Herovit's World by Barry N. Malzberg

Author:Barry N. Malzberg
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Sci-Fi
ISBN: 9780575102323
Publisher: SF Gateway
Published: 2012-10-29T07:00:00+00:00

17

Poland speeds jauntily through the West Eighties, moving easily, reflecting meanwhile on matters of some profundity. He has been trained for years to cultivate this particular sense of balance: vigorous physical activity on the outside, calmly contemplative thoughts inside, the one giving no indication of the other. That was the only way you could survive, in this lousy world or out of it. Never let the bastards know where you stand.

Behind are Janice, the baby, the novel in the typewriter—still just fifty-one pages worth, but give him time. All in its moment; he will deal with the novel and he will deal with Janice too, come to grips with them and solve everything. (Janice is the easy one: a nasty, petulant state caused largely by sexual deprivation, but give her a couple of fucks like she used to have and we’ll see her come around. Nothing serious there. As far as the baby, it looks like excessive gas—colic they called it; he will call the pediatrician later on, give the diagnosis, and get some effective medicine.) All in due course. First things first, however. Best to come to grips with his own life and circumstances, the wreckage he has inherited from Herovit.

It is good: good to be physical, to walk briskly, jauntily, through the West Eighties, heading south on Amsterdam and putting all the pieces together in his mind while enjoying the fragrant if muddled air of upper Manhattan. Better by far than staying in that drab little apartment, which in so many ways adds to the depression. Move out of there soon. Try answering some classifieds and even put a Wanted To Rent in the paper. Maybe Borough Park. He has heard good things about Borough Park.

Kirk inhales larger quantities of rich Manhattan air, enjoying the pollutants which, inert bodies all, seem to revive within his lungs and start reaching enthusiastically for new territory. Good for them—in the long run they may be dangerous, but now they only provide a liveliness and a sense of disconnection which broadens his mind, to say nothing of the enlarged perspective also granted. For too long his predecessor has dwelt in narrow spaces. Now it is time to deal with life frontally. Vigor is not only for the Survey Team, it is where you find it. He will remake his life.

“Watch it, you son of a bitch,” he says, as a bearded Manhattan-type taxi driver cuts a corner with ferocious speed, almost toppling him. “You want to get your teeth smacked in?” The car stops, passengerless. Oh well, it is important to deal with all problems as they arise; what destroyed Herovit was the accumulation of difficulties that could easily have been solved one by one as they emerged. Do not add to them.

The driver emerges from the cab, limping but furious. Ready for combat this one, beard or no the viciousness and limited intelligence of the New York driver seem to have been clawed into his features with a knife, and he is already bellowing at Poland as he advances upon him.

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