Enigmatic Pilot_ A Tall Tale Too True - Kris Saknussemm [158]
“Indeed I am, Farruh,” I said. And indeed I was.
Out in the moon-mad dark of this Enigmerica, I heard the cry of things I knew so well—and the call of things more obscure to me than to all others. My own unknown. So many “squeschuns,” as they say in Gullah.
The next day would bring more lightning … and thunder. The primordial answer to the lightning’s question—the original enigma that set the cyclone swirling. I lay down and closed my eyes, trying to master, for at least a few moments of illusory peace, the alien mechanics of this new sleep.
Rapture rolled over in her blanket. “De preechuh put on ’e shroud whin we beeried Boomer,” she said, sighing.
“It’s all right, Murruh,” I said. “It was just a dream.” The last time I would ever say those words.
Boomer.
Poor old Tip. You see the need to be ever mindful? To be mindful of the details? Sometimes it is wise to count the trees before they become a forest. Because if you see a tree clearly enough, others will see it, too. Stampedes start one hoof in the mind at a time. But learn to see the thunder … then you can call the lightning down.
Powerful though they were, they had taken the bait. As wasps are drawn to raw meat they had come, and would come closer still. That is the one true trick there will ever really be in time. Change the boundaries. Everything genuinely dangerous is afraid of itself, and so cannot resist a mirror.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
KRIS SAKNUSSEMM is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Zanesville and Private Midnight, which became a bestseller in Europe, and a collection of short stories entitled Sinister Miniatures. His latest works, Reverend America and Eat Jellied Eels and Think Distant Thoughts will be appearing internationally in 2012. A book of his paintings called The Colors of Compulsion is being published in France and Denmark.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Revelation Creek, Dakota Territory, USA, 1869
Part 1 - All Things are Hidden in the Mind
Chapter 1 - Time of the End
Chapter 2 - A New Kind of Animal
Chapter 3 - The Necessity of Adventure
Chapter 4 - River of Secrets, River of Mercy
Chapter 5 - The Ambassadors from Mars
Chapter 6 - A Lust for Learning
Chapter 7 - Wild Science
Chapter 8 - Midnight Is a Door
Chapter 9 - The Hunger for Secrets
Part 2 - The High Cost of Bewonderment
Chapter 1 - Rara Avis
Chapter 2 - Ascension and Deception
Chapter 3 - On Glory’s Fragile Wings
Chapter 4 - The Price of Surprise
Chapter 5 - Fleeing from Grace
Part 3 - United We Escape
Chapter 1 - Awakening West
Chapter 2 - A Different Kind of Darkness
Chapter 3 - No One Sees the Thunder
Chapter 4 - Fetish
Chapter 5 - Reliable Omens
Part 4 - A Quickening of Riddles
Chapter 1 - Strange Languages
Chapter 2 - The Blinking of an Eye
Chapter 3 - The Quest and Questions of the Quists
Chapter 4 - I Show You Plenty Ghosts
Chapter 5 - Looking Alive
Chapter 6 - Justice Street
Chapter 7 - Something in Between
Chapter 8 - Dead of Night
Chapter 9 - A Bend in Another River
About the Author