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Friday, February 1, 2013

The Only Thing Worse is the Cure, Part 2



This is the much-requested second installment of The Only Thing Worse is the Cure. For the first chapter, click here.

For the entirety of my adult life, and for whatsoever of my immaturity I can recall, I have been observant to a perpetual war the angels and demons in every wall and fiber of our world. They are here now, in the bricks of this cell, in my mattress and pillow. They are in my hair. They are my hair. They compose the very door that protects you from me. Their battles are legion; they are infinite and infinitesimal. The demons circle around the angels in band of increasing number, as though waiting to strike, while the angels circle around something more central, the nature of which I have never determined. Perhaps it is The Lord Himself, or the Gates of Paradise. Yet they never battle over Him; in any case I have observed, demons leave their flocks for other shores, emitting sparks, static heathens.

I still perceive these miniscule wars, yet for the first time in memory, they do not terrify me. Strange how they ever did; I do not know the nature of the trick. As soon as you pushed that pram down this hall, the emotional reaction has simply severed. I see plainly now that they will not attack us, or undo our world; they merely are. Circles around circles around a neutral enigma.

As my neighbor now realizes he is the splendid Saint Augustine, and his neighbor professes to no longer crave human flesh, I am to puzzle on the meaning of delusions.

Perhaps it is the will of The Lord Himself that insists I see into the matters angelic and demonic, and thereby render unto you this: I see nothing unlike in the boy as to any other boy. He has no excess of angels or demons. Anyone in this house who sees magic in his constitution is still possessed of madness. He is a plain child who would, under other circumstances, require no more than baptism and proper diet.

Yet I appreciate that we are not under other circumstances. Should the manic paralysis of my wardens pass, they will be most cross with your young master, as will any authorities pursuing him. The mind lurches with your devotion to him.

Get him to Jerusalem, or unto any island in the south where the infectiously sick are banished. Upon the latter there will be no healthy jailers for his presence to harm, and I know of one colony that has a printing press with obtuse reputation. Perhaps that is where you can inquire as to your former mistress’s book. I would not have advised its immolation, yet can hardly criticize a man’s hysteria at matters uncanny. How I would have liked to study its demons.

How can such a boy operate? He breathes, his flesh is pink as dawn, his angels and demons no quicker or crueler than those in your hands. What about him could render this clarity unto me, or that copious vomiting unto the wardens? It is perplexing in a fashion I have never felt – that which must be normal confusion in the rest of human history. You have granted me the privilege of feeling what any Christian would consider confusion, and thus made me one with every other thinker on the earth. It is a sore unity. Thank you for the privilege, even if it should be counterfeit.

If you would do one more kindness: take me with you. Take as many from this house as you deem trustworthy, for your pilgrimage in any direction will require fidelity of numbers. This boy, innocent as I claim him, will be pursued. Any sane mind here is in gratitude to whatever gift you carry in that basinet, and even if I were still in mean fate, I would wish the best for a child. Will you let me guide you to that southerly island printing press?

32 comments:

  1. An interesting direction you've taken this. Hmmmmm.

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    1. I read that as you not caring for the direction I'm taking it. Can you elaborate, Catherine?

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  2. I think the boy will be pursued. I missed the first chapter so went back for a quick read, a boy who cures and yet causes illness is quite a conundrum.

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    1. What would you do about it, Helen?

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    2. Now there's a question! Do about it I think I would try to save the child and perhaps in time he could learn to control this power he has. Either that or being with him could end up being a blessing or a curse.

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  3. I liked the imagery in the first half, of the two hosts and the fluctuating scale from the human. The second half seemed to veer away in tone into a slightly more conventional and less 'mystical' direction of 'the cure'. A more well established theology than the inventiveness of the first half.

    marc nash

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  4. I'm having a bit of a 'Hmmmmm' reaction to this as well. To elaborate: The first instalment felt self contained. This reads more like a section of a larger story.

    I like the change of narrative voice (seeing the child through different eyes but keeping him at a distance and mysterious) but it jars a bit after the first one. I think I'd need either repeat sections from old narrators to establish threads of continuity or new narrators but more story to bind it all together.

    Love the angels and demons concept btw.

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    1. So you would have preferred it stay one installment, if it was your call?

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    2. Tricky one. I'd rather it be one than two. But I might change my mind if there were three or four.

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    3. It will be five at the fewest, and I'm uncertain about it only being five. Have a fairly clear vision of where the Young Master is headed.

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  5. so this boy, after he has healed someone ill, does he then make them ill again once they are healthy? And vice versa?

