This story is so short, there"s little that can be said about it that the tale can"t say better itself, and this isn"t because I fear I might give it away. You really can"t give this one away. The t.i.tle lets you know what it"s about, but it"s Al"s magnificent prose that lets you feel what it"s about.
-J. R. L. (Hisownself).
Billy the Fetus.
Al Sarrantonio.
Soon as I growed ears I heered things. My Mammy was a-singin" all the time, "bout all kinds a-things-"bout the Moon, which was made a-cheese, "bout flowers and bees and dogs that be a-barkin" in the dusty streets. She even sang "bout the dusty streets themselves, what the clouds o" dust looked like when the stage rolled in or wagons pulled out from the genr"l store. I got me a fine picture o" the world from Mammy"s singin"-a fuzzy place with a giant Moon made a-cheese hangin" overhead, which you could see sometimes through th" dust while the dogs a-barked.
She even sang about my Pappy: Will Bonney"s gone, Gone to the devil, The devil ain"t happy, And that"s on the level.
Shot through the liver, Then shot through the heart, Will Bonney"s gone, "
Fore Billy Bonney"s start. . .
That Billy Bonney she be singin" "bout, that"d be me, I figured.
I figured lots o" things, floatin" there in that watery sac in my Mammy, with the fuzziest sounds filtering through. Couldn"t smell no dust, as I hadn"t growed a nose yet, and I couldn"t wait for seein" the dogs when I growed eyes. When Mammy really got to gigglin", she"d sing some o" the rest o" her song about my Pappy:Will was a fighter, He fought "em with his gun, They put him six feet under "Fore it all was done.
Many a man went before him Into a dusty grave, For Will was fast- Lord, fast with his hands!- And nothin" if he wasn"t brave.
I could just see my Pappy out there in the street, shootin" under the big ol" Moon a-cheese through the settling dust, mowin" them other fellers down with his six-gun. And he musta had a good reason, "cause Mammy, when she got to tinklin" the gla.s.ses, sometimes sang the last part o" her song about m" Pappy: Will Bonney had another gun, too, And he used it just as fast, And now little Billy"s comin" along- But Lord, that"s just the past!
So if you meet Will Bonney in Hades, Be sure to say h.e.l.lo, From the gal and babe he left behind While he dances down below . . .
There usually came gigglin" after that, and more gla.s.s tinklin", and then the bouncy ride, and then the pokin" thing, and loud noises, and Mammy yellin", and some feller-not-my-Pappy yellin", and then the really loud noise which I didn"t understand but thought might be the Moon a-cheese fallin" out of the sky.
And that"s the way I went along for a while, while my hands and feet growed a bit, looking like flippers, and my eyes growed too, and my brain I guess, and I floated and dreamed of the Moon a-cheese and wondered what the bouncy ride was, and the pokin" thing, and the feller- not-my-Pappy groanin" and yellin", every time a different feller, it seemed to me, and the loud noise like the Moon a-cheese fallin" from the sky-a noise as loud as my Pappy"s six-gun.
And then one day while it was all happenin" again, the bouncy ride and such, and some feller-not-my-Pappy a-gruntin" and yellin", I suddenly figured it out!
As if my brain had growed just big enough to make me see, it became as clear as the Moon a-cheese in the sky!
That feller-not-my-Pappy was tryin" to kill me!
And he was hurtin" my Mammy!
Hurtin" her plenty, I"d say, she was a moaning and groanin" so, and now he was tryin" to kill me for sure, for here came the pokin" thing, a weapon if there ever was one-maybe even a six-gun!-jabbin" up from below and tryin" to bust my floatin" sac!Well, no, sir, that wasn"t gonna happen at all-n.o.body was a gonna hurt my Mammy-and n.o.body was gonna kill Billy Bonney like they killed my Pappy!
n.o.body was gonna make me go below, down to the devil, and make me dance!
Not me, the son of Will Bonney!
I had to do something about it- So I did.
"I"m a-comin", Mammy!" I hollered, though I didn"t have much of a mouth yet, and the little noises came out like the bubble farts I made sometimes in the floatin" sac.
"I"m a-comin" t" save ya!"
By now she was well past the gigglin" and gla.s.s tinklin" and into the Mammy-yellin"
stage-but she really started t" yell when I made my way out o" there. First I ripped off the cord "tween Mammy and me-did a nice neat job o" pullin" it apart in the middle and tied it off on both the wriggly ends so"s not to make a mess. That was a bit of a ch.o.r.e with my flipper hands and all, but I managed it. Then I began a" swimmin", pad-dlin" right for the hole where that pokin" weapon had been. Nothin" there now, and I saw the spot leadin" out and went for it.
