Read Online Jim and the Flims by Rudy Rucker - Free Book Online Page B

one of those surfers. I’d already sensed some of this in your mind. Believe me, Jim, your eviction is but the smallest of our worries. When I join battle with this surfer and his blue sea lion of a yuel, we’ll—”
    â€œOh, can’t we stop talking crazy?” I implored. My emotions were spilling over. “You’ve never once said that you loved me, Weena. That’s what matters. That’s what I’m waiting for!”
    â€œI should love you. You have an admirable forthrightness and vim. But—”
    â€œLook,” I said with a weary sigh. “I’m going to bed. Is it safe to sleep next to you?”
    â€œIndeed.”
    â€œYou won’t implant jiva eggs?”
    â€œHave no fears in this regard,” said Weena cheerfully. “I’m quite finished with that task for now.”

7: Yuel

    T hat night I dreamed about sea lions barking. “ Ork ork ork !” Weena woke me at dawn, bending over me, whispering my name. Her brown hair was tousled, her face calm. My dream of sea lions was real. Outside every window I could see whiskered snouts. The house shook as the beasts rubbed against the walls, the air rang with their hoarse cries. The sky was gray, filled with morning fog.
    â€œThe yuel’s harem has accompanied him,” chattered Weena. “He knows your fear of sea lions. He’d like to drive you away from me before I’ve prepared you for your mission. That unfaithful Graf took advantage of me, I told him about the secret tunnel. And then that stupid farmwife who’s supposed to be guarding the tunnel took a bribe from the Graf. And somehow he smuggled through a yuel. It must have been hidden within his kessence body.”
    All of this was sheer gibberish to me. Droog was on the front porch, frantically scratching at the door. I opened the door to let him in. The blue sea lion was out there too, raised up on his flippers, glaring at me. An overexcited sea lion cow came wallowing around the corner of the house, her dark eyes fixed on the blue sea lion, whimpering her adoration, her body rippling with the effort of motion, her teeth prickly in her little mouth. God, sea lions were stupid. I slammed and locked the door. Outside, the creatures barked more furiously than before. An approaching siren wailed.
    â€œHurry and clothe yourself,” said Weena. She was dancing around, pulling on layers of clothes, and cramming her extra shoes into a shopping bag. “We’ll go to that green house and await further events,” she said.“I can’t readily kill a yuel with but one jiva.We have to wait for the others to hatch. You do recall our conversation of last night, no? Dress warmly. I believe you’ll be sleeping in that basement for some days.”
    â€œI don’t know if I can find the house,” I said, pulling on jeans, a red T-shirt, and a checked flannel shirt. “I went looking for it a few days ago, and—”
    â€œIn one manner or another you will find it, Jim. You’re the one who made the tunnel between the worlds.”
    â€œAll I did was open that door in the basement for you,” I said. “I didn’t make the tunnel.”
    â€œOh yes you did. With that strange tool of yours. You weakened an electrical particle so that my border snail could push through. The snail is the tunnel. And those filthy surf punks live in the rickety house that’s the snail’s shell.”
    Before I had any time to ponder this, the front door splintered and the blue bull sea lion came flopping in. Weena yelled sharply—and the creature’s flesh flickered and folded, reknotting itself. And now the yuel was a muscular beast on all fours—a hairless baboon with sharp, red snaggle teeth and his skin that same shade of Krishna blue. He had a knob near the end of his tail. He made a noise at me—a snarl? Or was he trying to talk?
    I rushed out the back door and Weena was with me,