Terrible Swift Sword
by
David Pascal
Part Two: 'Broken' (chapters 24-26)
(Note: Part Two is long, so I�m posting it on the FFML day by day in
smaller sections. Interested readers who would like to read or download
the whole of Part Two can find it at the SMJ Fanfiction Page at
http://www.geocities.com/~davidpascal/smj and get the whole piece there
� and really ought to, since it�s much more readably formatted.
Technically, none of the characters appearing in the original Saber
Marionette J series appear in TSS, though a few are referred to. Nor
(offhand) do I think there are any spoilers.
Saber Marionette J is owned and copyrighted by AnimeVillage.com * Satoru
Akahori * Hiroshi Negishi * Tsukasa Kotobuki * Kadokawa Shoten * Bandai
Visual * Sotsu Agency * TV Tokyo.)
Comments should be directed to: davidpascal@juno.com.)
24
A tall evil-looking six-foot gunslinger moseyed on out through the
swinging doors of the Tasty Tiparello saloon. He moseyed back in, flying
through the air head over heels, landing one of the card tables. The
five players all jumped up, cursing, as the cards and chips flew. Bubba
(�The Ball Buster�) Brown, the bouncer, who was sitting on a chair leaned
against the wall at a sixty degree angle, pushed his elbow against the
wall. The chair landed square on the floor. He stared at the swinging
doors, and spit the chewing tobacco he�d been nursing into the nearby
spitoon. It wobbled with the impact, as did most things to which Bubba
applied pressure.
Belt pushed the saloon doors open with both arms, looked around in her
two gallon hat, and grinned. She strolled inside. Fall crept in after,
half-lost in thought, half-startled by the everyday oddities around her.
Seven or eight men stood crowding the center of the bar, drinking various
vile pollutants. Belt grabbed the one on the left by his collar and the
one on the right by his hair, and yanked. They fell over themselves
flying backwards across the tables with a loud crash. Belt slammed her
hand on the counter. �Gimme and the kid here some � uh � some of
whatever the hell you�re selling.�
�Bottle of Ol� Devil�s Hoof be OK, podnuh?� said the bartender, signaling
Bubba with a look.
�Make it two.�
She turned and leaned back against the counter, her elbows on it, smiling
at the two cowpokes still wriggling on top of each other behind an
overturned table. The convicted sheep rapist standing at Belt�s left, a
bearded Ancient by the name of Jeremiah Bone, squinted his eyes at her,
looking her up and down closely.
�Who in the name of hell might you be,� he said, adding ��*friend*�?� as
Belt�s fingers closed around his throat, cutting off his wind supply.
�We�re a couple of wandering exterminators,� said Belt. �Any cockroaches
round here need stepping on?�
He shook his head no; as far as he was able to shake it, anyway. Belt
let go. He sucked air like a industrial vacuum cleaner as he fell back.
The man on her left, a fat balding cowboy with a red check shirt and a
massive curling black moustache, gave her the same up and down look and
placed his hand on the hilt of his pistol.
�What kind of �exterminators� walk around with things like that,� he
said, pointing at Belt�s chest. �You two�re built damn near like andys!�
The bottles of Ol� Devil�s Hoof arrived. Belt picked one up.
�We�re�tough faggots!� she said, and bit the glass top off the bottle and
spit it out on the floor.
She looked at Fall and jerked her chin at the bottle.
Fall took it and bit the glass end off too and spit it out hard too. It
flew across the room and smashed through the opposite wall.
�Real tough!� said Fall.
�Why you asking, Tex?� said Belt. �Lookin� for a cheap rectal
examination?�
He snorted. �You ain�t no faggots, tough nor otherwise. You two�re some
kind of defective andys, that�s what you is!�
Belt looked over and tore half his moustache off his left upper lip. He
screamed and pulled out his gun and began to pull the trigger. Belt
stuck her finger in the barrel. The barrel blew up. The gun flew up
into the air and the powder-burned man in the half-moustache fell back on
his posterior as though kicked in the belly by a mule.
