Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America (70 page)
Read Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America Online
Authors: Robert Charles Wilson
Claire-Gabriel Robert for help with the Dutch and French passages—any errors are, of course, all mine. And, not least, my sincere thanks to Peter Crowther, of PS Publishing, whose handsome chapbook edition of "Julian: A Christmas Story" opened the door for this much larger work.
1
Whom I would meet when he was sixty years old, and I was a newcomer to the book trade—but I anticipate myself.
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2
Our local representative of the Council of the Dominion; in effect, the Mayor of the town.
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3
I beg the reader's patience if I detail matters that seem well-known. I indulge the possibility of a foreign audience, or a posterity to whom our present arrangements are not self-evident.
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4
Julian's somewhat feminine nature had won him a reputation among the other young Aristos as a sodomite. That they could believe this of him without evidence is testimony to the tenor of their thoughts, as a class. But it had occasionally redounded to my benefit. On more than one occasion his female acquaintances—sophisticated girls of my own age, or older—made the assumption that I was Julian's intimate companion, in a physical sense. Whereupon they undertook to cure me of my deviant habits, in the most direct fashion. I was happy to cooperate with these "cures," and they were successful, every time.
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5
The illusion was quite striking when the Players were professional, but their lapses could be equally astonishing. Julian once recounted to me a New York movie production of Wm. Shakespeare's
Hamlet,
in which a Player had come to the theater intoxicated with drink, causing the unhappy Denmark to seem to exclaim "Sea of troubles—(an unprintable oath)—I have troubles of my own," with more obscenities, and much inappropriate bell-ringing and vulgar whistling, until an understudy could be hurried out to replace him.
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6
Not a talent that was born fully-formed, however. Only two years previously I had presented to Sam Godwin my first finished story, which I had called "A Western Boy: His Adventures in Enemy Europe." Sam had praised its style and ambition, but called attention to a number of flaws: elephants, for instance, are not native to Brussels, and are generally too massive to be wrestled to the ground by American lads; a journey from London to Rome can't be accomplished in a matter of hours, even on "a very fast horse"—and Sam might have continued in that vein, had I not found an excuse to leave the room.
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7
"Grasp it where its neck ought to be, behind the head; ignore the tail, however it may thrash; and crack its skull, hard and often enough to subdue it."
I had recounted these instructions to Julian, whose horror of serpents far exceeded my own: "I could never do such a thing!" he had exclaimed. This surfeit of timidity may surprise readers familiar with his later career.
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8
Or "culs-de-sac"? My French is rudimentary.
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9
Though Old Miami or Orlando might begin to fit the bill.
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10
Julian's sense of timing was exquisite, perhaps as a result of his theatrical inclinations.
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11
Once confined to the Southeast, corn snakes have spread north with the warming climate. I have read that certain of the Secular Ancients once kept them as pets—yet another instance of our ancestors' willful perversity.
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12
And probably not much more than a mousehole for the Church of Signs, though that codicil was not explicit.
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13
The Song of Solomon, Frankly Illustrated,
was one title; another was
Acts Condemned by Leviticus
,
Explained and Described
,
with Diagrams.
They did not bear the Dominion Stamp of Approval.
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14
Whiskey was the word he used, but experienced drinkers, of whom there were many in the crowd, expressed the opinion that the fiery fluid was in fact "Idaho Velvet," or Potato-Jack.
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15
A statement too optimistic by half, as it turned out.
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16
Attributed to Saint Ambrose by some scholars, by others to Timothy LeHaye.
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17
One of the men was clearly tubercular, while two others showed evidence of active Pox about their wrists and throats. Five more were turned back simply because they had lost a great number of teeth, or their teeth were too loose in the jaw to be useful. A toothless man could not bite or chew Army hardtack, and such men had been known to starve to death on a long march.
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18
The Oath, though we swore to it under a sort of compulsion, was not meaningless to me. I held those Institutions of Liberty in awe, and I had been feeling guilty about my draft-dodging, necessary though it seemed at the time. By swearing fealty I felt
washed clean
—despite the bug powder clinging to my mortal fraction.
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19
Airier justifications were sometimes cited, including the theorized ancient landing of Vikings on the eastern shores of North America; but Julian assayed the tolerance of his listeners, and confined his argument to the most pertinent points.
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20
Even this thumbnail sketch of history taxed the geographical understanding of his auditors, and Julian was reduced to scratching maps in the dirt with the point of his bayonet.
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21
Though oddly, there were not seven isles to be seen, despite the name.
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22
Described in the novel
The Boys of '60
by Mr. Charles Curtis Easton.
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23
Coincidentally—or so the textbooks say.
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24
See Mr. Easton's
Against the Brazilians.
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25
President of the United States.
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26
The sensitive reader, not so hardened, may dislike to see rough talk set down verbatim on the innocent page. I apologize, and rest my defense on the cold grounds of veracity.
