Hermit and Six Toes: Part IV

In which Hermit and Six Toes encounter a rat.  Written by Victor Pelevin.  Translated from the Russian by A. Baylin.  (Beginning here.)
  May 13, 2004

Now that they were walking alongside the giant black belt, Six Toes could see that Hermit was telling the truth.  The world they had just left was indeed traveling on top of this belt past other, immobile cosmic objects whose nature was a mystery to him.  The luminaries were indeed affixed to the sky; that much became clear as soon as they stepped off the belt.  Their former world drifted slowly towards a green steel gate; the black belt glided into the gate's base.  Hermit said that the gate was the entrance to Section One.  Curiously, Six Toes was not impressed by the grandeur of the objects that filled the universe; instead, he felt a bit peeved.  “This is it?” he thought with disgust.  Two other worlds similar to the one they had abandoned floated in the distance; they too rode the black belt and from the current perspective appeared unprepossessing.  At first Six Toes thought that one of those worlds would be their destination, but halfway along, Hermit suddenly directed him to jump into the black, bottomless night from the belt's stationary border they were using as a walkway.

“It's a soft landing,” he assured, but Six Toes retreated from the edge and shook his head.  Then without a word, Hermit jumped into the darkness.  Six Toes could only follow.

This time, he almost knocked himself out on a cold stony surface.  It was paved with large brown plates stretching to the very horizon.  It was beautiful.

“What's this?” Six Toes asked.

“Tile,” Hermit answered cryptically and changed the subject.  “It'll be night soon.  We still have a long way to go.  We'll have to travel part of the way in the dark.”

He appeared worried.  Six Toes looked in the direction he was pointing and made out distant stacks of light-yellow cubical rocks (“crates,” Hermit called them).  The rocks surrounded open spaces occupied by sprawling mountains of golden wood shavings.  From far away it looked like a landscape in a happy childhood dream.

“Let's go,” Hermit said and set off at a brisk pace towards the rocks.

“Listen,” said Six Toes, scrambling to keep up on the slippery tiles, “how can you tell that night is about to fall?”

“I use the clock,” said Hermit.  “It's one of the celestial bodies.  Right now it's up and to the right; it's that disk with the black squiggles.”

Six Toes regarded the familiar detail of the heavenly dome to which he had never paid much attention before.

“When some of those black lines come into a particular alignment, which I will teach you later, the lights go out,” said Hermit.  “It's about to happen now.  Count to ten.”

“One, two,” Six Toes began, and suddenly it was dark.

“Don't fall behind now,” said Hermit, “or you'll get lost.”

He did not have to worry; Six Toes was literally stepping on his heels.  The sole source of light in the universe was the slanting yellow beam that issued from under the gate to Section One.  Their destination lay right by the gate but Hermit assured him that it was the safest place to be.

Only the distant strip of yellow light under the gate and the several tiles around it remained visible.  Six Toes felt strange.  He imagined the darkness closing in on them just like the crowd did not too long ago.  Danger lurked everywhere; Six Toes could sense it with his skin as if it were a draft blowing from all sides at once.  When fear become intolerable, he would look up from the tiles passing under their feet to the bright strip up ahead.  In those moments he thought of the socium, which looked just like that strip from a distance.  He fancied they were advancing into a realm of fiery sprites; he was about to share this fancy with Hermit when suddenly his friend stopped and raised his hand.

“Quiet,” he said.  “Rats.  To the right.”

There was nowhere to run; the tiled plain stretched uninterrupted in all directions.  The strip of light was still far off.  Hermit faced to the right, assuming a strange stance, and ordered Six Toes to hide behind his back.  Six Toes was only too happy to oblige.

At first he saw nothing.  Then, in the dark, he sensed rather than saw the movements of a large, agile body.  The creature stopped just beyond the limits of their vision.

“It's waiting to see what we do next,” Six Toes said quietly.  “As soon as we make a step, it will pounce.”

“That's right,” said the rat, emerging from the shadows.  “I'll pounce on you like an avatar of furious evil.  I'll attack you like a true spawn of the night.”

