The Love Machine & Other Contraptions by Nir Yaniv Read Free Book Online Page B

a bit. Anything for a good party.
    “Excellent!” The party-goers were impressed when the DJ’s stand began to smoke.
    “They really put some serious money into their parties!” said a reporter into a television camera filming the event, and immediately a tongue of green fire emerged and took hold of him. Multicolored flames grabbed now and then at some dancer or other, at the furniture, at the barman and the sponsorship signs (“McDonald’s – If You’re Not There, You’re Nowhere”), and everything went peacefully enough until Louie lost his patience. The flamethrower made an awful farting sound, and suddenly the whole place became a giant whirlpool of painted fire. When the cameras we had hidden inside burned out, we gathered up the equipment and went home to my place.
    ~
    In the middle of the night I disappeared. One moment I was leaning, between Huey and Louie, over a topographic map of the Trade Fair Gardens, and the next I wasn’t.
    “Pass me his plate,” said Huey, “I think he’s finished eating.”
    “Listen, both of you,” said someone.
    “Say,” said Louie, “doesn’t it strike you as odd...”
    “What?”
    “That he, like, disappeared?”
    “Who?”
    “What do you mean who ? Where’s your brain?”
    “Listen,” said Huey, “Let’s not play games.”
    Louie knows Huey and knows there is no point arguing.
    “Dewey. He disappeared. Don’t you think something here doesn’t add up?”
    “Of course it doesn’t,” said a voice. “If you would only listen to me for a moment...”
    Huey thought about it. “No,” he said. “He probably went for a break. He’ll be back soon.”
    “Look,” said Louie, “I wouldn’t be surprised if he had disappeared at any other time, but in the middle of topography?”
    “Topography?” said the voice suspiciously. “What are you going to do now?”
    “There is something to your twisted logic,” said Huey, “but there you go...”
    “He’s not right,” said Louie.
    “Don’t exaggerate,” said Huey. “He did a very nice job on the elevator today. Doing is everything.”
    “That’s right, don’t exaggerate,” said the voice. “We have sixty-five dead and almost a hundred wounded. Very nice. Can’t you bloody listen for a moment?”
    “No—yes—I mean... sure. But that’s not what I meant.”
    “Don’t be a pain,” said Huey. “Let me finish here.”
    Louie went away.
    ~
    The next day clouds covered the sun, but the Ferris wheel in the Luna Park shone a strong sunflower-yellow—it and the scores of soft, shining children sitting in its lap. Phosphorus. Huey took pastoral pictures, Dewey recorded a symphony of screams and cries. The image of a child floating peacefully through the air, as radiant as an angel, with the billboard background of “To Be Or Not To Be – Mitsubishi” was followed immediately by the recording of the soft sound of impact as he hit the ground. After a few happy minutes, when all eyes in the park were turned upwards, the two activated the acid spray. Then the volume of sound rose by a magnitude of decibels, but after several minutes of vocal joy the mikes were burned through and it was over.
    ~
    “Ha, ha,” said the dark-haired demon, and slid his bifocals down his nose. “I’m sure the families would be happy to hear.”
    “Hear about what?”
    “The eighty-six people you didn’t kill.”
    “Eighty-six? What are you talking about?”
    “Two in that flat in Tel Aviv, eight on the highway, five in the elevator, forty-three in the club...”
    “What about them?”
    “Didn’t you kill them?”
    “So?”
    “Don’t you think,” said the demon and wiped his brow, “that something isn’t right here? Ever heard of ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’?”
    “Dear God!” I said. “You think we killed human beings ?”
    ~
    A wall made of recently-annealed glass, and inside it some darkening lumps. A strong smell of grilling and burning infuses the air. The lumps stopped convulsing long before the