The game proceeds, until one of the teams can pay no more
ransom. Their sheirl thereupon is defiled by Claubus in a most revolting and
unnatural manner; in this condition she and Claubus are trundled around the
field in a cart by the defeated team, to the accompaniment of the coarse
braying music. The victors enjoy a splendid feast of bonter; the spectators
undergo a catharsis and presumably are purged of their tensions. As for the humiliated
sheirl, she has forever lost her beauty and dignity. She becomes an outcast and,
in her desperation, may attempt almost anything. As you will perceive,
hussade at Uncibal is not a merry pastime; it is a grim and poignant
spectacle: an immensely popular public rite. Under the circumstances, it seems
very odd that the teams never lack for beautiful sheirls, who are drawn to
danger as a moth to flame. The Arrabins are indeed an odd people, who
like to toy with the most morbid possibilities. For instance: at the
shunk contests the barriers are quite low, and the shunk in their mad antics
often charge over and into the spectators. Dozens are crushed. Are the barriers
raised? Are those lower seats empty? Never! In such a way the Arrabins
participate in these rituals of life and death. Needless to say, none
expects
to be torn to bits, just as no sheirl expects to be defiled. It is
all sheer egocentricity: the myth of self triumphant over destiny! I believe
that as folk become urbanized, just so intensely are they individuated, and not
to the contrary. From this standpoint the crowds flowing along Uncibal River
quite transcend the imagination. Try to think of it! Row after row, rank after
rank of faces, each the node of a distinct and autonomous universe.
On this note I will close my letter. I wish I could inform
you of definite plans, but for a fact I have none; I am torn between
fascination and revulsion for this strange place.
Now I must go to drudge: I have traded stints with a certain Arsmer
from an apartment along the hall. This week is unusually busy! Still, by Zeck
standards, an idyll of leisure!
With my dearest love to all: your wayward
Jantiff
Jantiff became ever more aware of Skorlet’s strange new manner.
Never had he thought her placid or stolid, but now she alternated between fits
of smouldering silence and a peculiar nervous gaiety. Twice Jantiff discovered
her in close colloquy with Esteban, and the discussions came to such an abrupt
halt that Jantiff was made to feel an intruder. Another time he found her pacing
the apartment, shaking her hands as if they were wet. This was a new
manifestation which Jantiff felt impelled to notice. “What is bothering
you now?”
Skorlet stopped short, turned Jantiff an opaque black
glance, then blurted forth her troubles. “It’s Esteban and his cursed
bonterfest. Tanzel is sick with excitement, and Esteban wants full payment. I
don’t have, the tokens.”
“Why doesn’t he pay for Tanzel himself?”
“Hah I You should know Esteban by this time! He’s absolutely
heartless when it comes to money.”
[22]
Jantiff began to sense a possible trend to the conversation.
He gave his head a sympathetic shake and sidled away toward the bedroom.
Skorlet caught his arm, and Jantiff’s fears were quickly realized. Skorlet
spoke in a throaty voice: “Jantiff, I have a hundred tokens; I need five
hundred more for the bonterfest. Won’t you lend me that much? I’ll do something
nice for you.”
Jantiff winced and shifted his gaze around the room. “There’s
nothing nice I need just now.”
“But Jantiff, it’s only an ozol or two. You’ve got a whole
sheaf.”
“I’ll need those ozols on the way home.”
“You already have your ticket! You told me so!”
“Yes, yes! I have my ticket! But I might want to stop off
along the way, and then there’ll be no money because I squandered it at Esteban’s
bonterfest.”
“But you’re squandering money on, your own place in the
group.”
“I also squandered my pigments on your cult-globes.”
“Mutt you be so petty?” snarled Skorlet, suddenly furious. “You’re
too paltry to bother with! Give thanks that I convinced Esteban of this!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Jantiff stiffly.
“It’s not Esteban’s affair whether I’m paltry or petty or anything else.”
Skorlet started to speak, then suppressed her remarks and
said merely: “I’ll say no more on that subject.”
“Exactly so,” said Jantiff frigidly. “In fact, nothing more
need be said on any subject whatever.”
Skorlet’s face twisted askew in a darkling leer. “No? I
thought you wanted to move in with that slang
[23]
Kedidah.”
“I spoke along those lines,” said Jantiff in a measured
voice. “Evidently it can’t be done, and that seems to be the end of it.”
“But it can be done, and quite easily, if I choose to do it.”
“Oh? How will you accomplish this miracle?”
