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here on Harvich," he explained, pronouncing it Harrige, "and you damned near
died here." He pointed to the ground.
He looked and saw an irrigation pump with com-
pressor. Obviously he had been tightening the top hold-
ing nut with the big wrench and had kicked the thing into start. The wrench
had whirled around and caught him on the head.
He looked at it strangely, knowing what it must mean.
"Will you be all right?" the old man asked concern-
edly. "I got to run down the road or the old ladyll throw a fit, but if ya
want I can send somebody back to take ya inta the doc's."
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"I'll see him," Kally replied. "But let me get cleaned up first. How how far
is it into town?"
"Christ, Kally! Ya even talk a little funny!" the old man exclaimed. "But
Depot's a kilometer and a half down the road there." He pointed in the right
direction.
Kally Tonge nodded. "I'll go in. K you get a head injury, it's best to walk.
Just check back in a little while, just in case. I'll be all right"
"Well, okay," the old man responded dubiously.
"But if I don't hear ya got in town, I'm comin' lookin',"
he warned, then walked back to the road.
He's riding a horse! Kally thought wonderingly.
And the road's dirt!
He turned and went into the shack.
It was more modern than he would have guessed, although small. A big bed with
natural fur blankets in one comer, a sink, a gas stove bottled gas under-
neath, he noted and the water was probably from a water tank near the barn. A
big fireplace, and a crude indoor shower.
There was a small refrigerator, too, running off what would have been a
tractor battery if he had had a tractor.
He noted the toilet in one comer, and went over to it. Above it hung a cracked
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mirror, some scissors, and toiletries.
He looked at himself in the mirror.
His was a strong, muscular, handsome face in a rugged sort of way. The hair
was long and tied off in a ponytail almost a meter long, and he had a full but
neatly trimmed beard and mustache. The hair was brown, but the beard was
reddish.
He turned his head, saw that the knot was almost invisible in the hair.
Brushing it back revealed an ugly wound.
He died in that accident, he thought Kally Tonge died of that wound. And I
filled the empty vessel.
He stripped and took the mirror off its nail hanger, looking at himself. He
saw a nigged, muscular body, well toned and used to work. There were calluses
on the hands, worn in from hard farm labor.
The wound did hurt, and while he was certain it wouldn't be serious now, it
would be better to go into
348
town. It would also help to explain his mental lapses.
He put on a thick wool shirt and work pants, and some well-worn leather boots,
and went back outside.
The place was interesting, really. It looked like something out of ancient
history, yet had indoor plumbing, electricity, albeit crude, and several other
signs of civilization. In the midst of this primitive-
ness, he noticed with amusement that he wore a fancy wristwatch.
It was not cold, but there was a chill in the wind that made bim glad he had
picked the thicker shirt.
They were short on rain here, he noted; the dirt road was rutted and dug up,
yet dry and caked.
He walked briskly down the road toward the town, looking at the scenery. Small
farms were the rule, and many looked far more modem than his. There wasn't
much traffic, but occasional people passed on horse-
back or in buckboards, giving him the impression that modem vehicles were
either in short supply or banned.
And yet, despite the lack of recent rain, the land was good. The tilled soil
was black and mineral-rich, and where small compressors pumped water from
wells or nearby creeks into irrigation ditches, the land bloomed.
He came upon the town much faster than he had anticipated. He didn't feel the
least bit tired or uncom-
fortable, and he had walked with a speed that as-
tonished him. The town itself was a study in contrasts.
Log buildings, some as tall as five stories, mixed with modem, prefabricated
structures. The street wasn't paved, but it went for several blocks, with a
block or two on either side of the business district composed of houses,
mostly large and comfortable. There was street lighting, and some of the
businesses had electric signs, so there was a power plant somewhere, and, from
the look of things, running water and indoor plumbing.
He studied some of the women, most of whom were dressed in garb much like his
own, sometimes with small cowboy hats or straw broad-brimmed hats on their
heads. There weren't nearly as many women as men, he noted, and those that
were here looked tough, muscular, and mannish.
The town was small enough so that he spotted the doctor's office with no
difficulty and headed for it.
349
The doctor was concerned. He had quite a modem facility, with a minor surgery
and some of the latest machines and probes. Clearly medical care was well into
the modem era here. The X-rays showed a severe concussion and fracture. The
doctor marveled that he was alive at all, as he placed medication and a small
bandage on the wound after sewing seven stitches.
"Get somebody to stay with you the next few days, or look in on you
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regularly," the doctor advised. "Your loss of memory's probably only
temporary, and not
that uncommon in these cases. But a lot of damage was done. The brain was
bruised, and I want someone to see that you don't have a clot in there."
He thanked the doctor, assuring him that he would take care of himself and be
watched and checked.
"Settle the bill at the end of the month," the doctor told him.
This puzzled him for a minute. The bill? Money?
He had never used it himself, and, back on the street, he pulled out a thin
leather wallet, which looked like the survivor of a war, and opened it.
Funny-looking pieces of paper, about a dozen of them. They had very realistic
pictures, almost three-
dimensional, on them, the fronts showing the same man three times, the others
two other men and a woman.
The backs showed a remarkably realistic set of farm scenes. He wished he could
read the bills. He would have to find out what each, one was and remember the
pictures.
A three-story log building's lights went on in the coming twilight, and he saw
from the symbol on the sign that it was a bar and something else. He didn't
recognize the other symbol, and couldn't read the words. Curious, he walked
over to it.
There was a rumbling of thunder in the distance.
She awoke, feeling nauseated, and threw up.
The bile spilled on the cheap rug, and in it, as she gagged uncontrollably,
she could see bits and pieces and even whole pills of some kind. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]