"Jay Lake - Into the Gardens of Sweet Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lake Jay)

Into the Gardens of Sweet Night
by Jay Lake

Copyright (C)2003 by Jay Lake

First published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future XIX, August 2003

Hugo Award Nominee, Writers of the Future Contest Winner, John W. Campbell Memorial Award
Nominee

This story originally appeared as a first place winner in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future,
Volume XIX, Galaxy Press, August, 2003. It is now on the 2004 Hugo ballot for Best Novelette. It was
also my qualifying sale for placement on the 2004 John W. Campbell, Jr. Award for Best New Writer.
тАЬInto the Gardens of Sweet NightтАЭ was inspired by a dog named Binky, and by the boy I wish I could go
back and be."тАФJay Lake

A Chance Meeting by Road

тАЬPenny for your thoughts, stranger."

Elroy glanced around. His mind had wandered as he followed his footsteps down the ancient metal
highway. No one was in sight.

He felt a tug on the leg of his trousers.

тАЬDown here, stranger. Fancy a Justiciary penny?тАЭ The voice was high, almost squeaky.

Elroy looked down. A tan pug dog with a black face and ears trotted on its foot paws next to him, one
thumbed paw loosely caught in the muslin of his trousers at the level of his right knee. The pug wore a
green flowered waistcoat.

At two meters in height, Elroy towered far over the Animal. тАЬA Justy penny? Truly?"

тАЬSpend тАШem anywhere,тАЭ said the pug with pride. The dog's brown eyes darted back and forth, while a
long tongue licked its nose. Its curly little tail wagged quickly.

Considering the unmodified muzzle, Elroy thought the pug had a remarkably clear voice. It offered him
the promised penny in its right thumbed paw. Without breaking his stride, Elroy leaned down and
grasped the coin. He slipped it into his belt pouch. Justies spent anywhere, not like the various city scrips
backed only by faithless reputations and threat of local violence.

Elroy was returning from a year-long spirit quest among the Little Brothers of High Impact in the Glass
Mountains of Oklahoma. He was headed home to his family's little treetop cabin in the rain forest around
Pilot Knob. Elroy wanted to climb lianas, gather bananas in the clearings, and hunt tamarin monkeys in
the high forest canopy. He wanted to court a familiar girl, wed the old-fashioned way, and raise a family
up in the trees as Texans always had. Which required funds, something he had in small supply after a year
in a monastery. And he was still five hundred kilometers from home, a long lonely walk down the
decrepit highway.

The pug tugged again at his trousers. тАЬWell?"