update the manuscript. Everything becomes
1726 obsolete right before your eyes. I am now completing a treatise
1727 on a little-known characteristic of the naturally straight
1728 nonplastic hair; and do you know I have practically no chance
1729 of being the first? In our country alone, I know of three
1730 Masters who are occupied with the same subject. It's only to be
1731 expected -- the naturally straight nonplastic hair is a real
1732 problem. It's considered to be absolutely
1733 nonaestheticizable.... However, this may not be of interest to
1734 you? You are a writer?"
1736 "Well, you know, during the strike, I had a chance to run
1737 through a novel. That would not be yours, by any chance?"
1738 "I don't know," I said, "What was it about?"
1739 "Well, I couldn't say exactly.... Son quarrels with
1740 father. He has a friend, an unpleasant fellow with a strange
1741 name. He occupies himself by cutting up frogs."
1742 "Can't remember," I lied -- poor Ivan Sergeyevitch.
1743 "I can't remember either. It was some sort of nonsense. I
1744 have a son, but he never quarrels with me, and he never
1745 tortures animals -- except perhaps when he was a child"
1746 He backed away again and made a slow circuit around me.
1747 His eyes were burning; he seemed to be very pleased.
1748 "It looks as though we can stop here," he said.
1749 I got out of the chair. "Not bad. Not bad at all,"
1750 murmured the Master. I approached the mirror. He turned on
1751 spotlights, which illuminated me from all sides so that there
1752 were no shadows on my face.
1753 In the first instant I did not notice anything unusual
1754 about myself. It was my usual self. Then I felt that it was not
1755 I at all. That it was something much better than I. A whole lot
1756 better. Better looking than I. More benevolent than I.
1757 Appreciably more significant than I. I experienced a sense of
1758 shame, as though I were deliberately passing myself off as a
1759 man to whom I couldn't hold a candle.
1760 "How did you do this thing?" I said in a strangled tone.
1761 "It's nothing," said the Master, smiling in a very special
1762 way. "You turned out to be a fairly easy client, albeit quite
1764 I stood before the mirror like Narcissus and couldn't tear
1765 myself away. Suddenly, I felt awed. The Master was a magician,
1766 and an evil one at that, although he probably didn't realize it
1767 himself. The mirror reflected an extremely attractive lie. An
1768 intelligent, good-looking, monumental vapidity. Well, perhaps
1769 not a total vacuum, for after all I didn't have that low an
1770 opinion of myself. But the contrast was too great. All of my
1771 inner world, everything I valued in myself -- all that could
1772 just as well have not existed. It was no longer needed. I
1773 looked at the Master. He was smiling.
1774 "You have many clients?" I asked.
1775 He did not grasp my meaning, but after all, I didn't
1776 really want him to understand me.
1777 "Don't worry," he replied, "I'll always work on you with
1778 pleasure. The rawest material is the most intriguing."
1779 "Thank you," said I, lowering my eyes so as not to see his
1780 smile. "Thank you. Goodbye."
1781 "Just don't forget to pay," he said placidly. "We Masters
1782 value our work very highly."
1783 "Yes, of course," I caught myself. "Naturally. How much do
1785 He stated how much I owed.
1786 'What?" said I regaining my equilibrium.
1787 He repeated with satisfaction.
1788 "Madness", I said forthrightly.
1789 "Such is the price of beauty," he explained. "You came
1790 here as an ordinary tourist, and you are leaving a king of this
1792 "An impersonator is what I am leaving as," I muttered,
1793 extracting the money.
1794 "No, no, not that bad!" he said confidentially. "Even I
1795 don't know that for sure. And even you are not convinced of it
1796 entirely.... Two more dollars, please. Thank you. Here is 50
1797 pfennigs change. You don't mind pfennigs?"
1798 I had nothing against pfennigs. I wanted to leave as fast
1800 I stood in the lobby for a while, becoming myself again,
1801 and gazing at the metallic figure of Vladimir Sergeyevitch.
1802 After all, all this is not new. After all, millions of people
1803 are not what they pass themselves for. But the damnable barber
1804 had made me over into an empiriocritic. Reality was masked with
1805 gorgeous hieroglyphics. I no longer believed what I saw in this
1806 city. The plaza covered with stereo-plastic was probably in
1807 reality not beautiful at all. Under the elegant contours of the
1808 autos lurked ominous and ugly shapes. And that beautiful
1809 charming woman is no doubt in fact a repulsive malodorous
1810 hyena, a promiscuous dull-witted sow. I closed my eyes and
1811 shook my head. The old devil!
1812 Two meticulously groomed oldsters stopped nearby and began
1813 to debate heatedly the relative merits of baked pheasant
1814 compared with pheasant broiled with feathers. They argued,
1815 drooling saliva, smacking their lips and choking, snapping
1816 their bony fingers under each other's noses. No Master could
1817 help these two. They were Masters themselves and they made no
1818 bones about it. At any rate, they restored my materialist
1819 viewpoint. I went to a porter and inquired about a restaurant.
1820 "Right in front of you," said he and smiled at the arguing
1821 oldsters. "Any cuisine in the world."
1822 I could have mistaken the entrance to the restaurant for
1823 the gates to a botanical garden. I entered, parting the
1824 branches of exotic trees, stepping alternately on soft grass
1825 and coral flagstones. Unseen birds twittered in the luxuriant
1826 greenery, and the discreet clatter of utensils was mixed with
1827 the sound of conversation and laughter. A golden bird flew
1828 right in front of my nose, barely able to carry the load of a
1829 caviar tartine in its beak.
1830 "I am at your service," said the deep velvety voice.
1831 An imposing giant of a man with epaulettes stepped toward
1832 me cut of a thicket.
1833 "Dinner," I said curtly. I don't like maitres-d'hotel.
1834 "Dinner," he said significantly. "In company? Separate
1836 "Separate table. On second thought..."
1837 A notebook instantaneously appeared in his hand.
1838 "A man of your age would be welcome at the table of
1839 Mrs. and Miss Hamilton-Rey."
1841 "Father Geoffrois..."
1842 "I would prefer an aborigine."
1844 "Opir, doctor of philosophy, just now has sat down at his
1846 "That's a possibility," said I.
1847 He put away the book and led me along a path paved with
1848 limestone slabs. Somewhere around us there were people eating,
1849 talking, swishing seltzer. Hummingbirds darted like
1850 multicolored bees in the leaves. The maitre-d'hotel inquired
1851 respectfully, "How would you like to be introduced?"
1852 "Ivan. Tourist and litterateur."
1853 Doctor Opir was about fifty. I liked him at once because
1854 he immediately and without any ceremony sent the maitre-d'hotel
1855 packing after a waiter. He was pink and plump, and moved and
1857 "Don't trouble yourself," he said when I reached. for the
1858 menu. "It's all set already. Vodka, anchovies under egg -- we
1859 call them pacifunties -- potato soup..."
1860 "With sour cream," I interjected.
1861 "Of course!... steamed sturgeon a la Astrakhan... a patty
1863 "I would prefer pheasant baked in feathers."
1864 "No -- don't; it's not the season... a slice of beef, eel
1867 "Cognac," he retorted.
1868 "Coffee with cognac."
1869 "All right, cognac and coffee with cognac. Some pale wine
1870 with the fish and a good natural cigar."
1871 Dinner with Doctor Opir turned out to be most congenial.
1872 It was possible to eat, drink, and listen. Or not to listen.
1873 Doctor Opir did not need a conversation. He required a
1874 listener. I did not have to participate in the talking, I
1875 didn't even supply any commentaries, while he orated with
1876 enthusiastic delight, almost without interruption, waving his
1877 fork, while plates and dishes nonetheless became empty in front
1878 of him with mystifying speed. Never in my life have I met a man
1879 who was so skilled in conversation while his mouth was so fully
1880 packed and so busy masticating.
1881 "Science! Her Majesty!" he exclaimed. "She matured long
1882 and painfully, but her fruits turned out to be abundant and
1883 sweet. Stop, Moment, you are beautiful! Hundreds of generations
1884 were born, suffered, and died, and not one was impelled to
1885 pronounce this incantation. We are singularly fortunate. We
1886 were born in the greatest of epochs, the Epoch of the
1887 Satisfaction of Desires. It may be that not everybody
1888 understands this as yet, but ninety-nine percent of my fellow
1889 citizens are already living in a world where, for all practical
1890 purposes, a man can have all he can think of. O, Science! You
1891 have finally freed mankind. You have given us and will
1892 henceforth provide for us everything -- food -- wonderful food
1893 -- clothing of the best quality and in any quantity, and to
1894 suit any taste! -- shelter -- magnificent shelter. Love, joy,
1895 satisfaction, and for those desiring it, for those who are
1896 fatigued by happiness -- tears, sweet tears, little saving
1897 sorrows, pleasant consoling worries which lend us significance
1898 in our own eyes.... Yes, we philosophers have maligned science
1899 long and angrily. We called forth Luddites, to break up
1900 machines, we cursed Einstein, who changed our whole universe,
1901 we vilified Wiener, who impugned our godlike essence. Well, so
1902 we really lost that godlike substance. Science robbed us of it.
1903 But in return! In return, it launched men to the feasting
1904 tables of Olympus. Aha! Here is the potato soup, that heavenly
1905 porridge. No, no, do as I do... take this spoon, a touch of
1906 vinegar... a dash of pepper... with the other spoon, this one
1907 here, dip some sour cream and... no, no... gently, gently mix
1908 it.... This too is a science, one of the most ancient, older in
1909 any cue than the ubiquitous synthetic.... By the way, don't
1910 fail to visit our synthesizers, Amalthea's Horn, Inc. You
1911 wouldn't be a chemist? Oh yes, you are a litterateur! You
1912 should write about it, the greatest mystery of our times,
1913 beefsteaks out of thin air, asparagus from clay, truffles from
1914 sawdust.... What a pity that Malthus is dead'! The whole world
1915 would be laughing at him! Of course, he had certain reasons for
1916 his pessimism. I am prepared to agree with those who consider
1917 him a genius. But he was too ill-informed, he completely missed
1918 the possibilities in the natural sciences. He was one of those
1919 unlucky geniuses who discover laws of social development
1920 precisely at that moment when these laws cease to operate. I am
1921 genuinely sorry for him. The whole of humanity was but billions
1922 of hungrily gaping mouths to him. He must have lost sleep from
1923 the sheer horror of it. It is a truly monstrous nightmare -- a
1924 billion gaping maws and not one head. I turned back and see
1925 with bitterness how blind they were, the shakers of souls and
1926 the masters of the minds of the recent past. Their awareness
1927 was dimmed by unbroken horror. Social Darwinists! They saw only
1928 the press of the struggle for survival: mobs of hunger-crazed
1929 people, tearing each other to pieces for a place in the sun, as
1930 though there was only that one single place, as though the sun
1931 wasn't sufficient for all! And Nietzsche... maybe he was
1932 suitable for the hungry slaves of the Pharaohs' times, with his
1933 ominous sermons about the master race, with his supermen beyond
1934 good and evil... who needs to be beyond now? It's not so bad on
1935 this side, don't you suppose? There were, of course, Marx and
1936 Freud. Marx, for example, was the first to understand that it
1937 all depended on economics. He understood that to rip the
1938 economics out of the hands of greedy nincompoops and
1939 fetishists, to make it part of the state, to develop it
1940 limitlessly, was the very way to lay the foundations of a
1941 Golden Age. And Freud showed us for what, after all, we needed
1942 this Golden Age. Recollect the source of all human misery.
1943 Unsatisfied instincts, unrequited love, and unsated hunger --
1944 isn't that right? But here comes Her Majesty, Science, and
1945 presents us with satisfactions. And how rapidly all this has
1946 come to pass! The names of gloomy prognosticators are not yet
1947 forgotten, and already... How do you like the sturgeon? I am
1948 under the impression that the sauce is synthetic. Do you see
1949 the pinkish tint? Yes, it is synthetic. In a restaurant we
1950 should be able to expect natural sauce. Waiter! On second
1951 thought -- the devil take it, let's not be so finicky. Go on,
1952 go on... Now what was I saying? Yes! Love and hunger. Satisfy
1953 love and hunger, and you'll see a happy man. On condition, of
1954 course, that your man is secure about the next day. All the
1955 utopias of all times are based on this simplest of
1956 considerations. Free a man of the worry about his daily bread
1957 and about the morrow, and he will become truly free and happy.
1958 I am deeply convinced that children, yes, precisely the
1959 children, are man's ideal. I see the most profound meaning in
1960 the remarkable similarity between a child and the carefree man
1961 who is the object of utopia. Carefree means happy -- and we are
1962 so close to that ideal! Another few decades, or maybe just a
1963 few more years, and we will attain the automated plenty, we
1964 will discard science as a healed man discards his crutches, and
1965 the whole of mankind will become one huge happy family of
1966 children. The adults will be distinguished from the children
1967 only by their ability to love, and this ability will, again
1968 with the help of science, become the source of new and
1969 unheard-of joys and pleasures.... Excuse me, what is your name?
1970 Ivan? So, you must be from Russia. Communist? Aha... well,
1971 everything is different there I know.... And here is the
1972 coffee! Mm, not bad. But where is the cognac? Well, thank you!
1973 By the way, I hear that the Great Wine Taster has retired. The
1974 most grandiose scandal befell at the Brussels contest of
1975 cognacs, which was suppressed only with the greatest of
1976 difficulties. The Grand Prix is awarded to the White Centaur
1977 brand. The jury is delighted! It is something totally
1978 unprecedented! Such a phenomenal extravaganza of sensations!
1979 The declaratory packet is opened, and, oh horrors, it's a
1980 synthetic! The Great Wine Taster turned as white as a sheet of
1981 paper and was physically ill. By the way, I had an opportunity
1982 to try this cognac, and it's really superb, but they run it
1983 from crude and it doesn't even have a proper name. H ex
1984 eighteen naphtha fraction and it's cheaper than hydrolyzed
1985 alcohol.... Have a cigar. Nonsense, what do you mean you don't
1986 smoke? It's not right not to have a cigar after a dinner like
1987 this.... I love this restaurant. Every time I come here to
1988 lecture at the university, I dine at the Olympic. And before
1989 returning, I invariably visit the Tavern. True, they don't have
1990 the greenery, nor the tropical birds, and it's a bit stuffy and
1991 warm and smells of smoke, but they have a genuine, inimitable
1992 cuisine. The Assiduous Tasters gather nowhere but there -- at
1993 the Gourmet. In that place you do nothing but eat. You can't
1994 talk, you can't laugh, it's totally nonsensical to go there
1995 with a woman -- you only eat there! Slowly, thoughtfully..."
1996 Doctor Opir finally ran down, leaned back in his chair,
1997 and inhaled deeply with total enjoyment. I sucked on the mighty
1998 cigar and contemplated the man. I had him well pegged, this
1999 doctor of philosophy. Always and in all times there have been
2000 such men, absolutely pleased with their situation in society
2001 and therefore absolutely satisfied with the condition of that
2002 society. A marvelously well-geared tongue and a lively pen,
2003 magnificent teeth and faultless innards, and a well-employed
2005 "And so the world is beautiful, Doctor?"
2006 "Yes," said the doctor with feeling, "it is finally
2008 "You are a gigantic optimist," said I.
2009 "Our time is the time of optimists. Pessimists go to the
2010 Good Mood Salon, void the gall from their subconscious, and
2011 become optimists. The time of pessimists has passed, just as
2012 the time of tuberculars, of sexual maniacs, and of the military
2013 has passed. Pessimism, as an intellectual emotion, is being
2014 extirpated by that self-same science. And that not indirectly
2015 through the creation of affluence, but concretely by way of
2016 invasion of the dark world of the subcortex. Let's take the
2017 dream generator, currently the most popular diversion of the
2018 masses. It is completely harmless, unusually well adopted to
2019 general use, and is structurally simple. Or consider the
2020 neurostimulators...."
2021 I attempted to steer him into the desired channel.
2022 "Doesn't it seem to you that right there in the
2023 pharmaceutical field science is overdoing it a bit sometimes?"
2024 Doctor Opir smiled condescendingly and sniffed at his
2026 "Science has always moved by trial and error," he said
2027 weightily. "And I am inclined to believe that the so-called
2028 errors are always the result of criminal application. We
2029 haven't yet entered the Golden Age, we are just in the process
2030 of doing so, and all kinds of throwbacks, mobsters, and just
2031 plain dirt are under foot. So all kinds of drugs are put out
2032 which are health-destroying, but which are created, as you
2033 know, from the best of motives; all kinds of aromatics ... or
2034 this... well, that doesn't suit a dinner conversation." He
2035 cackled suddenly and obscenely "You can guess my meaning -- we
2036 are mature people! What was I saying? Oh yes, all this
2037 shouldn't disturb you. It will pass just like the atom bombs."
2038 "I only wanted to emphasize," I remarked, "that there is
2039 still the problem of alcoholism, and the problem of narcotics."
2040 Doctor Opir's interest in the conversation was visibly
2041 ebbing. Apparently he imagined that I challenged his thesis
2042 that science is a boon. To conduct an argument on this basis
2043 naturally bored him, as though, for instance, he had been
2044 affirming the salubriousness of ocean swimming and I was
2045 contradicting him on the basis that I had almost drowned last
2047 "Well, of course..." he mumbled, studying his watch, "we
2048 can't have it all at once.... You must admit, after all, that
2049 it is the basic trend which is the most important.... Waiter!"
2050 Doctor Opir had eaten well, had a good conversation --
2051 professing progressive philosophy -- felt well-satisfied, and I
2052 decided not to press the matter, especially as I really didn't
2053 give a hang about his progressive philosophy, while in the
2054 matters which interested me the most, he probably would not be
2055 concretely informed at all in the final analysis.
2056 We paid up and went out of the restaurant. I inquired, "Do
2057 you ]mow, Doctor, whose monument that is? Over there on the
2059 Doctor Opir gazed absent-mindedly. "Sure enough, it's a
2060 monument," he said. "Somehow I overlooked it before.... Shall I
2061 drop you somewhere?"
2062 "Thank you, I prefer to walk."
2063 "In that case, goodbye. It was a pleasure to meet you....
2064 Of course it's hard to expect to convince you." He grimaced,
2065 shifting a toothpick around his mouth. "But it would be
2066 interesting to try. Perhaps you will attend my lecture? I begin
2068 "Thank you," I said. "What is your topic?"
2069 "Neo-optimist Philosophy. I will be sure to touch upon a
2070 series of questions which we have so pithily discussed today."
2071 "Thank you," I said again. "Most assuredly."
2072 I watched as he went to his long automobile, collapsed in
2073 the seat, puttered with the auto-driver control, fell back
2074 against the seat back, and apparently dozed off instantly. The
2075 car began to roll cautiously across the plaza and disappeared
2076 in the shade and greenery of a side street.
2077 Neo-optimism... Neo-hedonism... Neo-cretinism...
2078 Neo-capitalism... "No evil without good," said the fox. So, I
2079 have landed in the Country of the Boobs. It should he recorded
2080 that the ratio of congenital fools does not vary as a function
2081 of time. It should be interesting to determine what is
2082 happening to the percentage of fools by conviction. Curious --
2083 who assigned the title of Doctor to him? He is not the only
2084 one! There must have been a whole flock of doctors who
2085 ceremoniously granted that title to Neo-optimist Opir. However,
2086 this occurs not only among philosophers.
2087 I saw Rimeyer come into the hall and forgot Doctor Opir at
2088 once. The suit hung on Rimeyer like a sack. Rimeyer stooped,
2089 and his face was flabby. I thought he wavered in his walk. He
2090 approached the elevator and I caught him by the sleeve there.
2091 He jumped violently and turned on me.
2092 "What in hell?" he said. He was clearly unhappy to see me.
2093 "Why are you still here?"
2095 "Didn't I tell you to come tomorrow at noon?"
2096 "What's the difference?" I said. "Why waste time?"
2097 He looked at me, breathing laboriously.
2098 "I am expected. A man is waiting for me in my room, and he
2099 must not see you with me. Do you understand?"
2100 "Don't shout," I said. "People are noticing."
2101 Rimeyer glanced sideways with watery eyes.
2102 "Go in the elevator," he said.
2103 We entered and he pressed the button for the fifteenth
2105 "Get on with your business quickly," he said.
2106 The order was startlingly stupid, so that I was
2107 momentarily disoriented.
2108 "You mean to say that you don't know why I am here?"
2109 He rubbed his forehead, and then said, "Hell, everything's
2110 mixed up.... Listen, I forgot, what is your name?"
2112 "Listen, Zhilin, I have nothing new for you. I didn't have
2113 time to attend to that business. It's all a dream, do you
2114 understand? Matia's inventions. They sit there, writing papers,
2115 and invent. They should all be pitched the hell out."
2116 We arrived at the fifteenth floor and he pressed the
2117 button for the first.
2118 "Devil take it," he said. "Five more minutes and he'll
2119 leave.... In general I am convinced of one thing, there is
2120 nothing to it. Not in this town, in any case." He looked at me
2121 surreptitiously, and turned his eyes away. "Here is something I
2122 can tell you. Look in at the Fishers. Just like that, to clear
2124 "The Fishers? What Fishers?"
2125 "You'll find out for yourself," he said impatiently. "But
2126 don't get tricky with them. Do everything they ask." Then, as
2127 though defending himself, he added, "I don't want any
2128 preconceptions, you understand."
2129 The elevator stopped at the first floor and he signaled
2131 "That's it," he said. "Then we'll meet and talk in detail.
2132 Let's say tomorrow at noon."
2133 "All right," I said slowly. He obviously did not want to
2134 talk to me. Maybe he didn't trust me. Well, it happens!
2135 "By the way," I said, "you have been visited by a certain
2137 It seemed to me that he started.
2139 "Naturally. He asked me to tell you that he will be
2141 "That's bad, devil take it, bad...." muttered Rimeyer.
2142 "Listen... damn, what is your name?"
2144 The elevator stopped.
2145 "Listen, Zhilin, it's very bad that he has seen you....
2146 However, what the hell is the difference. I must go now." Re
2147 opened the elevator door, "Tomorrow we'll have a real good
2148 talk, okay? Tomorrow... and you look in on the Fishers. Is that
2150 He slammed the door with all his strength.
2151 "Where will I look for them?" I asked.
2152 I stood awhile, looking after him. He was almost running,
2153 receding down the corridor with erratic steps.
2155 <ul><a name=5></a><h2>Chapter FIVE</h2></ul>
2157 I walked slowly, keeping to the shade of the trees. Now
2158 and then a car rolled by. One of these stopped and the driver
2159 threw open the door, leaned out, and vomited on the pavement.
2160 He cursed weakly, wiped his mouth with his palm, slammed the
2161 door, and drove off. He was on the elderly side, red-faced,
2162 wearing a loud shirt with nothing under it.
2163 Rimeyer apparently had turned into a drunkard. This
2164 happens fairly often: a man tries hard, works hard, is
2165 considered a valuable contributor, he is listened to and made
2166 out as a model, but just when he is needed for a concrete task,
2167 it suddenly turns out that he has grown puffy and flabby, that
2168 wenches are running in and out of his place, and that he smells
2169 of vodka from early morning.... Your business does not interest
2170 him, while at the same time, he is frightfully busy, is
2171 constantly meeting someone, talks confusingly and murkily, and
2172 is of no help whatsoever. And then he turns up in the alcoholic
2173 ward, or a mental clinic, or is involved in a legal process. Or
2174 he gets married unexpectedly -- strangely and ineptly -- and
2175 this marriage smells strongly of blackmail. ... One can only
2176 comment: "Physician, heal thyself."
2177 It would still be nice to hunt up Peck. Peck is hard as
2178 flint, honest, and he always knows everything. You haven't even
2179 finished the rundown on the tech control, and haven't had a
2180 chance to get off the ship, before he is buddy-buddy with the
2181 cook, is already fully informed and involved in the
2182 investigation of the dispute between the Commander of the
2183 Pathfinders and the chief engineer, who didn't settle the
2184 matter of some prize; the technicians are already planning an
2185 evening in his honor, and the deputy director is listening to
2186 his advice in a quiet corner... Priceless Peck! He was born in
2187 this city and has spent a third of his life here.
2188 I found a telephone booth, and rang information for Peck
2189 Xenai's number and address. I was asked to wait. As usual, the
2190 booth smelled of cats. The plastic shelf was covered with
2191 telephone numbers and obscene images. Someone had carved quite
2192 deeply, as with a knife, the strange word "SLUG." I opened the
2193 door, to lighten the string atmosphere, and watched the
2194 opposite shady side of the street, where a barman stood in
2195 front of his establishment in a white jacket with rolled-up
2196 sleeves, smoking a cigarette. Then I was told that according to
2197 the data at the beginning of the year, Peck resided at No. 31
2198 Liberty Street, number 11-331. I thanked the operator and
2199 dialed the number at once. A strange voice told me that I had a
2200 wrong number. Yes, the number was correct, and so was the
2201 address, but no Peck lived there, and if he had, they didn't
2202 know when he left or where he had gone. I hung up, left the
2203 booth, and crossed the street to the shady side.
2204 Catching my eye, the barman came to life and said from
2205 afar, "Come in, why don't you?"
2206 "Don't know that I'd like to," I said.
2207 "So you won't be friendly, eh?" he said. "Come in anyway.
2208 We'll have a talk. I feel bored."
2210 "Tomorrow morning," I said, "at ten o'clock, at the
2211 university, there will be a philosophy lecture on Neo-optimism.
2212 It will be given by the renowned Doctor Opir from the capital.
2213 The barman listened with avid interest -- he even stopped
2215 "How do you like that!" he said. "So they have come to
2216 that! The day before yesterday, they chased all the girls out
2217 of a night club, and now they'll be having lectures. We'll show
2219 "It's about time," I said.
2220 "I don't let them in," he continued, getting more
2221 animated. "I have a sharp eye for them. A guy could be just
2222 approaching the door, when I can spot him for an Intel
2223 'Fellows,' I say, 'an Intel is coming.' And the boys are all
2224 well picked; Dodd himself is here every night after training.
2225 So, he gets up and meets this Intel at the door, and I don't
2226 even know what goes on between them, but be passes him on
2227 elsewhere. Although it's true that sometimes they travel in
2228 bunches. In that case, so there wouldn't be a to-do, we lock
2229 the door -- let them knock. That's the right way, isn't it?"
2230 'That's okay by me," I said. I had had enough of him.
2231 There are people who pall unusually quickly. "Let them."
2232 "What do you mean -- let them?"
2233 "Let them knock. In other words, knock on any door."
2234 The barman looked at me with growing alertness.
2235 "What say you move on," he said.
2236 "How about a quick one," I offered.
2237 "Move along, move along," he said. "You won't get served
2239 We looked at each other awhile,, then he growled
2240 something, backed up, and slid the glass door in front of him.
2241 "I am no Intel," I said. "I am a poor tourist. A rich
2243 He looked at me with his nose flattened against the glass.
2244 I made a motion as though knocking a drink back. Re mumbled
2245 something and went back into the darkness of the place -- I
2246 could see him wandering aimlessly among empty tables. The place
2247 was called the Smile. I smiled and went on.
2248 Around the corner was a wide main thoroughfare. A huge
2249 van, plastered with advertisements, was parked by the curb. Its
2250 back was swung down for a counter, on which were piled
2251 mountains of cans, bottles, toys, and stacks of
2252 cellophane-wrapped clothing and underwear. Two teenage girls
2253 twittered some sort of nonsense while selecting blouses.
2254 "Pho-o-ny," squeaked one. The other, turning the blouse this
2255 way and that, replied, "Spangles, spangles and not phony."
2256 "Here by the neck it phonies." "Spangles." "Even the star
2258 The driver of the van, a gaunt man with huge, horn-rimmed
2259 dark glasses, sat on the step of the advertising rotunda. His
2260 eyes were not visible, but, judging by his relaxed mouth and
2261 sweat-beaded nose, he was asleep. I approached the counter. The
2262 girls stopped talking and stared at me with parted mouths. They
2263 must have been about sixteen, and their eyes were vacant and
2264 blue, like those of young kittens.
2265 "Spangles," I said. "No phonying and lots of sparkle."
2266 "And around the neck?" asked the one who was trying on the
2268 "Around the neck it's practically a masterpiece."
2269 "Spangles," said the other uncertainly.
2270 "OK, let's look at another one," offered the first
2271 peacefully. "This one here."
2272 "This one is better, the silvery one with the frame."
2273 I saw books. They were magnificent books. There was a
2274 Strogoff with such illustrations as I had never even heard of.
2275 There was <i>Change of Dream</i> with an introduction by
2276 Saroyan. There was a Walter Mintz in three volumes. There was
2277 almost an entire Faulkner, <i>The New Politics</i> by Weber,
2278 <i>Poles of Magnificence</i> by Ignatova, The <i>Unpublished
2279 Sian She-Cuey</i>, <i>History of Fascism</i> in the "Memory of
2280 Mankind" edition. There were current magazines, and almanacs,
2281 pocket Louvres, Hermitage, and Vatican. There was everything!
2282 "It phonies too but it has a frame." "Spangles." I grabbed the
2283 Mintz. Holding the two volumes under my arm, I opened the
2284 third. Never have I seen such a complete Mintz. There were even
2285 the émigré letters.
2286 "How much will that be?" I called.
2287 The girls gaped again; the driver sucked in his lips and
2289 "What?" he said huskily.
2290 "Who is the owner here?" I said.
2291 He got up and came to me.
2292 "What would you like?"
2293 "I want this Mintz. How much is it?"
2294 The girls giggled. He stared at me in silence, then
2295 removed his glasses.
2296 "You are a foreigner?"
2297 "Yes, I am a tourist."
2298 "It's the most complete Mintz."
2299 "Of course, I can see that. I was stunned when I saw it."
2300 "Me too," he said, "when I saw what you were after."
2301 "He is a tourist," twittered one of the girls. "He doesn't
2303 "It's all free," said the driver. "Personal needs fund. To
2304 take care of personal needs."
2305 I looked back at the bookshelf.
2306 "Did you see <i>Change of Dream</i>?" asked the driver.
2307 "Yes, thank you, I have it."
2308 "About Strogoff I will not even inquire."
2309 "How about the <i>History of Fascism</i>?"
2310 "An excellent edition."
2311 The girls giggled again. The driver's eyes popped in
2313 "Scram, snot faces," he barked.
2314 The girls jumped. One of them thievishly grabbed several
2315 blouse packages. They ran across the street, where they stopped
2316 and continued to gaze at us.
2317 "With frames!" said the driver. His thin lips twitched. "I
2318 should drop this whole idea. Where do you live?"
2319 "On Second Waterway."
2320 "Aha, in the thick of the mire.... Let's go -- I will drop
2321 you off. I have a complete Schedrin in the van, which I don't
2322 even exhibit; I have the entire classics library; the whole
2323 Golden Library, the complete Treasures of Philosophic Thought."
2324 "Including Doctor Opir's?"
2325 "Bitch tripe," said the driver. "Salacious bum! Amoeba!
