City, Sister, Silver, page 28
How magnificent! cried the first of us.
How banal! cried the next of us.
Both! cried the last of us.
And then we gave Dolphin a round of applause, he was totally hoarse.
12
HELENA’S NEW CONDITION. THE WELL AND WHAT’S NOT IN IT. BOHLER’S NUMBERS. “LATER.”
We went down to the forge and tossed our silver ornaments into the fire, our tribe was finished. I’m keepin my eagle, Bohler said, he’s all anyone would take from me … nothing else is worth it. I kept my Black Madonna. Everyone kept their one strong thing, the rest ended up in the furnace. Whoever felt the need trimmed his mane. Our hair twisted in the flames, probably crackled, we couldn’t hear it. I seized the opportunity to cut my nails. When we came out of the forge, Helena was in the courtyard.
Where’s David?
That’s what we were about to ask you.
She gasped.
You let him leave …
We explained what happened.
I gotta go after him, she said. Maybe he went home. To them. The Losíns.
That hadn’t occurred to us. Tell me the address.
It also never occurred to us, though, to ask what village, what mountains, our brother was from.
It’s urgent … said Helena.
Well, maybe come summer … some mountains, Bohler said hesitantly.
By summer he’ll be born already. David and I are having a child, said Helena.
Neither proud nor alarmed, she was just informing us.
So he doesn’t know? I asked.
That guy doesn’t know anything right now, said Micka.
Bohler stepped on his foot. You oughta find him, he told Helena, but maybe later … an don’t just stand there, go tell Lady Laos goodbye, we’re wrappin things up here … aren’t you goin home?
Home. Hah. Said Helena. With this thing, she touched her cheek. The Elixir, oddly enough, hadn’t helped or hurt, either way.
Helena honey … Bohler went on … get some plastic whatcha-macallit, go away … we’ve got a Zone waitin for us, you can’t be here if you’re expecting, you know that. You gotta go right now. The baby might get hurt.
There was nothing we could do to help. We had to stay and wait for Rudolf, finish things up with the Zone. We watched our pseudodroogina leave, alone and empty-handed, the same way she had come to us. Carrying the new life inside her away, far from the Zone, I hoped. Wait up, Bohler ran after her, need any cash, you’re goin to the Laosters’, right? You are, aren’t cha?
I don’t need anything, she shoved him out of her way.
Helena, hey, so later! I shouted.
Later, said Micka.
Yeah, take care. Later.
She knew that word of parting, she knew what it was about.
She walked out of the building and went away.
We stood around the courtyard, smoking and waiting for Rudolf. Talk about a comedown, huh? Sharky said hoarsely. You can say that again, Micka replied. Got your ticket yet? Yep. Said Sharky. Hey, Potok, where’re you goin?
I figure I’ll stay here a while. There’s a girl I need to find.
You were sayin you found a sister, Sharky walked over to me. What’s she look like?
Hey, that’s my sis you’re talkin about.
What’s she look like, for Chrissake? What’s up? I’m goin away an I wanna know about you guys, Sharky said.
I described her. Knowingly I spoke of her relatively slight yet firm figure. In plain terms I referred to her hips in stride. And I said all sorts of things about her gorgeous face with its squarely prominent cheekbones. About her paleness, indicating a soul in struggle. I made a comment or two also about her fluttering lashes, nor did I leave out the occasional flashes of green. I spoke of her tender breasts, neither frighteningly huge nor uselessly tiny, and also of her back, I could almost feel my fingertips, one by one, brushing over the tender skin … I talked about the vertigo of the moment when my sister touches my rib and it hardens back into ice … I babbled on like a soldier, bubbling over with warmth … my buddies clustered around … that stuff alone’s gotta help fight the Zones, said Bohler, touched. I … said Sharky, I think I might know her … a good friend of mine on the Masaryk kibbutz … a sabra … Cruel Micka’s eyes were shut. I strutted around the yard like a peacock. She’s graceful! Once in a while, probably … cruel as a cat, but not at heart. She’s mine! No, hers, no, whosever she wants to be!