Dove right through with my hands out in front of me makin" a wedge, and closed my big eyes and whoosh! if that sack didn"t break easy as I hoped, carrying me along for a ways before things began to dry out. Then I had to claw my way along. Not too far, which was good for me and Mammy, since she was a yellin" somethin" fierce by this time.
Things began to get lighter, and I waited for the fuzzy light to hit me, the color of the Moon a-cheese, but instead there was just a couple of flaps in front of me which I pushed apart and whoa!-there was no fuzzy light a"tall but somethin" that hurt my eyes fierce, like a burnin"
itself!
I didn"t let that stop me, though, or the little coughin" fit I had while my lungs filled up with what must have been air. The sounds were way clear now, with Mammy screamin" like the devil and Hie man I"d heard a-moanin". I pulled my part of the cord out after me and kept on movin" while my eyes got used to the grand and glorious light o" the world, nothin" like the soft fuzzy light I"d expected but sharp as anything. And the colors! The reddest red you"d ever imagine, all around me and wet. And there, suddenly, out the window of Mammy"s room, floatin" in the black night that wasn"t fuzzy a"tall, was the Moon a-cheese itself, which I got a good look at as my eyes began to focus sharp. Then I dropped to Mammy"s bed- And there was a six-gun, laying right there beside me, and the man who"d hurt Mammy a-whimperin" and crouchin" in the corner, his pants around his ankles and his other-gun, like Mammy"s talked about in the song, just as sad and droopy as could be.
So I worked up all my strength, and lifted Mammy"s gun in my flipper hands, holding it on the bed and wrapping my flipper feet around it and aiming it real true, just like my Pappy would, and pulled the trigger twice, and I done shot that feller through the heart, then through the liver, and watched him drop dead t" the floor.
"I saved you, Mammy! I saved you!" I cried in little bubble farts. And then I turned smiling with my tiny mouth and looked at my Mammy for the first time ever.
She was a-layin" there on the pillows of her bed pale as ghosts must be, pale as dust, her eyes big and drained. She lifted a weak finger, layin" there in a pool of blood around her middle like she was, where I"d come a-swimmin" out, and she pointed at me.
"Mammy!" I burbled happily.I waited for her to smile, but instead her lips curled into a sneer and she screamed in a hateful way: "You little b.a.s.t.a.r.dl I knowed you"d be a boy when you popped! Felt you like a disease inside o" me!"
She got real weak then, and her hand lowered to the bed-but then the rage crawled back up into her face and she hissed: "I would"ve killed you too when you came out natural! Just like I killed any man who ever come near me!"
"But Mammy-!" I said.
Her eyes got all big and wild then, and she pointed to her still-distended belly. "Just like I killed your pappy, that sonofab.i.t.c.h Will Bonney who did this to me!"
I looked down at my own other-gun, which was so itsy it didn"t look like it could hurt n.o.body at no time. "Mammy-!"
"I"ll shoot you through the heart and liver yet! Just like I shot "em all!"
She began to sing then, in a kind of gigglin", croaky voice, a song I"d never heard a"fore: So if you"re six feet under And dancing down below, Be sure to look up Billy Bonney, Be sure to say h.e.l.lo!
She reached down for the six-gun, but before she could grab it she suddenly got to bein" real weak again. She lay back on the bed and fainted. And that was all the time I needed.
Didn"t take me long to get fixed up again. The cord healed up pretty good, as I took my time getting the two ends to match up just right. I managed to get the hole I"d made closed, though I"ll have to see how much good that does me, since the floatin" sac"s gone. I figure the cord"s the important thing, since the whiff I got of air while I was out didn"t seem to hurt me none, and my lungs, small as they is, seem to be workin" okay.
Figure I can hole up in here as long as I need to.
Heck, who needs it out there anyway-I can wait to see flowers and bees and barkin" dogs, and that little peek I got o" the Moon convinced me it ain"t made a-cheese, after all. Looked all wrinkly and dusty-cold to me.
She ain"t gonna make me dance down below.
And o" course I got this here six-gun with four more bullets in it- and if she comes in after me I know how to use it.
This is true: Gene Wolfe, who grew up in Houston, Texas, attended Edgar Allan Poe Elementary School. Much later, he produced some of the most important science fiction of the last forty years, including The Book of the New Sun, The Urth of the New Sun, and The Book of the Long Sun. He has won two Nebulas and three World Fantasy Awards, as well as the British Science Fiction Award and the British Fantasy Award. The Urth of the New Sun earned the Premio Italia.