2326 Rut do you know Sliy?"
2327 "Not much," I said. "I don't like him. Neo-individualism,
2328 as Doctor Opir would say."
2329 "Doctor Opir stinks," said the driver. "While Sliy is a
2330 real man. Of course, there is the individualism. But at least
2331 he says what he thinks and does what he says. I'll get some
2332 Sliy for you.... Listen, did you see this? And this!"
2333 He dug himself up to his elbows in books. He stroked them
2334 tenderly and his face shone with rapture.
2335 "And this," he kept on. "And how about this Cervantes?"
2336 An oldish lady of imposing bearing approached and started
2337 to pick over the canned goods.
2338 "You still don't have Danish pickles... didn't I ask you
2340 "Go to hell," said the driver absent-mindedly.
2341 The woman was stunned. Her face slowly turned crimson.
2342 "How dare you!" she hissed.
2343 The driver looked at her bullishly.
2344 "You heard what I said. Get out of here!"
2345 "Don't you dare!" said the woman. "What is your number?"
2346 "My number is ninety-three," said the driver,
2347 "Ninety-three -- is that clear enough? And I spit on all of
2348 you. Is that clear? Any other questions?"
2349 "What a hooliganism!" said the woman with dignity. She
2350 took two cans of delicacies, scanned the counter, and with
2351 great precision, ripped the cover off the <i>Cosmic Man</i>
2352 magazine. "I'll remember you, number ninety-three! These aren't
2353 the old times for you." She wrapped the two cans in the cover.
2354 "We'll see each other in the municipal court."
2355 I took a firm hold on the driver's arm. His rigid muscles
2357 "The nerve!" said she majestically and departed.
2358 She stepped along the sidewalk, proudly carrying her
2359 handsome head, which was topped with a high cylindrical
2360 coiffure. She stopped at the corner, opened one of the cans,
2361 and proceeded to pick out chunks with elegant fingers.
2362 I released the driver's arm.
2363 "They ought to be shot," he said suddenly. "We ought to
2364 strangle them instead of dispensing pretty books to them." He
2365 turned toward me, and I could see his eyes were tortured.
2366 "Shall I deliver your books?"
2367 "Well, no," I said. "Where will I put them?"
2368 "In that case, shove off," said the driver. "Did you take
2369 your Mintz? Then go and wrap your dirty pantaloons in it."
2370 He climbed up into the cab. Something clicked and the back
2371 door began to rise. You could hear everything crashing and
2372 rolling inside the van. Several books and some shiny packets,
2373 boxes, and cans fell on the pavement. The rear panel had not
2374 yet closed completely when the driver shut his door and the van
2375 took off with a jerk.
2376 The girls had already disappeared. I stood alone on the
2377 empty street and watched the wind lazily turn the pages of
2378 History of Fascism at my feet. Later a gang of kids in striped
2379 shorts came around the corner. They walked by silently, hands
2380 stuck in their pockets. One jumped down on the pavement and
2381 began to kick a can of pineapple, with a slick pretty cover,
2382 like a football down the street.
2384 <ul><a name=6></a><h2>Chapter SIX</h2></ul>
2386 On the way home, I was overtaken by the change of shifts.
2387 The streets filled up with cars. Controller copters appeared
2388 over the intersections, and sweaty police cleared constantly
2389 threatening jams with roaring bull horns. The cars moved
2390 slowly, and the drivers stuck heads out of windows to light up
2391 from each other, to yell, to talk and joke while furiously
2392 blowing their horns. There was a instant screech of clashing
2393 bumpers. Everyone was happy, everyone was good-natured, and
2394 everyone glowed with savage glee. It seemed as though a heavy
2395 load had just fallen from the soul of the city, as though
2396 everyone was seized with an enviable anticipation. Fingers were
2397 pointed at me and the other pedestrians. Several times I was
2398 prodded with bumpers while crossing -- the girls doing it with
2399 the utmost good nature. One of them drove alongside me for
2400 quite a while, and we got acquainted. Then a line of
2401 demonstrators with sober faces walked by on the median,
2402 carrying signs. The signs appealed to people to join the
2403 amateur club ensemble Songs of the Fatherland, to enter the
2404 municipal Culinary Art groups, and to sign up for condensed
2405 courses in motherhood and childhood. The people with signs were
2406 nudged by bumpers with special enthusiasm. The drivers threw
2407 cigarette butts, apple cores, and paper wads at them. They
2408 yelled such things as "I'll subscribe at once, just wait till I
2409 put my galoshes on," or "Me, I'm sterile," or "Say, buddy,
2410 teach me motherhood." The sign carriers continued to march
2411 slowly in between the two solid streams of cars, unperturbed
2412 and sacrificial, looking straight ahead with the sad dignity of
2414 Not far from my house, I was set upon by a flock of girls,
2415 and when I finally struggled through to Second Waterway, I had
2416 a white aster in my lapel and drying kisses on my cheeks, and
2417 it seemed I had met half the girls in town. What a barber! What
2419 Vousi, in a flaming orange blouse, was sitting in the
2420 chair in my study. Her long legs in pointy shoes rested on the
2421 table, while her slender fingers held a long slim cigarette.
2422 With her head thrown back, she was blowing thick streams of
2423 smoke at the ceiling, through her nose.
2424 "At long last!" she cried, seeing me. "Where have you been
2425 all this time? As you can see, I've been waiting for you."
2426 "I've been delayed," I said, trying to recollect if I had
2427 indeed promised to meet her.
2428 Wipe off the lipstick," she demanded. "You look silly!
2429 What's this? Books? What do you need books for?"
2430 "What do you mean by that?"
2431 "You are really quite a problem! Comes back late, hangs
2432 around with books. Or are those pornos?"
2433 "It's Mintz," I said.
2434 "Let me have them!" She jumped up and snatched the books
2435 out of my grasp. "Good God! What nonsense -- all three are
2436 alike. What is it? <i>History of Fascism</i>... are you a
2438 "How can you say that, Vousi!"
2439 "Then, what do you need them for? Are you really going to
2442 "I just don't understand," she said peevishly. "I liked
2443 you from the first. Mother says you're a writer, and I went and
2444 bragged to everyone, like a fool, and then you turn out to be
2445 the next thing to an Intel."
2446 "How could you, Vousi!" I said with reproach. By now I had
2447 realized that it was impermissible to be taken for an Intel.
2448 "These bookos were simply needed in my literary business,
2450 "Bookos!" she laughed. "Bookos! Look at what I can do."
2451 She threw back her head and blew two thick streams of smoke out
2452 of her nostrils. "I got it on the second try. Pretty good,
2454 "Remarkable aptitude," I remarked.
2455 "Instead of laughing at me, you should try it yourself.
2456 ... A lady taught me at the salon today. Slobbered all over me,
2457 the fat cow... Will you try it?"
2458 "How come she did that?"
2461 "Not normal. Or maybe a sad sack.... What's your name? I
2464 "An amusing name! You'll have to remind me again. Are you
2467 "So-o... and I went and told everyone that you are a
2468 Tungus. Too bad.... Say, why not have a drink?"
2470 "Today I should have a strong drink to forget that
2472 She ran out into the living room and came back with a
2473 tray. We had some brandy and looked at each other, not having
2474 anything to say. I felt ill at ease. I couldn't say why, but I
2475 liked her. I sensed something, something I couldn't put my
2476 finger on; something which distinguished her from the
2477 long-legged, smooth-skinned pin-up beauties, good only for the
2478 bed. I had the impression that she sensed something in me, too.
2479 "Beautiful day, today," she said, looking away.
2480 "A bit hot," I observed.
2481 She sipped some brandy; I did too. The silence stretched.
2482 "What do you like to do the most?" she asked.
2483 "It depends. And you?"
2484 "Same with me. In general, I like to have fun and not have
2485 to think about anything."
2486 "So do I," I said. "At least I do right now."
2487 She seemed to perk up a little. I understood suddenly what
2488 was the matter: during the whole day, I had not met a single
2489 truly pleasant person, and I simply had gotten tired of it.
2490 There was nothing to her, after all.
2491 "Let's go somewhere," she said.
2492 "We could," I said. I really didn't want to go anywhere, I
2493 wanted to sit and relax in the cool room for a while.
2494 "I can see you're not too eager," she said.
2495 "To be honest, I would prefer to sit around here for a
2497 "Well then, amuse me."
2498 I considered the problem, and recounted the story of the
2499 traveling salesman in the upper bunk. She liked it, but I think
2500 she missed the point. I made a correction in my aim, and told
2501 her the one about the president and the old maid. She laughed a
2502 long time, kicking her wonderfully long legs. Then, taking
2503 courage from another shot of brandy, I told about the widow
2504 with the mushrooms growing on the wall. She slid down to the
2505 floor and almost knocked over the tray. I picked her up under
2506 the armpits, hoisted her back up in the chair, and delivered
2507 the story of the drunk spaceman and the college girl, at which
2508 point Aunt Vaina came rushing in and inquired fearfully what
2509 was going on with Vousi, and whether I was tickling her
2510 unmercifully. I poured Aunt Vaina a glass, and addressing
2511 myself to her personally, recounted the one about the Irishman
2512 who wanted to be a gardener. Vousi was completely shattered,
2513 but Aunt Vaina smiled sorrowfully and confided that Major
2514 General Tuur liked to tell the same story, when he was in a
2515 good mood. But in it there was, she thought, a Negro instead of
2516 the Irishman, and he aspired to the duties of a piano tuner and
2517 not a gardener. "And you know, Ivan, the story ended somehow
2518 differently," she added after some thought. At this point I
2519 noticed Len standing in the doorway, looking at us. I waved and
2520 smiled at him. He seemed not to notice, so I winked at him and
2521 beckoned for him to come in.
2522 "Whom are you winking at?" asked Vousi, through lingering
2524 "It's Len," I said. It was really a pleasure to watch her,
2525 as I love to see people laugh, especially such a one as Vousi,
2526 beautiful and almost a child.
2527 "Where's Len?" she wondered.
2528 There was no Len in the doorway.
2529 "Len isn't here," said Aunt Vaina, who was sniffing the
2530 brandy with approval, and did not notice a thing. "The boy went
2531 to the Ziroks' birthday party today. If you only knew, Ivan..."
2532 "But why does he say it was Len?" asked Vousi, glancing at
2534 "Len was here," I said. "I waved at him, and be ran away.
2535 You know, he looked a bit wild to me."
2536 "Ach, we have a highly nervous boy there," said Aunt
2537 Vaina. "He was born in a very difficult time, and they just
2538 don't know how to deal with a nervous child in these modern
2539 schools. Today I let him go visit."
2540 "We'll go, too, now," said Vousi. "You'll walk with me.
2541 I'll just fix myself up, because on account of you everything
2542 got smeared. In the meantime, you can put on something more
2544 Aunt Vaina wouldn't have minded staying behind to tell me
2545 a few more things and maybe show me a photo album of Len, but
2546 Vousi dragged her off and I heard her ask her mother behind the
2547 door, "What's his name? I just can't remember it. He is a jolly
2549 "Vousi!" admonished Aunt Vaina.
2550 I laid out my entire wardrobe on the bed and tried to
2551 imagine what Vousi would consider a decently dressed man. Until
2552 now, I had thought I was dressed quite satisfactorily. Vousi's
2553 heels were already beating an impatient rat-a-tat on the study
2554 floor. Not having come up with anything, I called her in.
2555 "That's all you have?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.
2556 "It really isn't good enough?"
2557 "Well, it will pass. Take off the jacket and put on this
2558 Hawaiian shirt... or better yet, this one here. They sure have
2559 dressing problems in your Tungusia! Hurry up. No, no, take off
2560 the shirt you have on."
2561 "You mean, without an undershirt?"
2562 "You know, you really are a Tungus. Where do you think you
2563 are going -- to the pole or to Mars? What's this under your
2565 "A bee stung me," I said, hurriedly pulling on my shirt.
2567 The street was already dark. The fluorescents shone palely
2568 through dark foliage.
2569 "Which way are we bound?" I asked.
2570 "Downtown, of course.... Don't grab my arm, it's hot! At
2571 least you know how to fight, I hope?"
2573 "That's good. I like to watch."
2574 "To watch, I like, too," I said.
2575 There were a lot more people out in the streets than in
2576 the daytime. Under the trees, in the bushes, and in the
2577 driveways there were groups of unsettled-looking individuals.
2578 They furiously smoked crackling synthetic cigars, guffawed,
2579 spat negligently and often, and spoke in loud rough voices.
2580 Over each group hung the racket of radio receivers. Under one
2581 streetlight a banjo twanged, and two youngsters, twisting in
2582 weird contortions and yelling out wildly, were performing
2583 fling, a currently fashionable dance, a dance of great beauty
2584 when properly executed. The youngsters knew how. Around them
2585 stood a small crowd, also yelling lustily and clapping their
2587 "Shall we have a dance?" I offered.
2588 "But no, no..." hissed Vousi, taking me by the hand and
2589 increasing her pace.
2590 "And why not? You do fling?"
2591 "I'd sooner hop with alligators than this crowd."
2592 "Too bad," I said, "They look like regular fellows."
2593 "Yes, each one by himself," said Vousi, "and in the
2595 They hung around on the corners, huddled around
2596 streetlights, gauche, smoked to the gills, leaving the
2597 sidewalks behind them strewn with bits of candy paper,
2598 cigarette butts, and spittle. They were nervous and showy
2599 melancholic, yearning, constantly looking around, stooped. They
2600 were awfully anxious not to look like others, and at the same
2601 time, assiduously imitated each other and two or three popular
2602 movie stars. There were really not that many, but they stood
2603 out like sore thumbs, and it always seemed to me that every
2604 town and the whole world was filled with them -- perhaps
2605 because every city and the whole world belonged to them by
2606 night. And to me, they seemed full of some dark mystery, But I
2607 too used to stand around of evenings in the company of friends,
2608 until some real people turned up and took us off the streets,
2609 and many a time I have seen the same groups in all the cities
2610 of the world, where there was a lack of capable men to get rid
2611 of them. But I never did understand to the very end what force
2612 it is that turns these fellows away from good books, of which
2613 there are so many, from sport establishments, of which this
2614 town had plenty, and even from ordinary television sets, and
2615 drives them out in the night streets with cigarettes in their
2616 teeth and transistor sets in their ears, to stand and spit as
2617 far as possible, to guffaw as offensively as possible, and to
2618 do nothing. Apparently at fifteen, the most attractive of all
2619 the treasures in the world is the feeling of your own
2620 importance and ability to excite everyone's admiration, or at
2621 least attract attention. Everything else seems unbearably dull
2622 and dreary, including, perhaps above all, those avenues of
2623 achieving the desirable which are offered by the tired world of
2625 "This is where old Rouen lives," said Vousi. "He has a new
2626 one with him every night. The old turnip has managed it so that
2627 they all come to him of their own will. During the fracas, his
2628 leg was blown off.... You see there is no light in his place,
2629 they are listening to the hi-fi. On top of which, he's ugly as
2631 "He lives well who has but one leg," I said
2633 Of course she had to giggle at this, and continued.
2634 "And here lives Seus. He is a Fisher. Now there's a man
2636 "Fisher," I said. "And what does he do, this
2638 "He Fishers. That's what Fishers do -- they Fisher. Or are
2639 you asking where he works?"
2640 "No, I mean to ask where does he Fisher?"
2641 "In the Subway." Suddenly she stopped. "Say, you wouldn't
2643 "Me? Why, does it show?"
2644 "There is something about you, I noticed at once. We know
2645 about these bees that sting you in the back."
2646 "Is that right?" I said.
2647 She slipped her arm through mine.
2648 "Tell me a story," she said, cajoling. "I never had a
2649 Fisher among my friends. Will you tell me a story?"
2650 "Well now... shall I tell you about the pilot and the
2652 She tweaked my elbow.
2654 "What a hot evening," I said. "It's a good thing you had
2655 me take off my jacket!"
2656 "Anyway, everybody knows. Seus talks about it, and so do
2658 "Ah, so," I said with interest. "And what does Seus tell?"
2659 She let go of my arm at once.
2660 "I didn't hear it myself. The girls told me."
2661 "And what did they tell?"
2662 "Well, this and that.... Maybe they put it all on. Maybe,
2663 you know. Seus had nothing to do with it."
2665 "Don't think anything about Seus, he's a good guy and he
2666 keeps his mouth closed."
2667 "Why should I be thinking about Seus?" I said to quiet
2668 her. "I have never even laid eyes on him."
2669 She took my arm again and enthusiastically announced that
2670 we were going to have a drink now.
2671 "Now's the very time for us to have a drink."
2672 She was already using the familiar address with me. We
2673 turned a corner and came out on a wide thoroughfare. Here it
2674 was lighter than day. The lamps shone, the walls glowed, the
2675 display windows were lambent with multicolored fires. This was,
2676 apparently, one of Ahmad's circles of paradise. But I imagined
2677 it differently. I expected roaring bands, grimacing couples,
2678 half-naked and naked people. But here it was relatively quiet.
2679 There were lots of people, and it seemed to me that most were
2680 drunk, but they were all very well and differently dressed and
2681 all were gay. And almost all smoked. There was no wind, and
2682 waves of bluish smoke undulated around the lights and lanterns.
2683 Vousi dragged me into some establishment, found a couple of
2684 acquaintances, and disappeared after promising to find me
2685 later. The crowd was dense, and I found myself pressed against
2686 the bar. Before I could gather my wits, I found myself downing
2687 a shot. A brown middle-aged man with yellow whites of the eye
2688 was booming into my face.
2689 "Kiven hurt his leg -- right? Brush became an antique and
2690 is now quite useless. That makes three -- right? And on the
2691 right they haven't got nobody. Phinney is on the right, and
2692 that's worse than nobody. A waiter, that's what be is."
2693 "What are you drinking?" I asked.
2694 "I don't drink at all," replied the brown one with
2695 dignity, breathing strong fumes at me. "I have jaundice. Ever
2697 Behind me, someone fell off a stool. The noise modulated
2698 up and down. The brown one, sitting down next to me, was
2699 shouting out some story about some character who almost died of
2700 fresh air after breaking some pipe at work. It was hard to
2701 understand any part of it, as various stories were being
2702 shouted from all sides.
2703 "... Like a fool, he quieted down and left, and she called
2704 s taxi truck, loaded up his stuff, and had it dumped outside
2706 "... I wouldn't have your TV in my outhouse. You can't
2707 think of one improvement on the Omega, my neighbor is an
2708 engineer, and that's just what he says -- you can't think up an
2709 improvement on the Omega..."
2710 "... That's the way their honeymoon ended. When they
2711 returned home, his father enticed him in the garage -- and his
2712 father is a boxer -- and trounced him until he lost
2713 consciousness. They called a doctor later..."
2714 "... So, all right, we took enough for three... and their
2715 rule is, you know, take as much as you wish, but you get to
2716 swallow all of it... and they are watching us by now, and he is
2717 carried away -- and says -- let's take more... well, I says to
2718 myself, enough of this, time to break knuckles..."
2719 "... Dear child, with your bust, I wouldn't know any
2720 grief, such a bosom is one in a thousand, but don't think I'm
2721 flattering you, that's not my style..."
2722 A scrawny girl with bangs down to the tip of her nose
2723 climbed up on the vacant stool next to me and began to pound
2724 with puny fists on the bar, yelling, "Barman, barman, a drink."
2725 The din died down again, and I could hear behind me a
2726 tragic whisper -- "Where did he get it?" "From Buba, you know
2727 him, he is an engineer." "Was it real?" "It's scary, you could
2728 croak." "Then you need some kind of pill --" "Quiet, will you?"
2729 "Oh, all right, who would be listening to us? You got one?"
2730 "Buba gave me one package, he says any drugstore has them by
2731 the ton... here, look." "De... Devon -- what is it?" "Some sort
2732 of medicine, how would I know?" I turned around. One was
2733 red-faced with a shirt unbuttoned down to his navel, and with a
2734 hairy chest. The other was strangely haggard-looking with a
2735 large-pored nose. Both were looking at me.
2736 "Shall we have a drink?" I said.
2737 "Alcoholic," said the pore-nose.
2738 "Don't, Pete. Don't start up, please," said the red-faced
2740 "If you need some Devon, I've got it," I said loudly.
2741 They jumped back. Pore-nose began to look around
2742 cautiously. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see several
2743 faces turn toward us and grow still.
2744 "Let's go, Pat," said red-face. "Let's go! The hell with
2746 Someone put a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw
2747 a handsome sunburned man with powerful muscles.
2749 "Friend," he said benevolently, "drop this business. Drop
2750 it while it's not too late. Are you a Rhinoceros?"
2751 "I am a hippopotamus," I joked.
2752 "No, don't. I'm serious. Did you get beat up, maybe?"
2754 "All right, don't feel bad about it. Today it's you,
2755 tomorrow it's them.... As for Devon and all that -- that's
2756 crap, believe me. There's lots of crap in the world, but that
2757 is the crap of all crap."
2758 The girl with the bangs advised me, "Crack him in the
2759 teeth... what's he sticking his nose in for... lousy dick."
2760 "Lapping it up, and doing it up brown, aren't you?" said
2761 the sunburned one coolly, and turned his back on us. His back
2762 was huge, and studded with bulging muscles under a tight
2763 half-transparent shirt.
2764 "None of your business," said the girl at his back. Then
2765 she said to me, "Listen, friend, call the barman for me -- I
2766 can't seem to get through to him."
2767 I gave her my glass and asked, "What's to do?"
2768 "In a minute, we'll all go," replied the girl. Having
2769 swallowed the alcohol, she went limp all at once. "As to what
2770 to do -- that's up to luck. Without luck, you can't make out.
2771 Or you need money if you deal with promoters. You're probably a
2772 visitor? Nobody here drinks that dry vodka. How is it your way,
2773 you should tell me about it.... I'm not going anywhere today,
2774 I'll go to the salon instead. I feel terrible and nothing seems
2775 to help.... Mother says -- have a child. But that's dull too,
2776 what do I need one for?"
2777 She closed her eyes and lowered her chin on her entwined
2778 fingers. She looked brazen, but at the same time crestfallen. I
2779 attempted to rouse her but she stopped paying attention to me,
2780 and suddenly started shouting again, "Barman, barman, a drink!"
2781 I looked for Vousi. She was nowhere to be seen. The cafe
2782 began to empty. Everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere. I got
2783 off my stool, too, and left the cafe. Streams of people flowed
2784 down the street. They were all going in the same direction, and
2785 in about five minutes, I was swept out onto a big square. It
2786 was huge and poorly lighted, a wide gloomy space bordered by a
2787 ring of streetlights and store windows. It was full of people.
2788 They stood pressed against each other, men, women, and
2789 youngsters, boys and girls, shifting from foot to foot, waiting
2790 for I knew not what. There was almost no talking. Here and
2791 there cigarette tips flared, lighting hollow cheeks and
2792 compressed lips. Then a clock began to strike the hour, and
2793 over the square, gigantic luminous panels sprang into flaming
2794 light. There were three of them -- red, blue, and green,
2795 irregularly shaped rounded triangles. The crowd surged and
2796 stood still. Around me, cigarettes were put out with subdued
2797 movements. The panels went out momentarily and then started to
2798 flash in rotation: red-blue-green, red-blue-green... I felt a
2799 wave of hot air on my face, and was suddenly dizzy. They were
2800 astir around me. I got up on tiptoes. In the center of the
2801 square, the people stood motionless; I had the impression that
2802 they were seized rigid and did not fall only because they were
2803 pressed in by the crowd. Red-blue-green, red-blue-green.
2804 Wooden, upturned faces, blackly gaping mouths, staring, bulging
2805 eyes. They weren't even winking there, under the panels. A
2806 total quiet fell, so that I jumped when a piercing woman's
2807 voice nearby yelled: "Shivers!" All at once, tens of voices
2808 responded: "Shivers! Shivers!" People on the sidewalk on the
2809 square's perimeter began to clap hands in rhythm with the
2810 flashes, and to chant in even voices, "Shi-vers! Shi-vers!
2811 Shi-vers!" Somebody prodded me in the back with a sharp elbow.
2812 I was pressed forward to the center, toward the panels. I took
2813 a step and another and started through the crowd, pushing the
2814 stiffened bodies aside. Two youngsters, rigid as icicles,
2815 suddenly started thrashing wildly, grabbing at each other,
2816 scratching and pounding with all their strength, but their
2817 faces remained frozen in the direction of the flashing sky...
2818 red-blue-green, red-blue-green. And just as suddenly as they
2819 started, they grew still again.
2820 At this paint, finally, I understood that all this was
2821 extraordinarily amusing. Everyone laughed. There was lots of
2822 room around me and music thundered forth. I swept up a charming
2823 girl and we began to dance, as they used to dance, as dancing
2824 should be done and was done a long, long time ago, as it was
2825 done always with abandon, so that your head swam, and so that
2826 everyone admired you. We stepped out of the way, and I held on
2827 to her hands, and there was no need to talk about anything, and
2828 she agreed that the van driver was a strange man. Can't stand
2829 alcoholics, said Rimeyer, and pore-nose is the most genuine
2830 alcoholic, and what about Devon I said, how could you be
2831 without Devon when we have an excellent zoo, the buffaloes love
2832 to wallow in the mud, and bugs are constantly swarming out of
2833 it. Rim, I said, there are some fools who said that you are
2834 fifty years old -- such nonsense when I wouldn't give you over
2835 twenty-five -- and this is Vousi, I told her about you, but I
2836 am intruding on you, said Rimeyer; no one can intrude on us,
2837 said Vousi, as for Seus he's the best of Fishers, he grabbed
2838 the splotcher and got the ray right in the eye, and Hugger
2839 slipped and fell in the water and said -- wouldn't it be
2840 something for you to drown -- look your gear are melting away,
2841 aren't you funny, said Len, there is such a game of boy and
2842 gangster, you know, you remember we played with Maris... Isn't
2843 it wonderful, I have never felt so good in my life, what a
2844 pity, when it could be like this every day. Vousi, I said,
2845 aren't we great fellows, Vousi, people have never had such an
2846 important problem before, and we solved it and there remained
2847 only one problem, Vousi, the sole problem in the world, to
2848 return to people a spiritual content, and spiritual concerns,
2849 no, Seus, said Vousi, I love you very much, Oscar, you are very
2850 nice, but forgive me, would you, I want it to be Ivan, I
2851 embraced her and felt that it was right to kiss her and I said
2853 Boom! Boom! Boom! Something exploded in the dark night sky
2854 and tinkling sharp shards began to fall on us, and at once I
2855 felt cold and uncomfortable. There were machine guns firing!
2856 Again the guns rattled. "Down, Vousi," I yelled, although I
2857 could not yet understand what was going on, and threw her down
2858 on the ground and covered her with my body against the bullets,
2859 whereupon blows began to rain on my face.
2860 Bang, bang, rat-tat-tat-tat... around me people stood like
2861 wooden pickets. Some were coming to and rolling their eyeballs
2862 inanely. I was half reclining on a man's chest, which was as
2863 hard as a bench, and right in front of my eyes was his open
2864 mouth and chin glistening with saliva... Blue-green,
2865 blue-green, blue-green... Something was missing.
2866 There were piercing screams, cursing, someone thrashed and
2867 screeched hysterically. A mechanical roar grew louder over the
2868 square. I raised my head with difficulty. The panels were right
2869 overhead, the blue and green flashing regularly, while the red
2870 was extinguished and raining glass rubble. Rat-tat-tat-tat and
2871 the green panel broke and darkened. In the blue remaining light
2872 unhurried wings floated by, spewing the reddish lightning of a
2874 Again I attempted to throw myself on the ground, but it
2875 was impossible, as they all stood around me like pillars.
2876 Something made an ugly snap quite near me, and a yellow-green
2877 plume rose skyward from which puffed a repulsive stench. Pow!
2878 Pow! Another two plumes hung over the square. The crowd howled
2879 and stirred. The yellow vapor was caustic like mustard, my eyes
2880 and mouth filled, and I began to cry and cough, and around me,
2881 everyone began to cry and cough and yell hoarsely: "Lousy bums!
2882 Scoundrels! Sock the Intels!" Again the roar of the engine
2883 could be heard, coming in louder and louder. The airplane was
2884 returning. "Down, you idiots," I yelled. Everyone around me
2885 flopped down all over each other. Rat-tat-tat-tat! This time
2886 the machine gunner missed and the string apparently got the
2887 building opposite us. To make up for the miss, the gas bombs
2888 fell again right on target. The lights around the square went
2889 out, and with them the blue panel, as a free-for-all started in
2890 the pitch-black dark.
2892 <ul><a name=7></a><h2>Chapter SEVEN</h2></ul>
2894 I'll never know how I arrived at that fountain. It must be
2895 that I have good instincts and ordinary cold water was exactly
2896 what I needed. I crawled into the water without taking off my
2897 clothes, and lay down, feeling better immediately. I was lying
2898 on my back, drops rained on my face, and this was unbelievably
2899 pleasant. It was quite dark here, and dim stars shone through
2900 the branches and the water. It was very quiet. For several
2901 minutes I was watching a brighter star, for some reason unknown
2902 to me, which was slowly moving across the sky, until I realized
2903 that I was watching the relay satellite Europa. How far from
2904 all this, I thought, how degrading and senseless to remember
2905 the revolting mess on the square, the disgusting foul mouthings
2906 and screechings, the wet phrumping of the gas bombs, and the
2907 putrid stench which turned your stomach and lungs inside out.
2908 Understanding freedom as the rapid satisfaction and
2909 multiplication of needs and desires, I recollected, people
2910 distort their natures as they engender within themselves many
2911 senseless and stupid desires, habits and the most unlikely
2913 Priceless Peck, he loved to quote old pundit Zosima as he
2914 circled around a well-laid table, rubbing his hands. We were
2915 snot-nosed undergrads then and ingenuously believed that such
2916 pronouncements, in our time, were meant only to show off
2917 flashes of humor and erudition.... At this point in my
2918 reflections, someone noisily plunged into the water some ten
2920 At first he coughed hoarsely, spat and blew his nose, so
2921 that I hurried to leave the water, then he started to splash,
2922 finally became quiet, and suddenly discharged himself of a
2924 "Shameless lice," he growled. "Whores, swine... on live
2925 people! Stinking hyenas, rotten scum... learned prostitutes,
2926 filthy snakes." He hawked furiously again. "It bothers them
2927 that people are having a good time! Stepped on my face, the
2928 crud!" He groaned nasally and painfully, "The hell with this
2929 shiver business. That will be the day when I'll go again."
2930 He moaned again and rose. I could hear the water running
2931 from his clothes. I could dimly perceive his swaying figure. He
2933 "Hey, friend, have a smoke on you?"
2935 "Low-lifers! I didn't think to take them out. Just fell in
2936 with everything on." He splashed over to me and sat down
2937 alongside. "Some moron stepped on my cheek," he informed me.
2938 "They marched over me, too," I said. "The people went
2940 "But, you tell me, where do they get the tear gas?" he
2941 said. "And machine guns?"
