Gray Matters by William Hjortsberg

Author:William Hjortsberg [Hjortsberg, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi
ISBN: 9781453246603
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2012-03-24T13:00:00+00:00

5. Larva

WITH POWER BACK TO normal in the subdistrict and the period of emergency operations at an end, many Level I residents find they are no longer satisfied with life as it was. The possibility of actual danger has increased their expectations and the prospect of endless anticipatory days at the scanner appalls even the most dedicated viewer. For the first time in centuries, the comic clumsiness of that perennial favorite, the Amco-pak series, fails to draw an appreciable audience.

As the ennui spreads, so does the legend of Obu Itubi. The official report of a malfunctioning Mark X is disregarded by all but the most gullible in the System. Those who scanned the flight are besieged with thousands of requests for details. One scanner witness has become famous because he thought to make a memo file of the battle between the maintenance vans. Copies are circulated throughout the subdistrict via communicator. Print quality is a good indication of one’s social standing; each retransmission blurs the image. Those without status must be satisfied with grainy files resembling twentieth-century color TV reception. There is a certain irony in that many of these same residents spent much of their time on their backsides guzzling beer in front of the flickering tube back in the days when there still were backsides and beer, and gullets to guzzle it with.

The beach is less than a hundred meters long, a pink parabola of coral sand protected at either end by jagged rock walls. Black and moon-pocked with sharp-edged craters where Triassic gas bubbles burst on the surface of a molten river, the violent contorted shapes threaten the tranquility of the water and the palm-shaded carpet of deep pangola grass above the beach.

Vera lives in a billowing tent made from the parachute the mysterious Mr. Quarrels left behind. She has a splendid view of the sea and, off to one side, a waterfall streams from the rocks into a deep crystal pool overgrown with lime trees and sugar apple. There is an abundance of other fruit within a few kilometers of the tent. Vera gathers mangoes, guavas, bananas, soursop, avocados, and papayas in the lush, green forest.

For whatever else she requires, Vera makes frequent trips back to the house, raiding the pantry and the wine cellar. She takes what she can carry, piling the patient Chi-Chi like a peddler’s nag. After the first week, she has supplied her secluded cove with the comforts of a sultan. Layers of Oriental rugs cover the tent floor; piles of silken cushions provide a bed; her tigerskin guards the door. There are mirrors, bowls and silver candelabra, chests of jewels and clothing. Chinese scrolls and woven tapestries hang in place of walls. The air is fragrant with sandalwood. Quarrels will have no trouble finding her; the bold orange-and-white stripes of his parachute are clearly visible through the shielding trees. Inside, Vera waits like a perfumed houri for the moment of his inevitable return.

With each passing day the river’s changes grow more subtle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.