The Drought. J. G. Ballard

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СКАЧАТЬ 8 The Fire Sermon

      For the next three days the fires continued to burn in Mount Royal. Under a sky stained by an immense pall of black smoke, like a curtain drawn over the concluding act of the city, the long plumes rose high into the air, drifting away like the fragments of an enormous collapsing message. Mingled with the fires of incinerators and abandoned garbage, they transformed the open plain beyond the city into an apocalyptic landscape.

      From the roof of his house, Ransom watched the motor-bridge across the river, waiting for the last inhabitants of the city to leave for the south. By now Hamilton was empty. With the exception of the Reverend Johnstone and his last parishioners, all Ransom's neighbours had gone. He strolled among the deserted streets, watching the dust columns rising into the sky from a landscape that seemed to be on fire. The light, ashy dust blown across the lakeside town from the hundreds of incinerators on the outskirts of the city covered the streets and gardens like the fall-out from a volcano.

      Much of the time Ransom spent by the river, or walking out across the bed of the lake. Inshore, the slopes of damp mud had already dried into a series of low dunes, their crests yellowing in the heat. Wandering among them, out of sight of the town, Ransom found the hulks of sunken yachts and barges, their blurred forms raised from the weary limbo to await the judgment of the sun. Ransom built a crude raft out of pieces of driftwood and punted himself across the lagoons of brackish water, making his way in a wide circle back towards the river.

      Although still narrowing, the channel was too deep to ford. As viscous and oily as black treacle, it leaked slowly between the white banks. Only the elusive figure of Philip Jordan, punting his arrow-like skiff in and out of the thermal pools, gave it any movement. Once or twice Ransom called to him, but the youth waved and vanished with a glimmer of his pole, intent on some private errand. A few craft sat on the surface, reflected in the sinking mirror. At intervals throughout the day a siren would give a mournful hoot, and the old steamer, still commanded by Captain Tulloch, would make its way up-river. Then, with another hoot, it would move off into the haze over the lake, disappearing among the narrow creeks.

      It was during this time that Ransom again became aware of the significance of each day. Perhaps this was because he knew he would be able to stay on in Hamilton for a further two or three weeks at the most. After that, whatever happened, and even if he chose to stay behind, his existence would be determined by a new set of rules, probably those of chase and pursuit. But until then a finite period remained, the unending sequence of day following day had given way to a sharply defined quantum of existence. Superficially the streets and houses resembled those of the normal world. The lines that once marked its boundaries still formed a discreet but unreal image, like the false object seen in a convex mirror.

      To his surprise, however, Ransom felt little urge to visit his houseboat. It remained quietly at its mooring, the condensation of a distant private universe.

      On Sunday, the last day of this short interregnum, Ransom visited the Presbyterian church on the corner of Amherst Avenue to hear what he assumed to be the Reverend Johnstone's concluding sermon. During this period the minister had been busy with the few remaining members of his militia, driving about in his jeep with bales of barbed wire and crates of supplies, fortifying their houses for use as strongpoints in the final Armageddon to come. Curious to see how Johnstone was responding to the transformation of Hamilton and the city, Ransom walked down to the church and entered the aisle just as the small, manually operated organ concluded its short voluntary.

      He took his seat in one of the pews halfway down the nave. Johnstone left the organ and began to read the lesson from the lectern. The church was almost empty, and Johnstone's strong voice, as belligerent as ever, reverberated off the empty pews. Below him, in the front row, sat his small, dove-haired wife and three unmarried daughters, wearing their floral hats. Behind them were the two or three families who still remained, the men's shot-guns discreetly out of view.

      After the hymn, Johnstone mounted the pulpit and began his sermon, taking as his text Chapter IV, Verse 8, of the Book of Jonah: ‘And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.’ After a brief resume of the previous career of Jonah, whose desire for the early destruction of Nineveh and the Gentiles he seemed generally to approve, Johnstone went on to compare the booth the Lord had built for Jonah to the east of Nineveh with the church in whose safety they now sat, waiting for the destruction of Mount Royal and the world beyond.

      At this point, as Johnstone warmed to his theme, he glanced down the nave with a slight start. Ransom looked over his shoulder. Standing between the pews at the rear of the church, caps in hand, were some twenty of the fishermen, their thin faces staring down the aisle at the pulpit. For a few moments they stood together, listening to Johnstone as he drew breath and continued his peroration. Then they shuffled into the pews at the back. Exposed behind them through the open door, the billows of smoke drifted across the roof-tops from Mount Royal.

      Surprised by their visit to the church, in their black shabby clothes and old boots, Ransom moved down to the end of the pew, from where he could glance back at the fishermen. Their faces had the closed expressions of a group of strikers or unemployed, biding their time until given the word to act.

      Below the pulpit there were whispered exchanges, and a gun barrel moved uneasily, but the Reverend Johnstone took the new arrivals in his stride. His eyes roved along the lines of sullen faces. Raising his voice, he recapitulated what he had said so far. Then he went on to expand upon his theme, comparing Jonah's wish for the destruction of Nineveh with mankind's unconscious hopes for the end of their present world. Just as the withering of Jonah's gourd by the worm was part of the Lord's design, so they themselves should welcome the destruction of their homes and livelihoods, and even their very shelter from the drought, knowing that God's grace would come to them only through this final purging fire.

      The fishermen's eyes were fixed on Johnstone's face. One or two leaned forward, hands clasping the pew in front, but most of them sat upright. Johnstone paused before his homily, and there was a brief shuffle. The entire group of fishermen rose to their feet, and without a backward glance made their way from the church.

      The Reverend Johnstone stopped to let them go, quietening the front pews with a raised hand. He eyed the retreating figures with his head to one side, as if trying to sum up their motives for coming to the church. Then, in a lower voice, he called his depleted congregation to prayer, glancing through his raised hands at the open doors.

      Ransom waited, and then slipped away down the aisle and stepped out into the sunlight. In the distance he caught a last glimpse of the black-clad figures moving between the cars, the smoke clouds crossing the avenue over their heads.

      At his feet, traced in the white dust on the pavement outside the porch, was a small fish-shaped sign.

       9 The Phoenix

      ‘Doctor.’

      As Ransom knelt down to examine the sign a hand like a bird's claw clasped his shoulder. He looked up to find the broad, dented face of Quilter gazing at him with moist eyes.

      ‘Lomax,’ he said by way of introduction. ‘He wants you. Now.’

      Ransom ignored him and followed the loop in the dust with his finger. Quilter leaned against the stump of a tree, listening with a bored expression to the faint sounds of the organ from the church. His ragged clothes were stained with tar and wine.

      Ransom СКАЧАТЬ