Read Online Zen City by Eliot Fintushel - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Eliot Fintushel
Ads: Link
on the spool in red ink. So No Mind had a crystal set, his own secret crystal set. Rinzai put the plug in his ear and grounded the wire on a water pipe.
“Ouch!” Virya took the wire into her mouth. She let Rinzai twine it around one incisor.
Suds felt: the Voice filled Rinzai’s mind.
“You will not have to wear this receiver again.”
Rinzai’s brain felt like iron molecules, magnetized, aligning to the Voice, the City’s Voice.
“If you wish to wear it as a sign of rank, if it will help you to do the City’s work, then wear it. No Mind will have no further need of it.”
Suds stopped his ears, then his navel, then his nose, then someone else’s nose, an animal’s nose, a small, sick animal’s nose, a rabbit’s, in fact, wet and quivering, but he still heard the Voice in Rinzai’s head. The Voice was drying up the lost river, steaming away the pool and with it, Angela’s image in the pool. “I
am your spine now, your buddha nature, your True Self. I will tell you where to go, Rinzai. I will tell you what to do.
”
Rinzai pried out the ear plug and dropped the crystal set where he had found it. He crawled from the suburb into the white haze of the outside world. Suds felt: ghosts hobbled and tormented Rinzai. Rain poured from the steel sky in sheets. Rinzai ran after Bobo Shin, slipping in the mud, scrambling to his feet and slipping again, until he was abreast of the monks, lowering his gaze, prostrating on every twenty-seventh step, stumbling toward the Cave of the Dharma.
Then Suds was free of him. Rinzai’s thoughts were gone. The monks’ thoughts were gone. Suds couldn’t get out of there fast enough. “That kid stuck my nose in his ear.”
Virya was massaging her gums. “Come on, Suds. Get your hands off me and let’s go. It’s all one in the City.”
Chapter Seven
Tenacity enthroned himself on the bowl of a stalagmite; it had been cratered on top by a century’s slow drip. Whaddayagets crowded round him, holding appendages up to his green glow. The shadows of thoughts pulsed inside their translucent skins—they oohed. The whaddayas’ sounds were like gas in a dead man’s belly, whooshing and blaating, soughing and creaking.
Tenacity held forth. “City’s no good. Chuck it. It’s a stink hole. What does anybody want to get in for, that’s what I want to know?”
“That’s what
I
want to know.” Pirate shook water from one foot, then the other, then the first again, when it got cold.
“You don’t know diddlysquat, hick. The City is rotting, is what I’m talking about. Everybody here knows it. Chunks fall off it.
Here
is where it’s at.”
Big Man loosened his grip on No Mind—the winged whaddayas tightened theirs—and he leaned in toward Tenacity. “Chunks? What do you mean?”
“Chunks, hick. Bundles. Ooze. Rot. The City’s got leprosy or something.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Ooh, the hick wants to be a zen. Stay with us, hick. We’re growing all the time. We’re fertile as hell. We’re healthy, aren’t we, whaddayas?” The whaddayagets cheered. Big Man and Pirate covered their ears. No Mind tried, but the birds still pinioned his elbows. It didn’t help anyway. The noise rattled from their own bowels, from the humans’ as well as the whaddayagets’.
When the shouts died down, No Mind was still screaming, “Let me go.”
Tenacity smiled. “Let killer go? I tell you what, while Jello’s off thinking, we’re going to play a little game…”
“I told you it was an accident,” No Mind shouted.
“…a whaddayaget game. Right, nightmares?”
Again, the roar. This time a particular word skipped through the pandemonium: “Tag! Play tag!” The spined birds screeched it. They flexed their gorgeous wings and pulled No Mind into the air, dumping him onto a calcite shelf, a tiny balcony projecting off the chamber wall. It cracked where they dropped him, and his buttocks broke through. He perched there, terrified, exactly as if he were on a toilet.
“Ouch!” Virya took the wire into her mouth. She let Rinzai twine it around one incisor.
Suds felt: the Voice filled Rinzai’s mind.
“You will not have to wear this receiver again.”
Rinzai’s brain felt like iron molecules, magnetized, aligning to the Voice, the City’s Voice.
“If you wish to wear it as a sign of rank, if it will help you to do the City’s work, then wear it. No Mind will have no further need of it.”
Suds stopped his ears, then his navel, then his nose, then someone else’s nose, an animal’s nose, a small, sick animal’s nose, a rabbit’s, in fact, wet and quivering, but he still heard the Voice in Rinzai’s head. The Voice was drying up the lost river, steaming away the pool and with it, Angela’s image in the pool. “I
am your spine now, your buddha nature, your True Self. I will tell you where to go, Rinzai. I will tell you what to do.
”
Rinzai pried out the ear plug and dropped the crystal set where he had found it. He crawled from the suburb into the white haze of the outside world. Suds felt: ghosts hobbled and tormented Rinzai. Rain poured from the steel sky in sheets. Rinzai ran after Bobo Shin, slipping in the mud, scrambling to his feet and slipping again, until he was abreast of the monks, lowering his gaze, prostrating on every twenty-seventh step, stumbling toward the Cave of the Dharma.
Then Suds was free of him. Rinzai’s thoughts were gone. The monks’ thoughts were gone. Suds couldn’t get out of there fast enough. “That kid stuck my nose in his ear.”
Virya was massaging her gums. “Come on, Suds. Get your hands off me and let’s go. It’s all one in the City.”
Chapter Seven
Tenacity enthroned himself on the bowl of a stalagmite; it had been cratered on top by a century’s slow drip. Whaddayagets crowded round him, holding appendages up to his green glow. The shadows of thoughts pulsed inside their translucent skins—they oohed. The whaddayas’ sounds were like gas in a dead man’s belly, whooshing and blaating, soughing and creaking.
Tenacity held forth. “City’s no good. Chuck it. It’s a stink hole. What does anybody want to get in for, that’s what I want to know?”
“That’s what
I
want to know.” Pirate shook water from one foot, then the other, then the first again, when it got cold.
“You don’t know diddlysquat, hick. The City is rotting, is what I’m talking about. Everybody here knows it. Chunks fall off it.
Here
is where it’s at.”
Big Man loosened his grip on No Mind—the winged whaddayas tightened theirs—and he leaned in toward Tenacity. “Chunks? What do you mean?”
“Chunks, hick. Bundles. Ooze. Rot. The City’s got leprosy or something.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Ooh, the hick wants to be a zen. Stay with us, hick. We’re growing all the time. We’re fertile as hell. We’re healthy, aren’t we, whaddayas?” The whaddayagets cheered. Big Man and Pirate covered their ears. No Mind tried, but the birds still pinioned his elbows. It didn’t help anyway. The noise rattled from their own bowels, from the humans’ as well as the whaddayagets’.
When the shouts died down, No Mind was still screaming, “Let me go.”
Tenacity smiled. “Let killer go? I tell you what, while Jello’s off thinking, we’re going to play a little game…”
“I told you it was an accident,” No Mind shouted.
“…a whaddayaget game. Right, nightmares?”
Again, the roar. This time a particular word skipped through the pandemonium: “Tag! Play tag!” The spined birds screeched it. They flexed their gorgeous wings and pulled No Mind into the air, dumping him onto a calcite shelf, a tiny balcony projecting off the chamber wall. It cracked where they dropped him, and his buttocks broke through. He perched there, terrified, exactly as if he were on a toilet.
Similar Books