Belt turned back to the bar and sipped her Ol� Devil�s Hoof. Bubba the
bouncer walked up behind her and pulled out his double-barrelled shotgun
and stuck it in the back of her head. �Andy,� said Bubba, �your attitude
stinks.� He pulled the trigger. The barrels kicked up. Belt�s hair
flew in several directions. Her hat fell forward over her eyes.
Belt finished her drink and removed her hat and put it down on the bar.
She smoothed her hair down with her hand, and turned around and smiled.
�My attitude stinks, huh?� she said. She grabbed Bubba�s nose with her
forefinger and thumb. She tore it off and tossed it lazily on the
nearest table. �Smell better now?� she said.
Bubba screamed and covered the spurting red spot in the center of his
face with both hands. �MY DOZE!� he hollered. Screaming, he fumbled for
his sidearm. Belt lazily poured some more Devil�s Hoof out of the bottle
as he finally got it out and pointed it her belly. He pulled the trigger
and emptied all six bullets into her navel and then just stood there
gaping at her as Belt scratched her belly through the holes in her shirt.
She looked down at the holes and frowned . �Gosh. And I was going to go
to Sunday School in this shirt too,� she said to Bubba, kicking him
through the wall into the back room of the restaurant across the street.
The still-fresh ingredients for the evening�s featured stew, a bunch of
cats and chickens, mewed and cackled.
Belt picked up Bubba�s fallen shotgun and looked at it. She pointed it
at a card table. The five gamblers seated there jumped for their lives.
She pulled the trigger. The cards and chips flew up into the air. She
stared down into both barrels.
�What the hell kind of pussy weapon is this? You can�t even blow through
wood with it! Hey creep � yeah, you,� she said, to a gambler in a
spectacular gold vest. �Lemme see your pistols.�
He hesitated, looked around, sweating. He pulled the gun out fast and
shot Belt in the chest three times.
�No, no, not the bullets, asshole � the pistols,� said Belt.
Whinnying with fright, he pulled his other pistol out and, shaking,
tossed them both to Belt and jumped behind a table. She caught them and
walked to the center of the table, spinning them around her trigger
fingers. �Human weapons, huh?� she said, and shot three bottles of
booze, the long saloon mirror, the chandelier, which crashed to the
floor, a painting of John Wayne (between the eyes) on black velour,
Bubba�s spittoon, and one of the gamblers in the ass. Every man there
pulled out his sidearm and began blasting at Belt and Fall. Belt yawned.
Fall was very surprised and upset when the bottle of Ol� Devil�s Hoof
she was holding exploded and got her shirt and pants all wet and messy.
Her lower lip trembled. Belt saw it. It got Belt a trifle peeved. She
tore the entire countertop off the bar and slammed it against the
saloon�s clientele like a gigantic baseball bat.
The shooting stopped. The clientele of the Tasty Tip saloon sat around
in various twisted swastika postures on the floor staring agog at Belt.
�Why the hell are you men always so GODDAM VIOLENT?� she roared. �Me and
baby sister came in here to get some amusing friendly entertainment and
we�re going to get it -- even if we have to kill everybody for fifty
miles around -- you got that?�.
Everyone nodded. Hard. Over and over.
�I want to see SMILING FACES!�
Everyone smiled ear to ear.
�I want to hear an OLD-FASHIONED COUNTRY TUNE!�
Fifteen old-fashioned country tunes warbled out like ducks getting run
over.
�Not fifteen at once! Just ONE! You,� she roared at a quaking bony
twice-convicted horse thief in a fur trapper�s muskrat hat.
He removed his furry muskrat hat instantly and stood up and slicked back
his hair.
�SING! DANCE!�
Knees knocking somewhat, he did the Funky Chicken and crooned.