New short fiction from Gene Wolfe is always an event; stories besides this new wonder can be found in collections such as The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (another wonderful t.i.tle, aswonderful as that of the abovementioned Kit Reed collection) and the newest, Strange Travelers.
Viewpoint.
Gene Wolfe.
"I have one question and one only," Jay declared. "How do I know that I will be paid?
Answer it to my satisfaction and give your orders."
The youngish man behind the desk opened a drawer and pulled out a packet of crisp bills. It was followed by another and another, and they by seven more. The youngish man had brown-blond hair and clear blue eyes that said he could be trusted absolutely with anything.
Looking at them, Jay decided that each had cost more than he had ever had in his entire life to date.
"Here"s the money," the youngish man told Jay softly. "These are hundreds, all of them. Each band holds one hundred, so each bundle is ten thousand. Ten bundles make a hundred thousand.
It"s really not all that much."
"Less than you make in a year." "Less than I make in three months. I know it"s a lot to you." The youngish man hesitated as though groping for a new topic. "You"ve got a dramatic face, you know. Those scars. That was your edge. Did you really fight a bobcat?"
Jay shrugged. "The bullet broke its back, and I thought it was dead. I got too close."
"I see." The youngish man pushed the packets of bills toward him. "Well, you don"t have to worry about getting paid. That"s the full sum, and you"re getting it up front and in cash." He paused. "Maybe I shouldn"t tell you this."
Jay was looking at the money. "If it"s confidential, say so and I"ll keep it that way."
"Will you?"
Jay nodded. "For a hundred thousand? Yes. For quite a bit less than that."
The youngish man sighed. "You probably know anyway, so why not? You can"t just go out and stick it in a bank. You understand that?"
"They"ll say it"s drug money."
For a moment the youngish man looked as if he were about to sigh again, although he did not. "They"ll say it"s drug money, of course. They always do. But they really don"t care. You have a lot of money, and if it gets into a bank Big Daddy will have it in a nanosecond. It"ll take you years to get it back, and cost a lot more than a hundred thousand."
Though skeptical, Jay nodded. "Sure."
"Okay, I didn"t want to give you this and have them grab it before five. They"ll take a big cut of anything you spend it on anyway, but we"ve all got to live with that."
Jay did not, but he said nothing.
"Count it. Count it twice and look carefully. I don"t want you thinking we cheated you for a lousy hundred thou."
Jay did, finding it impossible to think of what so much money could buy. He had needed money so badly that he could no longer calculate its value in terms of a new rifle or a canoe. It was money itself he hungered for now, and this was more than he had dared dream of.
"You want a bag? I can give you one, but that jacket"s got plenty of pockets. It"s for camping,right?"
"Hunting."
The youngish man smiled the smile of one who knows a secret. "Why don"t you put it in there? Should be safer than a bag."
Jay had begun to fill them already-thirty thousand in the upper right inside pocket, twenty more in the upper left, behind his wallet. Twenty in the left pocket outside.
"You"re BC, right?"
"Sure." Jay tapped the empty screen above his eyes.
"Okay." The youngish man opened another drawer. "As a bonus you get a double upgrade.
Couple of dots. Sit still." Jay did.
When the youngish man was back behind his desk, he said, "I bet you"d like to look at yourself. I ought to have a mirror, but I didn"t think of it. You want to go to the men"s? There"s a lot of mirrors in there. Just come back whenever you"ve seen enough. I"ve got calls to make."
"Thanks," Jay said.
In the windowless office beyond the youngish man"s, his secretary was chatting with a big security bot. Jay asked where the rest rooms were, and the bot offered to show him, gliding noiselessly down the faux-marble corridor.
"Tell me something," Jay said when the bot had come to a stop before the door. "Suppose that when I got through in there I went down to the lobby. Would there be anything to stop me from going out to the street?"
"No, sir."
"You"re going to be standing out here waiting for me when I come out, right? I"d never make it to the elevators." "Will you need a guide at that point, sir?"
The blank metal face had told Jay nothing, and the pleasant baritone had suggested polite inquiry, and nothing else. Jay said, "I can find my way back all right."
"In that case, I have other duties, sir." "Like talking to that girl?"
"Say woman, sir. To that young woman. They prefer it, and Valerie is an excellent source of intelligence. One cultivates one"s sources, sir, in police work."
Jay nodded, conceding the point. "Can you answer a couple more questions for me? If it"s not too much trouble?"
"If I can, sir. Certainly."
"How many dots have I got?"
"Are you referring to IA stars, sir?" Jay nodded.
"Two, sir. Are you testing my vision, sir?"
"Sure. One more, and I"ll let you alone. What"s the name of the man I"ve been talking to?