“Already here!” Khram gave a senile, demented screech and thrashed in the brothers’ arms.
Her thin body twisted, foam frothed on her wrinkled lips. Brothers and sisters ran over, embraced her, fell to their knees.
“Rely on the Ice!” Ga helped with his heart.
Others began to help right away, restraining their own wails and sobs. But Khram’s heart didn’t want to rely on the Ice: her deformed fingers dug into the arms and faces of the brothers, her frail body thrashed and writhed, foamy spittle flew out of her mouth as she gave a hoarse howl: “Heee-eee-rrre! Hee-eee-rrre!”
For the first time in many long decades of constant, incessant expectation, the heart of the oldest and strongest member of the Brotherhood could not handle what had been achieved. Her heart had lost its bearings. Mighty and wise, it suddenly became young and inexperienced, as though the blow of the Ice hammer had awoken it only yesterday. Khram’s heart quivered powerlessly.
The Brotherhood felt this.
They picked Khram up, surrounded her, pressed her to their bodies. The hearts surrounding her flared. Khram writhed. Dozens of hands lifted her to the sky, now sparkling with the first stars.
“Rely on the Ice!” they said with their lips and hearts.
Khram writhed.
And then, as though arriving from the approaching boat, a huge wave rolled over the edge of the dock and doused the crowd with white, salty foam as they fought for the bewildered heart. Khram grew quiet and fell into a deep faint. Por carefully took her in his powerful arms. Khram’s heart relied on the Ice, finally giving her peace.
The craft grew closer.
Everyone watched it.
Its white, sharply tapered hull parted the waves effortlessly. It made a half circle and moored at the dock. Uf stood on the deck with the sleeping boy in his arms. Everyone standing on the pier shuddered, but held back their shouts and cries. The boat rocked on the waves. The rope was thrown out and secured; the gangway was lowered.
Uf walked down onto the pier with the boy in his arms. After him came Lavu carrying a metal trunk, and then Bork.
The brothers and sisters parted silently. Uf took several steps across the wet marble. His face was tense and immobile, like a mask. But his gray-blue eyes shone. And he restrained his powerful heart as best as he could. Everyone felt this. And they also restrained their hearts. Uf saw Khram, unconscious, in Por’s arms.
“What happened to her?” he asked.
“She was waiting,” answered Por.
Uf understood.
“Let’s go in the house,” he said, and started up the stairway.
Por followed. The rest came after them. The ocean wind blew at their backs, ruffling their clothes, blowing the long white hair of the unconscious Khram.
Uf carried the boy into the house, passed by the small terrace and the agate hallway, and entered the Hall of Awakening. Round, full of light, greenish-blue, and spacious, it served as a place for heart conversation. In this hall the hearts of the Newly Acquired were awakened, the road to the Primordial Light was opened for them. The high, narrow windows were open, and the ceiling was a round, translucent cupola.
Uf carefully placed the boy in the center of a sky-blue mosaic circle. He stepped back and sank to the floor. The brothers and sisters sat down silently around the edge of the circle. Por laid Khram on the cool floor near Uf, who gently cradled the white-haired head of this wise heart in his arms.
Silence reigned in the hall.
The only sounds were the ocean waves and pelicans calling out sleepily to one another on the shore, preparing for the night.
“Open the sky,” Uf ordered.
The cupola slid back noiselessly. Over the brothers’ and sisters’ heads, a new moon rose in the evening sky, which was still tinged with the orange-rose light in the west. The sun was setting. The stars twinkled ever stronger. A half-light filled the hall. Everyone sitting froze. Darkness descended from the deepening blue sky. And the faces of the brothers and sisters were plunged into it.
Night fell.
Khram began to move. Her feeble moan sounded in the hall. Uf carefully raised her head. Khram’s lips opened in the dark: “He...is here. With us...”
“Yes,” Uf answered softly, and gently repeated this to her with his heart.
Khram recovered consciousness. She was helped to sit up. Her long hair was pushed back from her face. And she beheld the sleeping boy.
“He’ll wake up soon,” said Uf.
“I know,” Khram’s lips whispered.