�Come and listen to my story �bout a Fuhrer named Faust,
A pure Gartlant clone, barely kept his Dolls de-loused.
And then one day he went slippin� down a chasm
& up through the ground come a bubblin� Plasma � �
�Everybody!� roared Belt.
A mighty chorus rang out:
�Well, first thing you know, ol� Faust�s a millionaire,
Gart Dolls say, �Faust, move away from there!�
Said, �Mes�potamia ain�t the place you orta be�
So they loaded up the pod and they crashed on Terratee -- �
Belt began to clap along and stamp her foot. �Yeah! More vibrato!� she
cried. But Fall stepped in front of her. Fall rubbed her hands over the
alcohol and splinters on her shirt and said, �You said this would be fun
but � but this is no fun at all! I don�t like it here. I � I want to
talk to Billy!� she said, and turned and ran out the door.
�Hey!� shouted Belt. But Fall was gone, vanishing immediately, as
always. �Ahh�� muttered Belt. She swore, and threw the bottle after her,
through the swinging saloon doors. It hit a Presbyterian in the head in
the street -- thok! There was a low groan, and a dusty plop.
She turned back to the bar. �Bartender! Get me another couple bottles.�
He�d crawled off. She kicked the bar counter down and got a bottle
herself.
�LOUDER!� she roared at the horse thieves, cutthroats, and card players.
�That�s � that�s all the words we know for that one, ma�am! Sir. Y-your
Honor!
�Well, sing any freakin� thing. I don�t give a damn.�
They looked at each other.
�SING DAMMIT!�
�Si-ilent Night,
Ho-oly Night,
All is calm!
All is bright!��
25
Eighteen Union soldiers under the acting command of Sergeant Major Elijah
Holt, in bright blue uniforms in full daylight, rode together into
Jacksonville, dismounted, and began searching � �inconspicuously� --
throughout everything they could set their hands on for three
experimental marionettes. The townsfolk of Jacksonville avoided them
instinctively. Children were hustled off the street. Ex-Confederates,
etc, like most every man outside of New Washington, came out onto the
porches and storefronts to stare down the government�s occupying forces
with contempt. The Union soldiers did not respond. Even Elijah Holt
himself, hating the people watching him with a passion, longing to burn
the whole treasonous place to the ground, kept cool and collected � for
the moment. It was a dangerous situation. They didn�t need any trouble.
Dozens of strangers straggled through town, as always. Drifters,
pioneers, travelling salesmen. Among them, fifteen Confederates, grey
tunics concealed under scraggly chevy-hide longcoats. Major Jeffries had
insisted they keep a low profile, and Corporal Jessie Holt carried out
this directive by ordering six men to take up a seat either on rooftops
or behind second-story windows overlooking the main street, and pointing
their rifles at any Union soldiers heads. Not that they had orders to
fire � on the contrary. They were not to fire unless fired upon.
Jeffries had made that plain as pie. It was a dangerous situation. They
didn�t want any trouble.
The Union soldiers headed south down the long main street of
Jacksonville. Some peered in windows, one or two headed for the
Sheriff�s Office to tell him as much about the situation as they were
allowed to tell. Three union soldiers were going through the Doll Houses
� after all, where else would you find most dolls, they�d said. Sergeant
Holt grudgingly acknowledged it, but had no doubt the lazy no-accounts
were using the opportunity to screw their peckers off. Slackers � an
incompetent Union soldier was nearly as bad as a Confederate.
Confederates! Holt stared out with muted fury through his single
unscarred eye at the townspeople of Jacksonville. He was supposed to be
looking for marionettes with something unusual about them, but he was
indifferent to marionettes. He was not indifferent to Confederates.
Which one, he thought. Which one of you killed my brothers? Which one
of you got my little Jessie? Which one of you burned down my house, took
out my eye, wrecked my life, ruined the entire nation? Now they�d shed
their grey skin, like snakes, and moved among true Texans in everyday
dress. You couldn�t see them, you couldn�t tell friend from foe, but
Holt knew they were there, they were everywhere, lying abut the Union,
planning new crimes, launching cowardly assaults, defying the President
and the Flag. His hand stroked the handle of his long-barreled pistol.