2942 "And airplanes," I added.
2943 "An airplane means nothing," he contradicted. "I have one
2944 myself. I bought it cheap for seven hundred crowns.... What do
2945 they want, that's what I don't understand."
2946 "Hoodlums," I said. "They should have their faces pulped
2947 properly, and that would be the end of that argument."
2948 He laughed bitterly.
2949 "Someone did! For that you get worked over good.... You
2950 think they didn't get beat up? And how they got beat up! But
2951 apparently that isn't enough.... We should have driven them
2952 right into the ground, together with their excrement, but we
2953 passed up the chance.... And now they are giving us the
2954 business! The people got soft, that's what, I tell you. Nobody
2955 gives a damn. They put their four hours in, have a drink and
2956 off to the shivers! And you can pot them like clay pigeons." He
2957 slapped his sides in desperation. "Those were the times," he
2958 cried. "They didn't dare open their mouths! Should one of them
2959 even whisper, guys in black shirts or maybe white hoods would
2960 pay a night visit, crunch him in the teeth, and off to the camp
2961 he went, so there wouldn't be a peep out of him again.... In
2962 the schools, my son says, everyone bad-mouths fascism: Oh dear,
2963 they hurt the Negroes' feelings; oh dear, the scientists were
2964 witch-hunted; oh dear, the camps; oh dear, the dictatorship!
2965 Well, it wasn't witch-hunting that was needed, but to hammer
2966 them into the ground, so there wouldn't be any left for
2967 breeding!" He drew his hand under his nose, slurping long and
2969 "Tomorrow morning, I have to go to work with my face all
2970 out of shape.... Let's go have a drink, or we'll both catch
2972 We crawled through the bushes and came out on the street.
2973 "The Weasel is just around the corner," he informed me.
2974 The Weasel was full of wet-haired half-naked people. They
2975 seemed depressed, somehow embarrassed, and gloomily bragging
2976 about their contusions and abrasions. Several young women, clad
2977 only in panties, clustered around the electric fireplace,
2978 drying their skirts. The men patted them platonically on their
2979 bare flesh. My companion immediately penetrated into the thick
2980 of the crowd, and swinging his arms and blowing his nose with
2981 his fingers, began to call for "hammering the bastards into the
2982 ground." He was getting some weak support.
2983 I asked for Russian vodka, and when the girls left, I took
2984 off my sport shirt and sat by the fireplace. The barman
2985 delivered my glass and returned at once to his crossword in the
2986 fat magazine. The public continued its conversation.
2987 "So, what's the shooting for? Haven't we had enough of
2988 shooting? Just like little boys, by God... just spoiling some
2990 "Bandits, they're worse than gangsters, but like it or not
2991 that shiver business is no good, too."
2992 "That's right. The other day mine says to me, 'Papa, I saw
2993 you; you were all blue like a corpse and very scary' -- and
2994 she's only ten. So how can I look her in the eyes? Eh?"
2995 "Hey anybody! What's an entertainment with four letters?"
2996 asked the barman without raising his head.
2997 "So, all right, but who dreamed all this up -- the shiver
2998 and the aromatics? Eh and also..."
2999 "If you got drenched, brandy is best."
3000 "We were waiting for him on the bridge, and along he comes
3001 with his eyeglasses and some kind of pipe with lenses in it. So
3002 up he goes over the rail with his eyeglasses and his pipe, and
3003 he kicked his legs once and that was that. And then old Snoot
3004 comes running, after having been revived, and he looks at the
3005 guy blowing bubbles. "Fellows," he says, "What the hell is the
3006 matter with you, are you drunk or something, that's not the guy
3007 -- I am seeing him for the first time..."
3008 "I think there ought to be a law -- if you are married,
3009 you can't go to the shiver."
3010 "Hey somebody," again the bartender, "What's a literary
3011 work with seven letters -- a booklet, maybe?"
3012 "So, I myself had four Intels in my squad, machine gunners
3013 they were. It's quite true that they fought like devils. I
3014 remember we were retreating from the warehouse, you know
3015 they're still building a factory there, and two stayed behind
3016 to cover us. By the way, nobody asked them, they volunteered
3017 entirely by themselves. Later we came back and found them
3018 hanging side by side from the rail crane, naked, with all their
3019 appurtenances ripped off with hot pincers. You understand? And
3020 now, I'm thinking, where were the other two today? Maybe they
3021 were the very same guys to treat me to some tear gas, those are
3022 the types that can do such things."
3023 "So who didn't get hung? We got hung by various places,
3025 "Hammer them into the ground right up to their noses, and
3026 that'll be the end of that!"
3027 "I'm going. There is no point in hanging around here, I'm
3028 getting heartburn. They must have fixed everything up by now,
3030 "Hey, barman, girls, let's have one last one."
3031 My shirt had dried, and as the cafe emptied, I pulled it
3032 on and went over to sit at a table and to watch. Two
3033 meticulously dressed gentlemen in the corner were sipping their
3034 drinks through straws. They called attention to themselves
3035 immediately -- both were in severe black suits and black ties,
3036 despite the very warm night. They weren't talking, and one of
3037 them constantly referred to his watch. After a while, I grew
3038 tired of observing them. Well, Doctor Opir, how do you like the
3039 shivers? Were you at the square? But of course you were not.
3040 Too bad. It would have been interesting to know what you
3041 thought of it. On the other hand, to the devil with you. What
3042 do I care what Doctor Opir thinks? What do I think about it
3043 myself? Well, high-grade barber's raw material, what do you
3044 think? It's important to get acclimatized quickly
3045 and not stuff the brain with induction, deduction, and
3046 technical procedures. The most important thing is to get
3047 acclimatized as rapidly as possible. To get to feel like one of
3048 them.... There, they all went back to the square. Despite
3049 everything that happened, they still went back to the square
3050 again. As for me, I don't have the slightest desire to go back
3051 there. I would, with the greatest of pleasure at this point, go
3052 back to my room and check out my new bed. But when would I go
3053 to the Fishers? Intels, Devon, and Fishers. Intels -- maybe
3054 they are the local version of the Golden Youth? Devon... Devon
3055 must be kept in mind, together with Oscar. But now the Fishers.
3056 "The Fishers; that's a little bit vulgar," said one of the
3057 black suits, not whispering, but very quietly.
3058 "It all depends on temperament," said the other. "As for
3059 me, personally I don't condemn Karagan in the slightest."
3060 "You see, I don't condemn him either. It's a little
3061 shocking that he picked up his options. A gentleman would not
3062 have behaved that way."
3063 "Forgive me, but Karagan is no gentleman. He is only a
3064 general manager. Hence the small-mindedness and the
3065 mercantilism and a certain what I might call commonness..."
3066 "Let's not be so hard on him. The Fishers -- that's
3067 something intriguing. And to be honest, I don't see any reason
3068 why we should not involve ourselves. The old Subway -- that's
3069 quite respectable. Wild is much more elegant than Nivele, but
3070 we don't reject Nivele on that account."
3071 "'You really are seriously considering?"
3072 "Right now, if you wish.... It's five to two, by the way.
3074 They got up, said a friendly and polite goodbye to the
3075 bartender, and proceeded toward the exit. They looked elegant,
3076 calm, and condescendingly remote. This was astounding luck. I
3077 yawned loudly, and muttering, "Off to the square," followed
3078 them, pushing stools out of my way. The street was poorly
3079 illuminated, but I saw them immediately. They were in no hurry.
3080 The one on the right was the shorter, and when they passed
3081 under the street lights, you could see his safe, sparse hair.
3082 As near as I could tell, they were no longer conversing.
3083 They detoured the square, turned into a dark alley,
3084 avoided a drunk who tried to strike up a conversation, and
3085 suddenly, without one backward glance, turned abruptly into a
3086 garden in front of a large gloomy house. I heard a heavy door
3087 thud shut. It was a minute before two.
3088 I pushed off the drunk, entered the garden, and sat down
3089 on a silver-painted bench under a lilac bush. The wooden bench
3090 was situated on a sandy path which ran through the garden. A
3091 blue lamp illuminated the entrance of the house, and I
3092 discerned two caryatids supporting the balcony over the door.
3093 This didn't look like the entrance to the old subway, but as
3094 yet, I couldn't tell for sure, so I decided to wait.
3095 I didn't have to wait long. There was a rustle of steps
3096 and a dark figure in a cloak appeared on the path. It was a
3097 woman. I did not grasp immediately why her proudly raised head
3098 with a high cylindrical coiffure, in which large stones
3099 glistened in the starlight, seemed familiar. I arose to meet
3100 her, and said, trying to sound both respectful and mocking,
3101 "You are late, madam, it's after two."
3102 She was not in the least startled.
3103 "You don't say!" she exclaimed. "Can it be my watch is so
3105 It was the very same woman who had the altercation with
3106 the van driver, but of course she did not recognize me. Women
3107 with such disdainful-looking lower lips never remember chance
3108 meetings. I took her by the arm, and we mounted the wide stone
3109 steps. The door turned out to be as heavy as a reactor-well
3110 cover. There was no one in the entrance hall. The woman,
3111 without turning, flung the cloak on my arm and went ahead, and
3112 I paused for a second to look at myself in the huge mirror.
3113 Good man, Master Gaoway, but it still behooved me to stay in
3114 the shadows. We entered the ballroom.
3115 No, this was anything but a subway. The room was enormous
3116 and incredibly old-fashioned. The walls were lined with dark
3117 wood, and fifteen feet up, there was a gallery with a railing.
3118 Pink blond-curled angels smiled down with only their blue lips
3119 from a far-flung ceiling. Almost the entire floor of the room
3120 was covered with rows of soft massive chairs covered with
3121 embossed leather. Elegantly dressed people, mostly middle-aged
3122 men, sat in them in relaxed and negligent poses. They were
3123 looking at the far end of the room, where a brightly lit
3124 picture blazed against a background of black velvet.
3125 No one turned to look at us. The woman glided toward the
3126 front rows, and I sat down near the door. By now, I was almost
3127 sure that I had come here for nothing. There was silence and
3128 some coughs, and lazy streams of smoke curled upward from the
3129 fat cigars; many bald pates glistened under the chandeliers. My
3130 attention turned to the picture. I am an indifferent
3131 connoisseur of paintings, but it looked like a Raphael, and if
3132 it was not genuine, it was certainly a perfect copy.
3133 There was a deep brassy gong, and simultaneously a tall,
3134 thin man in a black mask appeared by the side of the picture. A
3135 black leotard covered his body from head to toe. He was
3136 followed by a limping, hunchbacked dwarf in a red smock. In his
3137 short, extended pawlike arms, he held a dully glinting sword of
3138 a most wicked appearance. He went to the right of the picture
3139 and stood still, while the masked individual stepped forward
3140 and spoke in a measured tone: "In accordance with the bylaws
3141 and directives of the Honorable Society of Patrons, and in the
3142 name of Art, which is holy and irreproducible, and the power
3143 granted me by you, I have examined the history and worth of
3144 this painting and now --"
3145 "Request a halt," sounded a curt voice behind me.
3146 Everyone turned around. I also turned around and saw that
3147 three young, obviously very powerful, and immaculately dressed
3148 men were looking at me full in the face. One had a monocle in
3149 his right eye. We studied each other for a few seconds, and the
3150 man with the monocle twitched his cheek and let it drop. I got
3151 up at once. They moved toward me together, stepping softly and
3152 soundlessly. I tried the chair, but it was too massive. They
3153 jumped me. I met them as best I could and at first everything
3154 went well, but very quickly it became evident that they wore
3155 brass knuckles, and I barely managed to evade them. I pressed
3156 my back against the wall and looked at them while they,
3157 breathing heavily, looked at me. There were still two of them
3158 left. There was the usual coughing in the auditorium. Four more
3159 were coming down the gallery steps, which squeaked and groaned
3160 loudly enough to reverberate in the hall. Bad business, thought
3161 I, and launched myself to force a breach.
3162 It was hard going, just like the time in Manila, but then
3163 there were two of us. It would have been better if they were
3164 armed, as I would have had a chance to expropriate a gun.
3165 But all six of them met me with knuckles and truncheons.
3166 Luckily for me it was very crowded. My left arm went out of
3167 commission, and then the four suddenly jumped back, while the
3168 fifth drenched me with a clammy liquid from a flat container.
3169 Simultaneously, the lights were extinguished.
3170 These tricks were well known to me: now they could see me,
3171 but I could not see them. In all probability that would have
3172 been the end of me, were it not that some idiot threw open the
3173 door and announced in a greasy basso, "I beg forgiveness, I am
3174 terribly late and so sorry..." I charged toward the light, over
3175 some bodies, mowed down the latecomer, flew across the entrance
3176 hall, threw open the front door, and pelted down the sandy path
3177 holding my left arm with my right hand. No one was pursuing me,
3178 but I traversed two blocks before it dawned on me to stop.
3179 I flung myself down on a lawn and lay for a long time in
3180 the short grass, grabbing lungfuls of the warm moist air. In no
3181 time, the curious gathered around me. They stood in a
3182 semicircle and ogled me avidly, not saying a word. "Take off,"
3183 I said, getting up finally. Hurriedly, they scooted away. I
3184 stood awhile, figuring out where I was, and began a stumbling
3185 journey homeward. I had had enough for today. I still didn't
3186 get it, but I had had quite enough. Whoever they were, these
3187 members of the Honorable Society of Art Patrons -- secret art
3188 worshippers, extant aristocrat-conspirators or whoever else --
3189 they fought cruelly and without quarter, and the biggest fool
3190 in that hall of theirs was still apparently none other than I.
3191 I passed by the square, where again the color panels
3192 pulsed rhythmically, and hundreds of hysterical voices
3193 screamed, "Shi-vers! Shi-vers!" Of this too I had had enough.
3194 Pleasant dreams are, of course, more attractive than unpleasant
3195 ones, but after all, we do not live in a dream. In the
3196 establishment where Vousi had taken me, I had a bottle of
3197 ice-cold soda water, observed with curiosity a squad of police
3198 peacefully camped by the bar, and went out, turning into Second
3200 A lump the size of a tennis ball was rising behind my left
3201 ear. I weaved badly and walked slowly, keeping close to the
3202 fences. Later, I heard the tap of heels behind me and voices:
3203 "... Your place is in the museum, not in a cabaret."
3204 "Nothing of the sort, I am not drunk. Can't you
3205 und-derstand, only one measly bottle of wine..."
3206 "How disgusting! Soused and picking up a wench."
3207 "What's the girl got to do with it? She is a m-model!"
3208 "Fighting over a wench. Making us fight over her."
3209 "Why in hell d-do you believe them and don't believe me?"
3210 "Just because you're drunk! You're a bum, just like they
3211 all are, maybe worse...."
3212 "That's all right. I'll remember that scoundrel with the
3213 bracelet quite well.... Don't hold me! I'll walk by myself!"
3214 "You'll remember nothing, friend. Your glasses were
3215 knocked off in the first instant, and without them, you aren't
3216 even a man, but a blind sausage.... Stop kicking, or it will be
3217 the fountain for you...."
3218 "I'm warning you, one more stunt like that, and we'll
3219 throw you out. A drunken <i>kulturfuhrer</i> -- it's enough to
3221 "Stop preaching at him, give a man a chance to sleep it
3223 "Fellows! There he is, the l-louse!"
3224 The street was empty, and the louse was clearly me. I
3225 could bend my left arm already, but it hurt like the devil, and
3226 I stepped back to let them pass. There were three of them. They
3227 were young, in identical caps, pushed over their eyes. One,
3228 thickset and low-slung, was obviously amused and held the other
3229 one, a tall, open-faced, loose-jointed fellow, with a powerful
3230 grip, restraining his violent and sporadic movements. The
3231 third, long and skinny, with a narrow and darkish face, was
3232 following at some distance with his hands behind his back. As
3233 he got alongside me, the loose-jointed one braked determinedly.
3234 The short one attempted to nudge him off the spot, but in vain.
3235 The long one passed by and then stopped, looking back
3236 impatiently over his shoulder.
3237 "Thought you were gonna get away, pig!" he yelled
3238 drunkenly, attempting to seize me by the chest with his free
3240 I retreated to the fence and said, addressing myself to
3241 the short fellow, "I had no business with you."
3242 "Stop being a rowdy," said the distant one sharply.
3243 "I remember you very well indeed," yelled the drunk.
3244 "You're not going to get away from me! I'll get even with you!"
3245 He advanced upon me in surges, dragging the short one,
3246 who hung on with bulldog grimness, behind him.
3247 "It's not him," cajoled the low-slung one, who was still
3248 very merry. "That guy went off to the shivers and this one is
3250 "You won't fool me."
3251 "I'm warning you for the last time. We are going to expel
3253 "Got scared, the bum! Took off his bracelet."
3254 "You can't even see him. You're worthless without your
3256 "I can see everything pe-erfectly!... And even if he isn't
3258 "Stop it! Enough is enough!"
3259 The long one finally came back and grasped the drunk from
3261 "Will you move on!" he said to me with irritation, "Why
3262 the devil are you stopping here! Haven't you ever seen a
3264 "Oh, no! You aren't going to get away from me."
3265 I continued on my way. I had not far to go by now. The
3266 trio dragged along behind me noisily.
3267 "I can see right through him, if you please. King of
3268 Nature! Drunk enough to retch, and to beat up whoever comes
3269 along. Got beat up himself, and that's all he needs.... Let go
3270 of me, I'll hang a few good ones on his mug...."
3271 "What have you come to, we have to walk you along like a
3273 "So don't walk me!... I loathe them.... Shivers, wenches,
3274 whiskey... brainless jelly..."
3275 "Sure, sure, take it easy, just don't fall."
3276 "Enough of your reproofs... I am sick of your hypocrisy,
3277 your puritanism. We should blow them up, shoot them! Raze
3278 everything off the face of the earth!"
3279 "Drunk as a coot, and I thought he was sobered up!"
3280 "I am sober. I remember everything... the twenty-eighth,
3282 "Shut up, you fool."
3283 "Shh! Right you are! The enemy is on the alert....
3284 Fellows, there was a spy here somewhere.... Didn't I talk to
3285 him?... The son of a bitch took off his bracelet... but I'll
3286 get that dick before the twenty-eighth!"
3287 "Will you be quiet!"
3288 "Shh! And not another word. That's it! And don't worry,
3289 the grenade launchers are my baby."
3290 "I am going to kill him right now, the bum!"
3291 "Lay it on the enemies of civilization.... Fifteen hundred
3292 meters of tear gas -- personally... six sectors... awk!"
3293 I was already by the gate to my house. When I turned
3294 around to look, the burly man was lying face down, the short
3295 one was squatting alongside, while the long fellow stood
3296 rubbing the edge of his right hand.
3297 "Why did you do that?" said the short man. "You must have
3299 "Enough prattle," said the long one furiously. "We can't
3300 seem to learn to stop prattling. We can't learn to stop
3302 Let us be as children, Doctor Opir, thought I, slipping
3303 into the yard as quietly as possible. I held the latch to keep
3304 it from clicking into place.
3305 "Where did he go?" said the long one, lowering his voice.
3307 "The guy who went ahead of us."
3308 "Turned off somewhere."
3309 "Where? Did you notice?"
3310 "Listen, I wasn't concerned about him."
3311 "Too bad. But all right, pick him up, and let's go."
3312 Stepping into the shadow of the apple trees, I watched
3313 them drag the drunk by the gate. He was wheezing horribly.
3314 The house was quiet. I went to my quarters, undressed, and
3315 took a hot shower. My shirt and shorts smelled of tear gas and
3316 were covered with the greasy spots of the luminous liquid. I
3317 threw them into the hamper. Next, I inspected myself in the
3318 mirror and marveled once more at how lightly I had gotten away:
3319 a bump behind the ear, a sizable contusion on the left
3320 shoulder, and some scraped ribs. Also skinned knuckles.
3321 On the night table, I discovered a notice which
3322 respectfully suggested that I deposit a sum to cover the rent
3323 for the apartment for the first thirty days. The sum was quite
3324 considerable, but tolerable. I counted out a few credits and
3325 stuffed them into the thoughtfully provided envelope, and then
3326 lay down on the bed with my hands behind my head. The sheets
3327 were cool and crisp, and a salty sea breeze blew in through the
3328 open window. The phonor susurrated cozily behind my ear. I
3329 intended to think awhile before falling asleep, but was too
3330 exhausted and quickly dozed off.
3331 Later, some noise in the background awakened me, and I
3332 grew alert and listened with eyes wide open.
3333 Somewhere nearby, someone either cried or sang in a thin
3334 childish voice. I got up cautiously and leaned out the open
3335 window. The thin halting voice was intoning: "... having stayed
3336 in the grave but a short time, they come out and live among the
3337 living as though alive." There was the sound of sobs. From far
3338 away like the keening of a mosquito came the chant "Shi-vers!
3339 Shi-vers!" The pitiable little voice went on -- "Blood and
3340 earth mixed together they can't eat." I thought that it was
3341 Vousi, drunk and lamenting upstairs in her room, and called out
3342 softly, "Vousi!" No one replied, The thin voice cried out:
3343 "Hence from my hair, hence from my flesh, hence from my bones,"
3344 and I knew who it was. I climbed over the window sill, jumped
3345 onto the lawn, and went to the apple grove, listening to the
3346 sobbing. Light appeared through the trees, and soon I came to a
3347 garage. The doors were cracked open and I looked in. Inside was
3348 a huge shiny Opel. Two candles were burning on the workbench.
3349 There was a smell of gasoline and hot wax.
3350 Under the candles, seated on a work stool, was Len,
3351 dressed in a full-length white gown, in bare feet, with a
3352 thick, well-worn book on his knees. He regarded me with
3353 wide-open eyes, his face completely white and frozen with
3355 "What are you doing here?" I said loudly and entered.
3356 He continued to look at me in silence and started to
3357 tremble. I could hear his teeth chattering.
3358 "Len, old friend," I said, "I guess you didn't recognize
3359 me. It's me -- Ivan."
3360 He dropped the book and hid his hands in his armpits. As
3361 earlier today, in the morning, his face beaded with cold sweat.
3362 I sat down alongside of him and put my arm around his
3363 shoulders. He collapsed against me weakly. He shook all over. I
3364 looked at the book. A certain Doctor Neuf had blessed the human
3365 race with <i>An Introduction to the Science of Necrological
3366 Phenomena</i>. I kicked the book under the bench.
3367 'Whose ear is that?" I asked loudly.
3370 "It's not a Ford. It's an Opel."
3371 "You're right -- it is an Opel... a couple of hundred
3372 miles per hour I would guess..."
3374 "Where did you get the candles?"
3376 "Is that right! I didn't know that they sold candles in
3377 our time. Is your bulb burned out? I went out in the garden,
3378 you know, to get an apple off a tree, and then I saw the light
3380 He moved closer to me and said, "Don't leave for a while
3382 "OK. What do you say we blow out the lights and go to my
3384 "No, I can't go there."
3385 "Where can't you go?"
3386 "In the house and to your place." He was talking with
3387 tremendous conviction. "For quite a while yet. Until they fall
3393 I listened. There was only the rustle of branches in the
3394 wind and somewhere very far away the cry of: "Shi-vers!
3396 "I don't hear anything special," I said.
3397 "That's because you don't know. You are new here and
3398 they don't bother the new ones."
3399 "But who are they, after all?"
3400 "All of them. You've seen the fink with the buttons?"
3401 "Pete? Yes, I saw him. But why is he a fink? In my
3402 opinion, he's an entirely respectable man."
3404 "Come on," he said in a whisper, "I'll show you. But be
3406 We came out of the garage, crept up to the house, and
3407 turned a corner. Len held my hand all the time; his palm was
3409 "There -- look," he said.
3410 Sure enough, the sight was frightening. My customs friend
3411 was lying on the porch with his head stuck at an unnatural
3412 angle through the railing. The mercury vapor light from the
3413 street fell on his face, which looked blue and swollen, and
3414 covered with dark welts. Through half-open lids, the eyes could
3415 be seen, crossed toward the bridge of the nose.
3416 'They walk among the living, like living people in the
3417 daytime," murmured Len, holding on to me with both hands. "They
3418 bow and smile, but at night their faces are white, and blood
3419 seeps through their skin." I approached the veranda. The
3420 customs man was dressed in pajamas. He breathed noisily and
3421 exuded a smell of cognac. There was blood on his face, as
3422 though he'd fallen on his face into some broken glass.
3423 "He's just drunk," I said loudly. "Simply drunk and
3424 snoring. Very disgusting."
3426 "You are a newcomer," he whispered. "You see nothing. But
3427 I saw." He shook again. "Many of them came. She brought them...
3428 and they carried her in... there was a moon... they sawed off
3429 the top of her head... and she screamed and screamed... and
3430 then they started to eat with spoons. She ate, too, and they
3431 all laughed when she screamed and flopped around..."
3433 "And then they piled on wood and burned it and danced
3434 around the fire... and then they buried everything in the
3435 garden... she went out to get the shovel in the car... I saw it
3436 all... do you want to see where they buried her?"
3437 "You know what, friend?" I said. "Let's go to my place."
3439 "To get some sleep, that's what for. Everyone is sleeping
3440 -- only you and I are palavering here."
3441 "Nobody is sleeping. You really are new. Right now no one
3442 is sleeping. You must not sleep now."
3443 "Let's go, let's go," said I, "over to my place."
3444 "I won't go," he said. "Don't touch me. I didn't say your
3446 "I am going to take a belt," I said menacingly, "and I
3447 will strap your behind."
3448 Apparently this calmed him. He clutched my hand again and
3450 "Let's go, old pal, let's go," I said. "You're going to
3451 sleep and I will sit alongside you. And if anything at all
3452 happens, I will awaken you at once."
3453 We climbed into my room through the window (he absolutely
3454 refused to enter the house by the front door), and I put him to
3455 bed. I intended to tell him a tale, but he fell asleep
3456 immediately. His face looked tortured, and every few minutes he
3457 quivered in his sleep. I pushed the chair by the window,
3458 wrapped myself in a bathrobe, and smoked a cigarette to calm my
3459 nerves. I attempted to think about Rimeyer and about the
3460 Fishers, with whom I had not met up after all; about what must
3461 happen on the twenty-eighth; and about the Art Patrons, but
3462 nothing came of it and this irritated me. It was annoying that
3463 I was unable to think about my business as something of
3464 importance. The thoughts scattered and jumbled emotions
3465 intruded, and I did not think so much as I felt. I felt that I
3466 hadn't come for nothing, but at the same time, I sensed that I
3467 had come for altogether the wrong reason.
3468 But Len slept. He did not even awake when an engine
3469 snorted at the gate, car doors were slammed, there were shouts,
3470 chokes, and howls in different voices, so that I almost decided
3471 that a crime was being committed in front of the house, when it
3472 became clear that it was just Vousi coming back. Happily
3473 humming, she began to undress while still in the garden,
3474 negligently draping her blouse, skirt, and other garments over
3475 the apple branches. She didn't notice me, came into the house,
3476 shuffled around upstairs for a while, dropped something heavy,
3477 and finally settled down. It was close to five o'clock. The
3478 glow of dawn was kindling over the sea.
3480 <ul><a name=8></a><h2>Chapter EIGHT</h2></ul>
3482 When I woke up, Len was already gone. My shoulder ached so
3483 badly that the pain pounded in my head, and I promised myself
3484 to take it easy the whole day. Grunting and feeling sick and
3485 forlorn, I executed a feeble attempt at set-ting-up exercises,
3486 approximated a wash-up, took the envelope with the money, and
3487 set out far Aunt Vaina, moving edge-wise through the doorway.
3488 In the hall, I stopped in indecision: it was quiet in the
3489 house, and I wasn't sure that my landlady was up. But at this
3490 point the door to her side of the house opened, and Pete, the
3491 customs man, came out into the hall. Well, well, thought I. At
3492 night he had looked like a drowned drunk. Now in the light of
3493 day, he resembled a victim of a hooligan attack. The lower part
3494 of his face was dark with blood. Fresh blood glistened on his
3495 chin, and he held a handkerchief under his jaw to keep his
3496 snow-white braided uniform clean. His face was strained and his
3497 eyes tended to cross, but in general, he held himself
3498 remarkably calm, as though falling face-down into broken glass
3499 was a most ordinary event for him. A slight misadventure, you
3500 know, can happen to anybody; please don't pay it any attention;
3501 every-thing will be all right.
3502 "Good morning," I mumbled.
3503 "Good morning," he responded, politely dabbing his chin
3504 cautiously and sounding a bit nasal.
3505 "Anything the matter? Can I help?"
3506 "A trifle," he said. ' The chair fell."
3507 He bowed courteously, and passing by me, unhurriedly left
3508 the house. I observed his departure with a thoroughly
3509 unpleasant feeling, and when I turned back toward the door, I
3510 found Aunt Vaina standing in front of me. She stood in the
3511 doorway, gracefully leaning on the jamb, all clean, rosy, and
3512 perfumed, and looking at me as though I was Major General Tuur
3513 or, at least, Staff Major Polom.
3514 "Good morning, early bird," she cooed. "I was puzzled --
3515 who would be talking at this hour?"
3516 "I couldn't bring myself to disturb you," I said,
3517 shuddering fashionably and mentally howling at the pain in my
3518 shoulder. "Good morning, and may I take the }liberty to hand
3520 "How nice! You can tell a real gentleman right away. Major
3521 General Tuur used to say that a true gentleman never makes
3522 anyone wait. Never. Nobody..."
3523 I became aware that slowly but very persistently, she was
3524 herding me away from her door. The living room was darkened,
3525 with the drapes apparently drawn, and some strange sweet smell
3526 was wafting out of it into the hall.
3527 "But you did not have to be in such a rush, really..."
3528 She was finally in a convenient position to close the door
3529 with a smooth negligent gesture. "However, you can be sure that
3530 I will value your promptness appropriately. Vousi is still
3531 asleep, and it's time for me to get Len off to school. So if
3532 you will excuse me... By the way, we have the newspapers on the
3534 "Thank you," I said, retreating.
3535 "If you'll have the patience, I would like to ask you to
3536 join me for breakfast and a cup of cream."
3537 "Unfortunately, I will have to be going," I said, bowing
3539 As to newspapers, there were six. Two local, illustrated,
3540 fat as almanacs; one from the capital; two luxurious weeklies;
3541 and, for some reason, the Arab <i>El Gunia</i>. The last I put
3542 aside, and sifted through the others, accompanying the news
3543 with sandwiches and hot cocoa.
