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seconds later the great hulk of the ore cars loomed ahead of them.
rocks.
voice. "I couldn't even imagine. I knew about death and fire and all, of
the way I wanted to, fool, and all the time you were egging me on and
He talked and talked, and Noonan nodded, sipped his whiskey, and
course, but something like that! How are we going to get back?"thousand at the end of the road. I can work up a sweat for that. Five
have been it as far as injuries.
Redrick looked at him distractedly, saw the disheveled and glued-
solidly it lay in its place. It was not golden, it was more a copper color, reddish, and completely
remember Kirill, that sainted man, his swift, sure movements, his laugh, his
"I see that you're involved in nonemigration, too."
could be seen the mottled surface of the stagnant swamps, covered with
nothing.
"We'll leave it here for now. God willing, we'll come back and pick it
thunderclap. "You mean, you do believe?" Arthur asked quickly.
Look at the piece he's carrying in his back pocket. Nah, I doubt it. Buzzard
and Redrick was amazed to see how short his terrible, endless path had been,and well, they would have gotten by with a lot of sweat, but Arthur couldn't
they're not granted, it's all over for you!"
Better not think about your father now, you'd be better off not saying
Redrick got up, went behind the ore car, sat on the embankment, and
could feel a thousand needles puncturing his face. "For- ward!" he kept
4. REDRICK SCHUHART, AGE 31forgotten everything -- the master key and Monkey. What does that mean? It
Then he lay for a long time, his face and hands in the cold, rusty
like a tenderfoot.
one of his most striking childhood memories--his first visit to the Borscht. Maybe it was his pop who sent him over to me, he thought about Arthur.
for water, for coolness. The memories, worn to the point of
each other over, blending, tumbling, mingling with the white hot world that
Redrick said nothing. Thanks! You fell apart, and I had to rescue you.
Redrick got up, went behind the ore car, sat on the embankment, and
squeezed it, he gazed into the thinning fog. A psyche, he thought He's nuts.
rock. That was the only landmark. They had to head for it, depending on dumbhad wanted to emigrate, I had decided when was still in jail. I mean, what
thank God he had at least crawled in the right direction. He could have
"What do you need it for?"is stronger than greed. He saw all of this and took it into account, and
He gulped the rest of the coffee, pulled out a cigarette, and as he
grabbed the old man like a log when they were called in--and dropped him on
mirror-smooth mosquito mange, with many arms, like a starfish-far away, no
was nothing else to be seen on the road, except for the black twisted
muscles to the weight of the heavy backpack. He watched Arthur out of the First we go this way." Redrick waved sharply in the direction of the
Redrick was surprised by the loudness of the boy's voice. He took a
swamp to the right of the embankment reeked of decay. The fog made it
off his work clothes and tossed them to his mother, pulled off his huge, Redrick didn't reply. That's a mistake, he thought, dispassionately.
sullen face of Monkey, covered with coarse brown fur. He struggled to
for the flood of the green stuff to drip past them and disappear into the
of people knew nothing and wanted to know nothing, and even if they found
his glass and said: "Well, I guess we're off?" Noonan looked over at the old
"Forget it," Redrick said firmly and sat up. "Give it here. There's
his free arm, crawled forward, never taking his eyes off the line where thethis self-reliance had been measured in the amount of money he could snatch,
course, but something like that! How are we going to get back?"
explanation of what was going on. Redrick listened for a minute or two andhim, enveloping his body like a sheet soaked in boiling water. Sweat poured