By God � by God, why didn�t someone burn down all the damned border towns
like Jacksonville, burn them to the earth, and all the Confederate rats
in them? If innocent people died, so what? Saint Peter could sort them
out in front of the Pearly Gates. As long as all the rest went to Hell.
The Confederate soldiers headed south down the long main street of
Jacksonville. They kept their eyes peeled for odd-looking marionettes
too � but most of the normal marionettes they saw looked pretty darned
good after six months in the Badlands desert, living off skip-snake and
cactus juice. One or two had suggested they check out the Doll Houses,
and, with a smile, Corporal Jessie Holt suggested all the men should �
�in the interests of thoroughness�. He hadn�t gotten that sharp a
salute from the boys since making Corporal! Hell -- after frying in the
sun for six months, Lord knows the boys rated it. As an officer and a
gentleman, Jessie himself would �check the Houses� out last, but that was
all right with him. He loved just walking down the street, looking at
the good people of Jacksonville going through the day. It took him back
to being a kid, working and playing alongside his brothers. He
remembered how big brother Elijah used to put him on his shoulders and
walk down the streets of Mendon and Jessie would wave at all the
shopkeepers. Elijah� And then the war came. President Joy and his
damned war. Suspending elections to save democracy, and executing
countrymen to save the country. Yeah � right.
He took a deep breath and shook his head. He smiled. Bitterness is for
fools, he thought. He still had brothers, didn�t he? The men in his
unit ate with him, rode with him, and would lay down their lives for him,
just like he would for them. The Greys found him starving in the field,
and up and raised him better than any Poppa could have done. They gave
him friends, family, food in his belly, clothes on his back, and a
purpose to his life � to bring freedom to this suffering land. He was
proud to be one of them � proud and happy to be a brave New Texan on a
brave new world. Corporal Jessie Holt of the Confederate Irregulars
jumped onto the porch walk of a hardware store with a grin like gold.
Sergeant Major Elijah Holt stepped onto the opposite side of the porch.
Corporal Jessie Holt walked forward, looked out onto the street, at the
happy faces of the people of Jacksonville.
Sergeant Major Elijah Holt walked forward, searching the hypocrite faces
of collaborationist Jacksonville scum for the sight of Rebel
sympathizers.
Corporal Jessie Holt bumped into Sergeant Major Elijah Holt�s left
shoulder.
�Oops!� said Jessie, with a bright laugh. �Sorry there, Mister. Must
not have been lookin� where I was going.�
Elijah Holt grunted and shoved past him and walked on.
Jessie watched him go, and shrugged, and walked on too, smiling.
Then he stopped in his tracks.
He swivelled around.
�Elijah!� he shouted.
Elijah Holt stopped. His eyes opened, staring forward. The hair on the
back of his neck rose.
�Elijah!� shouted Jessie, running to him.
Elijah Holt turned.
Jessie Holt stopped and looked at the tall lonely gaunt man in blue with
the badly scarred eye. �Elijah � it�s me � it�s Jessie. It�s Jessie --
.�
Elijah Holt looked at his brother Jessie and made no sound. He searched
the face, the eyes � Jessie�s face, Jessie�s eyes! Holt�s face began to
twitch. It � it was Jessie. It was!
�Jessie,� he said.
�Elijah,� said Jessie. The word caught in his throat. He held out his
hand to his brother.
A breeze ran down the Jacksonville street and weaved across the hardware
store porch where the two brothers stood staring at one another. It
opened the coat of Corporal Jessie Holt. A patch of sunlight fell across
his grey Confederate tunic.
Holt looked at it. A rebel tunic. A rebel tunic. Over the breast of a
rebel soldier. Jessie�a rebel soldier. A stinking treasonous rebel
soldier!