3544 In Bolivia, government troops, after stubborn fighting,
3545 had occupied the town of Reyes. The rebels were pushed across
3546 the River Beni. In Moscow, at the international meeting of
3547 nuclear physicists, Haggerton and Soloviev announced a project
3548 for a commercial installation to produce anti-matter. The
3549 Tretiakoff Gallery had arrived in Leopoldville, official
3550 opening being scheduled for tomorrow. The scheduled series of
3551 pilotless craft had been launched from the Staryi Vostok base
3552 on Pluto into the totally free flight zone; communications with
3553 two of the craft were temporarily disrupted. The General
3554 Secretary of the UN had directed an official message to
3555 Orolianos, in which he warned that in the event of a repetition
3556 of the use of atomic grenades by the extremists, UN police
3557 forces would be introduced into Eldorado. In Central Angola, at
3558 the sources of the River Kwando, an archaeological expedition
3559 of the Academy of Sciences of the UAR had uncovered the remains
3560 of a cyclopean construction, apparently dating from well before
3561 the ice age. A group of specialists of the United Center for
3562 the Investigation of Subelectronic (Ritrinitive) Structures had
3563 evaluated the energy reserves available to mankind as
3564 sufficient for three billion years. The cosmic branch of Unesco
3565 had announced that the relative population growth of
3566 extraterrestrial centers and bases now approached the
3567 population growth on Earth. The head of the British delegation
3568 to the UN had put forth a proposal, in the name of the great
3569 powers, for the total demilitarization, by force if need be, of
3570 the remaining militarized regions on the globe.
3571 Information about how many kilos were pressed by whom and
3572 about who drove how many balls through whose goal posts I did
3573 not bother to read. Of the local announcements, I was intrigued
3574 by three. The local paper, Joy of Life, reported: "Last night a
3575 group of evil-minded men again carried out a private plane raid
3576 on Star Square, which was full of citizens taking their
3577 leisure. The hooligans fired several machine-gun bursts and
3578 dropped eleven gas bombs. As a result of the ensuing panic,
3579 several men and women suffered severe injuries. The normal
3580 recreation of hundreds of respectable people was disrupted by a
3581 small group of bandit (excuse the term) intelligentsia with the
3582 obvious connivance of the police. The president of the Society
3583 for the Good Old Country Against Evil Influences informed our
3584 correspondent that the Society intended to take into its own
3585 hands the matter of the protection of the well-earned rest of
3586 fellow citizens. In no equivocal manner, the president let it
3587 be known whom specifically the people regarded as the source of
3588 the harmful infection, banditism, and militarized
3590 On page twelve, the paper devoted a column to an article
3591 by "the outstanding proponent of the latest philosophy, the
3592 laureate of many literary prizes, Doctor Opir." The treatise
3593 was titled "World Without Worry." With beautiful words and most
3594 convincingly indeed, Doctor Opir established the omnipotence of
3595 science, called for optimism, derided gloomy skeptics and
3596 denigrators, and invited all "to be as children." He assigned a
3597 specially important role in the formation of contemporary
3598 (i.e., anxiety-free) psychology to electric wave
3599 psychotechnics. "Recollect what a wonderful charge of vigor and
3600 good feeling is imparted by a bright, happy, and joyful dream!"
3601 exclaimed this representative of the latest philosophy. "It is
3602 no wonder that sleep has been known for over a hundred years to
3603 be a curative agent for many psychic disturbances. But we are
3604 all a touch ill: we are sick with our worries, we are overcome
3605 by the trivia of daily routine, we are irritated by the rare
3606 but still remaining few malfunctions, the inevitable frictions
3607 among individuals, the normal healthy sexual unsatisfiedness,
3608 the dissatisfaction with self which is so common in the makeup
3609 of each person. ... As fragrant bath salts wash away the dust
3610 of travel from our tired bodies, so does a joyful dream wash
3611 away and purify a tired psyche. So now, we no longer have to
3612 fear any anxieties or malfunctions. We well know that at the
3613 appointed hour, the invisible radiation of the dream generator,
3614 which together with the public I tend to call by the familiar
3615 name of 'the shivers,' will heal us, fill us with optimism, and
3616 return to us the wonderful feeling of the joy of being alive."
3617 Further, Doctor Opir expounded that the shivers were absolutely
3618 harmless physically and psychologically, and that the attacks
3619 of detractors who wished to see in the shivers a resemblance to
3620 narcotics and who demagogically ranted about a "doped mankind,"
3621 could not but arouse in us a painful incomprehension, and,
3622 conceivably, some stronger public-spirited emotions that could
3623 be dangerous to the malevolently inclined citizens. In
3624 conclusion, Doctor Opir pronounced a happy dream to be the best
3625 kind of rest, vaguely hinted that the shivers constituted the
3626 best antidote to alcoholism and drug addiction, and insistently
3627 warned that the shivers should not be confused with other (not
3628 medically approved) methods of electric wave application.
3629 The weekly Golden Days informed the public that a valuable
3630 canvas, ascribed in the opinion of experts to the gifted band
3631 of Raphael, had been stolen from the National Art Galleries.
3632 The weekly called the attention of the authorities to the fact
3633 that this criminal act was the third during the past four
3634 months of this year, and that neither of the previously stolen
3635 works of art had ever been found.
3636 All in all, there was really nothing to read in the
3637 weeklies. I glanced through them quickly, and they left me with
3638 the most depressing impression.
3639 All were filled with desolate witticisms, artless
3640 caricatures, among which the "captionless" series stood out
3641 with particular imbecility, with biographies of dim
3642 personalities, slobbering sketches of life in various layers of
3643 society, nightmarish series of photos with such titles as "Your
3644 husband at work and at home," endless amounts of useful advice
3645 on how to occupy your time without, God forbid, burdening your
3646 head, passionately idiotic sallies against alcoholism,
3647 hooliganism, and debauchery, and calls to join clubs and
3648 choruses with which I was already familiar. There were also
3649 memoirs of participants in the "fracas" and in the struggle
3650 against organized crime, which were served up in the literary
3651 style of jackasses totally lacking in taste or conscience.
3652 These were obviously exercises of addicts of literary
3653 sensationalism, loaded with suffering and tears, magnificent
3654 feats and saccharine futures. There were endless crosswords,
3655 chainwords, rebuses, and puzzle pictures.
3656 I flung the pile of papers into the corner. What a dreary
3657 place they had here! The boob was coddled, the boob was
3658 lovingly nurtured, and the boob was cultivated; the boob had
3659 become the norm; a little more and he would become the ideal,
3660 while jubilant doctors of philosophy would exultantly dance
3661 attendance upon him. But the papers were in full choreographic
3662 swing even now. Oh, what a wonderful boob we have! Such an
3663 optimistic boob, and such an intelligent boob, such a healthy
3664 alert boob, and with such a fine sense of humor; and oh boob,
3665 how well and adroitly you can solve crossword puzzles! But most
3666 important of all, boob, don't you worry about a thing,
3667 everything is quite all right, everything is just dandy,
3668 everything is in your service, the science and the literature,
3669 just so you can be amused and don't have to think about a
3670 thing.... As for those seditious skeptics and hoodlums, boob,
3671 we'll take care of them! With your help, we can't help but take
3672 care of them! What are they complaining about, anyway? Do they
3673 have more needs than other people?
3674 Dreariness and desolation! There had to be some curse upon
3675 these people, some awful predilection for dangers and
3676 disasters. Imperialism, fascism, tens of millions of people
3677 killed and lives destroyed, including millions of these same
3678 boobs, guilty and innocent, good and bad. The last skirmishes,
3679 the last putsches, especially pitiless because they were the
3680 last. Criminals, the military driven berserk by prolonged
3681 uselessness, all kinds of leftover trash from intelligence and
3682 counterintelligence, bored by the sameness of commercial
3683 espionage, all slavering for power. Again we were forced to
3684 return from space, to come out of our laboratories and
3685 factories, to call back our soldiers. And we managed it again.
3686 The zephyr was gently turning the pages of <i>History of
3687 Fascism</i> by my feet. But hardly had we had the time to savor
3688 the cloudless horizons, when out of these same sewers of
3689 history crept the scum with submachine guns, homemade quantum
3690 pistols, gangsters, syndicates, gangster corporations, gangster
3691 empires. "Minor malfunctions are still encountered here and
3692 there," soothed and calmed Doctor Opir, while napalm bottles
3693 flew through university windows, cities were seized by bands of
3694 outlaws, and museums burned like candles.... All right.
3695 Brushing aside Doctor Opir and his kind, once again we came out
3696 of space, out of the labs and factories, recalled the soldiers,
3697 and once again managed the problem. And again the skies were
3698 clear. Once more the Opirs were out, the weeklies were purring,
3699 and once more filth was flowing out of the same sewers. Tons of
3700 heroin, cisterns of opium, and oceans of alcohol, and beyond
3701 all that something new, something for which we had no name....
3702 Again everything was hanging by a thread for them, and boobs
3703 were solving crosswords, dancing the fling, and desired but one
3704 thing: to have fun. But somewhere idiot children were being
3705 born, people were going insane, some were dying strangely in
3706 bathtubs, some were dying no less strangely with some group
3707 called the Fishers, while art patrons defended their passion
3708 for art with brass knuckles. And the weeklies were attempting
3709 to cover this foul-smelling bog with a crust, fragile as a
3710 meringue, of cloyingly sweet prattle, and this or that
3711 diplomaed fool glorified sweet dreams, and thousands of idiots
3712 surrendered with relish to dreams in lieu of drunkenness (so
3713 that they need not think)... and again the boobs were persuaded
3714 that all was well, that space was being developed at an
3715 unprecedented pace (which was true), and that sources of energy
3716 would last for billions of years (which was also true), that
3717 life was becoming unquestionably more interesting and varied
3718 (which was also undoubtedly true, but not for boobs), while
3719 demagogue-denigrators (real-thinking men who considered that in
3720 our times any drop of pus could infect the whole of mankind, as
3721 once upon a time a beer putsch turned into a world menace) were
3722 foreign to the people's interests and deserved of universal
3723 condemnation. Boobs and criminals, criminals and boobs.
3724 "Have to work at it," I said aloud. "To hell with
3725 melancholy! We'd show you skeptics!"
3726 It was time to go see Rimeyer. Although there were the
3727 Fishers. But all right, the Fishers could be attended to later.
3728 I was tired of poking around in the dark. I went out in the
3729 yard. I could hear Aunt Vaina feeding Len.
3730 "But, Mom, I don't want any!"
3731 "Eat, son, you must eat. You are so pale."
3732 "I don't want to. Disgusting lumps l"
3733 "What lumps? Here, let me have some myself! Mm! Delicious!
3734 Just try some and you'll see it's very tasty."
3735 "But I don't want any! I'm ill, I'm not going to school."
3736 "Len, what are you saying? You've skipped a lot of days as
3739 "What do you mean, so what? The director has already
3740 called me twice. We'll be fined."
3742 "Eat, son, eat. Maybe you didn't get enough sleep?"
3743 "I didn't. And my stomach hurts... and my head... and my
3744 tooth, this one here, you see?"
3745 Len's voice sounded peevish, and I immediately visualized
3746 his pouting lips and his swinging stockinged foot.
3747 I went out the gate. The day was again clear and sunny,
3748 full of bird twitter. It was still too early, so that on my way
3749 to the Olympic, I met only two people. They walked together by
3750 the curb, monstrously out of place in the joyful world of green
3751 branch and clear blue sky. One was painted vermilion and the
3752 other bright blue. Sweat beaded through the paint on their
3753 bodies. Their breaths heaved through open mouths and the
3754 protruding eyes were bloodshot. Unconsciously I unbuttoned all
3755 the buttons of my shirt and breathed with relief when this
3756 strange pair passed me.
3757 At the hotel I went right up to the ninth floor. I was in
3758 a very determined mood. Whether Rimeyer wanted to or not, he
3759 would have to tell me everything I wanted to know. As a matter
3760 of fact, I needed him now for other things as well. I needed a
3761 listener, and in this sunny bedlam I could talk openly only to
3762 him, so far. True, this was not the Rimeyer I had counted on,
3763 but this too had to be talked cut in the end....
3764 The red-headed Oscar stood by the door to Rimeyer's suite,
3765 and, seeing him, I slowed my steps. He was adjusting his tie,
3766 gazing pensively at the ceiling. He looked worried.
3767 "Greetings," I said -- I had to start somehow.
3768 He wiggled his eyebrows and looked me over, and I was
3769 aware that he remembered me. He said slowly, "How do you do."
3770 "You want to see Rimeyer, too?" l asked.
3771 "Rimeyer is not feeling well," he said. He stood hard by
3772 the door and apparently had no intention of letting me by.
3773 "A pity," I said, moving up on him. "And what is his
3775 "He is feeling very bad."
3776 "Oh, oh!" I said. "Someone should have a look."
3777 I was now right up against Oscar. It was obvious he was
3778 not about to give way. My shoulder responded at once with a
3780 "I am not sure it's all that necessary," he said.
3781 "What do you mean? Is it really that bad?"
3782 "Exactly. Very bad. And you shouldn't bother him. Not
3783 today, or any other day!"
3784 It seems I arrived in time, I thought, and hopefully not
3786 "Are you a relative of his?" I asked. My attitude was most
3789 "I am his friend. His closest friend in this town. A
3790 childhood friend, you might say."
3791 'This is most touching," I said. "But I am his relative.
3792 Same as a brother. Let's go in together and see what his friend
3793 and brother can do for poor Rimeyer."
3794 "Maybe his brother has already done enough for Rimeyer."
3795 "Really now... I only arrived yesterday."
3796 "You wouldn't, by any chance, have other brothers around
3798 "I don't think there are any among your friends, with the
3799 exception of Rimeyer."
3800 While we were carrying on with this nonsense, I was
3801 studying him most carefully. He didn't look too nimble a type
3802 -- even considering my defective shoulder. But he kept his
3803 hands in his pockets all the time, and although I didn't think
3804 he would risk shooting in the hotel, I was not of a mind to
3805 chance it. Especially as I had heard of quantum dischargers
3807 I have been told critically many times that my intentions
3808 are always clearly readable on my face. And Oscar was
3809 apparently an adequately keen observer. I was coming to the
3810 conclusion that he obviously did not have anything there at
3811 all, that the hands-in-the-pocket act was a bluff. He moved
3812 aside and said, "Go on in."
3813 We entered. Rimeyer was indeed in a bad way. He lay on the
3814 couch covered with a torn drape, mumbling in delirium. The
3815 table was overturned, a broken bottle stained the middle of the
3816 floor, and wet clothes were strewn all over the room. I
3817 approached Rimeyer and sat down by him so as not to lose sight
3818 of Oscar, who stood by the window, half-sitting on the sill.
3819 Rimeyer's eyes were open. I bent over him.
3820 "Rimeyer," I called. "It's Ivan. Do you recognize me?"
3821 He regarded me dully. There was a fresh cut on his chin
3823 "So you got there already..." he muttered. "Don't prolong
3824 the Fishers... doesn't happen... don't take it so hard ...
3825 bothered me a lot... I can't stand..."
3826 It was pure delirium. I looked at Oscar. He listened with
3827 interest, his neck stretched out.
3828 "Bad when you wake up..." mumbled Rimeyer. "Nobody... wake
3829 up... they start... then they don't wake up..."
3830 I disliked Oscar more and more. I was annoyed that he
3831 should be hearing Rimeyer's ravings. I didn't like his being
3832 here ahead of me. And again, I didn't like that cut on
3833 Rimeyer's chin -- it was quite fresh. How can I be rid of you,
3834 red-haired mug, I wondered.
3835 "We should call a doctor," I said. "Why didn't you call a
3836 doctor, Oscar? I think it's delirium tremens."
3837 I regretted the words immediately. To my considerable
3838 surprise, Rimeyer did not smell of alcohol at all, and Oscar
3839 apparently knew it. He grinned and said, "Delirium tremens? Are
3841 "We have to call a doctor at once," I said. "Also, get a
3843 I put my hand on the phone. He jumped up instantly and put
3845 "Why should you do it?" he said. "Better let me call a
3846 doctor. You are new here and I know an excellent doctor."
3847 "Well, what kind of a doctor is he?" I objected, studying
3848 the cut on his knuckles -- which was also quite new.
3849 "An exemplary doctor. Just happens to be a specialist on
3851 Rimeyer said suddenly, "So I commanded... <i>also
3852 spracht</i> Rimeyer... alone with the world..."
3853 We turned to look at him. He spoke haughtily, but his eyes
3854 were closed, and his face, draped in loose, gray skin, seemed
3855 pathetic. That swine Oscar, I thought, where does he get the
3856 gall to linger here? A sudden wild thought flashed through my
3857 head -- it seemed at that moment exceedingly well conceived: to
3858 disable Oscar with a blow to the solar plexus, tie him up, and
3859 force him then and there to expose everything he knew. He
3860 probably knew quite a lot. Possibly everything. He looked at
3861 me, and in his pale eyes was a blend of fear and hatred.
3862 "All right," I said. "Let the hotel call the doctor."
3863 He removed his hand and I called service. While waiting
3864 for the doctor, I sat by Rimeyer, and Oscar walked from corner
3865 to corner, stepping over the liquor puddle. I followed him out
3866 of the corner of my eye. Suddenly he stooped and picked up
3867 something off the floor. Something small and multicolored.
3868 "What have you got there?" I inquired indifferently.
3869 He hesitated a bit and then threw a small flat box with a
3870 polychrome sticker on my knees.
3871 "Ah!" I said, and looked at Oscar. "Devon."
3872 "Devon," he responded. "Strange that it's here rather than
3874 The devil, I thought. Maybe I was still too green to
3875 challenge him openly. I still knew but very little of this
3877 "Nothing strange about that," I said at random. "I believe
3878 you distribute that repellent. It's probably a sample which
3879 fell out of your pocket."
3880 "Out of my pocket?" He was astonished. "Oh, you think that
3881 I... But I finished my assignments a long time ago, and now I'm
3882 just taking it easy. But if you're interested, I can be of some
3884 That s very interesting, I said. "I will consult --"
3885 Unfortunately, the door flew open at this point, and a
3886 doctor accompanied by two nurses entered the room.
3887 The doctor turned out to be a decisive individual. He
3888 gestured me off the couch and flung the drape off Rimeyer. He
3889 was completely naked.
3890 "Well, of course," said the doctor. "Again..."
3891 He raised Rimeyer's eyelid, pulled down his lower lip, and
3892 felt his pulse. "Nurse - cordeine! And call some chambermaids
3893 and have them clean out these stables till they shine." He
3894 stood up and looked at me. "A relative?"
3895 "Yes," I said, while Oscar kept still.
3896 "You found him unconscious?"
3897 "He was delirious," said Oscar.
3898 "You carried him out here?"
3900 "I only covered him with the drape," he said. "When I
3901 arrived, he was lying as he is now. I was afraid he would catch
3903 The doctor regarded him for a while, and then said, "In
3904 any case, it is immaterial. Both of you can go. A nurse will
3905 stay with him. You can call this evening. Goodbye."
3906 "What is the matter with him, Doctor?" I asked.
3907 "Nothing special. Overtired, nervous exhaustion... besides
3908 which he apparently smokes too much. Tomorrow he can be moved,
3909 and you can take him home with you. It would be unhealthy for
3910 him to stay here with us. There are too many amusements here.
3912 We went out into the corridor.
3913 "Let's go have a drink," I said.
3914 "You forgot that I don't drink," corrected Oscar.
3915 "Too bad. This whole episode has upset me. I'd like a
3916 snort. Rimeyer always was such a healthy specimen."
3917 "Well, lately he has slipped a lot," said Oscar carefully.
3918 "Yes, I hardly recognized him when I saw him yesterday."
3919 "Same here," said Oscar. He didn't believe a word of it,
3921 "Where are you staying?" I asked.
3922 "Right here," said Oscar. "On the floor below, number
3924 "Too bad that you don't drink. We could go to your room
3925 and have a good talk."
3926 "Yes, that wouldn't be a bad idea. But, regretfully, I am
3927 in a great rush." He was silent awhile. "Let me have your
3928 address. Tomorrow morning, I'll be back and drop in to see you.
3929 About ten -- will that suit you? Or you can ring me up."
3930 "Why not?" I said and gave him my address. "To be honest
3931 with you, I am quite interested in Devon."
3932 "I think we'll be able to come to an understanding," said
3933 Oscar. "Till tomorrow!"
3934 He ran down the stairs. Apparently he really was in a
3935 hurry. I went down in the elevator and sent off a telegram to
3936 Matia: "Brother very ill, feeling very lonesome, but keeping up
3937 spirits, Ivan." I truly did feel very much alone. Rimeyer was
3938 out of the game again, at least for a day. The only hint he had
3939 given me was the advice about the Fishers. I had nothing more
3940 definite. There were the Fishers, who were located somewhere in
3941 the old subway; there was Devon, which in same peripheral way
3942 could have something to do with my business, but also could
3943 just as well have no connection with it at all; there was
3944 Oscar, clearly connected with Devon and Rimeyer, a player
3945 sufficiently ominous and repulsive, but undoubtedly only one of
3946 many such unpleasant types on the local cloudless horizons;
3947 then again there was a certain "Buba," who supplied pore-nose
3948 with Devon.... After all, I have been here just twenty-four
3949 hours, I thought. There is time. Also, I could still count on
3950 Rimeyer in the final analysis, and there was the possibility of
3951 finding Peck. Suddenly I remembered the events of the night
3952 before and sent a wire to Sigmund: "Amateur concert on the
3953 twenty-eighth, details unknown, Ivan." Then I beckoned to a
3954 porter and inquired as to the shortest way to the old subway.
3956 <ul><a name=9></a><h2>Chapter NINE</h2></ul>
3958 "You would do better to come at night. It's too early
3961 "Can't wait, eh? Perhaps you've got the wrong address?"
3962 "Oh no, I haven't got it wrong."
3963 "You must have it now, you are sure?"
3964 "Yes, now and not later."
3965 He clicked his tongue and pulled on his lower lip. He was
3966 short, well knit, with a round shaved head. He spoke
3967 hardly moving his tongue and rolling his eyes languidly under
3968 the lids. I thought he had not had enough sleep. His companion,
3969 sitting behind the railing in an easy chair, apparently also
3970 had missed some. But he did not utter a word and didn't even
3971 look in my direction. It was a gloomy place, with stale air and
3972 warped panels which had sprung away from the walls. A bulb,
3973 dimmed with dust, hung shadeless from the ceiling on a dirty
3975 "Why not come later?" said the round-head. "When everybody
3977 "I just got the urge," I said diffidently.
3978 "Got the urge..." He searched in his table drawer. "I
3979 don't even have a form left. Eli, do you have some?"
3980 The latter, without breaking his silence, bent over and
3981 pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper from somewhere near the
3983 The round-head said, yawning, "Guys that come at break of
3984 day... nobody here... no girls... they're still in bed." He
3985 proffered the form. "Fill it out and sign. Eli and I will sign
3986 as witnesses. Turn in your money. Don't worry, we keep it
3987 honest. Do you have any documents?"
3990 I scanned the form. "In open deposition and of my own
3991 free will, I, the undersigned, in the presence of
3992 witnesses, earnestly request to be subjected to the initiation
3993 trials toward the mutual quest of membership in the Society of
3994 VAL." There were blank spaces for signature of applicant and
3995 signatures of witnesses.
3996 "What is VAL?" I asked.
3997 "That's the way we are registered," answered round-head.
3998 He was counting my money.
3999 "But how do you decipher it?"
4000 "Who knows? That was before my time. It's VAL, that's all
4001 there is to it. Maybe you know, Eli?" Eli shook his bead
4002 lazily. "Well, really, what do you care?"
4003 "You are absolutely right." I inserted my name and signed.
4004 Round-head looked it over, signed it, and passed the form
4006 "You look like a foreigner," he said.
4008 "In that case, add your home address. Do you have
4011 "Well then, you don't have to. All set, Eli? Put it in the
4012 folder. Shall we go?"
4013 He lifted up the gate in the railway and walked me over to
4014 a massive square door, probably left over from the days when
4015 the subway had been fitted out as an atomic shelter.
4016 "There is no choice," he said as though in self-defense.
4017 He pulled the slides and turned a rusty handle with
4018 considerable effort. "Go straight down the corridor and then
4019 you'll see for yourself."
4020 I thought that I heard Eli snickering behind him. I turned
4021 around. A small screen was fitted in the railing in front of
4022 Eli. Something was moving on the screen, but I could not see
4023 what it was. Round-bead put all his weight on the handle and
4024 swung back the door. A dusty passage became visible. For a few
4025 seconds he listened and then said, "Straight down this
4027 "What will I find there?" I said.
4028 "You'll get what you were looking for. Or have you changed
4030 All of which was clearly not what I was looking for, but
4031 as is well known, nobody knows anything until he has tried it
4032 himself I stepped over the high sill and the door shut behind
4033 me with a clang. I could hear the latches screeching home.
4034 The corridor was lit by a few surviving lamps. It was
4035 damp, and mold grew an the cement walls. I stood still awhile,
4036 listening, but there was nothing to be heard but the infrequent
4037 tap of water drops. I moved forward cautiously. Cement rubble
4038 crunched underfoot. Soon the corridor came to an end, and I
4039 found myself in a vaulted, poorly lit concrete tunnel. When my
4040 eyes accommodated to the darkness, I discerned a set of tracks.
4041 The rails were badly rusted and puddles of dark water gleamed
4042 motionless along their length. Sagging cables hung from the
4043 ceiling. The dampness seeped to the marrow of my bones. A
4044 repulsive stench of sewer and carrion filled my nostrils. No,
4045 this was not what I was looking for. I was not of a mind to
4046 fritter away my time and thought of going back and telling them
4047 that I would be back some other time. But first, simply out of
4048 curiosity, I decided to take a short walk along the tunnel. I
4049 went to the right toward the light of distant bulbs. I jumped
4050 puddles, stumbled over the rotting ties, and got entangled in
4051 loose wires. Reaching a lamp, I stopped again.
4052 The rails had been removed. Ties were strewn along the
4053 walls, and holes filled with water gaped along the right of
4054 way. Then I saw the rails. I have never seen rails in such a
4055 condition. Some were twisted into corkscrews. They were
4056 polished to a high shine and reminded me of gigantic drill
4057 bits. Others were driven with titanic force into the floor and
4058 walls of the tunnel. A third group were tied into knots. My
4059 skin crawled at this sight. Some were simple knots, some with a
4060 single bow, some with a double bow like shoelaces. They were
4062 I looked ahead into the depths of the tunnel. The smell of
4063 rotting carrion wafted out of it, and the dim yellow lights
4064 winked rhythmically as though something swayed in the draft,
4065 covering and uncovering them periodically. My nerves gave way.
4066 I felt that this was nothing more than a stupid joke, but I
4067 couldn't control myself. I squatted down and looked around. I
4068 soon found what I was looking for -- a yard-long piece of
4069 reinforcing rod. I stuck it under my arm and went ahead. The
4070 iron was wet and cold and rough with rust.
4071 The reflection of the winking lights glinted on slippery
4072 wet walls. I had noticed some time back the round,
4073 strange-looking marks on them, but at first did not pay them
4074 any attention. Then I became interested and examined them more
4075 closely. As far as the eye could reach, there were two sets of
4076 round prints on the walls at one-meter intervals. It looked as
4077 though an elephant had run along the wall -- and not too long
4078 ago at that. On the edge of one of the prints, the remains of a
4079 crushed centipede still struggled feebly. Enough, I thought,
4080 time to go back. I looked along the tunnel. Now I could plainly
4081 see the swaying curves of black cables under the lamps. I took
4082 a better grip on the rod and went ahead, holding close to the
4084 The whole thing was getting through to me. The cables
4085 sagged under the arch of the tunnel, and on them, tied by their
4086 tails into hairy clusters, hung hundreds upon hundred of dead
4087 rats, swaying in the draft. Tiny teeth glinted horribly in the
4088 semi-dark, and rigid little legs stuck out in all directions.
4089 The clusters stretched in long obscene garlands into the
4090 distance. A thick, nauseating stench oozed from under the arch
4091 and flowed along the tunnel, as palpable as glutinous jelly.
4092 There was a piercing screech and a huge rat scurried
4093 between my feet. And then another and another. I backed up.
4094 They were fleeing from there, from the dark where there was not
4095 a single lamp. Suddenly, warm air came pulsing from the same
4096 direction. I felt a hollow space with my elbow and pressed
4097 myself into the niche. Something live squirmed and squeaked
4098 under my heel; I swung my iron rod without looking. I had no
4099 time for rats, because I could hear something running heavily
4100 but softly along the tunnel, splashing in the puddles. It was a
4101 mistake to get involved in this business, thought I. The iron
4102 rod seemed very light and insignificant in comparison with the
4103 bow-tied rails. This was no flying leech, nor a dinosaur from
4104 the Kongo... don't let it be a giganto-pithek, I thought,
4105 anything but a giganto-pithek. These donkeys would have the wit
4106 to catch one and let it loose in the tunnel. I was thinking
4107 very poorly in those few seconds. And suddenly for no reason at
4108 all I thought of Rimeyer. Why had he sent me here? Had he gone
4109 out of his mind? If only it was not a giganto-pithek!
4110 It raced by me so fast that I couldn't discern what it
4112 The tunnel boomed from its gallop. Then there was the
4113 despairing scream of a caught rat right close by and...
4114 silence. Cautiously I peeked out. He stood about ten paces away
4115 directly under one of the lamps, and my legs suddenly went limp
4117 "Smart-alec entrepreneurs," I said aloud, almost crying.
4118 'They would dream up something like this."
4119 He heard my voice and raising his stern legs, pronounced:
4120 "Our temperature is two meters, twelve inches, there is no
4121 humidity, and what there isn't is not there."
4122 "Repeat your orders," I said, approaching him.
4123 He let the air out of his suction cups with a loud
4124 whistle, twitched his legs mindlessly, and ran up on the
4126 "Come down," I said sternly, "and answer my question."
4127 He hung over my head, this poor long-obsolete cyber,
4128 intended for work an the asteroids, pitiable and out of place,
4129 covered with flakes of corrosion and blobs of black underground
4131 "Get down," I barked.
4132 He flung the dead rat at me and sped off into the dark.
4133 "Basalts! Granites!" he yelled in different voices.
4134 "Pseudo-metamorphic types! I am over Berlin! Do you copy! Time
4136 I threw away the rod and followed him. He ran as far as
4137 the next lamp, came down, and began to dig the concrete
4138 rapidly, like a dog, with his heavy work manipulators. Poor
4139 chap, even in better times his brain was capable of performing
4140 properly only in less than one one-hundredth of a G, and now he
4141 was altogether out of his mind. I bent over him and began to
4142 search for the control center under his armor. "The rotters," I
4143 said aloud. The controls were peened over as though battered
4144 with a sledge. He stopped digging and grabbed me by the leg.
4145 "Stop!" I shouted. "Desist!"
4146 He desisted, lay down on his side, and informed me in a
4147 basso voice, "I am deathly tired of him, Eli. Now would be the
4148 time for a shot of brandy."
4149 Contacts clicked inside him and music poured forth.
4150 Hissing and whistling, he gave a rendition of the "Hunters'
4151 March." I was looking at him and thinking how stupid and
4152 repulsive it all was, how ridiculous and at the same time
4153 frightening. If I had not been a spaceman, if I had been
4154 frightened and run, he would almost certainly have killed me.
4155 But nobody here knew I had been in space. Nobody. Not one
4156 person. Even Rimeyer didn't know.