“Please, Jantiff, don’t analyze my every statement. What I
undertake to do, I achieve, and never doubt it. Old Sarp will move here if
Tanzel will copulate with him from time to time, and she’s very anxious for the
feast so everything works out nicely.”
,.Jantiff turned away in disgust. “I don’t want to be part
of any such arrangement”
Skorlet stared at him, her brows two black bars of puzzlement.
“And why not? Everyone gets what he wants; why should you object?”
Jantiff tried to formulate a lofty remark, but none of his
sentiments seemed appropriate. He heaved a sigh. “First, I want to discuss the
matter with Kedidah. After all—”
“No! Kedidah has no force in this affair. What’s it to her?
She’s busy with her hussade team; she cares not a whit whether you’re here or
there!”
Jantiff, looking up at the ceiling, composed an incisive rejoinder,
but at the end held his tongue. Skorlet’s concepts and his, own were
incommensurable; why incite her into a new tirade?
Skorlet needed no stimulation. “Frankly, Jantiff, III be
pleased to have you out of here. You and your precious posturings! Piddling
little sketches hung up everywhere to remind us of your talents! You’ll never
forget your elitism, will you? This is Arrabus, Jantiff! You’re here on sufferance,
so never forget it!”
“Nothing of the sort!” stormed Jantiff. “I’ve paid all my
fees and .I do my own drudge.”
Skorlet’s round white face underwent a sly and cunning
contortion. “Those sketches, they’re very strange! It gives me to wonder, these
endless faces! Why do you do it? What or whom, are you looking for? I want the
truth!”
“I draw faces because it suits me to do so. And now, unless
I’m to be late for drudge—”
“And now: bah! Give me the money and I’ll make the arrangements.”
“Absolutely not. You make the arrangements first. In any
event, I don’t have so many tokens; I’ll have to change ozols at the space-port”
Skorlet gave him a long grim look. “So long as I can make
Esteban a definite answer, and I’m seeing him directly.”
“Be as definite as you like.”
Skorlet marched from the apartment. Jantiff changed into his
work overalls and descended to the street where suddenly he recalled that today
Arsmer had taken over his stint. Feeling foolish he returned up the ascensor to
his apartment Stepping into the bedroom he removed boots and coveralls, and
took them to the cabinet. At this moment the outer door opened and several people
entered. Heavy footsteps approached the bedroom; someone pushed aside the door
and looked in, but failed to notice Jantiff by the cabinet. “He’s not here,”
said a voice Jantiff recognized as that of Esteban.
“He’s gone off to drudge,” said Skorlet. “Sit, and Fit see
if the swill is fit to drink.”
“Don’t bother so far as I’m concerned,” said a husky-harsh
voice which Jantiff failed to recognize. “I can’t abide the stuff.”
Sarp’s plangent rasp sounded in reply: “Easy for you to say,
with all your wines and fructifers!”
“Never fear, soon you’ll say the same!” declared Esteban in
a voice of reckless enthusiasm. “Just give us a couple months.”
“You’re either a genius or a lunatic,” said the unknown
Voice.
“Use the word ‘visionary’!” said Esteban. “Isn’t this how great events have gone in the past? The visionary. seizes upon an idle reverie;
he constructs an irresistible scheme and topples an empire! From Jantiff’s miserable
little sketch comes this notion of a lifetime.”
“Lifetime’: that is apt usage,” said the unknown man drily. “The
word reverberates.”
“Here and now we abandon negativity!” exclaimed Esteban. “It’s
only a hindrance. We succeed by our very boldness!”
“Still, let’s not be rash. I can point out a hundred avenues
into disaster.”
“Very good! We’ll consider each in turn and give them all
wide berths. Skorlet, where is the swill? Pour with a loose hand.”
“Don’t neglect me,” said Sarp.
Jantiff went to sit on the bed. He uttered a tentative
cough, just as Esteban spoke out. “Success to our venture!”
“I’m still not altogether attuned to your frequency,” grumbled
the unknown man. “To me it sounds implausible, improbable, even unreal.”
“Not at all,” declared Esteban gaily. “Break the affair into
separate steps. Each is simplicity in itself. In your case especially; how can
you choose to act otherwise?”
The unknown man gave a sour grunt. “There’s something in
what you say. Let me see that sketch again… Yes; it’s really most
extraordinary.”
Skorlet spoke in a sardonic aside. “Perhaps we should drink
our toast to Jantiff.”
“Quite so,” said Esteban. “We must think very carefully
about Jantiff.”
Jantiff stretched himself out on the bed and considered
crawling underneath.