“Phew,” exhaled Hermit.  “One Eye.  I thought we were done for.  Six Toes, meet One Eye.  She is my friend.”

Six Toes cautiously eyed an intelligent conical snout, long whiskers and two black beady eyes.

“I'm One Eye,” said the rat and wagged her indecently bare tail.

“Six Toes,” said Six Toes.  “How come your name is One Eye if you have both eyes intact?”

“I have my third eye open,” One Eye replied, “and it is singular.  Everyone who has a third eye open is one-eyed in some sense.”

“What's…” began Six Toes but Hermit cut him short.

“Let's have a stroll together to those crates, shall we?” he suggested gallantly to One Eye.  “Travel at night is boring without a good companion.”

Six Toes felt hurt.

“Let's,” agreed One Eye.  She turned her side to Six Toes (he noticed how big and powerful her body was) and fell into a trot beside Hermit, who quickened his pace to keep up.  Six Toes ran behind them.  He kept staring at the rat's paws and the play of muscles underneath her skin and wondered what the outcome of their meeting would have been had she not been Hermit's friend.  He took pains not to step on her tail.  The conversation between One Eye and Hermit quickly settled into what seemed to be a continuation of an old discussion.  They must have been friends for quite some time.

“Freedom?  Good God, what's freedom?” One Eye was asking with a laugh.  “Is it running around the factory, frantic, alone, having dodged the knife for the umpteenth time?  You call that freedom?”

“You're confusing things again,” protested Hermit.  “That's only the search for freedom.  I will never agree with the infernal picture of the world that you subscribe to.  It must be because you feel alien in a universe created for us.”

“The rats believe this universe was created for them.  Not that I agree.  I think you're right, but not about everything, not even about what's most important.  You say this universe was created for you, but it really was created because of you.  Do you see the difference?”

Hermit lowered his head and walked in silence for a while.

“All right,” said One Eye.  “I really only came around to say goodbye.  I expected you to show up a little later but it doesn't matter because I still got to see you.  I'm leaving tomorrow.”

“Where are you going?”

“Beyond the boundaries of anything we could possibly discuss.  One of the old tunnels has led me to an empty concrete drain that stretches into unimaginable distances.  I've met some rats down there who told me the drain goes ever deeper into the ground until at a very great depth it terminates in another universe inhabited exclusively by male gods wearing identical green clothes.  The gods perform complex rites around huge idols that sit in gigantic shafts.”

One Eye paused.

“I go right from here,” she said.  “They say the food in that universe is delicious beyond compare.  Our universe could fit into one of their shafts…  Hey, would you like to come along?”

“No,” said Hermit.  “Our way does not lead down.”

He seemed to remember Six Toes in this conversation for the first time.

“Well,” said One Eye, “in that case I wish you success on your way, wherever it may lead.  You know that I love you very much.”

“I love you too, One Eye,” said Hermit.  “I hope the thought of you lends me support.  Good luck.”

“Farewell,” said One Eye.  She nodded to Six Toes and disappeared into the darkness just as quickly as she had appeared from it before.

They walked the rest of the way in silence.  Once they had reached the crates, they had to traverse several mounds of wood shavings before arriving at their final destination.  It was a depression in the shavings with long soft rags piled up inside it.  The faint glow from the gate illuminated the place.  Nearby, a huge ribbed structure stood up against the wall.  Hermit said that once upon a time, it used to give off such intense heat that it was impossible to approach.  He was clearly in a bad mood; he rearranged the rags preparing for the night and Six Toes decided not to bother him with questions.  Besides, he was sleepy himself.  He settled into the rags and drifted off.

He was awoken by loud screeching, the clanging of steel on wood and screams filled with such ineffable despair that he immediately rushed to Hermit's side.

“What's this?”

“It's your world going through the decisive stage,” answered Hermit.

”???”

“Death is come,” Hermit said simply, then turned away, pulled a rag over himself, and went to sleep.

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