4158 He buzzed and started to dig the wall, and I turned around
4159 and went back. All the time while I was returning to my
4160 turn-off I could hear him rattling and clanging in the pile of
4161 contorted rails, hissing with the electrowelder and ranting
4162 nonsense in two voices.
4163 The anti-atomic door was already open, and I stepped over
4164 the sill, swinging it shut behind me.
4165 "Well, how was it?" asked round-head.
4167 "I had no idea you were a spaceman. You have worked out on
4169 "I have. But it's still dumb. For fools. For illiterate
4173 "Well -- there you got it wrong. Lots of people like it.
4174 Anyway, I told you to come at night. We don't have much
4175 amusement for singles." He poured some whiskey and added some
4176 soda from the siphon. "Would you like some?"
4177 I took the glass and leaned on the railing. Eli gloomily
4178 regarded the screen, a cigarette sticking to his lip. On the
4179 screen careened shifting views of the glistening tunnel walls,
4180 twisted rails, black puddles, and flying sparks from the
4182 'That's not for me," I announced. "Let barbers and
4183 accountants enjoy it. Of course, I have nothing against them,
4184 but what I need is something the likes of which I have not seen
4186 "So you don't know yourself what you want," said
4187 roundhead. "It's a hard case. Excuse me, you aren't an Intel?"
4189 "Well, don't take offense -- we are all equal before the
4190 grim reaper, you understand. What am I trying to say? That
4191 Intels are the most difficult clients, that's all. Isn't that
4192 right, Eli? If one of your barbers or bookkeepers comes here,
4193 he knows very well what it is he needs. He needs to get his
4194 blood going, to show off and be proud of himself, to get the
4195 girls squealing, and exhibit the punctures in his side. These
4196 fellows are simple, each one wants to consider himself a man.
4197 After all, who is he -- our client? He has no particular
4198 capabilities, and he doesn't need any. In earlier times, I read
4199 in a book, people used to be envious of each other -- the
4200 neighbor is rolling in luxury and I can't save up for a
4201 refrigerator -- how could you put up with that? They hung on
4202 like bulldogs to all kinds of trash, to money, to cushy jobs --
4203 they laid down their lives for such things. The guy with a
4204 foxier head or a stronger fist would wind up on top. But now
4205 life has become affluent and dull and there is a plenty of
4206 everything. What shall a man apply himself to? A man is not a
4207 fish, for all that, he is still a man and gets bored, but can't
4208 dream up something to do for himself. To do that you need
4209 special talents, you need to read a mountain of books, and how
4210 can he do that when they make him throw up. To become
4211 world-famous or to invent some new machine, that's something
4212 that wouldn't pop into his head, but even if it did, of what
4213 use would it be? Nobody really needs you, not even your own
4214 wife and children if you examine it honestly. Right, Eli? And
4215 you don't need anybody either. Nowadays, it seems, clever
4216 people think things up for you, something new like these
4217 aerosols, or the shivers, or a new dance. There is that new
4218 drink -- it's called a polecat. Wanna me knock one together for
4219 you? So he downs some of this polecat, his eyes crawl out of
4220 their sockets, and he's happy. But as long as his eyes are in
4221 their sockets, life is just as dull as rainwater for him. There
4222 is an Intel that comes here to us, and every time he complains:
4223 Life, he says, is dull, my friends... but I leave here a new
4224 man; after, say, 'bullets' or 'twelve to one,' I see myself in
4225 a completely new light. Right, Eli? Everything becomes sweet
4226 all over again, food, drink, women."
4227 "Yes," I said sympathetically. "I understand you very
4228 well. But for me it's all too stale."
4229 "Slug is what he needs," said Eli in his bass voice.
4230 "What's that again?"
4231 "Slug is what I said."
4232 Round-head puckered in distaste.
4233 "Aw, come on, Eli. What's with you today?"
4234 "I don't give a hoot for the likes of him," said Eli. "I
4235 just don't like these guys. Everything is insipid for him,
4237 "Don't listen to him," said round-head. "He hasn't slept
4238 all night and is very tired."
4239 "Well, why not," I contradicted. "I am quite interested.
4241 Round-head puckered his face again.
4242 "It's not decent, you understand?" he said. "Don't listen
4243 to Eli, he is a good enough guy, a simple fellow, but it's
4244 nothing for him to lambaste a man. It's a bad term. Certain
4245 types have taken to writing it all over the walls. Hooligans,
4246 that's what they are, right? The snot-noses hardly know what
4247 it's about, but they write anyway. See how we had to plane off
4248 the railing? Some son of a bitch carved into it, and if I catch
4249 him, I'll turn his hide inside out. We do have women coming
4251 "Tell him," pronounced Eli, addressing himself to
4252 roundhead, "that he should get hold of a slug and quiet down.
4253 Let him find Buba..."
4254 "Will you shut up, Eli?" said round-head, now angry.
4255 "Don't pay any attention to him."
4256 Having heard the name Buba, I helped myself to another
4257 drink and settled more comfortably on the railing.
4258 "What's it all about?" I said. "Some kind of secret vice?"
4259 "Secret!" boomed Eli, and let out an obscene horselaugh.
4260 Round-head laughed, too.
4261 "Nothing can be a secret here," he said. "What had of
4262 secrets can there be when people are living it up at the age of
4263 fifteen? The dopes, the Intels, manufacture secrets. They'd
4264 like to get a fracas going on the twenty-eighth, they are all
4265 in a huddle, took some mine launchers out of town recently to
4266 hide them, like kids, honest to God! Right, Eli?"
4267 "Tell him," the good simple fellow Eli was persisting.
4268 "Tell him to be off to Hell and gone. And don't go protecting
4269 him. Just tell him to go to Buba at the Oasis and that's that."
4270 He threw my wallet and form on the railing. I finished the
4271 whiskey. Round-head said soberly, "Of course, it's entirely up
4272 to you, but my advice is to stay away from that stuff. Maybe
4273 we'll all come to it someday, but the later, the better. I
4274 can't even explain it to you, I only feel that it is like the
4275 grave: never too late and always too soon."
4276 "Thank you," I said.
4277 "He even thanks you." Eli let loose another horselaugh.
4278 "Have you seen anything like it! He thanks you!"
4279 "We kept three dollars," said round-head. "You can tear up
4280 the blank. Or let me tear it up. God forbid something should
4281 happen to you, the police will come looking to us."
4282 "To be honest with you," I said, putting the wallet away,
4283 "I don't understand how they haven't closed your office
4285 "Everything is on the up and up with us," said round-head.
4286 "If you don't want any, no one is forcing you. But if something
4287 should happen, it's your own fault."
4288 "No one is forcing the drug addicts either," I retorted.
4289 "That's some comparison! Drugs are a profiteering corrupt
4291 "Well, okay, I'll be seeing you," I said. "Thanks,
4292 fellows. Where did you say to look for Buba?"
4293 "At the Oasis," boomed Eli. "It's a cafe. Beat it."
4294 "What a polite fellow you are, my friend," I said. "It
4295 gets me right in my heart."
4296 "Go on, beat it," repeated Eli. "Stinking Intel."
4297 "Don't get so excited, pal," I said, "or you'll earn
4298 yourself an ulcer. Save your stomach, it's your most valuable
4300 Eli started to move slowly out from behind the railing,
4301 and I left. My shoulder had started to ache again.
4302 A warm, heavy rain was falling outside. The leaves on the
4303 trees shone wetly and joyfully, there was a smell of ozone,
4304 freshness and thunderstorm. I stopped a taxi and named the
4305 Oasis. The street ran with fresh streams, and the city was so
4306 pretty and comfortable that it seemed improper to think of the
4307 moldy and abandoned Subway.
4308 The rain was pelting in full swing when I jumped out of
4309 the car, ran across the sidewalk, and burst into the Oasis.
4310 There were quite a few people, most of them were eating,
4311 including the bartender, who was spooning some soup out of a
4312 dish placed among drinking glasses. Those who had finished
4313 eating sat smoking and abstractedly staring out of the
4314 streaming window at the street. I approached the bar and
4315 inquired in a low voice whether Buba was there. The bartender
4316 put down his spoon and surveyed the room.
4317 "Naah," he said. "Why don't you have something to eat now,
4318 and he'll be along soon enough."
4320 "Twenty minutes, half an hour maybe."
4321 "So!" I said. "In that case I'll have dinner, and then
4322 I'll come over and you can point him out to me."
4323 "Uhuh," said the bartender, returning to his soup.
4324 I picked up a tray, collected some sort of a meal, and sat
4325 down by the window away from the rest of the patrons. I wanted
4326 to think. I sensed that there was enough data to ponder the
4327 problem effectively. Some sort of pattern seemed to be forming.
4328 Boxes of Devon in the bathroom. Pore-nose spoke about Buba and
4329 Devon (in whispers). Eli talked of Buba and "slug." A clear
4330 chain of links -- bath, Devon, Buba, slug. Further: the
4331 sunburned fellow with the muscles cautioned that Devon was the
4332 worst of junk, while the roundhead saw no difference between
4333 slug and the grave. It all had to fit together. It seemed to be
4334 what we were looking for. If so, then Rimeyer had done the
4335 right thing to send me to the Fishers. Rimeyer, I said to
4336 myself, why did you send me to the Fishers? And even order me
4337 to do as I was told and not to fuss about it? And you didn't
4338 know, after all, that I was a spaceman, Rimeyer. If you did
4339 know, there were still the other games with bullets and "one
4340 against twelve," besides the demented cyber. You really took a
4341 dislike to me for something or other, Rimeyer. Somehow I have
4342 crossed you. But no, said I, this cannot be. It is simply that
4343 you did not trust me, Rimeyer. It is simply that there is
4344 something that I do not know yet. For example, I do net know
4345 just who this Oscar is who trades in Devon in this resort city
4346 and who is connected with you, Rimeyer. Most likely you have
4347 been meeting with Oscar before our conversation in the elevator
4348 ... I don't want to think about that.
4349 There he was lying like a dead man and here I was thinking
4350 such things about him when he could not defend himself.
4351 Suddenly I felt a repulsive cold crawling feeling inside. All
4352 right, suppose we trapped this gang. What would change? The
4353 shivers would remain, lop-eared Len would be up all night as
4354 before, Vousi would be coming home disgustingly drunk, while
4355 customs inspector Pete would be smashing his face into broken
4356 glass. And all would be concerned about the "good of the
4357 people." Some would be irrigated with tear gas, some would be
4358 driven into the ground up to their ears, others would be
4359 converted from apehood into something which passes muster as
4360 human.... And then the shivers would go out of style and the
4361 people would be presented with the super-shivers, while in lieu
4362 of the extirpated slug a super-slug would surface. Everything
4363 would be for the good of the people. Have fun, Boobland, and
4364 don't think about a thing!
4365 Two men in cloaks sat down at the next table with their
4366 trays. One of them seemed to me in some way familiar. He had a
4367 haughty thoroughbred face, and were it not for a thick white
4368 bandage on the left side of his jaw, I was sure I would
4369 recognize him. The other was a ruddy man with a bald pate and
4370 fussy movements. They were speaking quietly, but not so as to
4371 be inaudible, and I could hear them quite well where I was
4373 "Understand me correctly," the ruddy one said with
4374 conviction while hurriedly consuming his schnitzel, "I am not
4375 at all against theaters and museums. But the allocation for the
4376 municipal theater for the past year has not been expended
4377 fully, while only tourists visit the museums."
4378 "Also picture thieves," inserted the man with the bandage.
4379 "Drop that, please, we don't have pictures that are worth
4380 the theft. Thank God, they have learned how to synthesize
4381 Sistine Madonnas out of sawdust. I wish to call your attention
4382 to the point that dissemination of culture in our time must
4383 occur in an entirely different manner. Culture must not be
4384 inculcated into the people, rather it must emanate from the
4385 people. Public chorister, do-it-yourself groups, mass games --
4386 that is what our public needs."
4387 "What our public needs is a good army of occupation," said
4388 the man with the bandage.
4389 "Please stop talking that way, when you actually don't
4390 believe what you are saying. Our coverage by the various
4391 associations is really at an unacceptably poor level. For
4392 instance, Boella complained to me last night that only one man
4393 attends her readings, and he apparently only does so out of
4394 matrimonial intentions. But we need to distract the people from
4395 the shivers, from alcohol, from sexual pastimes. We need to
4397 The other interrupted, "What do you want from me? That I
4398 should defend your project against that ass, our honorable
4399 mayor, today? Be my guest! It is absolutely all the same to me.
4400 But if you would like to hear my opinion about tone and spirit,
4401 let me tell you it does not exist, my dear Senator; it is long
4402 dead! It has been smothered in belly fat! And if I were in your
4403 place I would take that into account and only that!"
4404 The ruddy man seemed to be crushed. He was silent for a
4405 while and then groaned suddenly, "Dear God, dear God, to think
4406 of what we have been driven to concern ourselves with! But I
4407 ask you -- is not someone flying to the stars? Somewhere meson
4408 reactors are being built, new learning systems are being
4409 devised! Dear God, I just recently grasped that we are not even
4410 a backwater, we are a preserve! In the eyes of the whole world
4411 we are a sanctuary of stupidity, ignorance, and pornocracy.
4412 Imagine, Professor Rubenstein has a chair in our city for the
4413 second year. A sociopsychologist of world renown. He is
4414 studying us like animals. Instinctive Sociology of Decaying
4415 Economic Structures -- that's the name of his work. He is
4416 interested in people as bearers of primeval instincts, and he
4417 complained to me that it was very difficult for him to gather
4418 data in countries where instinctive activity is distorted and
4419 suppressed by pedagogical systems! But with us he is in seventh
4420 heaven! In his own words, we don't have any activity other than
4421 instinctive! I was insulted, I was ashamed, but, good Lord,
4422 what could I say to contradict him? You must understand me! You
4423 are an intelligent man, my friend, I know you are a cold man,
4424 but I can't really believe that you are indifferent to such a
4426 The man with the bandage looked at him haughtily and then,
4427 abruptly, his cheek twitched. I recognized him at once: he was
4428 the character with the monocle who had thrown the luminous slop
4429 all over me so deftly yesterday at the Art Patrons' hall.
4430 Why, you vulture, thought I. You thief. So you need an
4431 army of occupation! Spirit smothered in lard indeed!
4432 "Forgive me, Senator," he said. "I do understand it all,
4433 and that's precisely why it is perfectly clear to me that
4434 everything surrounding you is in a state of dementia. The final
4436 I got up and approached their table.
4437 "May I join you?" I asked.
4438 He stared at me in astonishment. I sat down.
4439 "Please excuse me," I said. "I am, to be specific, a
4440 tourist and just a short time here; while you seem to be
4441 natives and even to have some connection with the municipal
4442 government. So I decided to inflict myself on you. I keep
4443 hearing about Art Patrons, Art Patrons. But what it's all about
4444 no one seems to know."
4445 The man with the bandage experienced another tie in his
4446 cheek. His eyes grew wide -- he too recognized me.
4447 "Art Patrons?" said the ruddy one. "Yes, there is such a
4448 barbarous organization with us here. It is very sad that such
4449 is the case, but it's so."
4450 I nodded, studying the bandage. My acquaintance had
4451 already regained his composure and was eating his jelly with
4452 his accustomed haughty look.
4453 "In essence they are simply modern-age vandals. I simply
4454 couldn't find a more appropriate word. They pool their
4455 resources and buy up stolen paintings, statues, manuscripts,
4456 unpublished literary works, patents, and destroy them. Can you
4457 imagine how revolting that is? They And some pathological
4458 delight in the destruction of examples of world culture. They
4459 gather in a large, well-dressed crowd and slowly, deliberately,
4460 orgiastically destroy them!"
4461 "Oh my, my, my!" I said, not taking my eyes off the
4462 bandage. "Such people should be hung by their legs."
4463 "And we are after them," said the ruddy one. "We are in
4464 pursuit of them on the legal level. We are unfortunately unable
4465 to get after the Artiques and the Perchers, who are not
4466 breaking any laws, but as far as the Art Patrons are concerned
4468 "Are you finished yet, Senator?" inquired the bandaged
4470 The ruddy one caught himself.
4471 "Yes, yes. It's time for us to go. You will excuse us,
4472 please," he said, turning to me. "We have a meeting of the
4474 "Bartender!" called the bandaged one in a metallic voice.
4475 "Would you call us a taxi."
4476 "Have you been here long?" asked the ruddy man.
4477 "Second day," I replied.
4480 "Mm -- yes," he mumbled.
4481 We were silent. The man with the bandage impudently
4482 inserted his monocle and pulled out a cigar.
4483 "Does it hurt?" I asked sympathetically.
4485 "The jaw," I said. "And the liver should hurt, too."
4486 "Nothing ever hurts me," he replied, monocle glinting. "Are you
4487 two acquainted?" the ruddy one asked in astonishment.
4488 "Slightly," I said. "We had an argument about art."
4489 The bartender called out that the taxi had arrived. The
4490 man with the bandage immediately got up.
4491 "Let's go, Senator," he said.
4492 The ruddy one smiled at me abstractedly and also got up.
4493 They set off for the exit. I followed them with my eyes
4494 and went to the bar.
4495 "Brandy?" asked the bartender.
4496 "Quite," I said. I shuddered with rage. "Who are those
4497 people I just spoke to?"
4498 'The baldy is a municipal counselor, his field are
4499 cultural affairs. The one with the monocle is the city
4501 "Comptroller," I said. "A scoundrel is what he is."
4502 "Really?" said the barman with interest.
4503 'That's right, really," I said. "Is Buba here?"
4504 "Not yet. And how about the comptroller, what is he up
4506 "A scoundrel, an embezzler, that's what he is," I said.
4507 The bartender thought awhile.
4508 "It could well be," he said. "In fact he's a baron -- that
4509 is, he used to be, of course. His ways, sure enough, are
4510 unsavory. Too bad I didn't go vote or I would have voted
4511 against him. What's he done to you?"
4512 "It's you he's done. And I've given him some back. And
4513 I'll give him some more in due time. Such is the situation."
4514 The bartender, not understanding anything, nodded and
4515 said, "Hit it again?"
4517 He poured me more brandy and said,
4518 "And here is Buba, coming in."
4519 I turned around and barely managed to keep the glass in my
4520 grip. I recognized Buba.
4522 <ul><a name=10></a><h2>Chapter TEN</h2></ul>
4524 He stood by the door looking about him as though trying to
4525 remember where he had come and what he was to do there. His
4526 appearance was very unlike his old one, but I recognized him at
4527 once anyway, because for four years we sat next to each other
4528 in the lecture halls of the school, and then there were several
4529 years when we met almost daily.
4530 "Say," I addressed the bartender. "They call him Buba?"
4531 "Uhuh," said the bartender.
4532 "What is it -- a nickname?"
4533 "How should I know? Buba is Buba, that's what they all
4536 Everyone looked at me. He too slowly turned his head and
4537 his eyes searched for the caller. But he paid no attention to
4538 me. As though remembering something, he suddenly started to
4539 shake the water out of his cape with convulsive motions, and
4540 then, dragging his heels, hobbled over to the bar and climbed
4541 with difficulty on the stool next to mine.
4542 "The usual," he said to the bartender. His voice was dull
4543 and strangled, as though someone held him by the throat.
4544 "Someone has been waiting for you," said the barman,
4545 placing before him a glass of neat alcohol and a deep dish
4546 filled with granulated sugar.
4547 Slowly he turned his head and looked at me, saying, "Well,
4548 what is it you want?"
4549 His drooping eyelids were inflamed red, with accumulated
4550 slime in the corners. He breathed through his mouth as though
4551 suffering with adenoids.
4552 "Peck Xenai," I said quietly. "Undergraduate Peck Xenai,
4553 please return from earth to heaven."
4554 He continued to regard me without a change in his manner.
4555 Then he licked his lips and said, "A classmate, perhaps?"
4556 I felt numb and terrified. He turned around, picked up his
4557 glass, drank it down, gagging in revulsion, and began to eat
4558 the sugar with a large soup spoon. The bartender poured him
4560 "Peck," I said, "old friend, don't you remember me?"
4561 He looked me over again.
4562 "I wouldn't say that. I probably did see you somewhere."
4563 "Saw me somewhere!" I said in desperation. "I am Ivan
4564 Zhilin. Could it be you have completely forgotten me?"
4565 His hand holding the glass quivered almost imperceptibly,
4567 "No, friend," he said, "forgive me, please, but I don't
4569 "And you don't remember the 'Tahmasib' or Iowa Smith?"
4570 "This heartburn has really got to me today," he informed
4571 the bartender. "Let me have some soda, Con."
4572 The bartender, who had listened with curiosity, poured him
4574 "Bad day, today, Con," he said. "Can you imagine, two
4575 automates failed on me today."
4576 The bartender shook his head and sighed.
4577 "The manager is bitching," continued Buba, "called me on
4578 the carpet and bawled me out. I am going to quit that place. I
4579 told him to go to hell and he fired me."
4580 "Complain to the union," the bartender advised.
4581 "To hell with them." He drank his soda and wiped his mouth
4582 with the palm of his hand. He did not look at me.
4583 I sat as though spat upon, forgetting completely what it
4584 was I wanted Buba for. I needed Buba, not Peck -- that is, I
4585 needed Peck too. But not this one. This was not Peck, this was
4586 some strange and repulsive Buba, and I watched in horror as he
4587 sucked up the second glass of alcohol and again set to
4588 shoveling spoonfuls of sugar into himself. His face effloresced
4589 with red spots, and he kept gagging and listening to the
4590 bartender as he animatedly recounted the latest football
4591 exploits. I wanted to cry out, "Peck, what has happened to you?
4592 Peck, you used to hate all this!" I put my hand on his shoulder
4593 and said imploringly, "Peck, dear friend, hear me out, please."
4595 "What's the matter, friend?" His eyes were now completely
4596 unseeing. "I am not Peck, I am Buba, do you understand? You are
4597 confusing me with someone else, there isn't any Peck here....
4598 So what did the Rhinos do then, Con?"
4599 I reminded myself where I was, and forced myself to
4600 understand that there was no more Peck, and that there was a
4601 Buba, here, an agent of a criminal organization, and this was
4602 the only reality, while Peck Xenai was a mirage -- a memory
4603 which must be quickly extirpated if I intended to press on with
4605 "Hold on, Buba," I said. "I want to talk business to you."
4606 He was quite drunk by now.
4607 "I don't talk business at the bar," he announced. "And
4608 anyway I am through with work. Done. I have no more business of
4609 any kind. You can apply to the city hall, friend. They'll help
4611 "I am applying to you, not the city hall," I said. "Will
4613 "You I hear all the time, as it is. To the detriment of my
4615 "My business is quite simple," I said. "I need a slug."
4616 He shuddered violently.
4617 "Are you out of your mind, pal?"
4618 "You should be ashamed," said the bartender. "Right out in
4619 front of people... you have lost all sense of decency."
4620 "Shut up," I told him.
4621 "You be quiet," the barman said menacingly. "It must be
4622 some time since you've been busted? Watch your step or you'll
4624 "I don't give a damn about the exportation," I said
4625 insolently. "Don't stick your snoot in other people's
4627 "Lousy sluggard," said the bartender.
4628 He was visibly incensed, but spoke in a low voice. "A slug
4629 he wants. I'll call an officer right now and he'll give you a
4631 Buba slid off the stool and hurriedly hobbled toward the
4633 I left off with the bartender and hurried after him. He
4634 shot out into the rain, and forgetting to cover himself with
4635 his cape, started to look around in search of a taxi. I caught
4636 up with him and grasped him by the sleeve.
4637 "What in God's name do you want from me?" he said
4638 miserably. "I'll call the police."
4639 "Peck," I said. "Come out of it, Peck. I am Ivan Zhilin,
4640 and you must remember me."
4641 He kept looking around and wiping the streaming water from
4642 his face with the palm of his hand. He looked pitiful and run
4643 down, and I, trying to suppress my irritation, kept insisting
4644 to myself that this was my Peck, priceless Peck, irreplaceable
4645 Peck, good, intelligent, joyful Peck, kept trying to remember
4646 him as he was in front of the Gladiator's control console, and
4647 I couldn't because I couldn't imagine him anywhere except at
4648 the bar over a glass of alcohol.
4649 "Taxi," he screeched, but the car flew by, full of people.
4650 "Peck," I said, "come with me. I'll tell you all about
4652 "Leave me alone," he said, his teeth chattering. "I won't
4653 go anywhere with you. Leave off! I didn't bother you, I didn't
4654 do anything to you, leave me be, for God's sake."
4655 "All right," I said, "I'll let you alone. But you must
4656 give me a slug and also your address."
4657 "I don't know of any slugs," he moaned. "God, what kind of
4659 Favoring his left leg, he wandered off and suddenly dove
4660 into a basement under an elegant and restrained sign. I
4661 followed. We sat down at a table and a waiter immediately
4662 brought us hot meat and beer, although we hadn't ordered
4663 anything. Buba was shivering and his wet face turned blue. He
4664 pushed the plate away with revulsion and began to swallow the
4665 beer, both hands around the mug. The basement was quiet and
4666 empty. Over the sparkling counter hung a white sign with gold
4667 letters reading, "Paid Service Only."
4668 Buba raised his head from the beer and said pleadingly,
4669 "Can I go, Ivan? I can't... What's the point of all this talk?
4671 I put my hand on his.
4672 "What's happening to you, Peck? I searched for you. There
4673 is no address listed anywhere. I met you quite by accident, and
4674 I don't understand anything. How did you get involved in this
4675 mess? Can I help you possibly, with anything? Maybe we could
4677 Suddenly he jerked his hand away in a rage.
4678 "What an executioner," he hissed. "The devil lured me to
4679 that Oasis.... Stupid chatter, drivel. I have no slug, do you
4680 understand? I have one, but I won't give it to you. What'll I
4681 do then -- like Archimedes? Don't you have any conscience? Then
4682 don't torture me, let me go."
4683 "I can't let you go," I said, "until I get the slug. And
4684 your address. We must talk."
4685 "I don't want to talk to you, can't you understand? I
4686 don't want to talk to anyone about anything. I want to go home.
4687 I won't give you my slug. What am I -- a factory? Give it to
4688 you and then chase all over town?"
4689 I kept silent. It was clear that he hated me now. That if
4690 he thought he had the strength he would kill me and leave. But
4691 he knew that he did not have the strength.
4692 "Scum," he said in a fury. "Why can't you buy one
4693 yourself? Don't you have the money? Here! Here!" he began to
4694 search convulsively in his pockets, throwing coppers and
4695 crumpled bills on the table. "Take it, there's plenty."
4697 "There's a damned jackass! It's... what is it? Hmm... how
4698 do you call it... Oh hell!" he cried. "May you drop straight to
4700 He stuck his fingers into his shirt pocket and pulled out
4701 a flat plastic case. Inside it was a shiny metal tube, similar
4702 to a pocket radio local oscillator-mixer subassembly. "Here --
4703 get fat!" He proffered me the tube. It was quite small, less
4704 than an inch long and a millimeter thick.
4705 "Thank you," I said. "And how do I use it?"
4706 Peck's eyes opened wide. I think he even smiled.
4707 "Good God!" he said almost tenderly. "Can it be you really
4709 "I know nothing," I said.
4710 "Well then, you should have said so from the start. And I
4711 thought you were tormenting me like a torturer. You have a
4712 radio? Insert it in place of the mixer, hang it, stand it
4713 somewhere in the bath, and go to!"
4716 "It must be in the bath?"
4717 "But yes! It is absolutely necessary that your body be
4718 immersed in water. In hot water. What an ass you are!"
4719 "And how about Devon?"
4720 "The Devon goes in the water. About five tablets in the
4721 water and one orally. The taste is awful, but you won't regret
4722 it later. And one more thing, be sure to add bath salts to the
4723 water. And before you start, have a couple of glasses of
4724 something strong. This is required so that... how shall I say?
4725 -- so you can loosen up, sort of."
4726 "So," I said. "I got it. Now I've got everything." I
4727 wrapped the slug in a paper napkin and put it in my pocket. "So
4728 it's electric wave psychotechnics?"
4729 "Good Lord, now what do you care about that?"
4730 He was up already, pulling the hood over his head.
4731 "No matter," I said. "How much do I owe you?"
4732 "A trifle, nonsense! Let's go quickly... what the hell are
4733 we losing time for?"
4734 We went up into the street.
4735 "You made the right decision," said Peck. What kind of
4736 world is this? Are we men in it? Trash is what it is and not a
4737 world. Taxi!" he yelled. "Hey, taxi!"
4738 He shook in sudden excitement. "What possessed me to go to
4739 that Oasis... Oh no... from now on I'll go nowhere ...
4741 "Let me have your address," I said.
4742 "What do you want with my address?"
4743 A taxi drew up and Buba tore at the door.
4744 "Address," I said, grabbing him by the shoulder.
4745 "What a dumbhead," said Buba.. "Sunshine Street, number
4746 eleven... Dumbhead!" he repeated, seating himself.
4747 "I'll come to see you tomorrow."
4748 He paid no more attention to me.
4749 "Sunshine," he threw at the driver. "Through downtown, and
4750 hurry, for God's sake."
4751 How simple, I thought, looking after his car. How simple
4752 everything turned out to be. And everything fits. The bath and
4753 Devon. Also the screaming radios, which irritated us so, and to
4754 which we never paid any attention. We simply turned them off. I
4755 took a taxi and set out for home.
4756 But what if he deceived me, I thought. Simply wanted to be
4757 rid of me sooner. But I would determine that soon enough. He
4758 doesn't look like a runner, an agent, at all, I thought. After
4759 all, he is Peck. However, no, he is no longer Peck. Poor Peck.
4760 You are no agent, you are simply a victim. You know where to
4761 buy this filth, but you are only a victim. I don't want to
4762 interrogate Peck, I don't want to shake him down like some
4763 punk. True, he is no longer Peck. Nonsense, what does that
4764 mean, that he is not Peck. He is Peck, and still I'll have
4765 to... Electric wave psychotechnics... But the shivers they're
4766 wave psychotechnics too.... Somehow, it's a bit too simple. I
4767 haven't passed two days here yet, while Rimeyer has been living
4768 here since the uprising. We left him behind, and he had gone
4769 native and everyone was pleased with him, although in his
4770 latest reports he wrote that nothing like what we were looking
4771 for existed here. True, he has nervous exhaustion... and Devon
4772 on the floor. Also there is Oscar. Further, he did not beg me
4773 to leave him be, but simply pointed me in the direction of the
4775 I didn't meet anyone either in the front yard or in the
4776 hall.. It was almost five. I went to my rooms and called
4777 Rimeyer. A quiet female voice answered.
4778 "How is the patient?" I asked.
4779 "He is asleep. He shouldn't be disturbed."
4780 "I won't do that. Is he better?"
4781 "I told you he fell asleep. And don't call too often,
4782 please. The phone disturbs him."
4783 "You will be with him all the time?"
4784 "Till morning, at least. If you call again, I'll have the
4785 phone disconnected."
4786 "Thank you," I said. "Just, please, don't leave him till
4787 morning, I'll not trouble you again."
