Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow [63]
out wisps from the thatch, after which I opened the package of dehydrated chicken noodle soup, mixing it with a little water and a stiffener of bourbon to help me sleep. I poured this in the aluminum cooking kit and Romilayu made a small blaze near the door. On account of the odors we did not dare to venture inside too far. The hut appeared to be a storehouse for odds and ends, worn-out mats and baskets with holes in them, old horns and bones, knives, nets, ropes, and the like. We drank the soup tepid, as it seemed it would never come to a boil owing to the poverty of the fire. The noodles went down almost unwillingly. After which Romilayu, on his shinbones, said his usual prayers. And my sympathy went out to him, as this did not seem a good place in which we were about to lay our heads. He pressed his collected fingertips close under the chin, groaning from his chest and bending down his credulous head with the mutilated cheeks. He was very worried, and I said, "Tonight you want to make an especially good job, Romilayu." I spoke largely to myself. But all at once I said, "Ah!" and the entire right side of me grew stiff as if paralyzed, and I could not even bring my lips together. As if the strange medicine of fear had been poured down my nose crookedly and I began to cough and choke. For by a momentary twisting upward of some of the larger chips from the flame I thought I saw a big smooth black body lying behind me within the hut against the wall. "Romilayu!" He stopped praying. "There's somebody in the hut." "No," he said, "dem nobody here. Jus' me--you." "I tell you, somebody's in there. Sleeping. Maybe this house belongs to somebody. They should have told us we were going to share it with another party." Dread and some of the related emotions will often approach me by way of the nose. As when you are given an injection of novocaine and feel the cold liquid inside the membranes and the tiny bones of that region. "Wait until I find my lighter," I said. And I ground the little wheel of the Austrian lighter with my thumb harshly. There was a flare, and when I advanced into the hut, holding it above me to spread light over the ground, I saw the body of a man. I was then afraid my nose would burst under the pressure of terror. My face and throat and shoulders were all involved in the swelling and trembling that possessed me, and my legs spindled under me, feeling very feeble. "Is he sleeping?" I said. "No. Him dead," said Romilayu. I knew that very well, better than I wished to. "They have put us in here with a corpse. What can this be about? What are they trying to pull?" "Wo! Sah, sah!" I spread my arms before Romilayu, trying to communicate firmness to him and I said, "Man, hold onto yourself." But I myself experienced a wrinkling inside the belly which made me very weak and faint. Not that the dead are strangers to me. I've seen my share of them and more. Nevertheless it took several moments for me to recover from this swamping by fear, and I thought (under my brows) what could be the meaning of this? Why was I lately being shown corpses--first the old lady on my kitchen floor and only a couple of months later this fellow lying in the dusty litter? He was pressed against the canes and raffia of which this old house was built. I directed Romilayu to turn him over. He wouldn't; he wasn't able to obey and so I handed him the lighter, which was growing hot, and did the job myself. I saw a tall person no longer young but still powerful. Something in his expression suggested that there had been an odor he didn't wish to smell and had averted his head, but the poor guy had to smell it at last. There may be something like that about it; till the moment comes we won't know. But he was scowling and had a wrinkle on his forehead somewhat like a high-water mark or a tidal line to show that life had reached the last flood and then receded. Cause of death not evident. "He hasn't been gone long," I said, "because the poor sucker isn't hard yet. Examine him, Romilayu. Can you tell anything about him?" Romilayu could not as the body was