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======================A Fleeting Wisp Of Gloryby Laura Resnick======================Copyright (c)1992 Laura ResnickFirst published in Alternate Kennedys, Tor Books, October 1992Fictionwise ContemporaryAlternate History---------------------------------NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the purchaser. If you did not purchase this ebook directly from Fictionwise.com then you are in violation of copyright law and are subject to severe fines. Please visit www.fictionwise.com to purchase a legal copy. Fictionwise.com offers a reward for information leading to the conviction of copyright violators of Fictionwise ebooks.---------------------------------Jackie is fascinated by old Jonah, and she can listen for hours to the stories he tells. Me, I can take or leave him, though I still tag along after dark when there's nothing else to do and it's not safe to go alone to his cave. Not safe for Jackie, I mean. She's just a kid, after all. We're pretty isolated in these mountains, but that doesn't mean we never see Marauders, and there's no telling what they might do. Especially to, you know, a _girl_.Jonah was named after a prophet who was swallowed by a whale. A whale is a big fish that breathes air. It's just a fairy tale, of course. I don't believe that anything like that ever existed, even before the Armageddon. Jonah insists that there were such creatures, though, and that they filled the seven seas with their songs before the waters boiled and the sky caught fire. He says they could get as big as the giants frozen in Rushmore's Rock. So Jonah -- the one in the story, I mean -- was swallowed by one of these things and lived to tell the tale, and then our Jonah was named after him.Jonah is the oldest person I've ever seen. His skin is so loose it hangs on him like rags, and it's as dun-colored as his tunic. His wife and children were killed by Marauders a long time before I was born, and he's too old and weak to work now. In a lot of places, he'd just be left to die now that he's no use to anyone; it's hard enough to find your own food, let alone extra food for some broken old man. But these mountains are better than most places, and there aren't so many of us to feed as there are down below. So we bring Jonah food and water, and he tells stories and sometimes fixes things that no one else knows how to. Not useful things, dumb things. We found a little box one time, and Jonah fixed it so that now it makes an ugly growling noise when you push a button. It has a special part that's supposed to go in your ear, but why bother? I don't like to listen to the growling. It makes me think of Night Devils, with their glowing eyes and melting flesh, even though I know that's just a fairytale, too.Jackie thinks the box is really interesting, and she believes that stuff about the whales. She mostly likes to go to Jonah's cave, though, to hear about Camelot. That's her favorite story, and I don't think I could count how many times I've heard it. It's my mother's favorite story, too, and she even believes it's all true. Since my father can't speak or hear, I'm not sure what he thinks about Camelot, or if he even knows the story. That's all there is in my family now -- me, my mother, and my father. I had two brothers once, but they caught the Sickness and died, one right after the other, blind, vomiting, and screaming. Sometimes I'm afraid Jackie will get the Sickness, but she says she's as strong as me and won't. She doesn't look that strong, though. She's sort of delicate, all blond and pale and skinny, with blue eyes that water under the hot yellow sky.I don't usually tell her that I worry about the Sickness killing her, or Marauders taking her, because she just gets huffy and tries to pretend that she's as tough as me, even though she's a girl. Anyhow, I'm a full year and a half older than Jackie, and I just know some things that she doesn't. I know that people die even when you don't want them to, and I know that the Sickness comes without warning and takes your mind away before anyone has a chance to say goodbye.I also know that Jonah's stories are just a lot of toxic waste."If you don't want to listen, then don't _come_," Jackie says as we approach Jonah's cave. The entrance is pretty well camouflaged. You've got to know right where it is, or you could stumble around the hill half the night.I shrug. "I got nothing else to do.""And be nice to Jonah," she adds, crawling between the branches that cover the mouth of the cave."I'm _always_ nice to him.""And don't look so bored when he talks," she whispers."Okay, okay." She can be really bossy sometimes.It doesn't smell too good in Jonah's cave. Odors of sweat and blood have been trapped in