"Carol Emshwiller - The Being of It All" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emshwiller Carol)

The Being of It All


by Carol Emshwiller
I hear the call when I'm up on a mountaintop in roiling clouds with thunder. I was
about to hurry down to a safer spot, but the voice says, "Come." Then, "Do, be,
proclaim. Become more than just your father's son."

The air is crackling with electricity. I see a tree get hit and crash down below us.
Even so, the voice is wrong. I yell, "Mother's daughter. Mother's daughter." It
echoes back and forth, across all the peaks and back to me as if I were a god.

Or maybe the voice was meant for somebody else.

"It's just me," I yell. "Me. Marilyn."

My voice echoes again. I sound so powerful I could come to think the call really
was meant for meтАФthat I really could proclaim.

But there's no answer.

"Just me."

It doesn't come again. Maybe this silence means it knows it made a mistake.

"Repeat," I say, "so I'll know for sure."

It doesn't.

I guess I'll never know for sure.

I'm wearing my big black hat. I wanted to pretend I was bold and the hat helps. I can
be bolder if no one sees it's me. That may have confused whoever it was calling out.
Take off that hat and I'm just like everybody else. Worse actually, dull and shy. I can
never think of what to talk about. I don't know what to do with my hands. I never
look anybody straight in the eyes. If I see somebody I know walking down the
street, I cross to the other side.

I'm with my little dog, Booboo. She's as shy as I am. Lightning scares her. Right
now she's somewhere just below. She'll hide behind a rock until I come back.

"Be," the voice said. I've never been. "Do." Do what? You can't just say, Proclaim,
without saying what about.

I shout, "I need more information." It echoes and echoes. Miles away, mountain to
mountain.

But no answer. I'm on my own.

It's that echo that's confusing me тАж my voice sounding so powerful. It went so far