4788 I hung up and sat awhile in the big comfortable chair in
4789 front of the huge absolutely bare table. Then I took the slug
4790 out of my pocket and laid it in front of me. A small shiny
4791 tube, inconspicuous and completely harmless to all outward
4792 appearances, an ordinary electronic component. Such can be made
4793 by the millions. They should cost pennies.
4794 "What's that you got there?" asked Len, right next to my
4795 He stood alongside and regarded the slug.
4796 "Don't you know?" I asked.
4797 "It's from a radio. I have one like it in my radio and
4798 it's breaking all the time."
4799 I pulled my radio out of my pocket and extracted its mixer
4800 and laid it alongside the slug. The mixer looked like the slug,
4801 but it was not a slug.
4802 "They are not the same," said Len. "But I have seen one of
4803 those gadgets, too."
4805 "Like the one you have."
4806 All at once, his face clouded over and he looked grim.
4808 "No, I didn't," he said. "I didn't remember anything."
4809 "All right, then." I picked up the slug and inserted it in
4810 place of the mixer in the radio. Len grabbed me by the hand.
4813 He didn't reply, eyeing the radio warily.
4814 "What are you afraid of?" I asked.
4815 "I'm not afraid of anything. Where did you get that idea?"
4816 "Look in the mirror," I said. "You look as though you are
4817 afraid for me." I put the radio in my pocket.
4818 "For you?" he said in astonishment.
4819 "Obviously for me. Not for yourself, of course, though you
4820 are still scared of those... necrotic phenomena."
4822 "Where did you get that idea," he said. "We're just
4824 I snorted in disdain.
4825 "I am well acquainted with these games. Rut one thing I
4826 don't know: where in our time do necrotic phenomena come
4828 He glanced around and began backing up.
4829 "I'm going," he said.
4830 "O no," I said decisively. "Let's finish what we started.
4831 Man to man. Don't think that I am altogether an ignoramus."
4832 "What do you know?" He was already near the door and
4833 talking very quietly.
4834 "More than you," I said severely. "But I don't want to
4835 shout it all over the house. If you want to talk, come on over
4836 here. Climb up on the desk and have yourself a seat. Believe
4837 me, I'm not a necrotic phenomenon."
4838 He hesitated for a whole minute, and everything for which
4839 he hoped and everything of which he was afraid appeared and
4840 disappeared on his face. At last, he said, "Just let me close
4842 He ran into the living room, closed the door to the
4843 hallway, returned to close the study door tight, and approached
4844 me. His hands were in his pockets, the face white, contrasting
4845 with the protruding ears, which were red but cold.
4846 "In the first place, you are a dope," I pronounced,
4847 dragging him toward me and standing him between my knees. "Once
4848 there was a boy who lived in such a fear that his pants never
4849 dried out, not even when he was on a beach, and his ears were
4850 as cold as though they had been left in a refrigerator
4851 overnight. This boy trembled constantly and so well that when
4852 he grew up his legs were all wiggly, and his skin became like
4853 that of a plucked goose."
4854 I was hoping that he would smile just once, but he
4855 listened very intently and very seriously inquired, "And what
4857 "He had an elder brother, who was a nice fellow, but a
4858 great one for drinking. And, as often happens, the tipsy
4859 brother was not at all like the sober brother. He got to look
4860 very wild indeed. And when he really drank a lot, he got to
4861 look like a dead man. So this boy..."
4862 A contemptuous smile appeared on Len's face.
4863 "He sure found something to be scared of. When they are
4864 drunk is when they turn good."
4865 "Who are they?" I asked immediately. "Mother? Vousi?"
4866 "That's it. Mother is just the opposite -- in the morning
4867 when she gets up, she's always nasty, and then she drinks
4868 vermouth once, then twice, and that's it. Toward evening she is
4869 altogether nice because night is near."
4871 "At night that creep comes around," Len said reluctantly.
4872 "We are not concerned with the creep," I said in a
4873 businesslike manner. "It's not from him that you run to the
4875 "I don't run," he said stubbornly. "It's a game."
4876 "I don't know, I don't know," I said. "There are, of
4877 course, certain things in this world of which even I am afraid.
4878 For instance when a boy is crying and trembling. I can't look
4879 at such things, and it just turns me over inside. Or when your
4880 teeth hurt and it is required by circumstances that you keep on
4881 smiling -- that's pretty bad and there is no way of ignoring
4882 it. But there are also just plain stupidities. When, for
4883 example, some idiots help themselves, out of sheer boredom and
4884 surfeit, to the brain of a living monkey. That's no longer
4885 frightening, it's just plain disgusting. Especially as they
4886 didn't think it up by themselves. It was a thousand years ago
4887 when they thought of it first, and also out of excessive
4888 affluence, the fat tyrants of the Far East. And contemporary
4889 idiots heard and rejoiced. But they should be pitied, not
4891 "Pity them?" said Len. "But they don't pity anybody. They
4892 do whatever they like. It's all the same to them, don't you
4893 see? It they are bored, then they don't care whose head they
4894 saw apart. Idiots... Maybe in the daytime they are idiots, but
4895 you don't seem to understand that at night they are not idiots,
4896 they are all accursed."
4898 "They are cursed by the whole world They can have no
4899 peace, and they won't ever have it. You don't know anything.
4900 What's it to you? As you arrived, so you will leave... but they
4901 are alive at night, and in the daytime they are dead,
4903 I went to the living room and brought him some water. He
4904 drank down the glass and said, "Will you leave soon?"
4905 "Of course not, how can you think that? I just got here,"
4906 I said, patting him on the shoulder.
4907 "Could I sleep with you?"
4909 "At first I had a padlock, but she took it away for some
4910 reason. But why she took it she won't say."
4911 "OK," I said. "You will sleep in my living room. Do you
4914 "Go ahead and lock yourself in and sleep to your heart's
4915 content. And I will climb into the bedroom through the window."
4916 He raised his head and gazed at me intently.
4917 "You think your doors lock? I know all about this place.
4918 Yours don't lock either."
4919 "It's for you they don't lock," I said as negligently as
4920 possible. "But for me they'll lock. It's only a half-hour's
4922 He laughed unpleasantly, like an adult.
4923 "You are afraid, too. All right, I was only joking. Don't
4924 be afraid, your locks do work"
4925 "You dope," I said. "Didn't I tell you I wasn't afraid of
4926 anything of that sort?" He looked at me questioningly. "I
4927 wanted to make the lock work for you in the living room, so you
4928 could sleep in peace, as long as you are so afraid. As for me,
4929 I always sleep with the window open."
4930 "I told you, I was joking."
4931 We were silent for a bit.
4932 "Len," I said, "what will you be when you grow up?" "What
4933 do you mean?" he said. He was quite astonished. "What do I
4935 "Now, now -- what do you care. It's all the same to you
4936 whether you will be a chemist or a bartender?"
4937 "I told you -- we are all under a curse. You can't get
4938 away from it, why can't you understand that? When everybody
4940 "So what?" I said. "There were accursed peoples before.
4941 And then children were born who grew up and removed the curse."
4943 "That would take a long time to explain, old friend." I
4944 got up. "I'll be sure to tell you all about it. For now, go on
4945 out and play. You do play in the daytime? Okay then, run along.
4946 When the sun sets, come on over, I'll make your bed."
4947 He stuck his hands in his pockets and went to the door.
4948 There he stopped and said aver his shoulder, "That gadget you'd
4949 better take it out of the radio. What do you think it is?"
4950 "A local oscillator-mixer," I said.
4951 "It's not a mixer at all. Take it out or it will be bad
4952 for you." "Why will it be bad for me?" I said.
4953 "Take it out," be said. "You'll hate everybody. Right now
4954 you are not cursed, blat you will become cursed. Who gave it to
4957 He looked at me imploringly.
4958 "Ivan, take it out!"
4959 "So be it," I said. "I'll take it out. Run along and play.
4960 And never be afraid of me. Do you hear?"
4961 He didn't say anything and went out, leaving me sitting in
4962 my chair, with my hands on the desk. Soon I heard him puttering
4963 about in the lilacs under the windows. He rustled, stamped
4964 about, muttering something under his breath, and softly
4965 exclaimed, talking to himself, "Bring the flags and put them
4966 here and here... that's it... that's it... and then I got on a
4967 plane and flew away into the mountains." I wondered when he
4968 went to bed. It would be all right if it were eight o'clock or
4969 even nine; maybe it was a mistake to start all this business
4970 with him. I could have locked myself in the bathroom and in two
4971 hours I would know everything. But no, I couldn't refuse him --
4972 just imagine I was in his place, I thought. But this is not the
4973 way; I am catering to his fears, when I should think of
4974 something more clever. But try to come up with it -- this is no
4975 Anyudinsk boarding school.
4976 A boarding school this certainly is not, I thought. How
4977 different everything is, and what lies ahead of me now, which
4978 circle of paradise, I wonder? But if it tickles, I won't be
4979 able to stand it! Interesting -- the Fishers -- they too are a
4980 circle of paradise, for sure. The Art Patrons are for the
4981 aristocrats of the mind, and the old Subway is for the simpler
4982 types, although the Intels are also aristocrats of the mind and
4983 they get intoxicated like swine and become totally useless,
4984 even they are useless. There is too much bate, not enough love
4985 -- it's easy to teach hate, but love is hard to teach. But
4986 then, love has been too well overdone and slobbered over so it
4987 has become passive. How is it that love is always passive and
4988 hate always active and is thus always attractive? And then it
4989 is said that hate is natural, while love is of the mind and
4990 springs from deep thought.
4991 It should be worthwhile to have a talk with the Intels, I
4992 thought. They can't all be hysterical fools, and what if I
4993 should succeed in finding a Man. What in fact is good in man
4994 that comes from nature -- a pound of gray matter. But this too
4995 is not always good, so that he always must start from a naked
4996 nothing; maybe it would be good if man could inherit social
4997 advances, but then again, Len would now be a small-scale major
4998 general. No, better not -- better to start from zero. True he
4999 would not now be afraid of anything, but instead he would be
5000 frightening others -- those who weren't major generals.
5001 I was startled to suddenly see Len perched in the branches
5002 of the apple tree regarding me fixedly. The next moment he was
5003 gone, leaving only the crash of branches and falling apples as
5004 an aftermath. He doesn't believe me in the slightest, I
5005 thought. He believes nobody. And whom do I believe in this
5006 town? I went over everyone I could recall. No, I didn't trust
5007 anyone. I picked up the telephone, dialed the Olympic and asked
5009 "Hello! Yes?" said Oscar's voice.
5010 I kept quiet, covering the radio with my hand.
5011 "Hello, I'm listening," repeated Oscar irritably. "That's
5012 the second time," he said to someone aside. "Hello!... Of
5013 course not, what sort of women could I be carrying on with
5015 I picked up the Mintz volume, lay down on the couch, and
5016 read until twilight. I dearly love Mintz, but I couldn't
5017 remember a word I read that day. The evening shift roared by
5018 noisily. Aunt Vaina fed Len his supper, stuffing him with hot
5019 milk and crackers. Len whimpered and was fretful while she
5020 cajoled him gently and patiently. Customs inspector Pete
5021 propounded in a commanding yet benevolent tone, "You have to
5022 eat, you have to eat, if Mother says eat, you must comply."
5023 Two men of loose character, if one could judge by their
5024 voices, came around looking for Vousi and made a play for Aunt
5025 Vaina. I thought they were drunk. It was growing dark rapidly.
5026 At eight o'clock the phone in the study rang. I ran barefooted
5027 and grabbed the receiver, but no one spoke. As you holler, so
5028 it echoes. At eight-ten, there was a knock on the door. I was
5029 delighted, expecting Len, but it turned out to be Vousi.
5030 "Why don't you ever come around?" she asked indignantly
5031 from the doorway. She was wearing shorts decorated with
5032 suggestively winking faces, a tight-fitting sleeveless shirt
5033 exposing her navel, and a huge translucent scarf: she was fresh
5034 and firm as a ripe apple. To a surfeit.
5035 "I sit and wait for him all day, and all the time he is
5036 sacked out here. Does something hurt?"
5037 I got up and stuck my feet into my shoes.
5038 "Have a chair, Vousi." I patted the couch alongside me.
5039 "I am not going to sit by you. Imagine -- he is reading.
5040 You could at least offer me a drink."
5041 "In the bar," I said, "How is your sloppy cow?"
5042 "Thank God she was not around today," said Vousi,
5043 disappearing in the bar. "Today I drew the mayor's wife. What a
5044 moron. Why, she wants to know, doesn't anyone love her?... You
5045 want yours with water? Eyes white, face red, and a rear end as
5046 wide as a sofa, just like a frog, honest to God. Listen, let's
5047 make a polecat, nowadays everybody makes polecats."
5048 "I don't go for doing like everybody."
5049 "I can see that for myself. Everyone is out for a good
5050 time, and he is here -- sacked out. And reading to boot."
5051 "He -- is tired," I said.
5052 "Oh, so? Well then, I can leave!"
5053 "But I won't let you," I said, catching her by the scarf
5054 and pulling her down beside me. "Vousi, dear girl, are you a
5055 specialist only for ladies' good humor or in general? You
5056 wouldn't be able to put a lonely man whom nobody loves into a
5058 "What's to love?" She looked me over. "Red eyes and a
5060 "Like an alligator's."
5061 "Like a dog's. Don't go putting your arm about me, I won't
5062 allow it. Why didn't you come over?"
5063 "And why did you abandon me yesterday?"
5064 "How do you like that --.abandoned him!"
5065 "All alone in a strange town."
5066 "I abandoned him! Why, I locked for you all over. I told
5067 everyone that you are a Tungus, and you got lost -- that was a
5068 poor thing for you to do. No -- I won't permit that! Where were
5069 you last night? Fishering, no doubt. And the same thing today,
5070 you won't tell any stories."
5071 "Why shouldn't I tell?" I said. And I told her about the
5072 old Subway. I sensed at once that the truth would be
5073 inadequate, and so I spoke of men in metallic masks, of a
5074 terrible oath, of a wall wet with blood, of a sobbing skeleton,
5075 and I let her feel the bump behind my ear. She liked everything
5077 "Let's go right now," she said.
5078 "Not for anything," I said and lay down.
5079 "What kind of manners is that? Get up at once and we'd go.
5080 Of course, no one will believe me. But you will show your bump,
5081 and everything will be just perfect."
5082 "And then we'll go to the shivers?" I wanted to know.
5083 "But yes! You know that turns out to he even good for your
5085 "And we'll drink brandy?"
5086 "Brandy and vermouth and a polecat and whiskey."
5087 "Enough, enough... and no doubt we'll also squeeze into
5088 cars and drive at a hundred and fifty miles per hour?...
5089 Listen, Vousi, why should you go there?"
5090 She finally understood and smiled in discomfiture.
5091 "And what's wrong with it? The Fishers also go."
5092 "There is nothing bad," I said. "But what's good about
5094 "I don't know. Everybody does it. Sometimes it's a lot of
5095 fun... and the shivers. There everything -- all your wishes
5097 "And that's it? That's all there is?"
5098 "Well, not everything, of course. But whatever you think
5099 about, whatever you would like to happen, often happens.
5100 Just like in a dream."
5101 "Well then maybe it would be better to go to bed?"
5102 "What's the matter with you?" she said sulkily. "In a real
5103 dream all kinds of things happen... as though you don't know!
5104 But with the shivers, only what you like!"
5105 "And what do you like?"
5106 "We-e-ll! Lots of things."'
5107 "Still... imagine I am a magician. And I say to you, have
5108 three wishes. Anything at all, whatever you wish. The most
5109 impossible. And I will make them come true. Well?"
5110 She thought very hard so that even her shoulders sagged.
5111 Then her face lit up.
5112 "Let me never grow old," she said.
5113 "Excellent," I said. "That's one."
5114 "Let me..." she began inspiredly and stopped.
5115 I used to enjoy tremendously asking my friends this very
5116 question and used to ask it at every available opportunity.
5117 Several times I even assigned compositions to my youngsters on
5118 the theme of three wishes. And it was always most amusing that
5119 out of a thousand men and women, oldsters and children, only
5120 two or three dozen figured that it is possible to wish not only
5121 for themselves personally, or their immediate close ones, but
5122 also for the world at large, for mankind as a whole. No, this
5123 was not witness to the ineradicable human egotism; the wishes
5124 were not invariably strictly selfish, and the majority in
5125 subsequent discussions, when reminded of missed opportunities
5126 and the large problems of all mankind, did a double take and in
5127 honest anger reproached me that I hadn't explained at the
5128 beginning. But one way or another they all began their reply
5129 along the lines of "Let me..." This was a manifestation of some
5130 kind of ancient subconscious conviction that your own personal
5131 wishes cannot change anything in the wide world, and it makes
5132 no difference whether you do or do not have a magic wand.
5133 "Let me..." began Vousi once more, and again was silent. I
5134 was watching her surreptitiously. She noticed this, and
5135 dissolving into a broad smile, said with a wave of her hand,
5136 "So that's your game. Some card you are!"
5137 "No -- no -- no," I said. "You should always be prepared
5138 to answer this question. Because I knew a man once who always
5139 asked it of everyone, and then was inconsolable -- 'Oh what an
5140 opportunity I missed, how could I not have figured it out?' So
5141 you see it's entirely in earnest. Your first wish is never to
5142 grow old. And then?"
5143 "Let's see -- what else? Of course, it would be nice to
5144 have a handsome fellow, whom they would all chase, but who
5145 would be with me only. Always."
5146 "Wonderful," I said. "That's two. And what else?"
5147 Her face showed that the game had already palled on her,
5148 and that any second she'd drop a bomb. And she did. All I could
5149 do was blink my eyes.
5150 "Yes," I said, "of course that, too. But that happens even
5152 "Yes and no," she argued and began to develop the idea,
5153 based on the misfortunes of her clients. All of which was very
5154 gay and amusing to her, while I, in ignominious confusion,
5155 gulped brandy with lemon and tittered in embarrassment, feeling
5156 like a virgin wall flower. Well, if all this went on in a night
5157 club, I could handle it. Well, well, well... some fine
5158 activities go on in those salons of the Good Mood. How do you
5159 like these elderly ladies...
5160 "Enough," I said. "Vousi, you embarrass me, and anyway I
5161 understand it all very well now. I can see that it's really
5162 impossible to do without magic. It's a good thing that I am not
5164 "I really stung you well," she said happily. "And what
5165 would you wish for yourself, now?"
5166 I decided I'd reciprocate in kind.
5167 "I don't need anything of that sort," I said. "Anyway, I
5168 am not good at things like that. I'd like a good solid slug."
5170 "I don't need three wishes," I explained, "I can do with
5172 She was still smiling, but the smile became empty, then
5173 crooked, and then disappeared altogether.
5174 "What?" she said in a small voice.
5175 "Vousi!" I said, getting up. "Vousi!"
5176 She didn't seem to know what to do. She jumped up and then
5177 sat down and then jumped up again. The coffee table fell over
5178 with all the bottles. There were tears in her eyes, and her
5179 face looked pitiable, like that of a child who has been
5180 brutally, insolently, cruelly, tauntingly deceived. Suddenly
5181 she bit her lip and with all her strength slapped my face.
5182 While I was blinking, she, now in full tears, kicked away the
5183 overturned table and ran out of the room. I sat, with my mouth
5184 open. An engine roared into life and lights sprang up in the
5185 dark garden, followed by the sound of the motor traversing the
5186 yard and disappearing in the distance.
5187 I felt my face. Some joke. Never in my life have I joked
5188 so effectively. What an old fool I was! How do you like that
5190 "May we?" asked Len. He stood in the door, and he was not
5191 alone. With him was a gloomy, freckle-faced boy with a cleanly
5193 "This is Reg," said Len. "Could he sleep here too?"
5194 "Reg," I said, pensively smoothing my eyelids. "Of course
5195 -- even two Regs would be okay. Listen, Len, why didn't you
5196 come ten minutes earlier!"
5197 "But she was here," said Len. "We were looking in the
5198 window, waiting for her to leave."
5199 "Really?" I said. "Very interesting. Reg, old chum, how
5200 about what your parents will say?"
5201 Reg didn't reply. Len said, "He doesn't have parents."
5202 "Well, all right," I said, feeling a bit tired. "You're
5203 not going to have a pillow fight?"
5204 "No," said Len, not smiling, "we are going to sleep."
5205 "Fair enough," I said. "I'll make your beds and you can
5206 give all this a quick clean-up."
5207 I made their beds on the couch and the big chair and they
5208 took off their clothes at once and went to bed. I locked the
5209 door to the hall, turned out their lights, and went into my
5210 bedroom, where I sat awhile listening to them whispering,
5211 moving furniture, and settling down. Then they were quiet.
5212 About eleven o'clock there was the sound of broken glass
5213 somewhere in the house. Aunt Vaina's voice could be heard
5214 singing some sort of marching song, followed by more breaking
5215 glass. Apparently the tireless Pete again was falling down face
5216 first. From the center of town came the cry of "Shivers,
5217 shivers." Someone was loudly sick on the street.
5218 I locked the window and lowered the shades. I also locked
5219 the door to the study. Then I went to the bathroom and turned
5220 on the hot water. I did everything per instructions. The radio
5221 went on the soap shelf, I threw several Devon tablets in the
5222 water, together with some salt crystals, and was about to
5223 swallow the tablet when I remembered that it was propitious to
5224 "loosen up." I didn't want to disturb the boys, but it wasn't
5225 necessary -- an open bottle of brandy stood in the medicine
5226 chest. I took a few swallows right out of the bottle, stripped
5227 down to the skin, climbed into the bath, and turned on the
5230 <ul><a name=11></a><h2>Chapter ELEVEN</h2></ul>
5232 I intentionally did not set the thermo-regulator, so that
5233 when the water cooled off, I returned to consciousness. The
5234 radio was still shrieking and the sparkle of white light on the
5235 walls hurt my eyes. I was thoroughly chilled and covered with
5236 goose bumps. Switching off the radio, I turned on the hot water
5237 and remained in the bath, basking in the flooding warmth and a
5238 very strange, very novel sensation of total, cosmically
5239 enormous emptiness. I expected a hangover, but there wasn't
5240 any. I simply felt good. And there were very many memories.
5241 Also my thoughts flowed inordinately well, as though after a
5242 long rest in the mountains.
5243 In the middle of the last century, Olds and Miller had
5244 conducted experiments on brain stimulation. They inserted
5245 electrodes into the brains of white rats. They employed a
5246 primitive technology and a barbarous methodology, but having
5247 located pleasure centers in the rats' brains, they succeeded in
5248 having the animals press the lever which closed the contacts to
5249 the electrodes, hour after hour, producing up to eight thousand
5250 auto-excitations per hour. These rats did not need anything in
5251 the real world. They weren't in the slightest interested in
5252 anything but the lever. They ignored food, water, danger,
5253 females; they were indifferent to everything except the
5254 stimulation lever. Later, these experiments were tried on
5255 monkeys and produced the same results. Rumors were about that
5256 someone carried out similar experiments on criminals condemned
5258 That was a difficult time for mankind: a time of struggle
5259 against atomic destruction, a time of increasing limited wars
5260 over the entire face of the planet, a time when the majority of
5261 mankind was starving, but even so, the contemporary English
5262 writer and critic Kingsley Amis, having learned of the
5263 experiments with rats, wrote: "I cannot be sure that this
5264 frightens me more than a Berlin or a Taiwan crisis, but it
5265 should, I believe, frighten me more." He feared much about the
5266 future, this brilliant and venomous author of <i>New Maps of
5267 Hell</i>, and: in particular, he foresaw the possibilities of
5268 brain stimulation for the creation of an illusory existence,
5269 just as intense as the actual, or more intense.
5270 By the end of the century, when the first triumphs of wave
5271 psychotechnology were realized, and when psychiatric wards
5272 began to empty, amid the chorus of exulting cries of science
5273 commentators, the little brochure by Krinitsky and Milanovitch
5274 had sounded like an irritating dissonance. In its concluding
5275 section the Soviet educators wrote approximately as follows: In
5276 the overwhelming majority of countries, the education of the
5277 young exists on the level of the eighteenth and nineteenth
5278 centuries. This ancient system of education always did and
5279 continues to posit as its objective, first of all and above
5280 all, the preparation for society of qualified but stupefied
5281 contributors to the production process. This system is not
5282 interested in all the other potentialities of the human mind,
5283 and for this reason, outside of the production process, man, en
5284 masse, remains psychologically a cave dweller, Man the
5285 Uneducated. The disuse of these potentialities causes the
5286 individuals' inability to comprehend our complex world in all
5287 its contradictions, to correlate psychologically incompatible
5288 concepts and phenomena, to obtain pleasure from the examination
5289 of connections and laws when these do not pertain directly to
5290 the satisfaction of the most primitive social instincts. In
5291 other words, this system of education for all practical
5292 purposes does not develop in man pure imagination, untrammeled
5293 vision, and as an immediate consequence, the sense of humor.
5294 The Uneducated Man perceives the world as some sort of
5295 essentially trivial, routine, and traditionally simple process,
5296 a world from which it is possible only by dint of great effort
5297 to extract pleasures which are, in the end, also compulsively
5298 routine and traditional. But even the unutilized potentialities
5299 remain, apparently, a hidden reality of the human brain. The
5300 problem for scientific education consists precisely in
5301 initiating the action of these possibilities, in teaching man
5302 to dream, in bringing the multiordinality and variety of
5303 psychic associations into quantitative and qualitative
5304 coordination with the multiordinality and variety of
5305 interrelationships in the world of reality. This problem is the
5306 one which, as is well known, must become the fundamental one
5307 for mankind in the coming proximate epoch. But until this
5308 problem is resolved, there remains some basis to fear that the
5309 successes of psychotechnics will lead to such methods of
5310 electrical stimulation as will endow man with an illusory
5311 existence which can exceed the real existence in intensity and
5312 variety by a considerable margin. And if one remembers that
5313 imagination allows man to be both a rational being and a
5314 sensual animal, and if one adds to that the fact that the
5315 psychic subject matter evoked by the Uneducated Man for his
5316 illusory life of splendor derives from the darkest, most
5317 primitive reflexes, then it is not hard to perceive the awful
5318 temptation hidden in such possibilities.
5319 And therefore -- slug.
5320 It is now understandable, I thought, why they write the
5321 word "slug" on fences.
5322 Everything is now understandable. It's odious, that I
5323 understand.... Better if I understood nothing, better if, upon
5324 regaining consciousness, I shrugged my shoulders and climbed
5325 out of the bath. Would it have been understandable to Strogoff
5326 and Einstein and Petrarch? Imagination is a priceless gift, but
5327 it must not be given an inward direction. Only outward, only
5328 outward... What a tasty worm some corrupter has dropped from
5329 his rod into this stagnant pool! And how accurately timed! Yes
5330 indeed, if I were commander of Wells' Martians, I would not
5331 have bothered with fighter tripods, heat rays, and other such
5332 nonsense. Illusory existence ... no, this is not a narcotic, a
5333 narcotic has a long way to go to approach it. In a. way this is
5334 exactly appropriate. Here. Now. To each time its own. Poppy
5335 seeds and hemp, the kingdom of sweet blurred shadows and peace
5336 -- for the beggar, the worn-out, the downtrodden... But here no
5337 one wants peace, here no one is dying of hunger, here is simply
5338 a bore. A well-fed, well-heated, drunken bore. It's not that
5339 the world is bad, it's just plain dreary. World without
5340 prospects, world without promise. But in the end man is not a
5341 carp, he still remains a man. Yes, it is no kingdom of shades,
5342 it is indeed the real existence, without detraction, without
5343 dreary confusion. Slug is moving on the world and the world
5344 will not mind subjecting itself to it.
5345 Suddenly, for a fraction of a moment, I felt that I was
5346 lost. And it was cozy to be destroyed. Fortunately I grew
5347 angry. Splashing out water, I climbed out of the bath, cursing
5348 and stoking my ire, pulled my shorts and shirt over my wet
5349 body, and grabbed my watch. It was three o'clock, and it could
5350 have been three in the afternoon or three the following morning
5351 or three o'clock after a hundred years. Idiot, I thought,
5352 pulling on my trousers. Softened up and let Buba go when he was
5353 ready to give me the address of the gangsters' den. The
5354 operatives could have been there by now and we could have
5355 nabbed the whole accursed nest, the vile nest. The vermin nest.
5356 The repulsive cloaca... And at this instant against the very
5357 depth of my consciousness, like a dancing spot of light,
5358 flicked a very calm thought. But I could not fasten upon it.
5359 I located some Potomac in the medicine cabinet, the
5360 strongest stimulant which I could find in it. I started into
5361 the living room, but the youngsters were snoring away there, so
5362 I climbed out the window. The city was resting, of course.
5363 Guffawing louts hung around under the street lamp on Waterway,
5364 bawling crowds surged on the brightly lit avenues. Somewhere
5365 songs were shouted, somewhere they were yelling "Shivers!"
5366 Somewhere glass was being broken. I picked out a chauffeurless
5367 taxi, found the index for Sunshine Street, and dialed it on the
5368 control console. The car took off across town. The cab smelled
5369 sour and bottles rolled underfoot. At one intersection it
5370 almost plowed into a daisy chain of howling humanity, and at
5371 another there was the rhythmic flashing of colored lights --
5372 apparently it was possible to set up the shivers elsewhere than
5373 the plaza. They were resting, resting with all their might,
5374 these benevolent patrons from the Happy Mood Salons, these
5375 polite customs inspectors, clever barbers, tender mothers and
5376 manly fathers, innocent youths and maidens -- they all
5377 exchanged their diurnal aspects for the nocturnal, they all
5378 worked hard to have fun and so that it wouldn't be necessary to
5379 think about a thing....
5380 The taxi braked. It was the very same place. It even
5381 seemed as though there was that same burning smell...
5382 ... Peck registered a hit on the armored carrier with the
5383 Fulminator. It spun on a single tread, hopping in the piles of
5384 broken bricks, and two fascists immediately jumped out in their
5385 unbuttoned camouflage shirts, flung a grenade apiece in our
5386 direction, and sped off into the darkness. They moved knowingly
5387 and adeptly, and it was obvious that these were not youngsters
5388 from the Royal Academy or lifers from the Golden Brigade, but
5389 genuine full-blown tank corps officers. Robert cut them down
5390 point-blank with a burst from his machine gun. The carrier was
5391 bulging with cases of beer. It struck us that we had been
5392 constantly thirsty for the last two days. Iowa Smith clambered
5393 into the carrier and began handing out the cans. Peck opened
5394 them with a knife. Robert, putting the machine gun against the
5395 carrier, punched holes into the cans with a sharp point on the
5396 armor. And the Teacher, adjusting his pince-nez, tripped on the
5397 Fulminator straps and muttered, "Wait a minute, Smith; can't
5398 you see I've got my hands full?" A five-story building burned
5399 briskly at the end of the street, there was a thick smell of
5400 smoke and hot metal, and we avidly downed the warm beer, and
5401 were drenched through and through, and it was very hot and the
5402 dead officers lay on the broken and crushed bricks, with their
5403 legs identically flung out in their black pants, and the
5404 camouflage shirts bunched at their necks, and the skin still
5405 glistening with perspiration on their backs.
