Winds of Change (A Summer Breeze Short) (642 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: Summer_Breeze
Rating: 2 on 24 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Jack McCallum (View user info) at 2006-10-13 16:38:21 EDT
(This is a lunchtime quickie, so excuse the typos...)
Peli was reading an old book by the light of the fire. The pages were very thin and the ink was very old. All I could think was that those pages would make excellent wraps for wild tobacco, but she liked the book, so as she read I rolled a corn husk smoke.
"Franco, eet sais in thees book that Hayzus died for the seens of the people. Do you theenk that all the people who died from the Summer Breeze have died for our seens? Do you theenk mi familia died for me?"
I took a drag and exhaled. It was a very warm night, high summer. We were a few hundred miles northeast, having moved inland from the ruins of New York City. Someone had set off a sick bomb in New York. The city my father had loved was a ruin, and if you got too close you got sick.
We were camped on the edge of a long lake. Behind us was a low wooded ridge, before us was the still lake. There were ducks out on the lake. They were dark, with white necklaces, and they let out lonely calls as night came on. With our bellies full of fire-roasted fish and baked apples, we relaxed, Peli reading as I smoked.
"Peli, there have been lots of books like that. The Bible, that's the one you have. The Corn, the Book of Norman, and one called the Bag of Vittles. All kinds of people believed in them."(1)
"Do you theenk I should believe in thees book?"
"It's a personal choice, Peli."
My father told me many times that anyone who believed in any of those books was as dangerous as the Affected. There were still crazed sects of the Faithful that believed in the book Peli was holding.
"What do you believe in, Franco?"
Should I lie?
A year ago Peli had given birth to a monstrosity. It squalled for a while and then it died. She still looked lost, sometimes.
"I believe in a full belly and sound sleep," I said. The world was a harsh place. Peli had better get used to that bitter fact.
I sat back and smoked. When the stars came out, I watched them for a while. Then I shook out my bedroll and stripped, wrapping myself in a single thin blanket to keep the bugs away.
The fire snapped and popped, and every once in a while I heard a crinkle as Peli turned the pages of her old leather-bound book. I was happy that she was finally reading, and she seemed to have a real thing for history, but I didn't want to get into discussions about things that didn't exist when just trying to survive was a hard enough lesson.
I had nearly dozed off when I felt Peli snuggling up behind me.
"Peli... you have your own bedroll."
She was quiet for a moment. "Why don't you ever look at me, Franco?"
I frowned. "What are you talking about? I look at you all day long."
"Are you wan of those maricons, Franco?"
"What's a maricon?"
"Thees men who like to sock preeks."
"Peli, go to sleep."
"You don't look at me, Franco."
"Peli, I look at you all the time!"
"Yais, you look at my eyes when we talk or my hands or my feet. You never look at my body, Franco. There ees more of me between my feet and my eyes."
She was right, to a degree. I never looked at her when she could see me looking at her, but there were times when she was bathing or changing her clothes that I couldn't help but notice how she had changed.
To me she was still a little girl. She didn't look like a little girl. Not any more. She was maturing a lot faster than I had at that age.
I felt her hand slid over my hip and grab my prick.
"Peli..."
I was like stone in seconds.
She snuggled and licked my ear. I thought I was going to explode right there.
"Franco, you think I don't see your steef preek sticking straight up in the air very night while you sleep?"
"Peli, we—"
She shifted, and then I was on my back and Peli was climbing on top of me, sliding onto me like a warm glove. She leaned forward and her long dark hair tickled my nose.
"Peli, this is—"
My mind went blank and I started bucking. The whole thing was over in about thirty seconds.
I looked up at the stars. I was suddenly aware that I was smiling.
Peli was still on top of me. "Stay steef just a leetle longer, Franco. The last time I deed these, I was forced. Let me see eef I can like thees theeng."
I raised my hands, feeling a whole new Peli. He legs were longer than I remembered, her hips rounder, her breasts heavier. I watched her while she rocked herself on me, and I thought to myself 'This is what it is to pleasure a woman' when Peli let out a scream.
I was feeling quite proud of myself until I realized she was pointing at something beyond my head, pointing towards the lake.
Peli rolled off of me and I hopped to my feet.
