DESERT PLACES

by Pamela Sargent

The end of the world comes in many ways. And of course a lot of it depends on just whose world it is that’s ending.

“I DON’T know what you expect to see today, I don’t know how you can pick up anything,” Tiel Obrine muttered. She watched the fog in the streets, smoky wisps winding and unwinding slowly between the narrow avenues, slowly hiding the cobblestone roads.

“Shut up,” said Eggar Knute. He stared at a large, ancient television screen while squatting on his heels. The screen revealed another narrow cobblestoned road not unlike the one Tiel Obrine was observing outside the window. All Eggar could see was fog, and the dim outlines of the tall thin wooden buildings on either side of the street. The buildings appeared to be tilting slightly toward each other across the narrow road.

“Try camera three,” said Man Mountain L’ono. Man Mountain was carving a piece of wood, his huge hands holding the wood carefully, moving the knife painstakingly. He was carving Tiel Obrine. He glanced over at Tiel, saw her staring out the window, hands on slightly large hips, right foot tapping the floor, black hair stiff around her head.

“Tiel!” Eggar shouted. She swung around, glaring at him with her small pale-blue eyes, her white face looking almost phosphorescent in the dim light. “Get me a beer,” Eggar said.

“I’m not-”

“Shut up, you stupid bitch, and get me a beer,” Eggar said. Tiel clenched her fists, and then stomped toward the kitchen.

“Try camera three,” said Man Mountain, still carving. Eggar pushed a button, saw only another narrow street with fog. Eggar stared at the screen.

“Here,” mumbled Tiel, thrusting an opened beer can in front of Eggar’s face.

He reached out, took the can, held Tiel’s arm with his other hand. “Sit down,” he said.

“Let go.”

“I’m sorry, honey, sit down.” Tiel sat, looking away from Eggar, chin quivering. He put his arm around her. “Don’t cry.”

“I’m not.”

“I shouldn’t have called you a stupid bitch.”

“I am.”

“No you’re not.” Eggar kissed her on the forehead, then turned back to the screen. He watched as the buildings farthest from the camera shook, then slowly crumbled to the ground. He pushed a button, and the screen went blank. “Damn it,” he said to Tiel, “we’re going to have to move soon.”

“Oh, Eggar, not again.” Tiel got up and walked over to the window, then turned to face him. “We can’t move all this stuff again.”

“We won’t take everything,” said Eggar. “Just my equipment, a few cameras, and some of your things.”

“There’s a good place a few blocks down,” Man Mountain said. “Nik and me was looking at it before. Near the park. It’s got a freezer full of food that’s still working, and about a hundred cans of food in the kitchen. Nice place.”

“I’m sick of it,” said Tiel. “I want to settle down.”

“We will,” said Eggar.

“Try camera three again,” Man Mountain said. Eggar turned on the screen. More buildings had collapsed, and one of the flying things, buzzing softly, was hovering over the rubble. The rest of the buildings slowly collapsed toward the street. The screen went blank.

“Damn it,” said Eggar. “We’ll have to move tomorrow. What a pain.”

“I hate moving,” said Tiel. “It always makes me depressed, and then I have to get used to a new place.”

“There’s a place only a few blocks away,” said Man Mountain. “Me and Nik was looking at it.”

“It’s easy for him to talk,” Tiel said angrily to Eggar. “All he has to move is a knife and some wood. But I’ll never get all my clothes moved. Am I just supposed to wear the same old thing all the time?”

Man Mountain stopped carving and looked up. “You look good without clothes, Tiel,” he said, looking bewildered.

“I can’t walk around naked all the time.”

“I’ll move them for you,” Man Mountain said. “Don’t worry. Even if I take a year. I’ll move them.”

“I’m going to lie down for a while,” the girl said. She left the room.

“I’ll move them,” Man Mountain said, resuming his carving. “Even if it takes a year.” A bearded face suddenly appeared at the window, grinned; a hand waved at Eggar.

“Come on in,” Eggar hollered. A thin man danced through the door, holding a bottle.

“Hi, Nik,” Man Mountain said. The thin man perched on one of the chairs, took a swig from the bottle.

“Camera three went today,” Eggar said to Nik. “We’re going to move soon. Man Mountain says you saw a good place a few blocks down.”

“We sure did,” Nik said. “I just moved in across the street from it. Of course, I don’t have as much to move as you.” He looked around the room at Eggar’s cameras.

“We’re just taking the essentials this time,” said Eggar. “All I have to do is set up a camera on this block and then we’ll go.”