5406 'They are officers," said the Teacher. "Thank God. I can't
5407 bear the sight of any more dead kids. Accursed politics! People
5408 forget God on account of it."
5409 "What god is that?" inquired Iowa Smith out of the
5410 carrier. "I've never heard of him."
5411 "Don't jest about that, Smith," said the Teacher. "This
5412 will all end soon, and from then on no one nowhere will be
5413 permitted to poison the souls of men with vanity."
5414 "And how then shall they multiply?" asked Iowa Smith. He
5415 bent over the beer again, and we could see the burn holes in
5417 "I am talking about politics," said the Teacher modestly.
5418 "The fascists must be destroyed. They are beasts. But that is
5419 not enough. There are many other political parties, and there
5420 is no place for them and all their propaganda in our land." The
5421 Teacher came from this town and lived within two blocks of our
5422 post. "Social anarchists, technocrats, communists, are of
5424 "I am a communist," announced Iowa Smith, "at least by
5425 conviction. I am for the commune."
5426 The Teacher looked at him in bewilderment.
5427 "Also I am a godless man," added Iowa Smith. "There is no
5428 god, Teacher, and there's nothing you can do about it."
5429 At which point we all began to say that we were all
5430 atheists, and Peck said that on top of that he was for
5431 technocracy, while Robert announced that his father was a
5432 social anarchist and his grandfather was a social anarchist and
5433 he, Robert, probably could not escape being a social anarchist,
5434 although he didn't know what it was all about.
5435 "Well now, if the beer would get ice-cold, said Peck
5436 pensively, "I would at once believe in God with great delight."
5437 Teacher smiled embarrassedly and kept wiping his glasses.
5438 He was a good man and we always kidded him, but he never took
5439 offense. From the very first night I observed that his courage
5440 was not great, but he never retreated without being commanded.
5441 We were still chattering and joking when there was a thunderous
5442 crash, the burning building wall collapsed, and straight out of
5443 the swirling flames and clouds of smoke and sparks swam a
5444 Mammoth attack tank, floating a yard above the pavement. This
5445 was a new horror, the likes of which we hadn't seen yet.
5446 Floating out in the middle of the street, it rotated its
5447 thrower as though looking around, and then, hovering on its air
5448 cushion, began to move in our direction, screeching and
5449 clanking metallically. I regained my wits only by the time I
5450 was behind a gate post. The tank was now considerably closer,
5451 and at first I couldn't see anyone at all, but then Iowa Smith
5452 stood up in full view out of the carrier, and propping the butt
5453 of the Fulminator against his stomach, took aim. I could see
5454 the recoil double him up. I saw a bright flash against the
5455 black brow of the tank. And then the street was filled with
5456 roar and flame, and when I raised my burned eyelids with great
5457 effort, the street was empty and contained only the tank. There
5458 was no carrier, no mounds of broken brick, no leaning kiosk by
5459 the neighboring house -- there was only the tank. It was as
5460 though the monster had come awake and was spewing waterfalls of
5461 flame and the street ceased being a street and became a square.
5462 Peck slapped me hard on the neck and I could see his glassy
5463 eyes right in front of my face, but there was no time to run
5464 toward the trench and break out the launcher.
5465 We both picked up the mine and started running toward the
5466 tank, and all I remember is looking continually at the back of
5467 his head, and gasping for breath and counting steps, when the
5468 helmet flew off Peck's head, and he fell, so I almost dropped
5469 the mine and fell on top of him. The tank was blown up by
5470 Robert and Teacher. I still don't know how they did it or when;
5471 it must be they were running behind us with another mine. I sat
5472 until morning in the middle of the street holding Peck's
5473 bandaged head on my knees and staring at the awesome treads of
5474 the tank sticking out of the asphalt lake. That same morning
5475 the whole bloody thing came to an end all at once. Zun Padana
5476 surrendered with all his staff and was shot in the street by
5477 some crazed woman when already a prisoner....
5478 This was the very same place. I even thought I smelled
5479 smoke and burned metal. Even the kiosk stood on the corner, and
5480 it too was a bit crooked in the latest style of architecture.
5481 The part of the street which the tank turned into a plaza
5482 remained a plaza, and on the site of the asphalt lake there was
5483 a small square in which someone was being beaten. Iowa Smith
5484 was an urban planner from Iowa, U.S.A., Robert Sventisky was a
5485 movie director form Krakow, Poland. The Teacher was a
5486 schoolteacher from this town. No one ever saw them again, even
5487 dead. And Peck was Peck, who had now become Buba
5488 Buba lived in the same sort of cottage as I, and its front
5489 door was open. I knocked, but no one responded and no one -
5490 came out to meet me. I entered the dark hall. The lights did
5491 not go on. The door to the right was locked, and I looked into
5492 the one on the left. In the living room a bearded man, in a
5493 jacket, but without pants, was sleeping on a tattered couch.
5494 Someone's feet stuck out from under the overturned table. There
5495 was a smell of brandy, tobacco smoke, and of something else,
5496 cloyingly sweet, like in Aunt Vaina's room the other day. In
5497 the door to the study, I bumped into a handsome florid woman,
5498 who was not in the slightest surprised to see me.
5499 "Good evening," I said. Please excuse me, but does Buba
5501 "Here," she said, examining me out of glistening
5504 "And why not -- all you want."
5506 "Funny man. Where would he be?" she laughed.
5507 I could guess where, but said, "In the bedroom?"
5508 "You are warm," she said.
5509 "What do you mean -- warm?"
5510 "What a dunce, and sober yet! Would you like a drink?"
5511 "No," I said, angry. "Where is he? I need him right away."
5512 "Your prospects are poor," she said gaily. "But search on,
5513 search on. As for me, I must go."
5514 She patted me on the cheek and went out.
5515 The study was empty. There was a large crystal vase on the
5516 table with some kind of reddish fluid in it. Everything smelled
5517 of that nauseatingly sweet odor. The bedroom was also empty;
5518 crumpled sheets and pillows were scattered about. I approached
5519 the bathroom door. The door was full of holes, obviously made
5520 by bullets shot from the inside, judging by their shape. I
5521 hesitated, then took hold of the handle. The door was locked.
5522 I opened it with considerable difficulty. Buba lay in the
5523 bath up to his neck in greenish water; steam rose from its
5524 surface. The radio howled and wheezed on the edge of the tub. I
5525 stood and looked at Buba. At the erstwhile cosmonaut
5526 experimenter, Peck Xenai. At the once-upon-a-time supple and
5527 well-muscled fellow, who at eighteen left his warm city by the
5528 warm sea, and went into space for the glory of man, and who at
5529 thirty returned to his country to fight the last of the
5530 fascists and to remain here forever. I was repelled to think
5531 that only an hour ago, I had looked like him. I touched his
5532 face and pulled his thin hair. He did not stir. Then I bent
5533 over him to let him sniff some Potomac, and suddenly saw that
5535 I knocked the radio off the edge of the tub and crushed it
5536 under heel. There was a pistol on the floor. But Peck had not
5537 shot himself; it must have been simply that someone interfered
5538 with him and he shot through the door in order to be left
5539 alone. I stuck my arms in the hot water, picked him up, and
5540 carried him to the bed. He lay there all limp and terrible,
5541 with eyes sunken under his brows. If only he were not my
5542 friend... if only he were not such a wonderful guy... if only
5543 he were not such an outstanding worker...
5544 I called emergency aid on the phone and sat down beside
5545 Peck. I tried not to think of him. I tried to think about the
5546 business at hand. And I tried to be cold and harsh, because at
5547 the very bottom of my conscious mind, that flick of warm
5548 feeling, like a speck of light, flashed again, and this time I
5549 understood what the thought was.
5550 By the time the doctor came, I knew what I was going to
5551 do. I would find Eli. I would pay any sum. Maybe I would beat
5552 him. If necessary, I would torture him. And he would tell me,
5553 whence this plague flows out upon the world. He would name
5554 names and addresses. He would tell me all. And we would find
5555 these men. We would locate and burn their secret laboratories,
5556 and as for themselves, we would ship them out so far that they
5557 would never return. Whoever they might be. We would catch them
5558 all, we would catch all who ever tried slug and isolate them,
5559 too. Whoever they were. Then I would demand that I, too, be
5560 isolated because I knew what slug was. Because I grasped what
5561 sort of thought I had, because I was socially dangerous, just
5562 as they all are. And all that would be only the beginning. The
5563 beginning of all beginnings, and ahead would remain that which
5564 was most important: to make it so that people would never,
5565 never, wish to know what slug was. Probably that would be
5566 outlandish. Probably many would say that it was too outlandish,
5567 too harsh, too stupid -- but we would still have to do it if we
5568 wanted mankind not to stop....
5569 The doctor, an old gray man, put down his white case,
5570 leaned over Buba, looked him over, and said indifferently,
5572 "Call the police," I said.
5573 Slowly he put away his instruments.
5574 "There is no need of that whatsoever," he said. "There's
5575 no criminal content, here. It is a neurostimulator...."
5577 "There you are -- the second case this night. They just
5578 don't know when to stop."
5579 "When did it start?"
5580 "Not very long ago... a few months."
5581 "Then why in hell do you keep it quiet?"
5582 "Keep it quiet? I don't understand. This is my sixth call
5583 tonight, young man. The second case of nervous exhaustion and
5584 four cases of brain fever. Are you a relative?"
5586 "Well, all right, I'll send some men." He stood awhile,
5587 looking at Peck. "Join some choruses," he said. "Enter the
5588 League of Reformed Sluts..."
5589 He was mumbling something else as he left, an old, bent,
5590 uncaring man. I covered Peck with a sheet, pulled the drape,
5591 and went out into the living room. The drunks were snoring
5592 obscenely, filling the air with alcoholic fumes, and I took
5593 them both by the heels and dragged them out in the yard,
5594 leaving them in the puddle by the fountain.
5595 Dawn was breaking once more and the stars were dimming in
5596 the paling sky. I got into the taxi and dialed the old Subway
5598 It was full of people. It was impossible to get through to
5599 the railing, although it seemed to me that only two or three
5600 men were filling out the forms, while the rest were just
5601 looking, stretching their necks eagerly. Neither the
5602 round-headed man nor Eli were to be seen behind the barrier,
5603 and no one knew where they could be found. Below, in the
5604 cross-passages and tunnels, drunken, shouting, half-crazed men
5605 and hysterical women were milling about. There were shots,
5606 distant and muffled and some loud and close, the concrete
5607 underfoot shook with the detonations, and a mixture of smells
5608 -- gunpowder, sweat, smoke, gasoline, perfume, and whiskey --
5610 Squealing and arm-waving teenagers surrounded a big fellow
5611 who dripped blood and whose pale face shone with a look of
5612 triumph. Somewhere wild beasts roared menacingly. In the halls,
5613 the audience was going wild in front of huge screens showing
5614 somebody blindfolded, firing a spray of bullets from a machine
5615 gun held against his belly, and someone else sat up to his
5616 chest in some black and heavy liquid, blue from the cold and
5617 smoking a crackling cigar, and another one with a
5618 tension-twisted face, suspended as though cast in stone in some
5619 sort of web of taut cords...
5620 Then I found out where Eli was. I saw round-head by a
5621 dirty room full of old sandbags. He stood in the doorway, his
5622 face covered with soot, smelling of burnt gunpowder, the pupils
5623 of his eyes fully distended. Every few seconds he bent down and
5624 brushed his knees, not hearing me at all, so that I had to
5625 shake him to make him take notice of me.
5626 "There is no Eli," he barked. "Gone, do you understand?
5627 Nothing but smoke -- get it? Twenty kilovolts, one hundred
5628 amperes, see? He didn't leap far enough!"
5629 He pushed me away vigorously and took off into the dirty
5630 room, jumping over the sandbags. Elbowing the curious out of
5631 the way, he got to a low metal door.
5632 "Let me through," he howled. "Let me at it once more. God
5633 favors a third time!"
5634 The door shut heavily and the mob surged away, stumbling
5635 and falling over the bags. I didn't wait for him to come out.
5636 Or not to come out. He was no longer of any use to me. There
5637 was only Rimeyer left. There was also Vousi, but I couldn't
5638 count on her. So there was really only Rimeyer. I was not going
5639 to wake him. I'd wait outside his room.
5640 The sun was already up and the filthied streets were
5642 The auto-streetcleaners were coming out of their
5643 underground garages to do their job. All they knew was work;
5644 they had no potentialities to be developed, but they also had
5645 no primitive reflexes. Near the Olympic, I had to stop for a
5646 long chain of red and green men followed by a string of people
5647 enclosed in some sort of scales, who dragged their shuffling
5648 feet from one street into the next, leaving behind a stench of
5649 sweat and paint. I stood and waited for them to pass, while the
5650 sun had already lit up the huge mass of the hotel and shone
5651 gaily in the metallic face of Yurkovsky, who, as he had while
5652 alive, looked out over the heads of all men. After they passed,
5653 I went into the hotel. The clerk was dozing behind his counter.
5654 Awaking, he smiled professionally and asked in a cheery voice,
5655 "Would you like a room?"
5656 "No," I replied, "I am visiting Rimeyer."
5657 ' Rimeyer? Excuse me -- room 902?"
5659 "I believe so. What's the matter?"
5660 "I beg your pardon, but he is not in."
5661 "What do you mean, not in?"
5663 "Can't be, he has been ill. You are not mistaken? Room
5665 "Exactly right, 902, Rimeyer. Our perpetual client. It's
5666 an hour and a half since he left. More accurately, flew away.
5667 His friends helped him down and aboard a copter."
5668 "What friends?" I asked hopelessly.
5669 "Friends, as I said, but, excuse me, they were
5670 acquaintances. There were three of them, two of whom I really
5671 don't know. Just young athletic-looking men. But I do know Mr.
5672 Pebblebridge, he was our permanent guest. But he signed out --
5675 "Exactly. Lately he has been meeting Rimeyer quite often,
5676 so I concluded that they were quite well acquainted. He stayed
5677 in room 817. A fairly imposing gentleman, middle-aged,
5680 "Exactly, Oscar Pebblebridge.
5681 'That makes sense," I said, trying to keep a hold on
5682 myself. "You say they helped him?"
5683 "That's right. He has been very sick and they even sent a
5684 doctor up: to him yesterday. He was still very weak and the
5685 young men held him up by his elbows, and almost carried him."
5686 "And the nurse? He had an attendant nurse with him?"
5687 "Yes, there was one. But she left right after them -- they
5689 "And what is your name?"
5690 "Val, at your service."
5691 "Listen, Val," I said. "You are sure it didn't look like
5692 they were taking him away forcibly?"
5693 I looked hard at him. He blinked in confusion.
5694 "No," he said. "Although, now that you have mentioned
5696 "All right," I said. "Give me the key to his room and come
5698 Clerks are, as a rule, quite savvy types. Their sense of
5699 smell, at least for certain things, is quite impressive. It was
5700 perfectly obvious that he had guessed who I was. And maybe even
5701 where I came from. He called a porter, whispered something to
5702 him, and we went up to the ninth floor.
5703 "What currency did he pay in?" I asked.
5704 "Who? Pebblebridge?"
5706 "I think... ah yes, marks, German marks."
5707 "And when did he arrive here?"
5708 "One minute... it will come to me... sixteen marks ...
5709 precisely four days ago."
5710 "Did he know that Rimeyer stayed with you?"
5711 "Excuse me, but I can't say. But the day before yesterday,
5712 they had dinner together. And yesterday, they had a long talk
5713 in the foyer. Early in the morning while everybody was still
5715 It was unusually clean and tidy in Rimeyer's room. I
5716 walked about looking over the place. Suitcases stood in the
5717 closet. The bed was rumpled, but I could see no signs of
5718 struggle. The bathroom also was clean and tidy. Boxes of Devon
5719 were stacked on the shelf.
5720 "What do you think -- should I call the police?" asked the
5722 "I don't know," I replied. "Check with your
5724 "You understand that I am in doubt again. True, he didn't
5725 say goodbye. But it all looked completely innocent. He could
5726 have given me a sign, and I would have understood him -- we
5727 have known each other a long time. He was pleading Mr.
5728 Pebblebridge: 'The radio, please don't forget the radio.'"
5729 The radio lay under the mirror, hidden by a negligently
5731 "Yes?" I said. "And what did Mr. Pebblebridge say to
5733 Mr. Pebblebridge was soothing him, saying, "Of course, of
5734 course, don't worry..."
5735 I took the radio, and leaving the bathroom, sat down at
5736 the desk. The clerk looked back and forth from the radio to me.
5737 So, I thought, now he knows why I came here. I turned it
5738 an. It moaned and howled. They all know about slug. No need for
5739 Eli, nor Rimeyer; you can take anyone at random. This clerk,
5740 for instance. Right now, for instance. I turned it off and
5741 said, "Please be good enough to turn on the combo."
5742 He ran over to it with mincing steps, turned it on, and
5743 eyed me questioningly.
5744 "Leave it on that station. A little softer. Thank you."
5745 "So you don't advise me to call the police?"
5747 "It seemed you had something quite definite in mind when
5749 "It only seemed so," I said coldly. "It's just that I
5750 dislike Mr. Pebblebridge. But that does not concern you."
5752 "I'll stay here for a while, Val," I said. "I have a
5753 notion that this Mr. Pebblebridge will be back. It won't be
5754 necessary to announce that I am here. In the meantime, you are
5756 "Yes, sir," he said.
5757 When he left, I rang up the service bureau and dictated a
5758 telegram; "Have found the meaning of life but am lonely brother
5759 departed unexpectedly come at once Ivan." Then I turned on the
5760 radio again, and again it howled and screeched. I took off the
5761 back and pulled out the local oscillator-mixer. It was no
5762 mixer. It was a slug. A beautiful precision subassembly, of
5763 obviously mass-produced derivation, and the more I looked at
5764 it, the more it seemed that somewhere, sometime, long before my
5765 arrival here, and more than once, I had already seen these
5766 components in some very familiar device. I attempted to
5767 recollect where I had seen them, but instead, I remembered the
5768 room clerk and his face with a weak smile and his
5769 understanding, commiserating eyes. They are all infected. No,
5770 they hadn't tried slug -- heaven forbid! They hadn't even seen
5771 one! It is so indecent! It is the worst of the worst! Not so
5772 loud, my dear, how can you say that in front of the boy... but
5773 I've been told it's something out of this world.... Me?... How
5774 can you think that, you must have a low opinion of me after
5775 all.... I don't know, they say over at the Oasis, Buba has it,
5776 but as for myself -- I don't know.... And why not? I am a
5777 moderate man -- if I feel something is not right, I'll stop....
5778 Let me have five packets of Devon, we have made up a fishing
5779 party (hee, hee!). Fifty thousand people. And their friends in
5780 other towns. And a hundred thousand tourists every year. The
5781 problem is not with the gang. That's the least of our worries,
5782 for what does it take to scatter them? The problem is that they
5783 are all ready, all eager, and there is not the slightest
5784 prospect of the possibility to prove to them that it is
5785 terribly frightening, that it is the end, that it is the last
5787 I clasped the slug in my fist, propped up my head on it,
5788 and stared at Rimeyer's dress jacket with the ribbon bar on it,
5789 hanging on the back of the chair. Just like me, he must have
5790 sat in this chair a few months ago, and also held the slug and
5791 radio for the second time, and the same warm flick of desire
5792 wandered through the depths of his consciousness: there is
5793 nothing to worry about, because now there is light in any
5794 darkness, sweetness in any grief, joy in any pain....
5795 ...There, there, said Rimeyer. Now you have got it. You
5796 just have to be honest with yourself. It is a little shameful
5797 at first, and then you begin to understand how much time you
5798 have lost for nothing.... ...Rimeyer, I said, I wasted time not
5799 for myself. This cannot be done, it simply cannot, it is
5800 destruction for everyone, you can't replace life with
5801 dreams.... ...Zhilin, said Rimeyer, when man does something, it
5802 is always for himself. There may be absolute egotists in this
5803 world, but perfect altruists are just impossible. If you are
5804 thinking of death in a bathtub, then, in the first place, we
5805 are all mortal, and in the second place, if science gave us
5806 slug, it will see to it that it will be rendered harmless. And
5807 in the meantime, all that is required is moderation. And don't
5808 talk to me of the substitution of reality with dreams. You are
5809 no novice, you know perfectly well that these dreams are also
5810 part of reality. They constitute an entire world. Why do you
5811 then call this acquisition ruin?... ...Rimeyer, I said, because
5812 this world is still illusory, it's all within you, not outside
5813 of you, and everything you do in it remains in yourself. It is
5814 the opposite of the real world, it is antagonistic to it.
5815 People who escape into this illusory world cease to exist in
5816 the real world. They become as dead. And when everyone enters
5817 the illusory world -- and you know it could end thus -- the
5818 history of man will terminate.... ...Zhilin, said Rimeyer,
5819 history is the history of people. Every man wants to live a
5820 life which has not been in vain, and slug gives you such a
5821 life.... Yes, I know that you consider your life as not having
5822 been in vain without slug, but, admit it, you have never lived
5823 so luminously, so fully as you have today in the tub. You are a
5824 bit ashamed to recollect it, and you wouldn't risk recounting
5825 it to others. Don't. They have their life, you have yours....
5826 ...Rimeyer, I said, all that is true. But the past! Space,
5827 schools, the struggle with fascists, gangsters -- is all that
5828 for naught? Forty years for nothing? And the others -- they did
5829 it all for nothing, too?... ...Zhilin, said Rimeyer, nothing is
5830 for nothing in history. Some fought and did not live long
5831 enough to have slug. You fought and lived long enough....
5832 ...Rimeyer, I said, I fear for mankind. This is really the end.
5833 It's the end of man interacting with nature, the end of the
5834 interplay of man with society, the end of liaisons among
5835 individuals, the end of progress, Rimeyer. AU these billions of
5836 people submerged in. hot water and in themselves... only in
5837 themselves.... ... Zhilin, said Rimeyer, it's frightening
5838 because it's unfamiliar. And as for progress -- it will come to
5839 an end only for the real society, only for the real progress.
5840 But each separate man will lose nothing, he will only gain,
5841 since his world will become infinitely brighter, his ties with
5842 nature, illusory though they may be, will become more
5843 multifaceted; and ties with society, also illusory but not so
5844 known to him, will become more powerful and fruitful. And you
5845 don't have to mourn the end of progress. You do know that
5846 everything comes to an end. So now comes the end of progress in
5847 the objective world. Heretofore, we didn't know how if, would
5848 end, But we know now. We hadn't had time to realize all the
5849 potential intensity of objective existence, it could be that we
5850 would have reached such knowledge in a few hundred years, but
5851 now it has been put in our grasp. Slug brings a gift of
5852 understanding of our remotest ancestors which you cannot ever
5853 have in real life. You are simply the prisoner of an obsolete
5854 ideal, but be logical, the ideal which slug offers you is just
5855 as beautiful. Hadn't you always dreamed of man with the
5856 greatest scope of fantasy and gigantic imagination....
5857 ...Rimeyer, I replied, if you only knew how tired I am of
5858 arguing. All my life I have argued with myself and with others.
5859 I have always loved to argue, because otherwise life is not
5860 worth living. But I am tired right now and don't wish to argue
5861 over slug, of all things.... ...Then go on, Ivan, said
5863 I inserted the slug into the radio. As he had then, I got
5864 up. As he did then, I was past thought, past belonging in this
5865 world, but I still heard him say: don't forget to lock the door
5866 tight so that you won't be disturbed.
5867 And then I sat down. ...So that's the way of it, Rimeyer!
5868 said I. So that's how it went. You surrendered. You closed the
5869 door tight. And then you sent lying reports to your friends
5870 that there wasn't any slug. And then again, after hesitating
5871 but a moment, you sent me to my death so that I wouldn't
5872 disturb you. Your ideal, Rimeyer, is offal. If man has to
5873 perform what is base in the name of an ideal, then the worth of
5874 such ideal is -- less than dross....
5875 I glanced at the watch and shoved the radio in my pocket.
5876 I was past waiting for Oscar. I was hungry. And beyond that I
5877 had the feeling that for once I had done something useful in
5878 this town. I left my phone number with the room clerk -- in
5879 case Oscar or Rimeyer should return -- and went out onto the
5880 plaza. I did not believe that Rimeyer would come back or even
5881 that I would ever see him again, but Oscar could hold to his
5882 promise, though more likely, I would have to seek him out. And
5883 probably not alone. And probably not here.
5885 <ul><a name=12></a><h2>Chapter TWELVE</h2></ul>
5887 There was but one visitor in the automated cafe.
5888 Barricaded behind bottles and hors d'oeuvres at a corner table
5889 sat a dark man of oriental cast, magnificently but outlandishly
5890 dressed. I took some yogurt and blintzes with sour cream and
5891 set to, glancing at him now and then. He ate and drank much and
5892 avidly, his face shiny with sweat, hot inside his ridiculous
5893 formal clothes. He sighed, leaning back in his chair and
5894 loosening his belt. The motion exposed a long yellow holster
5895 glistening in the sunlight under the clothing.
5896 I was on my way into the last of the blintzes when he
5897 hailed me: "Hello," he said. "Are you a native here?"
5898 "No," I said. "A tourist."
5899 "So that means you don't understand anything either."
5900 I went to the bar, threw a juice cocktail together, and
5902 "Why is it empty here?" he continued. He had a lively
5903 spare face and a bold gaze. "Where are the inhabitants? Why is
5904 everything closed up? Everyone is asleep, you can't get any
5908 He pushed an empty plate away, moved up a full one, and
5909 gulped some light beer.
5910 "Where are you from?" I asked. He glared at me menacingly,
5911 and I added quickly, "If it's not a secret, of course."
5912 "No," he said, "it's not a secret," and went back to his
5914 I finished the juice and got ready to leave. Then he said,
5915 "They live well, the dogs. Such food and as much as you want,
5917 "Well, not quite for free," I contradicted.
5918 "Ninety dollars! Pennies! I'll show them how to eat ninety
5919 dollars within three days!" His eyes stopped roving
5920 momentarily, "D-dogs!" he muttered and fell to again.
5921 I was quite familiar with such types. They came from
5922 minuscule, totally milked kingdoms and prefectdoms, reduced to
5923 utter poverty, and greedily ate and drank, mindful of the hot
5924 dusty streets of their home towns, where in the niggardly
5925 ribbons of shade, moribund men and women lay dying and
5926 immobile, while children with distended bellies rummaged in the
5927 garbage piles of foreign consulates. They were surcharged with
5928 hatred and needed only two things -- food and weapons. Food for
5929 their own gang, which was the opposition, and weapons to fight
5930 the other gang, which was in power. They were the most flaming
5931 patriots, who spoke hotly and effusively of their love for the
5932 people, but resolutely refused all help from without, because
5933 they loved nothing but their power and no one but themselves,
5934 and were ready in the name of the people and the victory of
5935 high principles to mortify the same people, right down to the
5936 last man, if necessary, with hunger and machine gun.
5938 "Weapons? Food?" I asked.
5940 "Yes," he said. "Food and weapons. Only without any silly
5941 conditions. And as free as possible. Or on credit. True
5942 patriots never have any money. While the ruling clique drowns
5945 "Anything you want. While you here swim in luxury." He
5946 gazed at me with hatred. "The whole world is drowning in wealth
5947 and we alone are starving. But your hopes are in vain! The
5948 revolution cannot be stopped!"
5949 "Yes," I said. "And whom is the revolution against?"
5950 "We are fighting the blood leeches of Boadshah! We are
5951 against corruption and debauchery of the ruling top layer, we
5952 are for freedom and true democracy. The people are with us, but
5953 they have to be fed. And you tell us that you'll give us food
5954 only after we disarm. And even threaten intervention.... What
5955 filthy, lying demagogy! What deception of the revolutionary
5956 masses! To disarm in the face of those bloodsuckers -- that
5957 means to throw a hangman's noose over the heads of all the true
5958 freedom fighters! We answer you -- no! You will not deceive the
5959 people. Let Boadshah and his brutes disarm! Then we shall see
5961 "Yes," I said. "But Boadshah also, in all probability,
5962 does not wish a noose thrown over his neck."
5963 He put the beer down savagely, and his hand moved toward
5964 the holster in a habitual gesture. But then he quickly caught
5966 "I should have known you don't understand a damn thing,"
5967 he said. "You who are well fed have grown drowsy from a full
5968 stomach, you are too conceited to understand us. You wouldn't
5969 have dared to talk to me like that in the jungle."
5970 In the jungle, I would have talked differently to you,
5971 bandit, I thought, and said:
5972 "I really don't understand many things. For instance, I
5973 don't understand what will happen when you gain the upper hand.
5974 Let us imagine that you have won, Boadshah has been hanged, if
5975 be, in his turn, hasn't fled to seek food and weapons --"
5976 "He won't get away. He'll get his just deserts. The
5977 revolutionary people will tear him to shreds. That's when we'll
5978 go to work. We will regain the territory seized from us by
5979 affluent neighbors, we will carry out the entire program which
5980 the lying Boadshah constantly shouts about to deceive the
5981 people.... I'll show them how to strike! They'll learn about
5982 strikes with me on top -- there'll be no strikes! They'll all
5983 go under arms and forward march! We will win and then..."
5984 He shut his eyes and moaned a bit, shaking his head.
5985 "And then you will be well fed, you will swim in luxury
5986 and sleep till noon?"
5988 "I deserve that. The people deserve it. No one will dare
5989 reproach us. We will eat and drink as much as we wish, we will
5990 live in real houses, we will say to the people: now you are
5991 free -- divert yourselves!"
5992 "And don't think about a thing," I added. "But don't you
5993 think that all that could come out badly for you?"
5994 "Forget it," he said. "That's sheer demagogy. You are a
5995 demagogue. Also a dogmatist. We too have all kinds of
5996 dogmatists similar to yourself. Man, they say, will lose the
5997 meaning of life. No, we reply, man will lose nothing. Man will
5998 acquire and not lose. You have to feel the people. You have to
5999 be from the people yourself. The people don't like sophists.
6000 What the hell for do I let myself be fed on by wood leeches and
6001 feed on worms myself?" Suddenly he smiled amiably. "You must
6002 have taken offense at me a bit, for calling you well fed and
6003 other things. Please don't. Affluence is bad when you don't
6004 have it, but your neighbor does. But achieved affluence --
6005 that's a great thing! It's worth fighting for. Everybody fought
6006 for it. It must be obtained with weapons in hand, and not
6007 traded for freedom and democracy."
6008 "So your final goal is still abundance? Just abundance?"
6009 "Obviously! The final objective always is abundance. The
6010 difference is that we are choosy about the means to get it."
6011 "I have already grasped that. But what about man?"
6012 "What do you mean, man?"
6013 I did understand that it was futile to argue.
6014 "You have never been here before?" I asked.