Everyone froze again.
A night bird flew over the open ceiling of the hall.
The boy moved.
A shiver ran through the bodies of all the figures sitting in the circle. But Khram already possessed her powerful heart. Her heart obeyed. She knew what to do. And she understood that it had to be done quickly.
The boy raised his head. Then he pushed himself up and sat on the marble floor. He swayed a bit. He turned his head and weakly called out, “Mama.”
Everyone in the circle sat stock-still.
“Ma-a-a-m!” the boy called louder.
And he lay back down on the floor.
Khram squeezed Uf’s hand. “Take him on your chest. Shield him. Push against him.”
Uf understood. He ripped off his shirt. He went over to the boy, took him under the arms from behind, lifted him, and pressed the boy’s back to his chest.
“Mama, Mama!” the boy cried out and whimpered.
“The hammer!” Khram demanded in a loud voice, and stood up.
Lavu placed the case at her feet. It was the standard refrigerator case of the Brotherhood, which could hold seven Ice hammers. The lock clicked and Lavu opened it. A blue light illuminated the inside of the case and Khram’s face. In the case, steaming frostily, lay a single hammer. Shua’s hammer. And immediately three expert hammerers of the island house stepped forward: Das, Vu, and Ut. Their experienced arms and hands had shattered hundreds of Ice hammers, awakening dozens of hearts. But Khram shook her head.
“No. You will kill him. I know this.”
The boy whimpered on Uf’s chest. A murmur went around the circle: Who would strike him? The dark figures of the brothers shifted anxiously: If the experienced hammerers couldn’t, then who could? In the darkness the sisters rallied.
“Khram, I can do it!”
“Khram, give me the hammer!”
“Khram, my hands will do it!”
But Khram shook her head. “No.”
Everyone talked at once.
“Who will strike the blow?”
The boy whimpered. Uf stood silently.
Khram leaned over and picked up the hammer.
Everyone grew quiet.
Holding the hammer in her hands, she moved toward the center of the circle. Her bent, emaciated body obeyed her poorly. Swaying and dragging her bony legs with difficulty, she made it to Uf. On seeing her, illuminated by the blue light of the open case, the boy grew quiet. Standing before him, Khram straightened up. Hoarse breath burst from her mouth. She squeezed the handle of the hammer. The hammer shook in her hands, sparkling in the dark.
The boy stared, unblinking, at Khram. She looked him straight in the eyes. The hammer trembled in her hands. Slowly, she began to pull it back, getting ready for the swing. Everyone in the circle sat still, directing their hearts.
Uf closed his eyes, in preparation.
The hammer made a half circle and struck the boy in the chest. And it immediately flew from Khram’s hands and fell on the stone floor, shattering into blue shards that glowed and sparkled in the darkness. Khram fell at Uf’s feet with a moan. The boy cried out and lost consciousness. The sisters rushed to him. Uf held him and kept his eyes closed. The sisters’ hands touched the boy’s body.
“Speak with the heart!”
“Speak with the heart!”
“Speak with the heart!”
The boy’s heart remained silent.
Uf opened his eyes. H
is strong heart, no longer an anvil, came to life. It supported the sisters’ insistent hearts from the back.
“Speak with the heart!”
The boy’s bare legs jerked. Everyone was still.
“Gorn! Gorn! Gorn!” said the awakened heart.
Uf cried out and, his heart growing faint, began to fall backward. He was caught and laid on the floor. The boy was picked up and carried swiftly down a bluish-gold staircase into the quiet, cozy resting place of the Newly Acquired. The brothers and sisters rushed there.
The Hall of Awakening emptied out.
Only Uf and Khram remained, lying on the mosaic floor. Blue light still issued from the open case. Khram awoke first. Pushing up on her arms, she felt Uf. Then she saw him. Crawling over, she lay next to him, embraced him with her thin hands, and softly jolted his heart. Lying on his back, Uf shuddered, stirred, and drew the humid night air into his lungs.
“Gorn...” his lips exhaled.
“Gorn,” Khram repeated.
Their heart pronounced the new name.
