Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow & Adam Kirsch

Author:Saul Bellow & Adam Kirsch [Bellow, Saul & Kirsch, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literary, Classics, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780143105480
Google: mhx7MAEACAAJ
Amazon: 0140189424
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 2012-12-24T06:00:00+00:00

XIII

After this came tribal dances and routines that were strictly like vaudeville. An old woman wrestled with a dwarf, only the dwarf lost his temper and tried to hurt her, and she stopped and scolded. One of the amazons entered the field and picked up the tiny man; with a swinging stride she carried him away under her arm. Cheers and handclapping came from the grandstands. Next there was another performance of an unserious nature. Two guys swung at each other’s legs with whips, skipping into the air. Such Roman holiday highjinks were not reassuring to me. I was very nervous. I billowed with nervous feeling and a foreboding of coming abominations. Naturally I couldn’t ask Dahfu for a preview. He was breathing deeply and watched with impervious calm.

Finally I said, “In spite of all these operations, the sun is still shining, and there aren’t any clouds. I even doubt whether the humidity has increased, though it feels very close.”

The king answered me, “Your observation is true, to all appearance. I do not contest you, Mr. Henderson. Nevertheless, I have seen all expectation defied and rain come on days like this. Yes, precisely.”

I gave him a squinting, intense look. There was much meaning condensed into this, and I will not try to dilute it for you now. Maybe a certain amount of overweening crept in. But what it mostly expressed was, “Let us not kid each other, Your Royal H. Do you think it’s so easy to get what you want from Nature? Ha, ha! I never have got what I asked for.” Actually what I said was, “I would almost be willing to make you a bet, King.”

I didn’t expect the king to take me up so quickly on this. “Oh? Nice. Do you want to propose me a wager, Mr. Henderson?”

I found that my heart was hungry after provocation on this issue. I got involved. Something fierce. And naturally against reason. And I said, “Oh, sure, if you want to bet, I’ll bet.”

“I agree,” said the king, with a smiling look, but stubbornly, too.

“Why, King Dahfu, Prince Itelo said you were interested in science.”

“Did he tell you,” said the guy with evident pleasure, “did he say that I was in attendance at medical school?”

“No!”

“A true fact. I did two years of the course.”

“You didn’t! You don’t know how relevant that is, as a piece of information. But in that case, what sort of a bet are we making? You are just humoring me. You know, Your Highness, my wife Lily subscribes to the Scientific American, and so I am in on the rain problem. The technique of seeding the clouds with dry ice hasn’t worked out well. Some recent ideas are that, first of all, the rain comes from showers of dust which arrive from outer space. When that dust hits the atmosphere it does something. The other theory which appeals more to me is that the salt spray of the ocean, the sea foam in other words, is one of the main ingredients of rain.

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