Fortissimo_Backstage at the Opera With Sacred Monsters and Young Singers by William Murray

Author:William Murray [Murray, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sasquatch, Music, dreams, monster, nightmares
ISBN: 9781400053605
Goodreads: 48403
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Published: 2005-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

Nick looked at him. "Why?"

"I'm just wondering, that's all."

"Yeah, that's right" Nick said, taking a sip of beer.

"Do you want another lemon drop shot?"

"No, thanks. I'd better not get drunk before my friends show up," Nick said.

"I think you also said something about a lump on your hip, a lump that you just became aware of, right?"

Nick stared into the man's pale eyes and then at the shaggy, smoke-stained beard that formed a corona around his face. Where had this man been last week, Nick wondered.

"Yeah. It's nothing, though."

"But now it's starting to hurt? Or maybe tingle? Yes?" Mordechai said, lifting his glass and tilting a large mouthful of beer into his mouth.

"I think you need another shot," he said, motioning past Nick for Rob to bring two more. "I'm going to tell you something that you're going to find a little odd. The drink will help."

Nick stared at him and then swiveled on his stool to watch as Rob poured two more shots. He gave Rob a questioning look and rolled his eyes back toward Mordechai, and Rob smiled and rolled his eyes in response, indicating harmlessness. Nick turned back toward Mordechai and figured if the old man was buying, he was willing to drink and listen. He'd listened to strange people as part of the daily grind to dredge news stories up from the muck of ordinariness, and someone buying drinks was a bonus. Rob set the shots down and Mordechai began preparing the crook of his palm, indicating that Nick do the same. A moment later and Nick was tasting citrus and sugar.

"Do you believe that humans are the only sentient being on the planet?" Mordechai asked.

"Sentient or intelligent?" Nick asked.

"Sentient. Dolphins and whales and apes are intelligent, to some degree or another, but sentient they're not," Mordechai said.

"Well, I'm sure some people think differently."

"Just about dolphins and whales and sign-language gorillas," Mordechai said. "Doesn't prove anything, though. They're still not sentient."

"Well, then, I'll say yes, humans are the only sentient beings on the planet."

"Why?"

"Well, if there was another sentient species on the planet, I think they'd have figured out how to deal with us so we didn't eat them or ruin their habitat," Nick said, taking a last drag on his cigarette and stubbing it out. He motioned to Rob for another draft. "I also imagine they would have developed some sort of organized civilization, one we humans would have been long-since aware of."

Mordechai nodded thoughtfully and tugged at his beard while puffing on his cheroot. "What if there was another sentient being and it had figured out how to communicate with us so we didn't destroy it or ruin its habitat?"

"What if?" Nick asked back.

"Well, where would it live, do you think?"

Nick picked up his new beer and tipped the foamy head toward his mouth, earning a moustache he wiped away. "Somewhere we aren't, I suppose. Antarctica, perhaps, and remote areas like the Himalayas, I suppose. Perhaps deep under the sea."

"Still, we'd have probably found them by now, right?" Mordechai asked.

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