Read Online I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury - Free Book Online Page B

sea.
    The heat of his body, the water taking fire from his warmth, and the frosted coral brain, the jeweled dusts, the salted mists feeding on his hot breath from his open lips.
    The waves moved the soft and changing thoughts into the shallows which were tepid as bath waters from the two o’clock sun.
    He mustn’t go away. If he goes now, he’ll not return .
    Now . The cold coral brain drifted, drifted. Now . Calling across the hot spaces of windless air in the early afternoon. Come down to the water. Now , said the music. Now .
    The woman in the black bathing suit twisted the radio dial.
    â€œAttention!” cried the radio. “Now, today, you can buy a new car at—”
    â€œJesus!” The man reached over and tuned the scream down. “Must you have it so loud!”
    â€œI like it loud,” said the woman in the black bathing suit, looking over her shoulder at the sea.
    It was three o’clock. The sky was all sun.
    Sweating, he stood up. “I’m going in,” he said.
    â€œGet me a hot dog first?” she said.
    â€œCan’t you wait until I come out?”
    â€œPlease.” She pouted. “ Now .”
    â€œEverything on it?”
    â€œYes, and bring three of them.”
    â€œThree? God, what an appetite!” He ran off to the small café.
    She waited until he was gone. Then she turned the radio off. She lay listening a long time. She heard nothing. She looked at the water until the glints and shatters of sun stabbed through her eyes like needles.
    The sea had quieted. There was only a faint, far and fine net of ripples giving off sunlight in infinite repetition. She squinted again and again at the water, scowling.
    He bounded back. “Damn, but the sand’s hot; burns my feet off!” He flung himself on the blanket. “Eat ’em up!”
    She took the three hot dogs and fed quietly on one of them. When she finished it, she handed him the remaining two. “Here, you finish them. My eyes are bigger than my stomach.”
    He swallowed the hot dogs in silence. “Next time,” he said, finishing, “don’t order more than you can use. Helluva waste.”
    â€œHere,” she said, unscrewing a thermos, “you must be thirsty. Finish our lemonade.”
    â€œThanks.” He drank. Then he slapped his hands together and said, “Well, I’ll go jump in the water now.” He looked anxiously at the bright sea.
    â€œJust one more thing,” she said, just remembering it. “Will you buy me a bottle of suntan oil? I’m all out.”
    â€œHaven’t you some in your purse?”
    â€œI used it all.”
    â€œI wish you’d told me when I was up there buying the hot dogs,” he said. “But, okay.” He ran back, loping steadily.
    When he was gone, she took the suntan bottle from her purse, half full, unscrewed the cap, and poured the liquid into the sand, covering it over surreptitiously, looking out at the sea, and smiling. She rose then and went down to the edge of the sea and looked out, searching the innumerable small and insignificant waves.
    You can’t have him, she thought. Whoever or whatever you are, he’s mine, and you can’t have him. I don’t know what’s going on; I don’t know anything, really. All I know is we’re going on a train tonight at seven. And we won’t be here tomorrow. So you can just stay here and wait, ocean, sea, or whatever it is that’s wrong here today.
    Do your damnedest; you’re no match for me, she thought. She picked up a stone and threw it at the sea.
    â€œThere!” she cried. “You.”
    He was standing beside her.
    â€œOh?” She jumped back.
    â€œHey, what gives? You standing here, muttering?”
    â€œWas I?” She was surprised at herself. “Where’s the suntan oil? Will you put it on my back?”
    He poured a yellow twine of oil and massaged it onto her golden back.