| II.4.063 |
|
In the darkness, lying on uncomfortable rock with Willis beside him Carl thought of many
things: the faces of his family, his mother and father, Ruth and his brothers, Theresa and
Vereen drifted in and out of his memory. Some, such as his mother, he remembered so
clearly that it seemed he could almost reach out and touch them, while others were much
harder to remember. Others were more distant, particularly Theresa and Vereen, for by
now his thoughts of those women were overshadowed by a third, the magical and distant
goddess Elizabeth Bluemud whom he dreamed of possessing, of talking in his arms, of
kissing her lips and breasts and body, of making her cry out with pleasure even while she
resisted him because he was of another, inferior, race. He drifted off to sleep with that
bittersweet thought then suddenly awoke, thinking of Ursus. That man was much better off
in the stockade even if they did beat him up. Ursus hated to be in the mine and perhaps
Helen would be there to talk to him. The thought of Helen did not comfort Carl at all,
however. He did not care if he was in the Devil's service or not; what he could not be
reconciled to was the ineptness of those who managed his affairs. He was certainly not
free! He didn't even have the right to leave the barracks. And Bluemud had said, all men
are created equal. Carl disputed that assertion. There were many of the Dentonsville
people Carl thought were inferior to him. But then again, he considered gloomily, perhaps
they weren't any more. The snoring had stopped. The dripping of the water seemed less. In the distance there was a rumble like that of a great animal ruminating. Carl imagined a caterpillar with enormous fangs and wide pale eyes watching from the darkness. The rumble grew, the teeth of the animal grated. There were souls in the darkness speaking to each other or, perhaps they were just the digestion of the great worm, melting flesh. Frightened Carl sat up. The noise was no dream. He could see the greedy glimmer in the pale blue facets of the animal's eyes swaying in the darkness. He was about to cry out when the hallucination resolved itself into familiar things. Foreman Johnson had come along the passage with another. 'End of shift. Prepare to leave. Not you Relyt. Stay here another hour. I'll send someone for you when your time is up.' The men left and were not replaced. The third shift had its own workings. The sounds faded and for a time the worm returned, then nothing. Carl lay in the darkness on the wet rock. He had been trained to work with his brains and with his mouth. He was a leader, however modest and no such man enjoys complete subservience. He felt resentment, anger, bitterness and frustration. Just as in the town of Dentonsville, the corporate structure of Granite Gorge was no place for a precocious individual. Politicians were required: men who would suppress their intelligence and chart their course across the sea of mediocrity without a map. But no-one should be more aware of the obstacles that lay in place and the probability of eventual failure than such a man. One thing he could do without was bitterness at his present lot. The one thing he must have was luck. |
|
|