And then we heard the signal. It was Rudolf. We opened the gate and a car drove into the yard. It stopped by the stairs leading down to the cellar. Rudolf climbed out, collected his checks, and said: Now watch yourselves, an don’t let anything surprise you. An don’t talk if you can help it. Just the four a you here?
Yep.
Good. They know you. Nobody else’s got any business bein here. A pair of men in black stepped out of the car and walked around to the trunk. What cha draggin along the black sheriffs for, Rudolf? I teased. He just laughed. Standing there, scrawny and four-eyed, he looked like a little boy, but I knew he was far from it.
I told you not to be surprised. Those aren’t sheriffs. They come with the skirvolya.
The who?
The medium.
The pair opened the trunk and lifted out a buggy with a canvas over the top. It was about the size of a baby carriage. They pushed it past us to the cellar entrance. I took a look at them and felt queasy. I noticed Bohler was sweating. Both of these guys looked exactly the same. They must’ve been twins. They even moved the same way. Their skin, or whatever it was, was a rubbery grayish-yellow. Their eyes gauged us carefully, unblinkingly. Each gripped the handle with his left hand, in unison. It occurred to me maybe they were machines. The carriage squeaked as it rolled by, something was moving inside it.
I glanced over at Bohler. We didn’t like the looks of it.
Trust me, said Rudolf. If anyone or anything … he chuckled … can lick the Zone, it’s the skirvolya.
The two robots, or whatever they were, lifted the carriage gently down the stairs. We walked behind them. Holding candles. There’s gonna be more than enough light in a minute, Rudolf grinned. We stepped into the darkness. The carriage gave off a glow. Like the color running out of an impaled sun, sprang to my mind. The two men pushed the carriage up to the well’s edge, which in the peculiar light looked like the mouth of a crater, and stepped back.
I fixed my eyes on the winch. That old wooden structure, iron-plated and grooved with age, seemed like something familiar. Something from the human world. I heard the murmur of churning water. The water’s surface sparkled darkly, like a wrapping over the depths, rippling with waves. I hadn’t seen that before. The water was expecting them. The murmuring seemed to fill the cellar as far as I could see. Even the vault above our heads. I’m hearin the Zone breathe, I thought with a shudder. The water was still rippling. As we stood behind the carriage, someone, I guess Bohler, began softly praying, but Rudolf shouted him down. Be quiet, everyone, nothin’s gonna happen to you.
It was like the water was moving inside itself, and then in the depths I saw light spilling out and making its way up, climbing to the surface. The two men pulled the canvas off the carriage and I saw the Head. It was freakishly large … the circus, I thought … big and bald, with ears like funnels sticking out. The Head was black and sat upright atop its slender neck. I only saw the creature from behind. That was enough. Some eyes it’s better not to look into. So that’s a skirvolya … I thought … the ancient Slavic forest creature … they still exist then … standing a few meters in back of the Head, I saw two hands rise from the carriage, the long, powerful hands of a fully grown person. They were bare and ended in claws, thick claws, that sparkled in the greenish light exploding noiselessly up through the water, illuminating us in its glow, the water began to boil, but there was a chill coming off of it, maybe ground streams churning up from below … I looked at my pseudodroogs’ faces, I’d say like me they were trying not to have too many feelings or opinions about what was going on.
We wanted to believe the Head’s power was on our side … Rudolf was smiling haughtily, that reassured me, he was human, so if there was any threat of danger … so what, I said to myself, maybe this power’s too strong for me to escape anyway … the long bare arms went back into the carriage, and then the hands were holding an object, pouring something into the well, a liquid … there was a hissing in the well and the light was right beneath the surface, ready to punch through the lid, break out … then the long arms’ hands were holding an idol, might’ve been made of wood, and flinging it into the well with all their might, I caught a glance of the figurine, it resembled the pair standing by the carriage, motionless, as if switched off.
