I Sing the Body Electric

I Sing the Body Electric Read Online Free PDF Page A

Book: I Sing the Body Electric Read Online Free PDF
Author: Ray Bradbury
door into a deep well of night.
    There, like Napoleon’s numbed dog-army of foot-weary, undecided, and demoralized men, stood the shadowy but familiar mob, their hands full of pictures—pictures leaned against their legs, pictures on theirbacks, pictures stood upright and held by trembling, panic-whitened hands in the drifted snow. A terrible silence lay over and among the men. They seemed stranded, as if one enemy had gone off to fight far better wars while yet another enemy, as yet unnamed, nipped silent and trackless at their behinds. They kept glancing over their shoulders at the hills and the town as if at any moment Chaos herself might unleash her dogs from there. They alone, in the infiltering night, heard the far-off baying of dismays and despairs that cast a spell.
    â€œIs that you , Riordan?” called Casey, nervously.
    â€œAh, who the hell would it be!” cried a voice out beyond.
    â€œWhat do they want? ” asked the old party.
    â€œIt’s not so much what we want as what you might now want from us ,” called a voice.
    â€œYou see,” said another, advancing until all could see it was Hannahan in the light, “considered in all its aspects, your Honor, we’ve decided, you’re such a fine gent, we—”
    â€œWe will not burn your house!” cried Blinky Watts.
    â€œShut up and let the man talk!” said several voices.
    Hannahan nodded. “That’s it. We will not burn your house.”
    â€œBut see here,” said the Lord, “I’m quite prepared. Everything can easily be moved out.”
    â€œYou’re taking the whole thing too lightly, begging your pardon, your Honor,” said Kelly. “Easy for you is not easy for us.”
    â€œI see,” said the old man, not seeing at all.
    â€œIt seems,” said Tuohy, “we have all of us, in just the last few hours, developed problems. Some to do with the home and some to do with transport and cartage, if you get my drift. Who’ll explain first? Kelly? No? Casey? Riordan?”
    Nobody spoke.
    At last, with a sigh, Flannery edged forward. “It’s this way—” he said.
    â€œYes?” said the old man, gently.
    â€œWell,” said Flannery, “me and Tuohy here got half through the woods, like damn fools, and was across two thirds of the bog with the large picture of the Twilight of the Gods when we began to sink.”
    â€œYour strength failed?” inquired the Lord kindly.
    â€œSink, your Honor, just plain sink, into the ground ,” Tuohy put in.
    â€œDear me,” said the Lord.
    â€œYou can say that again, your Lordship,” said Tuohy. “Why together, me and Flannery and the demon gods must have weighed close on to six hundred pounds, and that bog out there is infirm if it’s anything, and the more we walk the deeper we sink, and a cry strangled in me throat, for I’m thinking of those scenes in the old story where the Hound ofthe Baskervilles or some such fiend chases the heroine out in the moor and down she goes, in a watery pit, wishing she had kept at that diet, but it’s too late, and bubbles rise to pop on the surface. All of this a-throttling in me mind, your Honor.”
    â€œAnd so?” the Lord put in, seeing he was expected to ask.
    â€œAnd so,” said Flannery, “we just walked off and left the damn gods there in their twilight.”
    â€œIn the middle of the bog? ” asked the elderly man, just a trifle upset.
    â€œAh, we covered them up, I mean we put our mufflers over the scene. The gods will not die twice, your Honor. Say, did you hear that , boys? The gods—”
    â€œAh, shut up,” cried Kelly. “Ya dimwits. Why didn’t you bring the damn portrait in off the bog?”
    â€œWe thought we would come get two more boys to help—”
    â€œTwo more!” cried Nolan. “That’s four men, plus a parcel of gods, you’d all sink twice as
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