“He only typifies the basic problem,” said the unknown voice.
“In simple terms: how do we avoid recognition?”
“This is where you become indispensable,” said. Esteban.
Sarp gave a rasping chuckle. “By definition, we’re all indispensable.”
“True,” said Esteban. “For one of us to succeed, all must succeed.”
“One thing is certain,” mused Skorlet. “Once we commit ourselves
there’s no turning back.”
Jantiff could not help reflecting that Skorlet’s voice, cool
and steady, was far different from the voice she had used during their recent
quarrel.
“Back to the basic problem,” said die husky-harsh voice. “Your
absence from Old Pink will certainly be noticed.”
“We’ll have transferred to other blocks!”
“Well and good, until someone looks at the screen and says: ‘Why,
there’s Sarp! And dog defile us all, that’s surely Skorlet! And Esteban!”
“I’ve considered this at length,” said Esteban. “The problem
is surmountable. Our acquaintances, after all, are not innumerable.”
Sarp asked: “Are you forgetting. Loudest Bombah?
[24]
The Whispers are inviting him to the Centenary.”
“He’s invited, but I can’t believe that he’ll come.”
“You never know,” said the unknown voice. “Stranger things
have happened. I insist that we leave nothing to chance.”
“Agreed! In fact I’ve considered the matter. Think! If he’s
on hand he’ll be sure to mount the monkey-pole
[25]
;
correct?”
“A possibility, but not a certainty.”
“Well, he’s either on hand or he isn’t.”
“That is definitely true.”
“If someone gave you a bag of poggets and you knew one might
be deadly poisonous, what would you do?”
“Throw away the whole bag.”
“That’s certainly one possibility. A good number of poggets
are wasted, of course.”
“Hmmf. Well, we’ll discuss it another time. Are you still planning
your bonterfest?”
“Most definitely,” said Skorlet. “I’ve promised Tanzel and
there’s no reason to disappoint her.”
“It makes us all conspicuous, after a fashion.”
“Not really. Bonterfests aren’t uncommon.”
“Still, why not cancel the affair? There’ll be opportunities
in the future.”
“But I’m not confident of the future! It’s a spinning top
which can totter in any direction!”
“Whatever you like. It’s not a critical matter.”
Skorlet, for one reason or another, chose to enter the bedroom.
She went to her cabinet, then, turning, saw Jantiff. She gave a croak of astonishment.
“What are you doing here?”
Jantiff feigned the process of awakening. “Eh? What? Oh,
hello, Skorlet Is it time for wump?”
“I thought you were at drudge.”
“Armor took my drudge today. Why? What’s the problem? Are
you having guests?” Jantiff sat up and swung his legs to the floor. From the sitting
room came a mutter of voices, then the outer door slid open and shut. Esteban
sauntered into the bedroom.
“Hello, Jantiff. Did we disturb you?”
“Not at all,” said Jantiff. He looked up uneasily at
Este-ban’s looming, bulk. “I was sound asleep.” He rose to his feet. Esteban
stood aside as Jantiff went into the sitting room, which was now empty.
Esteban’s voice came softly against his back. “Skorlet tells
me that you are advancing her money for the bonterfest.”
“Yes,” said Jantiff shortly. “I agreed to this.”
“When can I have the money? Sorry to be abrupt, but I’ve got
to meet my commitments.”
“Will tomorrow do?”
“Very well indeed. Until tomorrow, then.”
Esteban turned a significant glance toward Skorlet and left
the apartment. Skorlet followed him into the corridor.
Jantiff went to the wall where he had pinned up certain of
his sketches. He studied each in turn; none, to Jantiff’s eyes at least, seemed
in the slightest degree, inflammatory. A most peculiar situation!
Skorlet returned. Jantiff quickly moved away from the
sketches. Skorlet went to the table and rearranged her few trifles of
bric-a-brac. In an airy voice she said: “Esteban is such an extravagant man! I
never take him seriously. Especially after a mug or two of swill, when he
fantasizes most outrageously. I don’t know if you heard him talking—” She
paused and looked sideways, dense black eyebrows arched in question.
Jantiff said hurriedly, “I was dead asleep; I didn’t even
know he was there.”
Skorlet gave a curt nod. “You can’t imagine the intrigues
and plots I’ve heard over the years! None ever amounted to anything, of course.”
“Oh? What of the bonterfest? Is that a fantasy too?”
Skorlet laughed in brittle merriment. “Definitely not! That’s
quite real! In fact you’d better go change your money and I’ll make
arrangements with Sarp.”