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  6. I could use this boy's assistance today.

    Note: "neighbor professes to longer crave" in para 3 - typo?

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  7. I like the way this is unfolding. I can imagine we will hear more of this extraordinary child who heals the afflicted and afflicts the healthy. I wonder what would happen to people who are outwardly healthy, but have mild cases of high blood pressure or irritable bowel syndrome... things that have consequences, but could be controlled by diet.

    Like a couple others, I backed up and re-read the first part, just to refresh my memory. It took me a while to realize that the narrator wasn't the old servant, but one of the inmates. That abrupt shift (over a long week) might be causing some of the "hmmm" reactions. Me, I found it fascinating that the madman, while now rational, continues to see the angels and demons at war. Is he still loopy, or was it the truth of what he saw that drove him mad?

    I'm really chewing on this story, huh? Tasty!

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    1. It has been a while since the first chapter, and that probably accounts for the severity of the jarring. Part of the jarring is intentional, though. I think by Chapter 3 it'll be apparent that every chapter has a new narrator.

      I love this feedback, Larry. Thank you so much for all of your thoughts. I'm uncertain if minor ailments will wind up being covered in the mythos, though it's been on my mind since the first night I wrote the first chapter.

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  8. I agree with Marc and Peter - though this reads quite well the tone and voice is different enough from the first installment to make it jar a bit. That said, I love the language in this installment and the mysterious feel overall.

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    1. Did you feel jarred for the entire narrative, or was there a point at which you adjusted?

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    2. Only until around the 4th paragraph.

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  9. It took me a while to catch up with this one- the POV being so dramatically different from the last installment. But once I did it unfolded beautifully. I’m looking forward to see that island.

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    1. So you didn't have trouble identifying who the new narrator was? Or did you simply not mind?

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  10. I remember the first half but I was a little confused as to who was talking in this one - was it the boy, or someone else? I've read it a couple of times and while it's beautifully written, I'm still not entirely sure I know who's speaking. Sorry :(

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    1. I pinged you on Twitter about this, but I don't think you should apologize. I appreciate you dissenting against what you think isn't working.

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  11. I back tracked also to read part I. First of all, the language, the voice is outstanding. I'm no authority but it rings authentic, even though I'm not sure to just what. Maybe it's Wiswellian. I had to re-read a bit of the first part to be sure that the mother died at childbirth. I got it the second time. I don't think it's unclear at all. Seems the young master took all mama had to offer before suckling the wet nurses anemic. I figured the burned book was maybe a sign that the mother had made a deal with the devil in order to concieve and that maybe the child was the devil incarnate. But he seems(though he's just a normal boy) to the power of balance.

    You seem started on a great Odyssey, it will be interesting to see where this goes.

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    1. "Odyssey" is more apt than I have humility to be comfortable accepting. Thank you so much for all your praise here, Harry. This series is going to be a bizarre labor of love.

      And reading it as a deal with the devil, or something else demonic, is a perfectly reasonable interpretation at this stage. This narrator doesn't have to be correct, after all.

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  12. I'm quite positive about the way this story is unfolding. The mysticism of the Young Master and his ability is intriguing so is it's effect on people. After reading this part I wonder where the story will take us in future installments and I too have my visions of persecution.

    Loved the angelic/demonic concept, the voice and the observation of this anonymous patient.

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  13. John, I think you are a cleverer writer than I am an interpreter. As with the first episode I don't really understand what is going on, what is real and what is delusional, but this doesn't detract at all from my enjoyment of reading it.

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  14. I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, and missed the original, but I just loved the feel of both these stories...The sense of the mystical child pursued and causing calamity and cure at the same time. Now you point out different narrators I can see that. I assume the second narrator is a former lunatic. Really intrigued by this story...look forward to more.

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  15. I found myself more curious about the new narrator than the boy in this one, which I would assume was your intent for readers? I like it and will look forward to reading future installments.

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  16. Yes! A second installment! Very very interesting! poor child - doomed to a life on the run.

    part 3! part 3!

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  17. I like that we get the POV of a new character here and I'd love to see where you take the boy after this. I also like that the boy didn't cure him completely by removing the visions or second sight, but only by making them tolerable. That's a better cure than most.

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  18. I believe I'm fortunate in that I'm reading these without the intervening week. Even so, the switch in POV character was a jar - but one that I got over once I hit the second paragraph.

    The language is superb. I like the idea, expressed above in the comments, that the man may have been driven mad by his perceiving the truth of the world and the angelic and demonic wars about us.

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