I just shifted my weight back and forth, wiggling my toes, a habit of mine. Then the clawed hands were holding a book, they opened it up and shred it to pieces, the bits of paper falling into the water.
The water was like the plasma of a thousand bodies lumped together, grasping at the shreds, waves spraying and splashing around, snatching the paper in flight. As the book’s shreds hit the surface, the water closed over them, sucking them in like a huge mouth. The light in the well was energy, I guess, the surface sealed it in like a crust, but the light forced its way up from the depths, trying to break through the wrapper … just beneath the surface it condensed, first pale, then the color of runny silver, it probably would’ve blinded us but for the darkness of the water.
Then the Head poked up again and the creature began to sing … we looked at each other, amazed … the voice was so strong and beautiful, for a moment I doubted whether it really came from the Head, but it did.
The song went straight into the well, you could see it, or sense it, penetrating the surface and disappearing … the water was boiling and now the air was hot, the song bounced off the walls and the vault and tumbled down around our heads. The water in the well squirmed as one body.
I memorized the words to the song:
Holy pools contain mere water.
I know, I have bathed in them.
Gods carved from wood and ivory give no reply.
I know, I have sorely begged them.
Holy books contain naught but words.
I know, I have looked in them.
Kabir speaks only of what he has lived.
What you have not lived is not truth.
The water boiled over and spilled across the edge of the well. I leaped out of the way, but suddenly it turned to mist, and rising out of the seething water I saw … a serpent’s spine, a monster’s veiny tentacle, and up from the depths in a silvery foam climbed two lights glowing like bloody targets, the serpent’s head. In the blink of an eye it shot out of the well and the giant body was wriggling high above our heads, like it had gone right through the vault, like the vault had never been there at all, its spotted hide glistening with scars and sprinkled with warts the size of mushrooms, some of its scales were shiny, others like deep festering wounds, and the sound of hissing filled our ears … lifting my head I saw the serpent’s maw, its eyes no longer glowing but blind, covered with skin, flaps of skin … water sprayed everywhere, but not a drop landed on any of us, maybe we were still in the power of the song, and then the serpent disappeared.
I don’t remember whether back into the well or if I just stopped seeing it. Nor did I hear the murmuring water, the breathing of the Zone, anymore.
And suddenly a cat was perched on the rim of the well, stretching and meowing, it hopped down, followed by a dog, then a squirrel darted past, and other animals too came trodding across the surface, one little doggie leaped up on the railing, scratching furiously behind his ear … the lost dogs were back, along with their fleas, and then all at once a girl came striding across the water, and another one after her, holding her hand …
Don’t move yet, fools! Rudolf screamed. The Head had dropped out of sight and the two men were fastening the canvas over the carriage.
Doctor Hradil’s daughters clambered over the railing: Hi there, Uncle … said one of them, are Mom an Dad around? I took her hand as she hopped down, it was cold, she leaned on me a little … Hi there, she said again … her eyes were chilly as icicles and shone with a silver light, she touched me … What was it like? I asked. Different, the sixteen-year-old replied. Then I heard … shuffling across the water toward us … it’s Granny Macešková, Bohler shouted, hastening to her aid. Yes indeed, sonnies, it’s me, I’m back. An I brought this little fellow here. Anyone else in there? said Micka. No, not anymore, said one of the sisters. It was just us, the other one added.
We stood there without saying a word, cats and dogs racing out of the cellar. I was glad they were back, but I felt extremely tired. The little boy’s eyes shone silver too. Are Mom an Dad around? he asked. I’ll be damned, Micka whispered to me, it’s Kučera’s kid.
Hradil’s daughters seemed to know. About the little guy’s parents. You can come with us, Jožka, you’re our little brother now. We’ve got lotsa little bros you can play with. The boy giggled happily and took one of them by the hand. I’m goin home, sonnyboys, said Granny Macešková. We were too surprised by the whole thing to ask any questions. The water had taken these people away and given them back again. We knew the Zone was done for.