At the stony edge of the lake in the shallow water, were three pale, vaguely human shapes. They floated half in and half on the water, like naked dead things. They looked like people who had been stripped of their bones, sexless bags of flesh cast into the lake.
One of the flat, soft faces shifted, the eyes looking right at me.
Peli screamed again.
We were on our feet and pulling on our clothes when the ridge behind us glowed with torchlight.
There was a train of lights coming down the ridge, a dozen men and women with torches.
I looked back at the lake. The flaccid arms and legs of the floating things were moving, slow, weak movements that might eventually propel them away from the shore.
As the torchbearers came closer I saw that the men were carrying long wooden poles. Some of the women looked angry. Some were red-eyed with grief.
"Stranger," a tall man with a red beard said as he passed me. "Good eve."
Hanging like a pendant from a steel chain around his neck was a glass cylinder. I had seen these before, in the scientist's house in the Midwest a year ago, and elsewhere. It was called a test tube.
The man was one of the Faithful. Not a Christian or a Mohammadan, but a Chemist. He was one of those who believed that science could correct what the Summer Breeze had done.
Most Chemists tinkered in filthy excuses for laboratories, mixing potions that they were convinced could restore humanity to the way it had been. No more Affected. No more flatheads. No more birthing of things that were never meant to be.
The men gathered at the edge of the water.
"There," red beard said. "Three of them."
Two of the boneless things had floated a few feet from shore. One was still close. Its wide eyes stared up at red beard in horror.
"We must set things right," red beard said.
"Set things right," the others chanted.
"All will be as it was."
"Be as it was," the men echoed, and then two of them stepped forward, raised wooden poles which only now could I see had sharpened ends, and stabbed at the floating thing.
"Hayzus," Peli said.
One pole pierced the creature's chest. One ripped open its gut. The thing was completely defenseless. It opened a toothless maw and released a stream of bubbles and a high sound, like ringing glass. The wound in its gut released more bubbles, and blood, and a few bobbing turds.
The men with the poles laughed, and then stabbed at the dying thing again.
Some of the women cheered, some cried.
When the floating thing had been torn into four pieces and those pieces began to sink, the men looked out onto the lake and spotted the other two floaters.
Red beard spoke up. "He casts our nets and salvages souls; He casts our nets and damns the damned."
"Casts our nets," the men said.
The men holding the wooden poles stepped aside, and two others stepped to the edge of the lake carrying a net made of hemp mesh. The edges of the net were weighted.
Out in the lake a fish jumped. The floating things rode up and down on the low ring of ripples. I saw two pairs of terrified eyes looking at me.
"Wait," I said. "Those things look harmless enough. Why are you doing this?"
Red beard gave me an indulgent smile. "They are abominations before the Lord God. They must be erased."
One of the sobbing women lurched forward as if unable to contain herself.
"And who created these abominations? We did! We played at being God and bore this twisted fruit." She looked down and sobbed. Minnows were nipping at the sinking pieces of the dead thing. "When we banished those newborn monstrosities from our village and took them to these waters, it was not enough. Once we learned that they were thriving here, at peace, harming none, we had to come and do this!"
Other women stepped forward, some to comfort, some to restrain.
The two men holding the net raised it, preparing to cast it into the water.
I heard soft sounds then, like wind on water, but I didn't feel the slightest breeze.
"Please," I said. I don't know why I spoke up. I had learned to mind my own business over the years. It must have been those eyes, those huge, sad, watery eyes, watching me.
Red beard raised an arm, and all the others watched him. He was in command.
I grabbed my stabbing knife and drove it into the small of his back.
He turned and looked at me, eyebrows raised in surprise.
I pushed the knife into his throat and twisted. When I pulled the blade free blood poured out of him like a stream of piss.
The others looked at each other a moment, and then quietly shuffled away. I had expected more of a fight.
Peli touched my arm and pointed. "Franco."
The woman who had given what amounted to a speech in this day and age was standing alone.
"They are strong, if given the chance," she said, turning to follow the others. "Bless you."
I turned back to the water and Peli stood beside me. I put my arm around her. She had grown enough that she seemed to fit against me just right.
The things floating away from the shore watched us, and we watched them. When we could see them no longer, Peli and I slept.
In the morning we packed up and moved on. There was no trace of the floating things. We left red beard lying on the shore, as cold and stiff as driftwood.
