Philip Dick - The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Vol. 5 - The Eye of the Sibyl and Other Classic Stories
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- Название:The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Vol. 5: The Eye of the Sibyl and Other Classic Stories
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"It's due to you," Rybus said. "I would have given up without you. I never told you this, but – well, I squirreled away enough sleeping pills to kill myself, and -"
"I'll talk to you tomorrow," he said, "about getting together." He hung up and lay back down.
He thought, When Job had lost his children, lands, and goods, Patience assuaged his excessive pain. And when his sorrows came as fast as floods, Hope kept his heart till comfort came again. As the Fox would put it.
Recycled sentimentality, he thought. I got her through her ordeal and she paid me back by deriding into rubbish that which I cherished the most. But she is alive, he realized; she did make it. It's like when someone tries to kill a rat. You can kill it six ways and it still survives. You can't fault that.
He thought, That is the name of what we are doing here in this star system on these frozen planets in these little domes. Rybus Rommey understood the game and played it right and won. To hell with Linda Fox. And then he thought, But also to hell with what I love.
It is a good trade-off, he thought: a human life won and a synthetic media image wrecked. The law of the universe.
Shivering, he pulled his covers over him and tried to get back to sleep.
The food man showed up before Rybus did; he awoke McVane early in the morning with a full shipment.
"Still got your temp and air illegally boosted," the food man said as he unscrewed his helmet.
"I just use the equipment," McVane said. "I don't build it."
"Well, I won't report you. Got any coffee?"
They sat facing each other across the table drinking fake coffee.
"I just came from the Rommey girl's dome," the food man said. "She says she's cured."
"Yeah, she phoned me late last night," McVane said.
"She says you did it."
To that, McVane said nothing.
"You saved a human life."
"Okay," McVane said.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm just tired."
"I guess it took a lot out of you. Christ, it's a mess over there. Can't you clean it up for her? Destroy the garbage, at least, and sterilize the place; the whole goddam dome is septic. She let her garbage disposal get plugged and it backed up raw sewage all over her cupboards and shelves, where her food is stored. I've never seen anything like it. Of course, she's been so weak -"
McVane interrupted, "I'll look into it."
Awkwardly, the food man said, "The main thing is, she's cured. She was giving herself the shots, you know."
"I know," McVane said. "I watched her." Many times, he said to himself.
"And her hair's growing back. Boy, she looks awful without her wig. Don't you agree?"
Rising, McVane said, "I have to broadcast some weather reports. Sorry I can't talk to you any longer."
Toward dinnertime Rybus Rommey appeared at the hatch of his dome, loaded down with pots and dishes and carefully wrapped packages. He let her in, and she made her way silently to the kitchen area, where she dumped everything down at once; two packages slid off onto the floor and she stooped to retrieve them.
After she had taken off her helmet, she said, "It's good to see you again."
"Likewise," he said.
"It'll take about an hour to fix the tacos. Do you think you can wait until then?"
"Sure," he said.
"I've been thinking," Rybus said as she started a pan of grease heating on the stove. "We ought to take a vacation. Do you have any leave coming? I have two weeks owed me, although my situation is complicated by my illness. I mean, I used up a lot of my leave in the form of sick leave. Christ's sake, they docked me one-half day a month, just because I couldn't operate my transmitter. Can you believe it?"
He said, "It's nice to see you stronger."
"I'm fine," she said. "Shit, I forgot the hamburger. Goddam it!" She stared at him.
"I'll go to your dome and get it," he said presently. She seated herself. "It's not thawed. I forgot to thaw it out. I just remembered now. I was going to take it out of the freezer this morning, but I had to finish some letters… maybe we could have something else and have the tacos tomorrow night."
"Okay," he said.
"And I meant to bring your tea back."
"I only gave you four bags," he said.
Eyeing him uncertainly, she said, "I thought you brought me that whole box of Celestial Seasonings Morning Thunder Tea. Then where did I get it? Maybe the food man brought it. I'm just going to sit here for a while. Could you turn on the TV?" He turned on the TV.
"There's a show I watch," Rybus said. "I never miss it. I like shows about – well, I'll have to fill you in on what's happened so far if we're going to watch."
"Could we not watch?" he said. "Her husband -"
He thought, She's completely crazy. She is dead. Her body has been healed, but it killed her mind.
"I have to tell you something," he said.
"What is it?"
"You're -" He ceased.
"I'm very lucky," she said. "I beat the odds. You didn't see me when I was at my worst. I didn't want you to. From the chemo I was blind and paralyzed and deaf and then I started having seizures; I'll be on a maintenance dose for years. But it's okay? Don't you think? To be on just a maintenance dose? I mean, it could be so much worse. Anyhow, her husband lost his job because he -"
"Whose husband?" McVane said.
"On the TV." Reaching up she took hold of his hand. "Where do you want to go on our vacation? We so goddam well deserve some sort of reward. Both of us."
"Our reward," he said, "is that you're well."
She did not seem to be listening; her gaze was fastened on the TV. He saw, then, that she still wore her dark glasses. It made him think, then, of the song the Fox had sung on Christmas Day, for all the planets, the most tender, the most haunting song which she had adapted from John Dowland's lute books.
"When the poor cripple by the pool did lie
Full many years in misery and pain,
No sooner he on Christ had set his eye,
But he was well, and comfort came again."
Rybus Rommey was saying, "- it was a high-paying job but everyone was conspiring against him; you know how it is in an office. I worked in an office once where -" Pausing, she said, "Could you heat some water. I'd like to try a little coffee."
"Okay," he said, and turned on the burner.
Strange Memories of Death
I woke up this morning and felt the chill of October in the apartment, as if the seasons understood the calendar. What had I dreamed? Vain thoughts of a woman I had loved. Something depressed me. I took a mental audit. Everything was, in fact, fine; this would be a good month. But I felt the chill.
Oh Christ, I thought. Today is the day they evict the Lysol Lady.
Nobody likes the Lysol Lady. She is insane. No one has ever heard her say a word and she won't look at you. Sometimes when you are descending the stairs she is coming up and she turns wordlessly around and retreats and uses the elevator instead. Everybody can smell the Lysol she uses. Magical horrors contaminate her apartment, apparently, so she uses Lysol. God damn! As I fix coffee, I think, Maybe the owners have already evicted her, at dawn, while I still slept. While I was having vain dreams about a woman I loved who dumped me. Of course. I was dreaming about the hateful Lysol Lady and the authorities coming to her door at five A.M. The new owners are a huge firm of real estate developers. They'd do it at dawn.
The Lysol Lady hides in her apartment and knows that October is here, October first is here, and they are going to bust in and throw her and her stuff out in the street. Now is she going to speak? I imagine her pressed against the wall in silence. However, it is not as simple as that. Al Newcum, the sales representative of South Orange Investments, has told me that the Lysol Lady went to Legal Aid. This is bad news because it screws up our doing anything for her. She is crazy but not crazy enough. If it could be proved that she did not understand the situation, a team from Orange County Mental Health could come in as her advocates and explain to South Orange Investments that you cannot legally evict a person with diminished capacity. Why the hell did she get it together to go to Legal Aid?
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