Bradbury, Ray - Chapbook 18 Read Free

Red Cross meeting. He tried to
gather his wits but only grew more aware of the conflict between his dirty
exterior and this beautiful cool clean calciumed thing inside.
                 His complexion: wasn’t it oily and
lined with worry?
                 Observe the flawless, snow-white
perfection of the skull.
     
                 His nose: wasn’t it too large?
                 Then observe the tiny bones of the
skull’s nose before that monstrous nasal cartilage begins forming the lopsided
proboscis.
     
                 His body: wasn’t it plump?
                 Well, consider the skeleton;
slender, svelte, economical of line and contour. Exquisitely carved oriental
ivory! Perfect, thin as a white praying mantis!
     
                 His eyes: weren’t they protuberant,
ordinary, numb -looking?
                 Be so kind as to note the
eye-sockets of the skull: so deep and rounded, somber, quiet pools,
all-knowing, eternal. Gaze deep and you never touch the bottom of their dark
understanding. All irony, all life, all everything is there in the cupped
darkness.
     
                 Compare. Compare. Compare.
                 He raged for hours. And the skeleton,
ever the frail and solemn philosopher, hung quietly inside, saying not a word,
suspended like a delicate insect within a chrysalis, waiting and waiting.
                 Harris sat slowly up.
                 ‘Wait a minute. Hold on!’ he
exclaimed. ‘You’re helpless, too, I’ve got you, too , I
can make you do anything I want! You can’t prevent it! I say move your carpales , metacarpales , and
phalanges and— sswtt —up they go, as I wave to
someone!’ He laughed. ‘I order the fibula and femur to locomote and Hunn two three four. Hunn two three four—we walk around the block. There!’
                 Harris grinned.
                 ‘It’s a fifty-fifty fight. Even-Stephen. And we’ll fight it out, we two! After all, I’m
the part that thinks ! Yes, by God! yes . Even if I didn’t have you. I could still think!’
                 Instantly, a tiger’s jaw snapped
shut, chewing his brain in half, Harris screamed. The bones of his skull
grabbed hold and gave him nightmares. Then slowly, while he shrieked, nuzzled
and ate the nightmares one by one, until the last one was gone and the light
went out…
                 At the end of the week he postponed
the Phoenix trip because of his
health. Weighing himself on a penny scale he saw the slow gliding red arrow
point to: 165.
                 He groaned. Why, I’ve weighed 175 for
years. I can’t have lost 10 pounds! He examined his cheeks in the fly-dotted
mirror. Cold, primitive fear rushed over him in odd little shivers. You, you! I
know what you’re about, you !
                 He shook his fist at his bony face,
particularly addressing his remarks to his superior maxillary, his inferior
maxillary, to his cranium and to his cervical vertebrae.
                 ‘You damn thing, you! Think you can
starve me, make me lose weight, eh? Peel the flesh
off, leave nothing, but skin on bone. Trying to ditch me, so you can be
supreme, ah? No, no!’
                 He fled into a cafeteria.
                 Turkey ,
dressing, creamed potatoes, four vegetables, three desserts, he could eat none
of it, he was sick to his stomach. He forced himself. His teeth began to ache.
Bad teeth, is it? he thought angrily. I’ll eat in
spite of every tooth clanging and banging and rattling so they fall in my
gravy.
                 His head blazed, his breath jerked in
and out of a constricted chest, his teeth raged with pain, but he knew one
small victory. He was about to drink milk when he stopped and poured it into a
vase of nasturtiums. No calcium for you, my boy, no calcium for you. Never
again shall I eat foods with