Elijah raised his Colt .45 Peacemaker and pointed it at the grey cloth
over his brother�s heart. �You stinking Confederate Judas!� he screamed,
and pulled the trigger. A small hole in his brother Jesse�s chest burst
open like a toy balloon.
Jesse stood there blinking. He put his hand rather delicately over his
heart, and took two step backwards, and fell down.
The glass from a second-story window broke out and showered down onto the
street. One Confederate bullet went cleanly through Elijah Holt�s belly
and a second one through the front of his head. He fell down also.
A shower of Union gunfire roared up at the Confederate soldier in the
window. And from the rooftops and windows a rain of Confederate gunfire
answered back.
26
Billy stood up, finally, and brushed some dust off his pants legs. He�d
paid his last respects to himself. And now � what? He lifted his head
-- behind him he heard a rushing, hurtling sound shooting nearer, like
wind whipping through the grass. He turned and saw a blue-white blur,
and two white arms flew around him, hugging him like a vise, and a face
with blue-white hair and an off-center pony tail began crying into his
shirt.
�Fall!�
Her arms trembled around him. Her whole body trembled. He paused, and
then hugged her as hard as she hugged him. She shook with tears.
�I�m sorry, I�m sorry, Billy, I�m so sorry��
�For what? What�s wrong, darlin�?�
�I�m so afraid��
He reached down and turned her face up to his. Her eyes were wide, her
cheeks wet. She was terrified. She dug her face into his ribs. She
shook in his arms like a warm, trapped sparrow.
�Why, what�re you afraid of, honey?� He smoothed back her almost
iridescent hair. �Heck, you folk�re � you�re stronger than steel.�
�I�m afraid of � of everything. Everything�s wrong. Everything is
wrong! I � I didn�t understand � until --.�
�Didn�t understand what?�
�That � I�m not real.� She looked up at him. �I�m not real, am I? And,
and, you�re not real either. We -- we look like people but we�re not.
We�re dead. We�re things.� Fall shut her eyes and hugged him harder.
Billy rested his head on hers. �Don�t you go thinking that way. That�s
how I been thinking all this time, and it ain�t led me to nothing but a
lot of foolish moaning. Fall -- I don�t know what to tell you. I ain�t
got the answers. But -- .�
�When Belt tore open the metal suit with the man inside, I thought �
that�s me. That�s what I�m like too. I�m metal outside too, but inside
is something alive, something like other people. And then -- she killed
him, and I saw there was nothing left alive then, nothing. Only gears
and wires and � and death. And then when you and Belt were yelling at
each other, I realized that that was all I was too � gears and wires. I
move and talk but � I�m not alive. Not real. And � and you�re not
either�� She broke into a six-year-old�s tears.
�Shush, that�s foolish talk,� said Billy, stroking her hair. �You know,
I was always taught to treat andy folk decent. Decent meant, like they
was pets or animals in the wild. I was told they had living bits inside
�em somewheres, so maybe they could feel and understand a little bit.
But I�m ashamed to say I thought in my heart that bit was real little.
Next to nothing. I thought they was dummies. I didn�t know how low I
held them until � .� He laughed. �Until I found out I was one myself!
But Fall, I -- I do feel and I think and � and I confess the name of
Jesus, just like I did when I thought I wasn�t. I got � awareness. I
got a soul, I know I do. I know I do. I feel it.�
�You don�t know it,� said Fall. �You�re guessing. Aren�t you?� She
turned her face away. �When I was in the Enclosure, everything was
simple. I�d input data and learn things. They�d test me. I knew the
things they programmed into me, what to do, words to use, but -- I didn�t
know the meaning. Death was a word. It was all words, all games. But
this is real, and � death is real. Those men � the ones that got killed
in Red Hat. I thought, �How can they ever put them back together?� They
can�t, can they? You exist, and then � you die. Everything living dies.
