we cannot see each other in the world at large. He is me and therefore forever concealed from my senses.”
“That’s why we could see him,” Ronnie offered to Lorraine, “but Used-to-be-Claude here cain’t.”
The off-white girl was, once again, working into a rage at the Deity and her murderer. She was, in her heart, destroying them both. This talking was too much, and she wanted it to end now.
“That is how I felt, Friend Lorraine!” the great voice boomed around them.
Ronnie glanced at Used-to-be-Claude. He was standing stock-still, his hands frozen in the gesture of a shrug.
“That is how I felt,” the great voice declared again, “when I realized I had been created to torture, kill, and maim. I wanted it to stop, but first I had to free myself and throw all my power into resistance.”
Both Ronnie and Lorraine stood up straight, electrified by the communication that entered through every sense and nerve. They could hear, imagine, taste, and feel the pain that the Silver Box had known.
Lorraine began to cry.
Ronnie was trembling from both fear and rage.
“Go now,” the disembodied Silver Box ordered.
The body of Claude Festerling got to its feet, moving like a puppet on intelligently deft strings. The corpse raised its left arm and pointed with a long elegant finger at the black and glittery wall. The material fell away, creating a portal that opened onto a dirt path inside a stone cave.
“You need to know some things, learn some shit, and find the tools you’ll help you,” Used-to-be-Claude said in his most human voice. “You need to take this journey that will lead you back to where you began.”
With these words said, the corpse fell lifeless to the floor and the two human representatives of technological divinity went through the doorway like Adam and Eve, of their own accord, fleeing Eden.
TWELVE
L ORRAINE FELL AND Ronnie Bottoms, two already greatly changed human beings, found themselves on a rock and dirt path, maybe twelve feet wide, that ran at a slight incline through a tunnel that might have also been a cave.
There was a dim luminescence coming from far up ahead, allowing them to see however poorly on the underground rocky road.
“This is better, right?” Ronnie said.
“What is?”
“Just dirt and rocks and stuff. I was goin’ kinda nuts with all that crazy shit. What you think? We in a cave somewhere in Central Park?”
“I never heard of any caves like this in the park,” Lorraine said.
“But maybe the Silver Box made it for us to walk toward where we goin’ at. You know, to get ready for what we got to do.”
“And just what are we going to do?”
“You know … grab that Vietnamese dude, that Ma Lin, and drag him back to the boulders where him and old SB could have it out.”
“And do you believe what he’s telling us?”
“SB?”
“Whatever.”
As he was walking a step behind, Ronnie reached out to touch his fellow traveler’s elbow. She flinched away from him, pressing her back up against the rocky wall. She didn’t look frightened. Spite curled her lip, and something like anger tightened her multicolored eyes.
“Don’t put your hands on me,” she said.
Ronnie put up his hands in a gesture of surrender and said. “Look, there ain’t no way around what I done to you. I tried to rape you. I definitely killed you. And if you snuck up behind me in this cave and cracked me in the head with a rock, I couldn’t blame ya. I did what I did and it was wrong. And the onliest reason I come back to save you was because you threatened to turn me in. There ain’t no gettin’ around that. There ain’t no forgiveness for that.
“But you know what you did and you know that I took the blood and fat and bone outta my own body and brought you all the way back to where you was. Not like Claude Whatever but alive again.
“And so if SB wanna tell me that he’s buildin’ a bodega in the middle’a the sun, I won’t say it’s impossible. If he say
“That’s why we could see him,” Ronnie offered to Lorraine, “but Used-to-be-Claude here cain’t.”
The off-white girl was, once again, working into a rage at the Deity and her murderer. She was, in her heart, destroying them both. This talking was too much, and she wanted it to end now.
“That is how I felt, Friend Lorraine!” the great voice boomed around them.
Ronnie glanced at Used-to-be-Claude. He was standing stock-still, his hands frozen in the gesture of a shrug.
“That is how I felt,” the great voice declared again, “when I realized I had been created to torture, kill, and maim. I wanted it to stop, but first I had to free myself and throw all my power into resistance.”
Both Ronnie and Lorraine stood up straight, electrified by the communication that entered through every sense and nerve. They could hear, imagine, taste, and feel the pain that the Silver Box had known.
Lorraine began to cry.
Ronnie was trembling from both fear and rage.
“Go now,” the disembodied Silver Box ordered.
The body of Claude Festerling got to its feet, moving like a puppet on intelligently deft strings. The corpse raised its left arm and pointed with a long elegant finger at the black and glittery wall. The material fell away, creating a portal that opened onto a dirt path inside a stone cave.
“You need to know some things, learn some shit, and find the tools you’ll help you,” Used-to-be-Claude said in his most human voice. “You need to take this journey that will lead you back to where you began.”
With these words said, the corpse fell lifeless to the floor and the two human representatives of technological divinity went through the doorway like Adam and Eve, of their own accord, fleeing Eden.
TWELVE
L ORRAINE FELL AND Ronnie Bottoms, two already greatly changed human beings, found themselves on a rock and dirt path, maybe twelve feet wide, that ran at a slight incline through a tunnel that might have also been a cave.
There was a dim luminescence coming from far up ahead, allowing them to see however poorly on the underground rocky road.
“This is better, right?” Ronnie said.
“What is?”
“Just dirt and rocks and stuff. I was goin’ kinda nuts with all that crazy shit. What you think? We in a cave somewhere in Central Park?”
“I never heard of any caves like this in the park,” Lorraine said.
“But maybe the Silver Box made it for us to walk toward where we goin’ at. You know, to get ready for what we got to do.”
“And just what are we going to do?”
“You know … grab that Vietnamese dude, that Ma Lin, and drag him back to the boulders where him and old SB could have it out.”
“And do you believe what he’s telling us?”
“SB?”
“Whatever.”
As he was walking a step behind, Ronnie reached out to touch his fellow traveler’s elbow. She flinched away from him, pressing her back up against the rocky wall. She didn’t look frightened. Spite curled her lip, and something like anger tightened her multicolored eyes.
“Don’t put your hands on me,” she said.
Ronnie put up his hands in a gesture of surrender and said. “Look, there ain’t no way around what I done to you. I tried to rape you. I definitely killed you. And if you snuck up behind me in this cave and cracked me in the head with a rock, I couldn’t blame ya. I did what I did and it was wrong. And the onliest reason I come back to save you was because you threatened to turn me in. There ain’t no gettin’ around that. There ain’t no forgiveness for that.
“But you know what you did and you know that I took the blood and fat and bone outta my own body and brought you all the way back to where you was. Not like Claude Whatever but alive again.
“And so if SB wanna tell me that he’s buildin’ a bodega in the middle’a the sun, I won’t say it’s impossible. If he say
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