“I believed. But I did not know,” said Uf.
“I didn’t believe. But I knew,” Khram replied.
A falling star flashed in the night sky above them.
Uf reached out and picked up a piece of the Ice lying nearby; he squeezed it and placed it on his breast. Khram’s fingers opened his fist and touched the Ice. Their hands held the piece of Ice together.
“The Ice did it,” Uf said.
“You were the one who made it happen,” came Khram’s reply. “You were able. You forced everyone to believe. Everyone except me...”
“I believed because I wanted to. I wanted to so strongly.”
“Your heart knew, knew that we would live to see it. That we would see it.”
“It didn’t know. But I believed the Light. The Light in my heart.”
“In your wise heart.”
“The Light helped us.”
“The Light helped us,” Khram repeated.
“Our Light.”
“Our Light...”
Their hearts shone.
The stars shone above them.
The Great Circle
Merog was directing an iron machine. I sat next to him. Obu, Tryv, and Yasto sat in back. Merog drove the iron machine through the main city of the Country of Ice. The clocks of this city showed 18:35. The streets of the city were filled with large numbers of iron machines. Machines carrying meat machines. Which were heading from the center of the city after the end of the working day to their stone homes where the close friends and relatives of the meat machines awaited them. Where the happiness of the body waited.
We were driving from the center of the city on a street named in honor of a certain meat machine who was very well known in this country. Eighty-eight years ago this meat machine, with the help of his cohorts, had overturned a dynasty of meat machines that had ruled the Country of Ice for more than three hundred years. He had established his authority based on the equality of all meat machines before the new law. According to which all meat machines in the Country of Ice were supposed to live as one family. And work for the good of this family, for the happiness of the bodies of all the meat machines of the Country of Ice. For seventy-four years the meat machines of the Country of Ice lived by this law. And then they stopped living by it. Because there could be no brotherhood between meat machines. And they couldn’t feel they were one family for very long and be glad for the happiness of other bodies. Each meat machine wanted happiness for his own body above all. In order to achieve happiness for their bodies, meat machines would deceive, steal, and kill. For that reason they could not live long in the world. Meat machines constantly competed, found enemies, crowded out and stole from one another. Countries attacked other countries. Meat machines were constantly arming themselves, preparing more and more perfect weapons. And they constantly killed each other to achieve the body’s happiness. The body’s happiness was the main purpose of meat machines. And the body’s happiness occurred when it was pleasant and convenient for the meat machines’ bodies to exist. To live for the happiness of their own bodies — this was the primary law of all meat machines on the planet Earth.
Moving slowly in the stream of iron machines, we arrived at a square named by the local meat machines in honor of one meat machine who flew into near-Earth space in an iron machine forty-three Earth years ago. In those years the Country of Ice was extremely proud of this flight. Because the meat machines of this country were able to manufacture an iron machine capable of such a flight. The rulers of this country wanted to show other countries the power of their country. So that the other countries would respect and fear the Country of Ice. On the square stood a metal sculpture of the meat machine who made that flight. It was made so that the local meat machines would remember the meat machines who had died a very long time ago.
From this square we turned right. And drove down a street named in honor of a meat machine who was one of the leaders of the Country of Ice several dozen Earth years ago. On this street there were fewer iron machines. They passed us; the meat machines sitting in them were hurrying to get home sooner and receive their long-awaited body happiness. We passed a stone building on top of which four gilded iron rods were joined together. The windows of the building were open. The singing of meat machines could be heard from it. They sang about the love of a celestial being who, in their view, created the Earth, themselves, and everything existing on Earth. Praying to this being and his son, who came to Earth in order to teach the meat machines to live in brotherhood, they hoped that after death they would be given another body and eternal happiness of this body. Through the window I saw their bowed heads. As they prayed they never suspected who was driving past them in an ordinary iron machine.