Except us. Because we�re not even alive in the first place.� She made a
fist and pressed it against her forehead. �How can anyone live like
this? How can we live like this?� She struck her fast against her own
head. �We�re nothing! Bits and pieces stuck together! And any second
we can be broken, broken apart into less than nothing.�
Billy grabbed it and stopped her. �Look at me,� he said. �Fall, look at
me.� She turned her frightened face up to Billy. Billy looked at her.
My God, he thought, I�m looking down at the most beautiful face in all
creation. He shook his head. �Fall, you listen to me. You ain�t
nothing. You�re real. You�re as real to me as any human being I ever
known. The Reverend spoke to me rightly. You got to have hope. You got
to believe. You got to � you got to believe you�re real, even if you
ain�t. How do you know you ain�t? Maybe you are! I believe. And -- I
believe in you. I believe in you with my whole heart. I got to, because
� well � because I love ya! -- �
Fall stared at him and said nothing.
�You � you make me feel funny -- all over!� he added. �There! I said
it! I � I said it!��
She still stared and said nothing.
�Well?� he concluded.
She slapped at him with both arms, flailing, and pushed herself away
hard, with a plaintive yelping sound. She stood in front of him, half
ready to fly away, half frozen like a startled deer at the sound of a
rifle crack. She looked not quite � human. And suddenly a short jagged
burst of electricity wound around her shoulder. Then another.
Billy panicked and reached out, and said, �Fall � no! � �
Fall�s eyes opened even wider, if possible. Then she leaped straight
into Billy�s arms, covering his face with kisses, sending him stumbling
backwards. His bad leg caught on the gravestone and as he went flying
backwards. The stone broke with a large loud snap, cutting straight
through the 2435 � 2551. Billy fell squarely on his fanny, and Fall
landed squarely on top of him, kissing every conceivable spot on his face
and throat.
�Oh my God,� he sputtered between kisses, looking at his gravestone in
horror. �The Reverend�s going to kill me!�
Fall pulled back and looked at him with tearful shiny ears and a huge,
shaky smile, and began to giggle, and finally laughed out loud, even as
she dove back down and began kissing him again.
�It ain�t funny!� he said.
She laughed and kissed him and kissed him and laughed and after a while
he began kissing her back. Rather seriously, after a while. Billy
pushed himself up on his elbow and rolled on top of Fall, and then she
rolled back on top of him, and for a second it was a hard call as to
which set of flailing waving arms and legs was on top of which. When
Fall had got half his shirt unbuttoned, though, Billy sat straight up,
leaning a little against the lower part of his gravestone. His red face
was burning hot, his lips swollen and bitten, and his hair stood up all
wild and askew. He frowned. He cleared his throat.
�Stop that,� he croaked, sneaking a glance upwards. �Jesus is lookin�.�
Fall lay her head on Billy�s chest. �Who is Jesus?�
Billy covered his face with one hand.
�Can he kiss good like you?� said Fall.
Billy covered his face with both hands.
Then he looked down at Fall and put both his arms around her. He held
her and shook his head. He shook his head and began laughing. �Land o�
Goshen, what a day this has been.�
Fall reached up with a finger and ran it along Billy�s lip. �You�re so
pretty when you smile,� she said.
He took her hand and kissed each finger, which delighted her. She looked
at her hand like it had suddenly become sunlit.
Billy ran a hand through his ragged hair. He held Fall for a few moments
without saying anything and then touched the neckerchief around his head,
and felt through it to the spot where McCabe�s bullet had struck. The
open metal hole. It was still there. Billy emitted one short laugh
through his nose. �Well, that�s how things is, I guess,� he said. He
patted the hole in his head, almost affectionately, and then put his hand
down. It came to rest on the chunk of gravestone he was sitting on. He
looked at it. Billy shrugged, amazed. �Danged if my head ain�t full of
pinwheels and penny whistles, just like the Reverend said. And on top of
that I�m sitting on my gravestone over my own dead body, in love with a
two-week old.� He opened his eyes wide and nodded. �The Lord, He moves
in mysterious ways for sure,� he concluded. He looked at Fall and
smiled. Fall looked up at his smile with amazement. She closed her eyes
and looked again.
