Arkady Strugatsky: The Snail on The Slope

"To the Ci-i-i-i-ty, ah now, is that where you're heading. I remember, I remember ... yes to the City ... you can't get there, Dummy. To Clay Clearing now, that's easy; past the two stones, through the mushroom village, past funny village, then Clay Clearing'11 be on your right. Or to the Reeds, say, turn right as you leave me through the scrub, past Bread Fen, then keep following the sun. Where the sun goes, you follow. It's three days travel, but if you really have to go, we'll do it. We used to get pots there before we planted our own. I know the Reeds like the back of my hand, you should have said that's where you wanted to go. No need to wait till the day after tomorrow either, we'll start tomorrow in the morning, we needn't take any food with us, seeing as we're going by Bread Fen... .

"You know, Dummy, you speak so fast it hurts to listen to you. A man's just started to take in what you say when you shut your mouth. Well, we'll go to the Reeds, tomorrow morning we'll go..."

Kandid heard him out once more.

"Listen, Hopalong, I don't have to go to the Reeds. The Reeds aren't where I want to go. Where I want to be isn't the Reeds." Hopalong was listening and nodding. "I want to go to the City. We've often spoken of it before I told you yesterday I wanted to go to the City. I told you the day before I wanted to to the City. I said a week ago I wanted to go there. You told me you knew the way to the city. You said that yesterday. And the day before. Not to the Reeds, to the City. I don't want to go to the Reeds [don't let me get mixed up, he thought, maybe I'm mixed up already. Not the Reeds, the City. The City and not the Reeds]. The City, not the Reeds," he repeated aloud. "Understand? Tell me about the road to the City. Not to the Reeds, to the City. Still better, let's go to the City together. Not to the Reeds together, together to the City."

He stopped. Hopalong started rubbing his sore knee again.

"Likely when they cut your head off, Dummy, something got damaged in there. Like my leg. It used to be just an ordinary leg like anybody else's, then once I was going through the Anthills at night, carrying an ant queen and I put this foot in a hollow tree and now the leg's twisted. Why it's twisted nobody knows, but it doesn't walk straight, and that's a fact. But it'll get me to the Anthills. And I'll take you along. What I don't get is why you told me to get food ready for the trip- the Anthills is only a stone's throw from here."

He looked at Kandid, floundered, mouth open.

"Of course you don't want to go to the Anthills, do you? Where is it, now? I know, the Reeds. Well I can't go there, I'd never make it. See how twisted this leg is? Listen, Dummy, what is it you've got against going to the Anthills? Let's go there, eh? I've never been there once since that day, maybe the hills aren't there anymore. Let's have a look for that hollow tree, what say?"

He'll sidetrack me, I know it, thought Kandid. He leaned over on his side and rolled a pot over to him.

"Good pot you've got here," he said, "I don't remember when I saw a pot as good as this ... so you'll take me to the City? You told me nobody knows the road to the City except you. Let's go to the City, what do you think, will we make it?"

"Make it? Course we'll make it! To the City, of course we will. And you have seen pots as good as these, know where? The funny folk make them like that. They don't grow them, you know, they make them out of clay, they're not far from Clay Clearing, I told you: left away from me and past the two stones as far as Mushroom Village, only nobody lives there anymore so there's no sense in going. Why should we? Haven't we seen mushrooms before? Even when my leg was all right I never went to Mushroom Village, I only know the funny folk live two ravines past there. Yes ... we could go tomorrow, yes... Listen, Dummy, let's not go there eh? I don't like those mushrooms. There's mushrooms in our part of the forest, that's different, you can eat them, they taste good. Over there they're sort of green and they smell rotten. Why do you want to go there? You'll bring spawn back with you as well. We'd better go to the City. A lot nicer. Only we can't go tomorrow, there's food to get together and we'll have to find out the way-or do you know the way? If you do, I won't need to ask. In fact I can't think who to ask. Maybe the elder knows -what do you think?"

"Don't you know the way to the City yourself?" asked Kandid. "You know a lot about it, don't you? You even got to the City almost once, didn't you? Only you got frightened of the deadlings and decided you couldn't get through on your own..."

"I wasn't frightened of deadlings any more than I am now," objected Hopalong. "I'll tell you what I am afraid of, though. Are you going to be quiet all the way? That's something I could never do. There's something else as well ... don't get angry at me. Dummy, just tell me, or if you don't want to say it aloud, whisper, or nod, or if you don't even want to nod just close that eye of yours, the right one in the shadow, nobody'll see only me. The question I want to put is this: aren't you just a teeny bit of a deadling? I can't stand deadlings, you know, I get the tremble when I see them, can't do a thing with myself..."

"No, Hopalong, I'm not a deadling," said Kandid. "I can't stand them myself. If you're afraid I'll be too quiet for you, just remember we'll not be alone, I've told you often enough, Buster's going with us, Barnacle, and two men from New Village."

"I'm not going with Buster," said Hopalong with decision. "First Buster took my daughter away and didn't take care of her. Lost her, he did. I didn't mind him taking her, I do mind him not taking care of her. He was going with her to New Village and robbers set on him and took my daughter and he gave her up. Your Nava and me looked ages for her but we never found her. No, Dummy, there's no sense messing with robbers. If we went to the City, you and I, there'd be no peace from them. Now if it were the Reeds, no trouble at all. We'll start tomorrow."

"The day after," said Kandid. "You'll go, Buster, Barnacle, and the two from New Village. And we'll get right to the City."

"If there's six of us, we'll get there," said Hopalong confidently. "I'd never get there on my own of course, but if there's six of us, we'll get there. With six of us we'd get as far as Devil's Rocks, only I don't know the way there. Shall we go to Devil's Rocks? Listen, Dummy, let's go to the City and decide there, eh? There's food to get ready though, and plenty of it."

"Okay," said Kandid, rising to his feet. "So the day after tomorrow, we start for the City. Tomorrow I'll go to New Village, then I'll see and remind you."

"Come around," said Hopalong. "I'd come to see you, only my leg aches, no strength in it. You come around. We'll have a chat. There's a lot of folk don't like talking to you, Dummy, it's pretty hard going, you know, but I don't mind, I've got used to it, I even like it. Come around, and bring Nava with you, she's a good girl, your Nava, no children though, they'll come she's young yet, that Nava of yours..."

Out on the street, Kandid wiped the sweat away with his palms. Somewhere near, somebody cackled and started coughing. Kandid turned and saw the old man waving a knotted finger of warning.

"The City, eh? So that's where you're off to? That's interesting, nobody's ever got there alive, what's more it's not done. Even you should know that even if you have got a transplanted head."

Kandid swung off to the right along the street. The old man trailed along in the grass after him, muttering:

"If it's not done, then it's always forbidden in some sense or the other, of course ... for instance, it's not done without the elder or the assembly, with the elder and the assembly it is permissible, of course, though not in every sense..." Kandid was walking as quickly as the ennervating heat and humidity would allow and the old man gradually fell behind.