A Ride Aboard The Gravitron
GAVIN TURNED HIS HEAD THIS WAY, THEN THAT, AND KEPT LOOKING IN ALL directions. At least, he appeared to be. Finally his head found its position, "staring" right at Sidras across the counter, and he smiled at her.
"I'm staring," she said. "I'm sorry. It's just--"
"You've never seen a blind person before? Don't worry. Lots of people never have." He stretched on his stool and cocked his head again. "Listen, on the way here I heard a whole lot of commotion across the lawn. Just what exactly's going on out there?"
"Oh, that's the Summer Jamboree. They're all busy setting up fair rides and booths and things. It officially starts tomorrow, though some people are riding already."
"I see. What exactly do you do at this Summer Jamboree?"
"Oh, all kinds of things. All kinds of rides. And games, like shooting practice and dunking people in water. Animal barns. Craft competitions. The like. Oh, and we're getting in some slot machines."
Gavin "looked" at her. "Slot machines? You mean like in casinos?"
Sid nodded, also forgetting he was blind. "They got this permit and have this thing going called 'Little Nevada'. They're going to set up a tent and put in all the slot machines and other games like roulette and make it sort of a Las Vegas-type thing. I hear it's going to be pretty interesting." [Note--no, I was not aware back then that such gambling is allowed only on reservations!]
"Little Nevada," Gavin said, and fell silent.
Sid continued staring at him, but he didn't make any motion of sensing it this time. After a while she shook her head, telling herself to snap out of it, and smiled and held out a pitcher. "And would you like a refill?"
Gavin smiled too. "Certainly, Ms. North."
"Please, call me Sid. Everybody does." She refilled his glass, and he took it and drank, then set it down again and looked in her general direction.
"Say, Sid, tell me about this place. As you can see--" and it was a half-joke "--I'm new here."
"Of course!" Sid exclaimed. Gavin had picked the exact right person for the job; Sid loved chattering, especially about what was going on on campus. "They built this place in 1955, I believe it was, only--"
"No, no, no," Gavin laughed. "That much I can find out from the main office. Tell me about the news around here. What's big, besides this Summer Jamboree?"
"Oh." Sid screwed up her face and thought a moment, then lit up. "Say! You're right! There has been some news going around. Seems all these different people are having the exact same dream."
Gavin frowned. "Is that possible?"
"I don't know. But it's happening here! All these people keep coming in and telling me about it. Something about lights and fog and little people, and this loud humming noise. Pretty weird, huh?"
Gavin sat back and nodded, mostly to himself. "Pretty weird," he agreed softly. There was a pause. And then, "Hey, Sid, you wouldn't mind telling me about these people, would you?"
"Not at all," Sid said, pleased to have found a new chatting companion. Or, at him finding her. "Not at all."
Late that night Anders lay in bed, staring at the clock on the nightstand. It was past midnight but he couldn't sleep. He had the feeling he'd be seeing them again.
Not really, of course. In a dream. It was only a dream. But Anders had never had recurring dreams before, and especially not weird ones like this. Or ones that everybody else was having. Maybe it was just him, but that didn't seem right.
He also couldn't get Puck off his mind, and that annoyed him greatly. Such a snotty, arrogant, haughty anarchist. He didn't know if the last was true but it was fitting enough, so he kept thinking it. Sitting at his computer night and day, hacking at codewords, hacking at people's personal lives, hacking, hacking, hacking. Be careful, Mr. Benteen, someday you might hack up something you don't like the taste of. Anders laughed to himself at this and turned over on his side, closing his eyes. He didn't know it at the time but he fell asleep.
It was foggy and dim, but now something was markedly different.
He turned in circles as he'd seen someone else do; he looked at the sky as well. Far off was the light which he couldn't make out. He started walking, expecting to come upon the table and them soon. Ahead of him something large and dark loomed out of the fog. Curious, he stepped towards it, and was surprised at what he saw.
He was at the Jamboree, only it was night, and the rides were all dead and silent. The one he'd focused on was the Gravitron, its huge disklike body dark in the pale light.
As he watched the disk lit up suddenly, only it didn't look like the fair ride he'd seen only yesterday; now it shed its silver veneer and turned brilliant white, glowing so bright he had to shield his eyes. Something in the back of his mind told him this wasn't the Gravitron. Either that, or it was the real Gravitron, and not just some silly amusement ride.
He pulled his arm away from his eyes and gawked at it. It spun at what must have been the speed of light, little lights on it flashing quickly as they went by. And it began to rise. I'll bet they've never offered anything like this at the Jamboree, he thought. Before he could think anything else a beam shot out from the bottom of the disk, bathing him in its light, and he was forced to shield his eyes again. Instead he looked towards the ground and at what should have been the rest of the fair around him. However, he could see no other rides, only the fog, and small figures emerging from it.
Them.
He looked at them sideways, still half-blinded. They came towards him on all sides, shorter than him, very thin and slight, almost seeming to float along the ground. Two of them came up on both of his sides and took his hands, which had dropped, and led him towards the spinning disk.
That's not the Gravitron.
They must have sensed his thoughts, for they looked at him with their large, dark eyes, and reaffirmed his unspoken statement.
Somehow he knew they were right. He felt himself going up towards the disk
spaceship?
as if being pulled, and he tried to move, only everything was like he was underwater or in slow motion; he could only turn his head slightly to look at the creature on his left, and it looked up at him, and he was enveloped in its huge black eyes and then everything else went black.
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