�I don�t care if we don�t really exist, as long as we don�t really exist
together,� she said.
Billy nodded. He looked out around him. And Fall, following his gaze,
turned and looked around too. The area around Ginger Field was some of
the prettiest land outside Jacksonville. Waving seas of ripe grass
stretched in every direction, and blossoms of alien ginger broke in the
midst of it like lavender stars. Billy and Fall looked out onto the far
low hills waiting for the late afternoon sun down to set, and the warm
golden sky, and the far whorls and shallows of endlessly rolling valleys.
In the distance a vast herd of wild chevies moved in their tens of
thousands like a sea of rolling puppies.
�How beautiful,� said Fall.
Billy nodded. He hugged Fall.
�Fall, I apologize,� he said.
�For what?�
�The Reverend was right. He always been right, ever since I known him.
He must have been born that way. Fall -- I treated you bad, I been
selfish and self-centered and � and downright stupid! Things is what
they is, and I am what I am � whatever I am. All truth is truth, and all
truth is God�s truth. Pretending things ain�t what they is is a sin.
Going against truth is plain foolishness. I acted like a spoiled little
baby, and I put you in danger. You and that poor Miss Belt. � Miss
Belt! Jiminy Cricket! I hit her � I hit her in the face!� He slapped
his palm against his forehead. �Dear Jesus, I�m lower than the lint in a
glowworm�s bellybutton! I deserve to have ten jackasses kick my behind
over a hay barn! God -- Fall � forgive me.�
Fall looked up at him with a rapt dazzled expression. �I don�t have any
idea what you�re talking about.�
Billy looked at her. In the distance he could hear the sound of popcorn
popping.
�Billy?�
�Yes, Fall.�
�What do we do now?�
�You done asked a good question,� Billy said. He shrugged. �Well�I
reckon the main thing is to get you and Belt to safety, somewheres, if we
can.�
The sound of popcorn got louder. Wasn�t it early for the boys to be
making popcorn for the festival? He turned his head. Then it came to
him. �Gunfire!�
Billy turned to Fall with an expression of horror. �Where�s Miss Belt?�
�She went into town. To kick human ass,� said Fall, with a happy smile.
��oh my God�� he cried, staggering up to his feet. He grabbed Fall by
the hand and started running through the grass towards town, when he saw
what appeared to be a large black ox snoozing in the grass. He stopped.
He eyes popped wide open.
�Reverend Pell!�
He let go of Fall�s hand and reached Pell and rolled him over.
�Reverend! Reverend! Reverend, are you dead?�
Pell looked up with a merry dazed cuckoo-clock expression on his face.
He smiled up at the sky, without quite seeing it.
�Reverend, what happened?�
�I bumped into him,� said Fall.
�What?�
�When I ran up to you. He was in the way. I bumped into him. He flew
up into the air. Then he came down. Hello!� she said, waving at the
Reverend.
�Bringing in the sheaves,/Bringing in the sheaves,/We shall come
rejoi-cing,/�uUrrrrkh�?/Bringing in the sheaves,� crooned the Reverend.
His revolving eyes saw further beyond this shallow material plane than
usual.
Billy turned to Fall and opened his mouth. At which point a really loud
explosion punctuated the gunfire, and whinnying chevies could be heard
crying and galloping out of Jacksonville fast. A military bugle sounded.
Billy got up and turned toward the town. Then back toward the Reverend.
Then toward the town. Then toward the Reverend. Then he went
�Ohhhhhhh�.� and grabbed Fall�s hand, and the two ran toward Jacksonville
as fast as his bad leg would allow.
*