[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

In view of his unfortunate attitude to the way the thing had turned out, I was
forced to ask Linda to carry out two small commissions for me.
I had not been able to talk to Micheal again before we left, and I had not had
the opportunity to express my regrets concerning the loss of his pipes. I
asked Linda to secure him a new set on my behalf, and give them to him with my
apologies for my carelessness.
I had a long talk with Linda about the Anacaona. I tried to tell her all the
things which I felt she should have been able to tell me before we even
started on the expedition. I told her about the direct communication between
mind and environment which they apparently possessed. I stressed the
importance of their language and their music in binding them to each
other and to the world around them. I explained the kidnapping by telling her
that the woman had been trying to restore to the forest people the
gods which had declared themselves to be false and then had
abandoned their children so many years ago. The parents had needed to
understand, and did not. The children did not need to understand they just
needed to be, and the girl could help them to be.
That's where I lost her. She accepted my interpretation of the legend of the
Indris. Despite her commitment to the Promised Land she couldn't refuse to
acknowledge that there had been others here before, and that for them also it
had been a Promised Land and a chance to regain paradise. But the
story never really cast any shadows on her prejudices. For her, the
sets of facts could exist side by side with her fixed beliefs.
She was sincere. She was a nice person. I liked her. But I couldn't help
myself feeling just a little sorry for her.
It's arrogant, I know, but that's what I felt. To me she seemed basically
empty. The Anacaona had surrendered their self to their space. Linda had
never managed to connect hers, except by the belief in the Promised Land. She
and the people she purported to study were polar opposites.
It was not for me to offer her advice or try to provoke a change in her. I
told her what I knew, and I ladled sarcasm onto some of her reactions. She
didn't take offense, because she knew no malice was intended. She didn't take
any notice either.
We left Linda in the town, and only Max was with us when we set off on our
long journey back to the port.
It was not good to see the sun again. Any psychological fillip was
easily outweighed by the physical discomfort. I had to wear dark glasses
all day every day for all the time it took to get ourselves and Alyne back to
the
Hooded Swan.
The same applied to Max and Eve. As it was not high summer we must have looked
Page 76
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
like a soap-opera version of the Mafia.
"It's too bad you've had so much trouble here," said Max at one point, while
we were waiting for the train after relinquishing the hovercraft. "It's
really a very fine world. We're really making something of it, as you can see.
It's a pity you can't give us better publicity out there."
"I don't think so," I told him. "The last thing you people need is publicity.
We haven't got a distorted view of this world. You have. It's us that have got
the cosmic perspective, remember."
"By that logic," he said, "all groundhogs would have a distorted impression of
their own environment."
"All people," I corrected him. He didn't even begin to see what I was getting
at.
"Well," he said, "I guess it isn't important what you think anyhow. When all
is said and done, you're not very important yourselves."
"That's me," I said happily. "Absolutely unimportant. What I think doesn't
matter a damn to anyone but me.
Who'd be any other way, if they stopped to think?"
He didn't appreciate that either. Nor did Eve. She still had a lot of maturity
to beat into her skull. She cared too much about the wrong things.
By the time we got back to the port, Alyne could speak a good fifty words of
English. Mostly, I hasten to add, courtesy of Eve's helpful nature. Eve [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]