“Where’s Tiel?” asked Nik.

“She’s kind of tired, Nik, I think she just wants to rest awhile. I don’t think she’d be in the mood for anything.”

“I could cheer her up,” Nik said, taking another drink. “One look at my unclothed body, and she’ll be begging me to—”

“You want to cheer her up,” said Man Mountain, “you help me move her stuff.”

“When are you moving?”

“Tomorrow,” Eggar replied.

Eggar stood in the street with a television camera while Man Mountain carried out the last trunk of Tiel’s clothes. There were two trunks filled with clothes and cosmetics already sitting in the middle of the street. Tiel sat on one, looking dismayed.

Man Mountain put down the trunk he had brought out of the house on his back, walked over to the small girl and put a huge hand on her shoulder. “Aw, cheer up, Tiel, I told you I’d move all your stuff,” Man Mountain said. Eggar looked around at the houses, trying to figure out where to place the camera. “Besides,” the big man went on, “we got a nice place. You wait and see.” Tiel looked up at Man Mountain and smiled weakly.

The fog had lifted, but the sky was overcast, a very dark shade of gray. Eggar, looking around for a place for his camera, felt almost as if the sky were pressing in on them, and that it was only the narrow wooden houses which held the clouds up, keeping them from billowing through the streets around him. “Hey, Tiel, where should I put this camera?” Eggar asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Put it on a roof and you can see the whole street,” Man Mountain offered.

“I don’t have enough wire for that.” Eggar walked down to the corner, looked at an old mailbox, paint peeling off its sides. He stood by the mailbox and glanced back up the street at Tiel, Man Mountain and the trunks. “I think I’ll put it on the mailbox,” Eggar yelled. “If I attach it right here-”

“Hey, Nik,” Man Mountain shouted, waving his arms. Eggar turned around and saw the thin bearded man walking toward him, hands in his pockets.

“You look worried,” Eggar said to Nik. Nik shrugged his shoulders. They walked up the street. Man Mountain had hoisted one of the trunks onto his back and Tiel was holding a large burlap bag.

“We’re going to start moving this stuff,” said Tiel.

“Sure,” Eggar answered. “Come on inside a minute, Nik.” The two men went inside. Eggar had packed his old television equipment in boxes, which sat in the middle of the living-room floor. “Want to help move some of this, Nik?”

“Could I ask you something, Eggar?”

“Sure.”

“Are you going to set up any camera in the south end?”

Eggar sat on the edge of the chair and looked at Nik. “Why should I set up anything towards the south? We’re moving south, so I cover the north, three cameras, north, northeast and northwest. I’m setting up one at the end of this block and I’ll set up two more after we move, so …”

“Well, I just wondered. I walked south today, I don’t know how many blocks, but I was going for a while, so it could have been—”

“What’s the point, Nik?”

“I thought I heard some buildings caving in.”

Eggar was silent

“So I thought, maybe you might want to put a camera up around there.”

Eggar sighed. “Look, Nik, you might have just been hearing things. Or maybe some old house caved in by itself, I mean some of them aren’t too sturdy.”

“Well, why don’t you come with me and look around, after you get your stuff moved.”

Eggar remembered a boyhood venture, packing a lunch, roaming through the city, wondering how far it went. He had been lost, gone for two days before coming back to his home, walking in circles. His parents had been hysterical. They had moved for the first time soon afterward, and were to move more frequently as time passed.

“Sure, I’ll bring one of the remote cameras, what the hell.” Eggar got up and walked toward the window. He looked up toward the sky.

“What’s the matter, Eggar?”

“I thought I heard something.” The humming sound Eggar had heard was growing louder. Nik joined him at the window. One of the slender flying things was overhead, whirring quietly, silvery and opaque. The two men watched it as it hovered, and then left. Eggar was puzzled.

“That’s funny,” said Nik. “I wonder what it was doing around here?”

Tiel was humming as she dusted the furniture. She had been depressed after they had finally managed to move everything, but Eggar had been relieved, as well as a little surprised, when she had begun energetically to clean the house and arrange things. She had admitted then that the move was worth it, the house was beautiful. She had also offered Nik the chance to move in with them, but Nik had turned the offer down, as Eggar had felt he would. Nik enjoyed coming over to talk, or sleep with Tiel, but he wanted to be alone most of the time.

