Bradbury, Ray - Chapbook 13 Read Free Page B

can be
born of boys, then yes. And now?" He gazed up into the
immense bronze face of the half-dreamt deity. "What?"
    "This!" cried Gonn -Ben-Allah.
    And below, along the endless seacoast of dead sand, a volcano
of buildings erupted.
    "What are those?" Ahmed
wondered.
    "Men who flew in stone, marble, and clay, who
dreamed wings but settled for arches and beams, palaces and pyramids, each mightier than the last,
destined to fly in place, then fall to dust. Because they could not stretch high, loom free, they chose
the lower road, which, still seen, made their hearts grow wings in their breasts and made their
blood rise heavenward with that strange sound joy makes, laughing to see such buildings as
opened their windows to set their souls free.
    "But that was not true flight, for their
feet were
caught in clay. Even on those towers, where wings might soar, all hope died and men sank back
to dreaming.
    "So behold a pyramid here, a Great Wall
be yond.
Perches from which boys, grown men, might leap to die, hoping for wings."
    And the winds blew and the sands recovered the cities and Ahmed
and Gonn sailed on.
    To see men who wove carpets and hurled them with shouts:
"Rise!" But the carpets floundered and fell.
    And saw a collector of butterflies sew up a
thousand small bright wings, a bloom of spring flight which, as he stepped from his
roof, ex ploded
at his first shout of joy and last shout of silence.
    And saw a thousand umbrellas fall as Earth's gravity flattened a
mad boy in summer grass.
    And saw yet other machines, all fans and whirligigs and
hummingbird flickerings , driven before the rain,
dissolved into a mindless sea.
    "I see!" Ahmed exclaimed.
    "See more. From all you have found this night, call forth
each foundling toyl Fill the sky, then burn their shadows
in your head, so as never to be lost. Now!"
    "Yes!" Ahmed spun to shout:
"All you ghosts of Forever, rise! Who says?"
    "Ahmed," whispered Gonn .
    "Ahmed!" echoed the boy.
    "Of the Oblivion
Machines."
    Ahmed hesitated, then: "Of the Oblivion Machines!"
    And where before had been a hundred, now ten thousand wasp,
dragonfly, reptile shapes flicker-lit the moon. And all about was a sound on sound of rivers,
then Amazons, then mighty oceans of wings.
    And Ahmed slapped his hand and all the heavens were
thunderclaps of applause with no lightning, drumshots of clamor: bone-breaking eruptions of boys and men, woven skeletons across the clouds.

"Of the
oblivion Machines"

"Silence!" commanded Ahmed, guessing from the
silent mouth of Gonn what to shout. "Hold
still!"
    And the thunder died and the half-seen, half- guessed phantoms were
transfixed against a sky half sight of moon, half glimpse of sun.
    "Now," whispered Gonn . "In all the beds and all the rooms of the world."
    "In all the beds," recited Ahmed.
"In all the world's rooms, go to your windows to see what must be seen!"
    And below now lay all the cities and towns of sleeping dreamers.
    "Wake!" cried Ahmed with Gonn's voice. "Wake while the sky is full of shapes.
See! Find!"
    "Gods, oh, fellow gods," cried Gonn sud denly, gasping, clutching his throat, his chest, feeling his wrists,
his elbows and arms. "I fall, oh, brother gods, I falter, I will fall!"
    And great Gonn snatched at the wind with his   fingers ,   his hands,   beat his   arms up   and down, churned
the clouds with frantic legs, glancing with fear down at the sleeping cities.
    "They have buried me, killed me a
thousand times
to fit in a thousand tombs with no names."
    "Who?" cried Ahmed.
    "The dreamers
that do not dream, the dreamers that do not do. The
doubters who kill the dream. The
walking dead who see birdless skies and shipless seas and horseless highways with not a carriage, not a wheel. Those who bed early and rise
late and sleep at noon and eat figs and drink
wine and cherish only flesh. They, oh, they, they, them!"
    Ahmed stared down, blinking wildly, trying to find what was
described.
    "But they're not doing anything! They're
all