Read Online The Visitor by Boris TZAPRENKO - Free Book Online Page A

he had the idea of focusing all his efforts on only one of these curious flat branches. Under the first shock, it gave a cracking sound and vibrated, but didn’t break. His shoulder protested by sending a neuralgic signal, but he refused to pay any attention to it. He imagined that Mahisa’s loving eyes were laid upon him and he didn’t want to disappoint her. Taking care to aim for the same point of impact, he raised the stone well up again and accompanied it in its fall for it to gain even more speed. This time the shock was terrible and the floor cracked significantly, but the stone bounced back and he fell onto his right foot. A cry of pain escaped him. He massaged his toes shouting insults to the flat branch and noticed that this time, it was severely damaged. As eager for revenge as for defeating it to be able to escape, he gave it a third furious blow that was fatal. It broke with a sharp crack that flattered his ego and satisfied his need to give punishment. The board, which for him was a strange flat branch, had failed near a bar. He raised it and rotated it several times in both directions, putting in such effort that it ended up broken at the other side of the cage. A strip of land, showing a few tufts of grass that had yellowed somewhat due to lack of light, appeared about 30 centimeters below the floor. He felt an indescribable pleasure slipping in his two feet to trample it. Because, wasn’t it already a small victory. Hadn’t he done what the lightning-slayer wanted to deny him?
    Mahisa! he screamed inside himself, Look! I know how to overcome lightning-slayers!  
    This moment of intoxication fading fairly quickly, he had to admit that, all the same, he wasn’t free yet. All this work had taken some time. It was getting to be night and he realized that he was thirsty… and even a little hungry. But the abuse he had imposed upon the floor had rocked the water vessel so much that it was almost empty. He drank down greedily what was left, swallowed a banana and decided to get back to work.
    From time to time, the smell and the indistinct plaintive sounds of fellow bovs reached him. He then listened and sniffed the air for a few seconds, then ignored it.
    A red spot appeared on his shoulder dressing; he noticed it, but didn’t care. It was now important to break a second flat branch to increase the width of the opening in order to completely slip in. It was with admirable zeal that he began. In less than ten minutes, a second board gave way under commendable effort. He threw them outside the cage in two enraged gestures, as if he had wanted them to understand the full contempt that they instilled. Moonlight, the sole reigning light, illuminated his victorious expression.
    He lied down on the earth inside the opening and tried to pass under the bars. But the gap not being high enough, even his head failed to pass. About ten centimeters were missing. Fortunately, the rain had the good sense to fall the previous night which made it relatively easy to dig the earth. Which he began to do so with greater alacrity since freedom felt close at hand! But as good as was his will, it still took him dozens of minutes, because he was using his hands to do it. The idea of using the water vessel, now empty, unfortunately didn’t come to mind. Not that he was lacking in intelligence, but he had never seen anything like it used as a digging tool. Even among the most brilliant species, spontaneous inventions by individuals are extremely rare; in addition, exceptional circumstances are often needed to be put on the right track. Inventions or discoveries are the convergence of an exceptional intelligence and a great deal of luck. Like Etos and his family, everything we do, every day, for better or for worse, is the result of our education, or at best some modest variations of what we learned.
    With aching hands, dirt under his nails and fraying his fingers’ skin, he managed to sufficiently enlarge the passage. When he