Short Fiction Complete by Walt Willis

Author:Walt Willis [Willis, Walt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN: IN WHICH JOPHAN LEARNS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE CITY

As he stood at the entrance to the great avenue, still transfixed with awe, a dapper, bespectacled young man came up to him. He eyed Jophan’s tattered garments somewhat askance, but spoke to him civilly enough.

“Good day,” he said. “Might I enquire your name?”

“My name is Jophan,” said Jophan humbly, “and I was on my way to Trufandom . . .”

“You need go no further,” said the young man. “Perhaps you would like me to show you around the city. My name is Dedwood,” he added proudly, “and I am one of the City Planners. I am a Serious Construction Engineer by profession.”

Taking Jophan’s arm, he led him along the street, pointing out one great building after another. Before they had reached the end of the avenue Jophan was, if possible, even more overcome with admiration, but he began to feel out of place in all this elegance with his dirty clothes and tarnished shield. As Dedwood was pointing out yet another imposing building he took the opportunity to give the shield a surreptitious rub with his handkerchief.

“This,” Dedwood was saying, “is the Federation Building—”

He broke off in alarm as a strangled sound came from his listening companion. In wiping his shield Jophan had caught a glimpse of the reflection of the building on its surface, and had been unable to suppress a cry of astonishment. Reflected in the shield was not the imposing edifice of the Federation Building, but a ramshackle affair, in visible danger of falling into the street. Seen in the mirror of the shield, the building was not even soundly constructed, but disfigured by cracks and faulty workmanship. Even so, Jophan would have been half inclined to dismiss the reflection as the result of a distortion on the shield’s surface, had not the thought suddenly occured to him that not once had he been allowed to see inside one of the buildings.

Before Dedwood could stop him, Jophan darted through the door of the Federation Building. As he had by now half suspected, it was not a building at all, but a mere facade. Although it reached high into the air, it was but a few inches thick and obviously unstable. Even as Jophan watched a little gust of wind produced several dangerous-looking cracks in the flimsy structure. At the splintering sound, two harassed Neofen appeared, pushing a tall scaffolding before them on wheels. Stopping close to the wall, they clambered up and hastily filled the cracks with cement. Then they pushed the scaffolding along to the next danger point, working more and more feverishly as the cracks seemed to grow in number more rapidly than they could be repaired.

Jophan tore his eyes away from this depressing sight, and went outside again. Dedwood was still standing on the sidewalk, but he now had an almost guilty expression on his face.

Jophan faced him accusingly. “What is the idea of all this?” he demanded brusquely, annoyed at having been taken in by such a senseless deception.

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.