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27
A Dominion Officer, who is by definition a commissioned officer trained at the Dominion Academy in Colorado Springs, wears the standard uniform of an Infantryman of his rank, but adorned with red-and-purple pipings and blazons, and a pair of silver Angel's Wings pinned to the chest, and the soft wide-brimmed hat sometimes called a "chaplain's crown."
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28
Railroad bridges aside. But even the airy trestle at Connaught, which crosses the River Pine, might have fit inside this cathedral, if properly folded.
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29
The Cannon, Sam said, used particular and expensive ammunition, which the Dutch were probably hoarding for the more intense fighting to come.
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30
Or "Deutsche," as they are more properly called, for Germany is the heart and brain of Mitteleuropa, and "Deutsche" is another name for the German language. But many of the foreign soldiers in Labrador, and most of the foreign settlers, were former residents of the Netherlands, which had lost much of its land to the sea in recent times.
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31
And Deklan Conqueror must be uniquely sinister, I had lately thought, if he was more dangerous to confront than a legion of armed and angry Dutchmen. The difference, Sam explained, was that our enlistment would only last a year or so, while the threat from Julian's uncle would persist throughout his reign.
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32
Mr. Easton describes this poignant custom in his novel of 2168,
A Union Sailor in the Orient.
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33
This is the sort of thing I would once have dismissed as another of Julian's historical fantasies, except that the
Dominion History of the Union
made passing reference to it. War in the Air!—another of the unimaginable pastimes of the Secular Ancients.
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34
At the time I took "Scylla and Charybdis" to be New York City editors with whom Dornwood had dealt, or perhaps a publishing firm. In fact they were two great Nautical Rocks, in Greek mythology, which had the unusual ability to move about under their own steam, and had formed the bad habit of crushing sailors.
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35
At first I had been shocked by the sight of Montreal women wearing trousers rather than skirts—in Williams Ford no respectable female wore trousers past the age of ten—but social customs vary by location, as Julian had taught me, and clothes signify differently in different parts of the world. I had lately begun to take pride in my ability to accept such unusual behavior as female trouser-wearing, and I considered myself a sophisticate, far in advance of my old crowd of Williams Ford lease-boys.
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36
"Bush runners" are men who operate in the wilds of the Laurentians and up into the rocky wastelands of Labrador, living on the margins of the law. Some of them form guerilla bands, and might align themselves temporarily with the Americans or the Mitteleuropans; but their main business is horse thievery, smuggling, and opportunistic pillage.
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37
Or an even stronger word, best understood under the generous allowances of Cultural Relativism, and not printable here.
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38
Calyxa, unlike myself, was fluent in French, and sometimes fell into that language at odd moments.
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39
As I believe the Dutch called it.
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40
Though some of the men carved scrimshaw out of venerable ankles, or employed knobby old forearms as hooks on which to hang blankets to dry.
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41
Or Deutsche, in this case, I'm told.
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42
We were forced to evict the mules.
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43
Lymon, though not experienced in reading, endorsed my opinion that Mr. Easton was probably the greatest of our living authors. He could not imagine a better one, at any rate. It was a miracle that anyone wrote books at all, Lymon said, much less good ones; and he was impressed by Mr. Easton's formidable knowledge of foreign places, historic battles, pirates, and such interesting subjects.
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44
Lymon had amused himself during his hospital confinement by making himself a Knocker—a very fine one, consisting of a lead egg in a hempcloth sack, just as he had once described to me—and it was this device he employed to relieve the guard of his senses.
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45
A custom that can't be described outside of a medical textbook; though by Sam's account of it I was astonished that he would consider himself "lucky."
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46
They were sometimes locked up for other reasons, Julian said; but he changed the subject when I asked him to explain.
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47
"Passe mon bonjour au Diable quand tu le verras."
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48
I beg the reader's pardon.
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49
She played earnestly but haltingly, and Calyxa and I often excused ourselves from these sessions.
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50
I had taken to heart Lymon Pugh's many sermons on that subject.
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51
The grounds of the Executive Palace had once been a great Park, according to Julian, and open to the public; but that had changed when the federal government moved north from Washington.
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53
Orphans were a common sight on Manhattan streets, where they begged for coins in ingenious and aggressive ways. There was also a generous supply of limbless veterans, their competition.
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54
The Automobiles were perhaps a less successful artistic effect, as they seemed unusually one-dimensional, and bobbed unconvincingly as they moved; but the dedicated crew of Sound-Makers compensated for this with engine noises created by a baritone growling into a speaking-tube. How these automobiles had survived so long into the End of Oil was a question the film-makers did not address.
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55
A pledge alone secures the deed
/
Your labor's mine, while I fulfill your need
, etc. If there was any haggling over this bargain, the film did not depict it.
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56
Though only an idiot could have misinterpreted his facial grimaces, which the screen actor portrayed in a broad manner.
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