It wasn't until a few days later as we were walking down the crumbling length of highway 81 that I wondered if the floating things, more jellyfish than people, had been controlling me somehow. Making me attack red beard. Making me walk away from the lake without considering what had occurred.
I had been feeling that I had seen all there was to be seen. I was wrong.
Like a refreshing change in the wind, the world was suddenly seemed full of new and interesting things.
For one thing, I wasn't traveling with a skinny, annoying child anymore. Peli and I had long conversations, some serious, some amusing, and her round hips and bottom were a delight to watch as I walked behind her.
I couldn't help but wonder if this burst of optimism was my own, or if it came from somewhere else.
(1) The Qur'an, the Book of Mormon, and the Bhagavad Gita.
User Reviews
Submitted by homer42 (user info) at 2007-01-23 14:11:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You're probably one of the best writers on the site...
Where is the photo from?
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2006-10-18 11:37:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by mbstateside (user info) at 2006-10-17 09:37:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Mbstateside back from the dead auto +2
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2006-10-15 23:14:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-10-15 20:17:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I really like the name Peli.
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2006-10-15 12:48:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I liked the UM story and I liked this.
Although I am beginning to suspect you have a thing for the underaged people, I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
-Dave
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-10-13 22:00:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-10-13 21:50:27 (#)
Ranking: 2
Lissen, fuckstick, your "quickies" are better than my entire sex life, which is longer than your real life.
--
Fuck, write a whole story full of lines like that and you'll go far.
I'm imagining Al Pacino saying the above live in an enraged growl. Awesome.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-10-13 21:50:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Lissen, fuckstick, your "quickies" are better than my entire sex life, which is longer than your real life.
I have a feeling you and I will be against each other in round three of UM IV. If so,
I will puke on the monitor and call it a story. Well, maybe not.
Either way, I intend to lose with a bunch of crying and whining.....
Never give up!!!!! Jack, you know I like your shit, and you WILL make the big time one day.
Submitted by Ducky (user info) at 2006-10-13 18:52:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fantastic Jack. Extra points for creating something so cool over lunch.
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-10-13 18:30:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
ha!
Nice.
I remember that. Of course, I probably couldn't find it if I tried..
:-)
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2006-10-13 18:29:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I seriously love this story.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-10-13 18:28:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hahaha!
It was one silly line, Christ, I don't even remenber where.
It was something like, "Ayiii papi!"
It cracked me up at the time and sunk into the swamp in my skull, and for whatever reason, it popped into my head as I started writing the thing. So there you go.
Wait... does that make me a sick bastard?
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-10-13 18:19:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
ummm... what comment?
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-10-13 18:17:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
SERIOUSLY?!?!?!
oh man.. I Rock!
That's awesome.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-10-13 18:08:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
How's this for weird...
It was a comment Crystle left in one of my posts from a while back that inspired the character of Peli.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-10-13 17:21:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2006-10-13 17:15:03 (#)
Ranking: 2
Yo Jack,
you ever considered writing a novel?
--
This is an oft-told tale. Self published after trying to sell for nearly a year. Working on other things now that are probably as unlikely to sell...
http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.asp?bookid=13981
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2006-10-13 17:15:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yo Jack,
you ever considered writing a novel? If your short stories are anything to go by, you could make an honest author. I have a cousin who works in publishing, who has just helped a colleague of mine get their first book on the market. With good results.
I have links that can show you that I aint shitting you. Just e-mail me, joe_green_2006.at.yahoo.co.uk if you're interested. I like your stuff, and I'm sure other people would, too.
Ball is in your court, dude.
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-10-13 17:04:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
heh - maybe I will just forfeit out of UM
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-10-13 17:03:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
(1) The Qur'an, the Book of Mormon, and the Bhagavad Gita.
aH... I was wondering!
You're the man, Jack!
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-10-13 16:57:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
EYEA!H!H!H!H!H
Now, to read!
Submitted by St_Jimmy (user info) at 2006-10-13 16:52:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-10-13 16:51:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
SUMMER BREEZE, MAKES ME FEEL FINE, BLOWING LIKE THE JASMINE IN MY MI-I-I-I-I-I-ND....
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2006-10-13 16:49:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Butthole, I knew that was you. Everyone did.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-10-13 16:43:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
http://www.ubersite.com/m/94211