Friday, March 1, 2013

The Only Thing Worse is the Cure, Part 3

This is the third installment in "The Only Thing Worse is the Cure."
To read Part 1, click here.
To read Part 2, click here.



I don’t care how many people followed him here. Let them alone. Gregor, are you listening? They both survived!

Here, here. The old man – yes, one of the followers, I don’t care – came from where you’re standing and sat right here, with the child in his arms like any proud father. The way he always kept an elbow up at us, you could tell how protective he was, how much he loved the boy. He wanted after some tome we printed when the press first opened. He practically threw money at me, like we have use for crowns out here. All I’ve got is a rusty press, a malformed heart, and rags I wash for Juniper.

I was trying to explain to him, trying to explain that we did that half on dictation and the Arab who ordered it only ever wanted five copies. At first, at first I thought Juniper was getting up from the rear to support me like she shouldn’t, but the sounds got so awful. A third labor on that same stone cold baby, and everyone in the shack knew from the sound this was the last one. I nearly bled for her in sympathy.

Now the old man had assisted with births back on the mainland, and most in the shack were so feeble from plague they couldn’t help, so I led him in with me. He… and you know, Saul got the same expression you’ve got now. Listen, I love my daughter more than anyone on the island, so why do you all question me so? But when Saul heard a stranger was in the rear, he came in with an axe handle and threatened to scatter the old man’s brains. With my heart, I couldn’t fight Saul, not then. So he picked up his boy and ran from the cabin, and no sooner was he through the threshold, then Juniper started bleeding in earnest. Like she was birthing to a razor. Everyone had to rise and hold her down, even the old man that you and Saul distrusted on principle.

The old man set his son on the floor, and didn’t even have hands on Juniper before it stopped. Like nothing you ever seen, turned to nothing, and I thought our girl was gone to Heaven. And Gregor, she didn’t give birth to a stone. We’ve got a daughter and granddaughter – but keep quiet, because they need rest. I never even thought I’d live to have a daughter, and now… come look at her. And keep quiet.

I know it’s funny, he’s so much bigger than her. Sleeps all the time, the old man says. Begged me to let his boy sleep in the same room as the mother and child. Some mainland paganism, I guess. But there’s no harm in them sharing the basket. He’s like her luck charm. Watching them fools me almost enough that my heart feels normal again. Haven’t wanted to sit all afternoon.

So you let those followers stay, no matter what they’re chanting. There’ll be more in time. For now you tell me – do you remember anything about that Arab who had us press five copies of a book?

No? Well we’ve got to fix that. The old man deserves to know whatever he wants, and he wants to find this Arab, or at least another copy of his book. If his mistress burned one, there ought to be four more out there, oughtn’t there?

19 comments:

  1. Aha! The cure can create/sustain life under certain circumstances. I wondered.

    I like this world. This section reminded me of the far-future bits from Cloud Atlas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll definitely take any comparisons to Cloud Atlas I can get. Very glad you're liking the world. May I ask, though, why it reminded you of the far-future section?

      And also, yes, it was always the plan that he'd sustain a certain life. I just didn't want to spoil it for you until I wrote this chapter!

      Delete
    2. The Cloud Atlas association came from the interpersonal dynamics, and just because this narrator is used to a certain level of hardship. He seems pretty resigned to the stillbirths, for instance.

      Delete
  2. It's interesting telling each section through a different narrator. Takes me a little while to settle back in. I like the little morsels of plot from the previous narrators sprinkled in this episode.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm floating this question around today, and will ask both you and Helen since she brought it up next. Would you rather this wasn't a serial? Or, if I now continue it every week to conclusion, do you think it would be copacetic?

      Delete
  3. Yes, I'm like Peter it takes me a while to get back into it. I had to read it twice. It's an intriguing story - it's interesting that the cure can sustain life too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My question for Peter applies to you, too. Won't take any offense if you'd prefer it wasn't serialized.

      For what it's worth, it was supposed to be a weekly serial until my grandmother had her emergency and I got swamped with my own neuropathy problems. It would be a weekly serial until it finished from hereon out if I continued to publish it here. Otherwise, I'd collect the entire story as a short.

      Delete
  4. The perspective of the unlearned narrator was compelling, but I was left confused, since I didn't get the references to the Arab and the five books.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm wondering if this won't be the take-away for many readers, especially since there has been more than a month since the first installment. I presume reading them in a row would leave the books rather obvious, but after the long break it's likely only the boy and a few surrounding details would stick. Do you think I ought to discontinue the story as a serial?

      Delete
    2. It's the nature of things that a long gap between episodes makes it harder to keep details in mind, particularly with shifts in narrator, writing style and perspective. Writing out the entire story in advance and posting on a closer, more regular schedule would assist it as a serial.

      Delete
  5. I really enjoyed this installment. Please do continue it as a serial. It might help to tack a "what has gone before" synopsis to the top of future installments to avoid the "what Arab? what book?" questions.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've just read all three parts to this, John, and really enjoyed Parts I and III and like where this is going. It's interesting to see how the boy's special gift is now being put to some good use, albeit in exchange for a book, or at least information about one. The shift in narrators worked for me but I admit that it threw me out of the story a bit in Part II. I felt a bit disoriented and it took me a while to work out who was narrating and what was going on.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes definitely this needs to be continued as a serial. The possibilities the cure posesses are expanding and so is the number of people affected by it. With each narrator we get to read how the cure works. It's building up great.

    Mentioning an Arab and books kinda reminds me of Lovecraft and his Mad Arab, Abdul Alhazred! But probably I'm far from the truth here.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It took me a little while to figure out what was happening again, but I liked this. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've been enjoying throughout and hope you continue it as a serial. This part definitely left me wanting more, particularly with regard to the 4 remaining books.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Took me a moment to figure out what what was going on. But I enjoyed it when I did.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just got caught up with this and so glad you decided to continue it! I had to read the parts twice because of the different narrators but it's worth it to catch the flow of the story.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Had to re-read the last installment but it was a refreshing revisit. Liking these pieces Jon, keep them coming :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Having been away from this world for a little while, John, I too found the opening, initially, a little jarring. Like Pete said, it took a while to "settle back in"; I read this twice.
    Also, like Tony, the Arab sub-plot was lost on me. I'd need to go back and re-read previous installments. However, as I seen you've mentioned yourself, reading this all in one sitting would negate this confusion, for sure.
    I'm really enjoying reading this unfold, though. I'd certainly read more. Length of time between entries would dictate my level of enjoyment (and understanding), though, I feel.

    ReplyDelete

Counter est. March 2, 2008