6016 "Look into it, I said. This town gives excellent practical
6017 lessons in abundance."
6018 He shrugged his shoulders.
6019 "So far, I like it here." Again he pushed away an empty
6020 plate and replaced it with a full one. "These hors d'oeuvres
6021 are strange to me.... Everything is tasty and cheap.... It's
6022 enviable." He swallowed a few forkfuls of salad and growled.
6023 "We know that all great revolutionaries fought for abundance.
6024 We don't have time to theorize, but there is no need for it,
6025 anyway. There are enough theories without us. Furthermore,
6026 abundance is in no way threatening us. It won't threaten us for
6027 quite a while yet. We have much more pressing problems."
6028 "To hang Boadshah," I said.
6029 "Yes -- to begin with. Next we will need to do away with
6030 the dogmatists. I can perceive that even now. Next comes the
6031 realization of our legitimate claims. After that, something
6032 else will come up. And only then, and after many other things,
6033 will abundance arrive. I am an optimist, but I don't believe I
6034 will live to see it. Don't you worry -- we'll manage somehow.
6035 If we can stand hunger then we can take abundance for sure....
6036 The dogmatists prattle that abundance is not an end, but a
6037 means. We reply that every means was once an goal. Today,
6038 abundance is a goal. Tomorrow, perhaps it may become a means."
6040 "Tomorrow may be too late," I said. "It is incorrect of
6041 you to fall back on great revolutionaries. They would not have
6042 accepted your shibboleth: now you are free -- enjoy yourselves.
6043 They spoke otherwise: now that you are free -- work. After all,
6044 they never fought for abundance for the belly, they were
6045 interested in abundance for the soul and the mind."
6046 His hand twitched toward the holster again, and again he
6048 "A Marxist!" he said with astonishment. "But then again,
6049 you are a visitor. We have almost no Marxists, we take them
6051 I kept control of myself.
6052 Passing by the window, I took another look at him. He sat
6053 with his back to the street and ate and ate, his elbows stuck
6055 When I got home, the living room was already vacant. The
6056 youngsters had piled the bedsheets and pillows in the corner.
6057 There was a note under the telephone on the desk. Written in a
6058 childish scrawl, it read: "Take care. She has plotted
6059 something. She was fussing in the bedroom." I sighed and sat
6060 down in the armchair.
6061 There was still an hour until the meeting with Oscar,
6062 assuming he came. There was no sense in going to sleep, but in
6063 addition, it might not be safe -- Oscar could bring company,
6064 and come earlier than expected, possibly not through the door.
6065 I got the pistol out of the suitcase, put in a clip, and
6066 dropped it in my side pocket. Next I climbed into the bar,
6067 brewed myself some coffee, and went back to the study.
6068 I took the slug out of my radio and the one out of
6069 Rimeyer's, lay them down in front of me on the table, and
6070 attempted again to recollect where indeed I had seen just such
6071 components and why I thought that I had seen them before and
6072 more than once. And then it came to me. I went into the bedroom
6073 and brought in the phonor. I didn't even need a screwdriver. I
6074 took the case off the phonor, stuck my index finger under the
6075 odorizer horn, and, catching it with my finger nail, extracted
6076 a vacuum tubusoid FX-92-U, four outputs, static field, capacity
6077 equals two. Sold in consumer electronic stores at fifty cents
6078 each. In local patois -- a slug.
6079 It had to be, I thought. We are disoriented by
6080 conversations about a new drug. We are constantly derailed by
6081 talk about horrific new inventions. We have already made
6082 several similar blunders.
6083 There was the time when Alhagana and Burris served up a
6084 complaint in the U.N. that the separatists were using a new
6085 type of weapon -- freeze bombs. We threw ourselves furiously
6086 into a search for underground laboratories and even arrested
6087 two genuine underground inventors (sixteen and ninety-six years
6088 old, respectively). And then it turned out that the inventors
6089 were in no way connected, and the awful freeze bombs were
6090 acquired by the separatists in Munich from a refrigerator
6091 warehouse -- and were in fact reject super-freezers. True, the
6092 effect of these super-freezers was indeed horrible. Used in
6093 conjunction with molecular detonators (widely used by undersea
6094 archaeologists in the Amazon for dispersing crocs and
6095 piranhas), the super-freezers were capable of instantaneous
6096 temperature depression of one hundred and fifty degrees
6097 centigrade over a radius of twenty meters. Afterward, we spent
6098 much effort indoctrinating ourselves with the concept that we
6099 should keep in mind that in our times, literally every month,
6100 masses of new inventions appear with the most peaceful of
6101 applications, but with the most unexpected side effects. These
6102 characteristics are often such that lawbreaking in the area of
6103 weapons manufacture and stockpiling becomes meaningless. We
6104 became extremely cautious about new types of armament, employed
6105 by various extremists, and only a year later got caught by
6106 another twist, when we went looking for a mysterious apparatus
6107 with which poachers lured pterodactyls from the Uganda Preserve
6108 at a great distance. We found a clever do-it-yourself
6109 adaptation of the "Up-down" toy in combination with a fairly
6110 generally available medical device.
6111 And now we had caught slug -- a combination of a standard
6112 radio with a standard tubusoid and a standard chemical and very
6113 common plumbing-supplied hot water.
6114 To make a long story short, there would be no need to
6115 search for secret factories. We'd have to look for some very
6116 adroit and unprincipled speculators who sensed very delicately
6117 indeed that they found themselves in the Country of the
6118 Boob.... They'd be like trichinae in a ham. Five or six
6119 enterprising self-seekers. An innocent cottage somewhere in the
6120 suburbs. Just go to a department store, buy the vacuum tubusoid
6121 for fifty cents, peel off the plastic wrapping, and place in an
6122 elegant box with a glassite cover. And then sell it for fifty
6123 marks -- "only to you and only through friends." True, there
6124 was still the inventor. Probably he was not alone, and most
6125 certainly he was not the only one.... But probably they had not
6126 survived; for this was nothing like a lure for pterodactyls.
6127 Anyway, was the matter really one of speculators? Let them sell
6128 another forty slugs, or a hundred. Even in the City of Boobs,
6129 people had to figure out in the end what it was all about. And
6130 when that happened, slug would spread like wildfire.
6131 The first ones to see to that would be the moralists from
6132 the Joy of Living. They would be followed by Dr. Opir, who
6133 would sally forth and announce that according to scientific
6134 endings, slug was conducive to clarity of thought and was
6135 unsurpassed in the treatment of alcoholism and depression. In
6136 general, the future ideal was a vast trough filled with hot
6137 water. Then they would stop writing the word "slug" on the
6139 That's who should be taken by the throat, I thought, if
6140 anybody. The trouble is not the profiteers. The trouble is that
6141 there exists this Country of the Boob, this filthy
6142 misconstruction. It has taken the shivers under its wing and
6143 can't wait to legalize slug....
6144 There was a knock on the door. Oscar came into the study,
6145 and he was not alone. With him was Matia himself, stocky, gray,
6146 with dark glasses and thick cane, as always, looking like a
6147 veteran who has lost his sight. Oscar was smirking
6149 "Hello, Ivan," said Matia. "Meet your back-up, Oscar
6150 Pebblebridge, from the southwest section."
6151 We shook hands. What I have always disliked about our
6152 Security Council is the plethora of mossy traditions, and
6153 especially infuriating is the idiotic system of
6154 cross-investigation, due to which we are constantly tripping
6155 over each other's sleuthing, busting each other's mugs, and not
6156 uncommonly shooting each other with fair accuracy. I can hardly
6157 see that as serious work -- more like adolescents playing at
6158 detectives. Let them go soak their heads in a swamp.
6159 "I was going to take you in today," confided Oscar. "Never
6160 in my life have I seen such a suspicious character."
6161 Without saying a word, I took the pistol out of my pocket,
6162 unloaded it, and threw it in the desk drawer. Oscar followed my
6163 actions with approval. I said, addressing Matia, "I guess that
6164 the investigation would simply collapse, without getting
6165 started, had I known about Oscar. But I must inform you that I
6166 almost maimed him yesterday."
6167 "I read you right," said Oscar smugly.
6168 Grunting, Matia lowered himself into the armchair.
6169 "I can't ever remember a situation," he said, "when Ivan
6170 was pleased with everything. But conspiracy is the foundation
6171 of our business.... Take a chair and sit down, both of you.
6172 You, Oscar, had no right to be maimed, and you, Ivan, had no
6173 right to be arrested. That's how you should regard it. And what
6174 have you got here?" he said, taking off his dark glasses to
6175 look at the slugs, "Taking up radio as a hobby in between your
6176 work? Laudable, laudable!"
6177 It was evident that they didn't know a thing. Oscar was
6178 leafing through his notebook, where everything was encrypted in
6179 his own personal code, and was apparently preparing himself to
6180 make a report, while Matia scanned over the slugs with his
6181 fleshy nose, holding the glasses aloft in his hand. There was
6182 something symbolic in this spectacle.
6183 "And so, agent Zhilin is enriching his leisure with radio
6184 technology," continued Matia, restoring his glasses and leaning
6185 back in his chair. "He has lots of free time, he has switched
6186 to a four-hour day.... And bow do you stand on the question of
6187 the meaning of life, agent Zhilin? It appears you may have
6188 found it. I hope it won't be necessary to take you away like
6190 "It won't be required," I said. "I had not enough time to
6191 become addicted. Did Rimeyer tell you anything?"
6192 "But of course not," he said with vast sarcasm. "Why
6193 should he do that? He was ordered to find the drug, and he did,
6194 and he used it, and now he apparently considers his duty
6195 discharged. He became an addict himself, don't you see. He is
6196 silent. He is loaded with this brew up to his ears, and it's
6197 useless to talk to him! He raves that he has murdered you and
6198 constantly asks for his radio." Matia stopped short and gazed
6199 at the radios. "Strange," he said and looked at me. "However, I
6200 like orderliness. Oscar got here first, and he has certain
6201 deductions both about the goodies and the conduct of the
6202 operation. Let's begin with him."
6204 "About what operation?"
6205 "The devil knows," said Matia.
6206 "The raiding of the center. You haven't located the center
6208 The hunt is on, I thought, and said, "No, I didn't. A
6209 center I haven't latched on to. But --"
6210 "All in good order, in proper order," said Matia severely
6211 and banged the table with the flat of his hand. "Oscar, you may
6212 begin, and as for you, Ivan, you listen attentively and make
6213 your deductions. If you are still capable, that is."
6214 Oscar began. Obviously he was a good worker. He moved
6215 fast, energetically, and purposefully. True, Rimeyer had
6216 twisted him around his finger as well as he had me.
6217 Nevertheless, Oscar had been able to grasp much in spite of it.
6218 He understood that the sought-for "goodies" were known locally
6219 as "slug." Very rapidly he had grasped the connection between
6220 slug and Devon. He divined that neither the Fishers, nor the
6221 Perches, nor the Sorrowers had any relation to our problem. He
6222 had deduced with superb insight that in this town it was
6223 practically impossible to hide any secret. He had even been
6224 able to insinuate himself into the confidence of the Intels,
6225 and had established beyond any doubt that there were only two
6226 truly secret societies -- the Art Patrons and the Intels. Since
6227 the Art Patrons could be eliminated, that left only the
6229 "It was not contrary to the conviction which I had
6230 formed," said Oscar, "that the only people with access to
6231 laboratories and capable of conducting scientific or
6232 quasi-scientific research were the students and professors in
6233 the university. It's true that the factories in the city also
6234 have laboratories. There are only four of them, and I have
6235 investigated them all. These laboratories are stringently
6236 specialized and are loaded to the limit with ongoing work. As
6237 the factories work around the clock, there is no basis
6238 whatsoever to postulate that the industrial labs could become
6239 centers of slug manufacture. On the other hand, out of the
6240 seven university labs, two are obviously surrounded with an
6241 atmosphere of mystery. I was unable to determine what goes on
6242 in them, but I spotted three students, who, I believe, should
6244 I listened to him intently, amazed at how much he had been
6245 able to accomplish here, but it was already all too clear to me
6246 where his main error lay. I could see he was following a false
6247 trail, and alongside of that, there grew within me a vague
6248 feeling of an even more significant error, of a most important
6249 error, the error in the underlying premises of the Council.
6250 "I arrived at the visualization," he continued, "of a
6251 gangsterlike organization of the vertical type with rigorously
6252 separated functions in decentralized sections. The production
6253 section is involved in the manufacture and perfection of the
6254 slug.... I should inform you that slug, whatever it may be, is
6255 being perfected: I was able to establish that in the beginning.
6256 Devon was not employed at all.... Next, the marketing section
6257 is concerned with expanding the slug distribution, while the
6258 strong-arm section terrorizes the population and interdicts all
6259 debate on that topic.... The intimidation of the people..."
6260 Now I understood it all.
6261 "Just a minute, Oscar," I said. "Can you guarantee that in
6262 the entire city there are only two secret organizations?"
6263 "Yes," he said. "Only the Art Patrons and the Intels."
6264 "Please continue, Oscar," said Matia with displeasure. "I
6265 would ask you not to interrupt, Ivan."
6266 "Sorry," I said. Oscar continued to talk, but I was no
6267 longer listening. Something flared in my mind. The traditional
6268 initial model for all our undertakings, with its invariant
6269 axiom predicating the existence of a ramified organization of
6270 evildoers, had been shattered into dust, and I was only amazed
6271 that I had failed heretofore to recognize its inane complexity
6272 in the context of this simple-minded country. There were no
6273 secret shops guarded by gloomy persons with brass knuckles,
6274 there were no wary, unprincipled businessmen, there were no
6275 traveling salesmen with double-walled shirt collars stuffed
6276 with contraband, and it was quite for nothing that Oscar was
6277 drafting the elegant chart of squares and circles, connected by
6278 a confusion of lines, and inscribed with the words "center,"
6279 "staff," and numerous question marks. There was nothing to
6280 demolish and be and no one to send off to Baffin Land.... But
6281 there was modern industry involved in everyday trade, there
6282 were state stores where slugs were sold for fifty cents apiece,
6283 and there were -- but only in the beginning one or two
6284 individuals not devoid of inventiveness and dying of inactivity
6285 and thirsting for new sensations. And there was the
6286 medium-sized country where, once upon a time, abundance and
6287 affluence were the end to be attained, and they never did
6288 become the means to another end. And that was all that was
6290 Someone inserted a slug into a radio by mistake and lay
6291 down in the bath to relax and maybe listen to some good music
6292 or to hear the latest news -- and it started. The news oozed
6293 and remnants of phonors found their way into the garbage ducts,
6294 then someone figured out that slugs could be obtained not only
6295 from phonors, but could simply be bought in stores. Someone was
6296 inspired to use aromatic salts and someone employed Devon.
6297 People started to die in their baths from nervous exhaustion,
6298 and the statistical department of the Security Council
6299 submitted a top secret report to the Presidium. It became
6300 apparent at once that all such deaths occurred with people who
6301 had come here as tourists. And furthermore, that there were far
6302 more such deaths in this country than anywhere else on the
6303 planet. As so often happens, a false theory was constructed on
6304 well-verified facts, and we, one after another, well schooled
6305 in conspiracy, were sent here to uncover the secret gang of
6306 dealers in a new and unknown drug, and we arrived here and did
6307 stupid things. But, as always, no labor goes for naught, and if
6308 you must look for the guilty, then all were guilty, from the
6309 mayor to Rimeyer, and if so, then no one was guilty, and now we
6311 "Ivan," said Matia irritably, "are you asleep?"
6312 They were both looking at me. Oscar was extending me his
6313 notebook with the diagrams. I took the notebook and threw it on
6315 "Listen," I said. "Oscar has done wonders, of course, but
6316 we have come a cropper again! Oscar, you have seen such a lot,
6317 but you understood nothing. If there are any people in this
6318 land who hate slug, it's the Intels. The Intels are not
6319 gangsters, they are desperate men and patriots. They have but
6320 one aim -- to stir this bog. By any means. To give this city
6321 some kind of purpose, to force it away from the trough They are
6322 sacrificing themselves, do you understand? They invite fire
6323 upon themselves, they are attempting to arouse the town to come
6324 sort of common emotion, even if it has to be hatred. Can it be
6325 you haven't heard of the tear gas, the shooting up of the
6326 shivers? They are not making slug in the laboratories, they are
6327 building bombs and cooking tear gas ... and generally breaking
6328 the laws on weapons technology. They are preparing a putsch for
6329 the twenty-eighth, but as for slug -- here it is!"
6330 I shoved one at each of them, and simultaneously expounded
6331 everything I thought on the subject.
6332 At first, they listened to me in disbelief. Then they
6333 stared at the slugs, not taking their eyes off them until I'd
6334 finished, and when I did, they were quiet for quite a while.
6335 Matia held his slug as though it were a buzzing wasp. There was
6336 displeasure written on his face.
6337 "Vacuum tubusoid... Hmmm... In fact... and radios ...
6338 there is something to it."
6339 Matia stuck the slug in his shirt pocket and announced
6340 decisively, "There is nothing in it. That is, of course, I am
6341 very pleased with you, Ivan, since you have apparently found
6342 that which was needed, but your work is in the Council and not
6343 with the Commission of World Problems. They adore philosophy
6344 there, and haven't done a single useful thing to date. As for
6345 you, you have been working with us for ten years now, but you
6346 still haven't grasped the simple truth: if there is a crime,
6347 there must be a criminal."
6348 'That's not true," I said.
6349 "That is true!" said Matia. "Don't start a debate with me!
6350 You are eternally debating!... Be quiet, Oscar. It's my turn to
6351 talk. I am asking you, Ivan, what is the worth of your version?
6352 What do you propose to do? But be concrete, please! Be
6354 "Concretely..." I faltered.
6355 True enough, my version did not suit them.
6356 They probably didn't even consider it a version.
6357 For them it was just philosophizing. They were men, so to
6358 say, of resolute action, knights of immediate decisive
6359 measures., They let nothing slide. They cut through knots and
6360 demounted Damocles' swords. They made rapid decisions, and
6361 having made them, they no longer doubted. They didn't know how
6362 to be otherwise. That was their world-view -- and I was the
6363 only one to consider that their time had passed. Patience, I
6364 thought. I am going to need an awful lot of patience. Suddenly,
6365 I understood that life's logic was again ripping me away from
6366 my best comrades, and that now it would be especially hard for
6367 me, since the resolution of this argument would take a long
6368 time, a very long time.... They were both looking at me.
6369 "Concretely," I repeated. "Concretely I suggest a plan for
6370 the development and spread of a humanistic viewpoint in this
6372 Oscar grimaced with distaste, and Matia said biliously:
6373 "Nah! I am talking seriously."
6374 "So am I. What we need is not detectives, nor squads armed
6375 with machine pistols."
6376 "We need a decision!" said Matia, "not conversations, but
6378 'That's precisely what I am proposing -- a decision."
6380 "We have to save people," he said. "Souls we can save
6381 after we save the people.... Don't annoy me, Ivan!"
6382 "While you are restructuring world-views," said Oscar,
6383 "people will be dying or turning into idiots."
6384 I didn't want to argue, but said anyway, "As long as
6385 world-views are not restructured, people will be dying and
6386 turning into idiots, and no squads will help. Remember
6388 "Rimeyer forgot his duty," raged Matia.
6390 Matia slammed his mouth shut and, tearing off his glasses,
6391 was silent for a while, his eyes rotating angrily. He was,
6392 without a doubt, a man of iron; you could actually watch turn
6393 drive his rage inward. In a minute he was entirely calm and
6395 "Yes," he said. "It seems that I am forced to admit that
6396 intelligence as a social institution has regressed to the
6397 piteous end. Apparently we destroyed the last of the true
6398 operatives in the time of the last putsches. "Knife" --
6399 Dannziger; "Bamboo" -- Savada; "Doll" -- Grover; "Ram" --
6400 Boas... True, they were bought and they were sold, they had no
6401 country, they were scum, lumpens, but they worked! "Sirius" --
6402 Haram... worked for four intelligences and was a scoundrel. He
6403 was a filthy animal. But if he gave information, it was real
6404 information, clear, precise, and timely. I can recollect
6405 ordering him hung without the slightest pity, but when I look
6406 at my current co-workers, I can understand what a loss
6407 that was.... Granted, a man can fail in the end and become
6408 a drug addict, as "Bamboo" Savada did finally. But why write
6409 lying reports? Rather resign, excuse yourself, don't write any
6410 reports at all.... I arrive in this town in the profound
6411 conviction that I know it through and through, because I have
6412 had here for ten years an experienced, proved, resident agent.
6413 And suddenly I determine that I know precisely nothing. Every
6414 local kid knows who the Fishers are. But I don't know. I know
6415 only that the KVS Society which occupied itself with about the
6416 same things as the Fishers was disbanded and outlawed three
6417 years ago. I know this from the reports of the resident. But at
6418 the local police I am informed that the VAL Society was formed
6419 two years ago, which I did not learn from the resident's
6420 reports. I am employing a simplified example, since I really
6421 don't give a damn about the Fishers, but this becomes
6422 transformed into a general style of work. Reports are delayed,
6423 reports lie, reports misinform... in the end reports are simply
6424 invented. One man openly resigns from the Council and doesn't
6425 consider it incumbent upon him to so inform his superior. He
6426 has enough, you see; he had intentions to communicate but
6427 somehow couldn't find the time.... Another, instead of fighting
6428 the drug problem, becomes an addict himself.... And the third
6430 He nodded at me with regretful bitterness.
6431 "Understand me correctly, Ivan," he continued. "I am not
6432 opposed to philosophy. But philosophy is one thing and our work
6433 altogether another. Judge for yourself, Ivan. If there is no
6434 secret headquarters, if we are faced with a deluge of
6435 do-it-yourself enterprise, then why all the secretiveness? All
6436 this conspiratorial atmosphere? Why is slug enveloped in such
6437 mystery? I allow that Rimeyer is silent because of pangs of
6438 conscience in general and specifically on your account, Ivan.
6439 But the rest? Slug is not illegal; everyone knows about it and
6440 yet everyone keeps it a secret. Oscar, here, doesn't
6441 philosophize; he postulates that the inhabitants are simply
6442 terrorized. I can understand that. And what do you postulate,
6444 "In your pocket," I said, "there is a slug. Go in the
6445 bathroom. There's Devon on the shelf -- one tablet orally, four
6446 in the water. There's some whiskey in the medicine chest. Oscar
6447 and I will wait. And then you can tell us aloud, so we can
6448 hear, we your comrades in work and your underlings, about your
6449 sensations and experiences. And we -- better it should be Oscar
6450 -- should listen, but as for me, I think I'll leave."
6451 Matia put on his glasses and stared at me.
6452 "You are implying that I won't tell? You propose that I,
6453 too, will be derelict in my duty?"
6454 "What you will learn will have no relation whatsoever to
6455 your duty. That you will renege on subsequently. As did
6456 Rimeyer. Comrades, this is slug. It's a cute device, which
6457 awakens fantasy and directs it where it will, particularly
6458 where you yourself subconsciously -- and I mean subconsciously
6459 -- would like to direct it. The further you are removed from
6460 the animal, the more inoffensive would slug be, but the closer
6461 to the animal, the more you would be impelled to adhere to the
6462 conspiratorial way. The animals themselves are altogether
6463 silent. They just know how to press the lever."
6465 I explained about the rats to them.
6466 "Did you try it yourself?" asked Matia.
6469 "As you can see, I tend to silence."
6470 Matia sibilated for some time and then said, "Well, I am
6471 no nearer to the animal than you are. How do you put it in?"
6472 I loaded the radio and handed it to him. Oscar was
6473 following all this with interest.
6474 "God be with me," said Matia, "Where is your bath? I'll
6475 wash after my trip while I'm at it."
6476 He locked himself in, and we could hear him dropping
6478 "Strange affair," said Oscar.
6479 "It's really not an affair," I contradicted. "It's a piece
6480 of history, Oscar, and you would like to fit it into a file and
6481 tie it with a ribbon. But this is no gangster business. It
6482 should be obvious to a hedgehog, as Yurkovsky used to say."
6484 "Yurkovsky, Vladimir Sergeyevitch. There was such a
6485 renowned planetologist. I worked with him."
6486 "Aah," said Oscar, "By the way, on the plaza by the Hotel
6487 Olympic there is a monument to a Yurkovsky."
6488 "The very same man."
6489 "Really?" said Oscar. "On the other hand, it's quite
6490 possible. However, the monument was not put up because he was a
6491 renowned planetologist. It's simply that for the first time in
6492 the history of the city, he broke the electronic roulette bank.
6493 It was decided to immortalize such a feat."
6494 "I expected something of the sort," I murmured. I felt
6496 The shower began to hiss in the bathroom, and there was a
6497 frightful roar from Matia, At first, I decided that he turned
6498 on ice water instead of warm, but he kept yelling and then
6499 began to curse in the most horrendous terms. Oscar and I
6500 exchanged glances. He was generally calm, interpreting this as
6501 the typical action of slug, and his face exhibited a
6502 compassionate expression. The latch rattled wildly, the door
6503 flew open with a crash. Bare heels slapped in the bedroom, and
6504 a naked Matia rolled into the study.
6505 "Are you some kind of an idiot?" he bellowed at me. "What
6506 sort of filthy trick is this?"
6507 I went numb. Matia resembled a grotesque zebra. His
6508 well-fed body was covered with poison-green vertical stripes.
6509 He reared and stamped his feet, spraying emerald drops. When we
6510 regained our composure and investigated the site of the
6511 accident, we learned that the shower head had been stuffed with
6512 a sponge saturated with a green dye. I remembered Len's note
6513 and guessed that Vousi was the culprit. It took a long while to
6514 restore a normal atmosphere. Matia viewed the incident as a
6515 boorish joke and an inadmissible disregard of subordinate
6516 discipline and behavior. Oscar horse-laughed. I scrubbed Matia
6517 with a brush and explained. Then Matia announced that from now
6518 on he wouldn't trust anyone and would try out slug when he got
6519 home. He dressed and went into conference with Oscar on the
6520 plans for blockading the city.
6521 I was cleaning up in the bath and thinking that with this,
6522 my work in the Council was coming to an end, and another kind
6523 of work was beginning -- which I did not know how to begin. I
6524 would have liked to include myself in the blockade planning,
6525 not because I considered it necessary, but because it was so
6526 simple, so much more simple than to return to people their
6527 souls which had been devoured by affluence, and to teach each
6528 one to think of world problems in the same way as his own
6530 "Isolate this pus bag from the rest of the world, isolate
6531 it totally, that's the total of our philosophy," orated Matia.
6532 That was aimed at me. But perhaps not even me. For Matia was a
6533 brilliant mind. He understood too well that isolation was
6534 always a defense, but here we had to attack. But he knew how to
6535 advance only with squads, and this was embarrassing to him.
6536 To rescue. For how long would you need rescuing? When
6537 would you learn to rescue yourselves? Why were you eternally
6538 harkening to priests, fascists, demagogues, and imbecile Opirs?
6539 Why didn't you want to exert your brains? Why did you resist
6540 thinking so? Why couldn't you understand that the world is
6541 vast, complex, and fascinating? Why was everything simple and
6542 boring tc you? In what way did your mind differ from the mind
6543 of Rabelais, Swift, Lenin, Einstein, Makarenko, Hemingway, and
6544 Strogoff? Someday I would grow tired of all this. Someday when
6545 I had no more strength and conviction. For I was similar to
6546 you. But I wanted to help you, and you didn't want to help
6548 <i>Reg and Len came over after school, and Len said, "We
6549 have decided, Ivan. We will go to the Gobi Central." He had red
6550 fuzz on his lip and huge red hands, and I could see that it
6551 divas he who had thought up the Gobi trip, and quite recently
6552 -- not more than ten minutes ago. Reg, as usual, was silent,
6553 chewing on a blade of grass and placidly studying me with his
6554 calm gray eyes. He has become altogether a square, I thought,
6555 and said, "Wonderful book, isn't it?" "Yes, indeed," said Len.
6556 "We understood at once where we should go." Reg was quiet.
6557 "Heat and stench are suspended in the shadow of these hard
6558 laboring dragons," I said from memory. "They devour everything
6559 under them -- the ancient Mongolian prayer gate, the bones of a
6560 two-humped beast fallen in some sand storm..." "Yes," said Len,
6561 while Reg went on chewing his blade of grass. "Every time," I
6562 continued (now from Ichin-dagli), "that the sun arrives at a
6563 mathematically precise required position, a strange mirage
6564 blossoms out in the East -- of a strange city with white towers
6565 which no one has yet seen in reality. " "One should see that
6566 with his own eyes," said Len, and laughed. "Friend Len," I
6567 said, "it's too fascinating and therefore too simple. You will
6568 see that it's too simple yourself and it will become an
6569 unpleasant disappointment." No, I hadn't said it right. "Friend
6570 Len," I said, "what sort of a mirage is that? Here is one.
6571 Seven years ago, in your mother's house, I saw a truly
6572 marvelous mirage: both of you standing before me almost grown
6573 up..." No -- I was saying that for myself, not for them. It
6574 should be said differently. "Friend Len," I said, "seven years
6575 ago you explained to me that your people were accursed. We came
6576 here and removed the curse from you and Reg and from many other
6577 children who had no parents. And now it's your turn to remove,
6578 the curse, which..."
6579 It will be very difficult, but I'll explain it to them.
6580 One way or another, I'll get it across. We have known from
6581 childhood how to remove the curses on the barricades and on
6582 construction sites and in laboratories, and you will remove the
6583 last of the curses, you will be the future teachers and
6584 educators. In the last war -- the most bloodless and the most
6585 difficult for its soldiers.</i>
6586 Upstairs Vousi screeched and Len started to cry piteously.
6587 Oscar's voice boomed in the study. How well off he is, I
6588 thought. Simple: slug is bad, harmful, unnatural. Therefore, it
6589 must be destroyed, forbidden by law, and then you must watch
6590 closely that the law is strictly enforced. Only Matia is
6591 smarter than that, because he is older and more experienced.
6592 Matia can still be pulled over to my side. My word doesn't mean
6593 anything to him, but others will be found to whom he will
6594 listen.... How wonderful that I can now cry out to the whole
6595 world and be heard by millions of like-thinkers!
6596 And then I thought that I would not leave this place. I
6597 had been here only three days. It could not be that there was
6598 no one here who would be with us. No one who hated all this
6599 with a deadly hatred, who wanted to blast this dull sated world
6600 out of its stasis. Such people always existed and always will.
6601 Perhaps that bibliophile driver or that tall, harsh one of the
6602 Intels... and who knew how many more. They stumbled about as
6603 though they were blind. We would do everything in our power to
6604 help them so that they would not waste their anger on trifles.
6605 It was our place to be here now. And my place, too.
6606 What a labor lies ahead, I thought, what a task! For the
6607 time being, I didn't know where to begin in this Country of the
6608 Boob, caught unprepared in a flood of affluence, but I knew
6609 that I wouldn't leave here as long as the immigration laws
6610 permitted. And when they stopped permitting it, I would break