Paradise Tales Read Free Page A

The ground was orange and the sky was a deep bronze, and a silver zeppelin billowed across it, sails pumping like wings.
    The man looked back over his shoulder, and it was Herman Blix.
    Herman, as he looked in 1928 or 1911 or 1863, except that he had to lean on a cane. He heaved himself out of the chair and lumbered forward as if he had the bulk of a wounded elephant.
    Did I say that he was stark naked?
    “Not used to clothes,” he said, gasping like he wasn’t used to breathing.
    Blink.
    Your world turns over.
    I saw as he spoke that he had tiny fangs, and that his eyes did glow. Looking into them made me feel dizzy, and I had to sit down. The strangest thing was that I knew at once what he was, and accepted it. Like meeting those little Nosferatu elves. No wonder he could waft through space: he wouldn’t need a life-support system.
    “Can you make films?” he asked me.
    His eyes made it impossible to lie, and I heard myself say yes, because it was true, I could. The kid bled next to me, expendable.
    “You’re coming with me.” Blix bore down on me, hauled me off the sofa, hugged me, and everything gasped cold and dark.
    Mars was only the beginning.

The Last Ten Years

in the Life of Hero Kai

    Kai was already an old man when he mastered the art of being hero. He was a student of war and a student of God. He was a particular follower of the text The Ten Rules of Heroism .
    The Text is one hundred palm leaves long, but these are the Ten Rules.
Heroism consists of action
Do not act until necessary
You will know that the action is right if everything happens swiftly
Do whatever is necessary
Heroism is revealed not by victory but by defeat
You will have to lie to others, but never lie to yourself
Organized retreat is a form of advance
Become evil to do good
Then do good to earn merit and undo harm
Heroism is completed by inaction
    The last ten years of Hero Kai’s life are considered a perfect act of Heroism. One rule is exampled by each of his last ten years.

    Heroism consists of action

    It is Hero Kai’s fiftieth year. He is lean and limber, his gray hair pulled back fiercely. People say his eyes are gray with age. Others say his eyes were always as gray as the eyes of a statue, except for the dark holes of his pupils.
    His sword is so finely balanced that it can slice through sandstone walls. Kai himself can run up a vertical surface, or suspend his breathing for hours.
    Kai starts each day with his exercises. He stands on tiptoe on the furthest leaf of the highest branch of the tallest mango tree in the region. He holds two swords and engages himself in fast and furious swordplay. He walks on his hands for a whole day.
    Yet he takes no action.
    He goes to funerals to chant for the dead. Rich men hope to earn merit by paying him to recite the traditional verses called the Chbap or Conduct. This is a Chbap.
    The happy man is one who knows his limitations
    And smiles formally even to a dog
    If a neighbor owes him money
    He applies an even gentle pressure like water falling over rocks …
    … etc., etc. The Chbap are all about being tame and making things easy for superior people.
    Kai’s kingdom is very badly ruled. The roads have fallen apart; the rivers are choked with weeds; and the King spends his day performing gentle magic for which he has no talent.
    The Chbap are the only thing that holds together the Kingdom of Kambu’s Sons. The Chbap keep people toiling cheerfully in the rice fields. The verses remind them to give alms to the poor, thus staving off starvation and revolt. They insist that people care for their families, so that everyone can look forward to an honored old age. The Chbap prepare poor people to accept placidly an early and often excruciating death.
    Kai believes in the Chbap to the extent that they are useful. He knows them in their thousands and recites one or two of them each evening as he is massaged by the boy he bought. The boy’s name is Arun, and he gets up early each morning to