Bohler and Lady Laos were headed for the Rock. Micka wanted to poke around town and try some other byznys, Sharky had a plane ticket in his pocket. I couldn’t wait to go after my sister … and David … David had disappeared.
We weren’t up to asking any of them what had happened. That was their business. And besides, we were kind of embarrassed that a Zone had popped up on our territory. The main thing was, it was behind us now. It didn’t matter that we’d lost all our cash. Looking back I realize it was all the same to us. We were of the opinion that only fools and bad people don’t clean up after themselves.
Rudolf was waiting out in the yard. The two beings sat in the car.
Hey, Rudolf, said Micka. We wanna thank that … skirvolya. An you too.
Forget it, said Rudolf. The ducats’ll do the thankin for you.
It’s great, I said, that skirvolyas’re still around.
Hah-hah, laughed Rudolf, still around … that’s a good one. You guys just dreamed the whole thing.
Oh sure! I said.
Yeah, suckers, said Rudolf, I had you guys under heavy hypnosis.
Do you mean to say, said Bohler, that those checks’re real?
Rudolf stuck his hand in his pocket. Yep, they’re real.
Enough fun an games, said Micka. Thanks anyway. To the Ministry as well.
I’m not there anymore, said Rudolf. Now I’m in the private sector. An, Potok, I’ll be seein you tomorrow night at Galactic. Got some news for ya. You’re stayin in town, right?
Yeah.
I know. All right, boys, take it easy. An if I was you I’d let those people go. Nobody knows what the Zones do to em. Those girls’re beauties an all, but still.
Thanks for the advice, we can handle it from here, said Sharky. Take it easy.
Who wrote those words the skirvolya cleared it out with? Bohler inquired.
Milosz, Rudolf instructed us.
Is that someone from the Ministry? I asked.
Nope, said Rudolf. Or actually, I donno. Some Polish guy.
Aha, I said. Cool words. An that snake! Man, you coulda gone sleddin on those scales!
No, you couldn’t’ve, Rudolf said. Well, you guys work it out somehow …
Aright, later! He climbed back into the car. I tried to get a glimpse of the carriage, but all I could see was the necks of those two men in black. Sitting there like they were carved out of wood.
The girls had gone off to find their folks, they knew about the autopsy lab. We didn’t ask how. They took the boy with em, Micka informed us. Vasil said Macešková went back to her flat. An he wants to know if he can stay when we leave. I told him no problem, cool?
Yeah, said somebody.
So … friends, said Bohler … I reckon Lady Laos is packed by now … we’re drivin out to the Rock in the morning, an anytime you want … the door’s open an the Water’s poured … my little lady’s gonna miss you guys too …
That was obvious to me. Ahem, I said. I’ll be happy to make a trip out sometime, Bohler buddy, check in on you an the Gobs. But I’m gonna stick around here a while still. Or catch me over at my place on Gasworks. An how bout you two, I turned to my pseudodroogs.
I’m takin off nach Israel, you knew that, said Sharky. Joinin the army.
I got a little somethin in the works, said Micka. An I think it’s gonna start takin off. An if any a you should happen to get the urge for some byznys … I’ll be leavin my info at the usual spots. I’m sorry bout David.
You guys know, said Bohler, I don’t bother much with quotes. But we’ve gotten to be a pretty disgusting an coldhearted buncha wrecks, including yours truly, an we’ve got all kindsa stuff under our nails. Least of all the Sewer. So I think it’d only be right to say a prayer for David. Things aren’t lookin so good, but there’s always hope. When you were tellin us your dreams, Sharky, specially that one about the tenth lost tribe of Israelites, I thought of a quote from old Isaiah. The numbers’re 40 an 31, in case anyone’s interested. I wouldn’t want to blaspheme unnecessarily, especially after what we’ve been through together … well, I’ll take my chances … listen up:
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