We turned left and found ourselves near a big building in which intelligent meat machines conveyed their knowledge to young meat machines. There were many such buildings in the Country of Ice, but this was the largest of them. It stood on a hill and rose above the main city of the Country of Ice. We drove by this building. Hundreds of young meat machines were coming out of its doors. They sat at tables all day long, listening to intelligent meat machines or reading thousands of letters on paper. These young meat machines were preparing for their future life. They were learning how to build iron machines and buildings, make calculations, manufacture combinations of substances, fire iron machines into near-Earth space, write letters on paper, find stones and metals in the Earth, conquer other countries, deceive and kill other meat machines.
Passing by that large building, we turned left and ended up on a square. There were many iron machines and meat machines walking around. In the middle of the square, meat machines were selling food. They sold fruits, vegetables, and corpses or pieces of corpses of various animals. The meat machines hurrying home bought their food. In order to prepare their complex food from it at home. Some meat machines stood in groups, drinking the fermented juice of grains and drawing the smoke of rotting leaves into themselves. This gave their bodies pleasure.
The crowd of meat machines moved toward a small building and entered its doors. This was the entrance into the underground. There hundreds of iron machines, moving along steel rails, carried the meat machines to different parts of the city. Leaving our iron machines nearby, we headed for the entrance to the underground. The crowd of meat machines surrounded us. We descended under the earth along with this crowd, paying money to enter. The crowd of meat machines coagulated with their desires. In the crowd were exhausted meat machines hurrying to their homes where the close friends and relatives of the meat machines awaited them, as well as warm and complex food, beds, and a glass box in which shadows of meat machines moved and spoke. There were meat machines who had drunk their fill of the fermented juice of fruits or grains, which made them more cheerful and lively than the others; they talked loudly and laughed, feeling a temporary happiness of the body. A crowd of meat machines, wearing the same color of fabric on their heads and tied
around their necks, loudly shouted the same words over and over; these meat machines were going to a special place where tens of thousands of meat machines watched tensely while twenty meat machines on a grass field rolled and kicked a bouncy sphere; depending on the movement of this sphere the meat machines shouted joyously, cried, or fought with each other. A group of young meat machines, having drunk the fermented juice of grain, was heading for a special building where the shadows of meat machines were shown on a white wall in the darkness; the young meat machines discussed these shadows quite ardently, comparing them and debating which of the shadows was better; the young meat machines strove to resemble these shadows.
A long, wide iron machine drove up, and its doors opened. A crowd of meat machines rushed toward the doors. A crowd of meat machines inside began to exit. The meat machines pushed; some tried to exit, others to enter. We squeezed through the doors. They closed behind us. And the iron machine set off. Inside, meat machines stood and sat. Those entering tried to sit down on empty seats as quickly as possible, so that their bodies were more comfortable. The sitting meat machines dozed or looked through packets of paper covered with letters. Reading these letters, the meat machines put them together and made words that elicited various fantasies in their heads. These fantasies distracted the meat machines from their everyday concerns. Like the fermented juice of fruits or grains, the letters on papers gave the meat machines’ bodies temporary pleasure. Pushing aside the crowd, a meat machine without one leg, leaning on two wooden sticks, moved through the iron machine. In a plaintive voice it asked for money to buy food. A few meat machines gave the legless meat machine some money, but most pretended that they didn’t hear the plaintive voice.
Soon the iron machine stopped. We got out, squeezing through a crowd of meat machines. And we immediately felt ours. There were many of them in the crowd, moving in one direction. We followed them. Ours walked through the crowd that rushed to the exit. The meat machines pushed and shoved, trying to get ahead of one another. We walked against the crowd. At the opposite end of the underground space was a yellow door with a sign in the language of the Country of Ice. The sign warned that only meat machines who worked in the underground rooms were allowed to enter. Ours walked through this door from time to time. We also entered it. Right behind the door sat brother Tiz in the uniform of the meat machines who keep the order. He only let ours through. We entered and descended deeper underground with the help of a mechanism. We reached an underground shelter. Meat machines had dug it in case of a big war. Tens of thousands of meat machines were supposed to fill this shelter and to live calmly underground for several months. Nine years ago the Brotherhood took over the shelter. The meat machine responsible for the shelter, who reported to the government of the Country of Ice, had been destroyed. Brother Ma took his place.
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