here without a good breeze for as long as the moon has been red. Sometimes I sit very close to Jackie, who smells of grass and wet bark and the wind, and I forget that I don't like this cave very much.Jonah has boiled a bunch of leaves again, and he makes us drink the brew, which he always says will stop our bowels being all yellow and runny. After we finish every last drop, he gives Jackie some more of the sweet-smelling salve he always wants her to put on her skin before going out in the sunshine. He tries to make me take some, too, and Jackie pokes me, but I don't want to go around smelling like that, so I refuse again. Jonah sets great store by these medicines, but most folks don't believe that there are secret colors in the sun that can kill you, though my mom always tells me to drink the brew in case you really can catch the Sickness from invisible spirits in the water.Jonah finally asks if there's anything else he can do for us, as if he doesn't know why we've come, and Jackie says, "Tell us the story, Jonah!" She bounces a little and claps her hands. She's still pretty young."Which story?" he asks slyly, stroking his beard and looking all innocent."Tell us about Camelot," she insists."You want to hear about Camelot?""Sure," I say. "We've only heard the story a hundred times.""Stop it, Bobby," Jackie hisses. She looks at him again and smiles, her teeth small and pretty straight. "Please tell us, Jonah."But Jonah is looking at me, his eyes hooded and strange. "Do you think you've heard the story too often, Bobby?""Well..." Now I'm embarrassed. He's just a lonely old man, and my mom will be mad if she hears I've been mean to him."Do you think you've heard it so often that you know every word?" Jonah continues."Yes." I roll my eyes at Jackie. I don't know why she wants to keep climbing up to this smelly old cave every few days to hear the same old story again and again. Trying to be nice, I say, "But you know a lot of good stories, Jonah. Maybe you could tell a different one tonight.""Do you think you could tell the story of Camelot as well as I can?" Jonah asks. "Without getting anything wrong?""I don't know." Who cares? "I guess so."He smiles and looks excited. "Then tell it.""Aw, come on, Jonah." He's punishing me for what I said before, I'm sure of it. "I don't want to. You tell it. Go on. I didn't mean what -- ""No," he says firmly. "I want to hear _you_ tell the story tonight. I want to see if you can.""Go on, Bobby," Jackie says. "You're so smart, _you_ tell the story tonight."I wish I'd let her come alone tonight. She _deserves_ to get carried off by Marauders. Her cheeks are dimpled as she scoots away and sits near Jonah. They watch me in smirking silence, waiting for me to begin the tale. I _hate_ this. It's hard to talk in front of a lot of people, and the two of them suddenly look like the whole clan. I clear my throat. I open my mouth, but my tongue is too dry to talk. I feel silly as I swallow and start over, wishing Jackie would look away for a minute. "Once upon a time, this land here, and all the land as far as the eye can see, east, west, north, and south, was part of a great kingdom." I stop, already stuck, not sure what comes next."That was before the Armageddon," Jonah says to help."That was before the Armageddon, before the air burned our lungs, the waters burned our flesh, and the earth opened up to swallow our dead.""Tell about the food," Jackie prompts. This is her favorite part."There was food for everyone in those days, and no one in this kingdom ever went hungry. There were juicy red meats, flaky, white fish, and sweet-tasting birds that were basted in butter and wine and... and...""Cooked so that the flesh fell off the bone and melted in your mouth," Jackie says, looking hungry all of a sudden."And there were a thousand kinds of fruit in as many different colors, with smooth shiny skins and firm, sweet flesh." Now I'm getting hungry, too, so I decide to get to the next part of the story. "But this kingdom needed a leader, and so a brave warrior came from the north, from the port of the hyannis, and with the strength of his sword Excalibur, he made himself the ruler of this land from sea to shining sea."I look to Jonah, and he nods to let me know I'm doing all right so far. "King Kennedy was young and handsome, and he took a beautiful woman to be his queen.""Her name was Jacqueline," Jackie interrupts. I've been expecting this. She always interrupts Jonah at this point."Jacqueline was the daughter of..." I'm not sure, and Jonah doesn't help me this time. "The daughter of Lot," I say at last, hoping I'm right, "and she came from the north, too. Her dowry was a round table, and when Kennedy saw it, he ... [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]