Tiel was dusting and humming, and Man Mountain was lying on a sofa, carving. Eggar felt uneasy, and was not certain about why. He had taken Tiel for a walk the day before in the nearby park, and it had reminded him of a park that had been near one of his parents’ homes, far to the north now.

“There was this crazy old lady who lived in that park,” he said to Tiel. “In an old shack.”

There were men who were not as we are, who chose the ways that are not man’s, who sought to remove us all from the air and light …

“That’s one way of putting it,” the old woman said.

In ancient times, they spoke to us of wonders, and tried to lead us to evil, and we rose up and drove them from our midst…

“Bunk,” the old woman said. “They up and left themselves. And it weren’t that long ago, my grandfather’s time maybe.”

Their spirits fly over us, the ghosts of those destroyed by pride will strike him down who ventures too far…

“Superstitious bunk,” the old woman said. “How else they going to tell a kid why people disappear?” Eggar, bursting with his newly acquired wisdom, had told his parents of the old woman’s talk, and had been beaten and told to stay away from the park; a needless precaution, for several days later, the old woman had packed up and disappeared—struck down, Eggar’s father said, for her arrogance. Eggar had remembered the lesson.

Eggar went over to his television receiver and turned on the screen, the sole legacy of his parents and ancestors, switched to cameras one, two, three, saw only narrow cobblestoned streets with old houses. He turned the screen off. There was a knock at the door.

“Come on in, Nik,” Tiel shouted.

Nik came inside. “Hey, Eggar, you busy today?”

“Not particularly.”

“How about taking a walk?”

“Might as well.” Eggar got up. “Want to come along?” he asked Man Mountain.

“Not me,” the big man replied. “I’m taking it easy.”

“You go ahead, Eggar,” Tiel said. Eggar and Nik went outside. The sky was gray, the wind cool.

“I suppose you want to go south,” Eggar said.

“Yeah.” Nik pulled a flask out of his pocket, took a swig, then replaced the flask.

“I don’t see the point, but what the hell.” The two men began to move south, silently, Eggar wondering to himself whether Nik had been drinking too much again.

“I heard one of those flying things last night, over our houses,” Nik said. Eggar and he had been walking for almost three hours. They were sitting on a curb across the street from an old stone house and several wooden buildings. The glass was missing from most of the windows.

Eggar shuddered, recalled childhood tales about the silvery things. He had been told that spirits of the evil were imprisoned in the flying objects. He was not sure about what he believed now. “You couldn’t have,” he said. “I didn’t hear a thing.”

“I heard it, though, right over me.” Nik pulled out his flask. “You were probably asleep.”

“If I didn’t hear it, Man Mountain would have. He’s a light sleeper. If you breathe funny, he wakes up.”

“Well, did you ask him if he heard it?”

“He would have told me if he did.”

Nik got up. “Come on, we better get moving,” he said.

“Look, Nik, we could keep this up for days. I’m tired. Why bother?” Eggar yawned. “Let’s go home.”

“Just a few more blocks, Eggar, and I’ll quit.”

“All right.” Eggar got up, and the two men continued down the street. Eggar was exasperated. He should have told Nik to go on by himself, instead of encouraging him by going along.

They walked silently for another few minutes, Eggar staring at his feet and cursing Nik mentally.

Then Nik grabbed his arm. “Look,” Nik said, pointing ahead. Eggar looked.

Ahead of him, the cobblestoned road curved up over a hill, but the houses on either side of it were gone. All Eggar could see was rubble, and the skeletal structures of a few buildings, tilted slightly toward the road.

“Oh my God,” Eggar mumbled. He sat down on a curb. “Oh my God.” He was shaking.

“I told you,” said Nik, shifting from one foot to the other. “I told you I heard something.”

“I don’t believe it,” Eggar said, still sitting. “We always moved from north to south. Ever since I was a kid.”

“I told you.”

“We always moved south. Nik, we better get out of here.”

“Come on,” Nik said, shifting on his feet so rapidly that he appeared to be dancing. “Come on, Eggar.”

“You’re out of your mind. Let’s get out of here.”

The thin bearded man turned to look at him. “I’m going over that hill, Eggar, maybe there’s some houses further on. Come on.”

“Not me.”

“What’s the matter with you?” Nik asked, still dancing. “Oh, I know. Evil spirits will strike us down. Well, for once, I’ll find out.” Eggar trembled and began to look around fearfully. Nik looked at him for a few minutes, then turned and began to walk up the street, up the hill. Eggar got up and began to walk home quickly, not daring to turn around.

“Nik’s been gone more than a month,” Tiel said, walking over to the window and looking out.

“Don’t worry about it,” Man Mountain said. “Nik’s a loner.” Man Mountain was carving a tiny replica of one of the old park benches.

Eggar had been watching his television screen. Every few minutes, he would switch from one camera to another. All he could see were houses and cobblestoned streets. He stared at the screen.

Tiel sat down next to him. “Maybe you should look for him, Eggar,” she said softly.

“Don’t worry, Tiel,” Man Mountain said. “Nik’s a loner. He’ll come back when he gets horny.”

Tiel stood up. “Damn it,” she muttered between clenched teeth. “You just sit there carving all day and eating us out of house and home.” She glared at Eggar. “And you just sit there staring at that goddamn screen of yours. You don’t even worry. After all, he’s only our best friend.” Tiel began pacing across the room.

“That’s not hardly fair,” Man Mountain said, looking hurt. “I found all those cans the other day, and moved them here, all by myself.”

“He’s been gone ever since that day you two went out for a walk,” Tiel went on. “Didn’t he tell you where he was going?”

“I found them and moved them here, all by myself.”

Eggar turned off his screen. “No, he didn’t tell me where he was going and he’ll probably be back soon.”

“You could at least look!” shouted Tiel, clenching her fists. “You could at least try to find him. He might be sick or something. But no, you’ve got to sit in front of that screen all day.” She turned to Man Mountain. “And you’ve got to sit there Whittling wood and getting splinters all over the floor.”

The big man looked more downcast. “I’m carving them for you,” he said sadly. “I mean, I’m carving them for you, Tiel.”

“All right,” said Eggar wearily, getting to his feet. “I’ll look for him, just so you stop nagging, Tiel. I’ll start tomorrow.”

“He might be sick, Eggar,” the girl said.

“All right, I’ll look for him today, I don’t know where the hell you expect me to go.” Eggar ambled toward the door. “And you could apologize to Man Mountain. He didn’t do anything.” Tiel stood in the middle of the room, looking embarrassed.

“It’s okay, Tiel,” Man Mountain said. “I’m not sore.”

Eggar walked outside, down the street, and stopped at the comer. He turned and began to walk west, trying not to remind himself of where he should start looking, trying not to remember where Nik had been going when he last saw him.

Eggar was afraid.

After a few minutes, he turned again and began to walk south.

Eggar stood where he had last seen Nik, and looked up the hill. Some of the rubble had been cleared away, and the cobblestoned road was fairly clean. He began the climb up the hill, knees trembling, stopped to rest every few minutes.

When he was three fourths of the way up, he could hear the hum of fliers, but louder than he had ever heard it before. Eggar cowered in the streets, hands shaking, looking up. Three flying things passed overhead, going west. He waited until they were gone, reciting the words his mother had told him would appease the spirits, and then continued up the hill. The humming noise was louder.

He reached the top, and raised his head.

The entire landscape was silver, tall silver rectangles, smaller silver domes, as far as he could see, and in the distance, tall silver spires that seemed to reach the sky. Eggar knelt and watched the small silver flying things buzzing among the buildings, saw moving metal bands where the streets should have been.

They sought to imprison us, to make us as the machines they worshiped, to imprison us in shells, as crustaceans…

“We just didn’t care for their ways, son,” the old woman said. “They didn’t like ours much, so I reckon we’re outcasts to them.”

Two of the flying silver insects passed overhead, and hovered above him. Uselessly now, he began to recite a litany to ward off evil, while staring at the metallic landscape. The flying things still hovered.

Eggar turned and fled.

Eggar sat in front of his television screen, switched to camera one. The old houses trembled, then collapsed.

He switched to camera two, and watched as the houses fell, his old house crushed beneath the falling debris.

He switched to camera three. The buildings were already tumbling, two silver flyers hovering over them. The screen went blank.

Tiel sat with Man Mountain on the sofa, huddling next to him, hiding her face in his chest.

“We’ve got to move soon; we can try going west,” Eggar said.

“I want to settle down,” Tiel whimpered.

“But we always go south,” Man Mountain said.

“We’d better start packing,” Eggar said, still staring at the screen.

“We always went south,” Man Mountain said. “Ever since I was little.”

Eggar sat by the screen and heard the soft hum of a flyer passing overhead. The unnatural ones were nearing the end of their work, he thought. Soon there would be no place left. In the rock garden, there is room for polished stone and silver ornaments only, and no place for grasshoppers.

Table of Contents

Start