The New Death and others by James Hutchings Read Free Book Online Page B

second call was from a man.
    Divorced and sad and forty-five
    he said he'd gone through several wives.
    "Am I the problem?" "Yes you are
    unless you buy a bigger car."
    She told the woman after that
    "You'll die alone because you're fat."
     
    From that day on Love has not stirred.
    Some say that Commerce strangled her.
     
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    Fame's Beloved
     
    The goddess Fame looked over the Earth one
day, to see who loved her best. She found a boy of fifteen who sat
in class and dreamed of her. Many did the same, but this boy had an
ardor that pleased Fame. Therefore she chose him as her champion on
Earth.
    Fame did not trust her fellow goddesses.
Hunger, in Fame's opinion, had a wantonness which came from low
self-esteem. Many had sent Hunger away in the past, many cursed
her, many thought her a bad memory. Yet Hunger returned to them
all. Death was worse. Poor grinning, empty-headed Death would take
anyone.
    Really, she felt sorry for them. Hunger wore
the same rags until they were falling apart. Contentment seemed
happy to wear any old thing. As for Love...well, Love had the
excuse of her blindness. Fame was not surprised that Hunger and
Death pursued mortals rather than the other way round, or that for
every one that sought Contentment or Love a thousand sought
Fame.
    Fame watched the boy as he grew to a man. In
the night she came to him and lay with him, and she was so high of
hair and straight of teeth that every woman he saw he judged
against her, and every one he found wanting. Thus Love and
Contentment had no chance to steal him. She sent away those friends
who would mislead him, and sent him new friends who served her and
worshiped her.
    He continued to court her ardently, and
little by little she allowed him to approach her. Finally, she
showed him that she loved him. He appeared on a talk-show, and got
more attention than any other guest. More than the orange-skinned
supermodel; more than the actor who was so good at portraying the
little guy that he need never worry about being one; more even than
the guest who did nothing in particular but was famous for it.
After the show someone stopped him on the street.
    "You're that guy from that show!" they said.
At that moment he felt Fame's guiding hand in his.
    Soon after that she got bored with him, and
let Death have him.
     
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    The Name of the Helper
     
    There was once a vizier of Baghdad who had
such mastery of deception, and flattery, and insinuation, and all
the false arts of the tongue, that he was called Abd al-Katheb, or
Servant of Falsehood.
    Baghdad was ruled by the Caliph Musa al-Hadi.
The Caliph was a wicked man, who attempted to poison his own
mother, and committed many other outrages. Ever was Abd al-Katheb
at his side, whispering cunning and odious sophistries to calm the
conscience of his master. For this service the unrighteous courtier
was greatly rewarded, and his wealth was piled as high as his
infamy.
    At last al-Hadi was smothered to death by the
women of his harem, and his virtuous younger brother Harun
al-Rashid became Caliph. The new Caliph spoke thus:
    "O Abd al-Katheb, it is well-known that your
master, my late brother, was greatly influenced in his wickedness
by your counsel. Many say that your life should be forfeit. Yet you
served only as commanded. Further, Musa al-Hadi has died for his
crimes, and it is not just that a debt already paid should be paid
twice over. You are wont to boast that your words are so honeyed
that you could prove a stone to be the moon, or a beggar's scabs to
be rubies. I decree, therefore, that you shall toil in the palace
stables, to be released only when you can prove the muck thereof to
be purest gold."
    Abd al-Katheb was thus sent to the stables to
be the servant of animals, and to labor amid filth. Such was his
rage and humiliation that his serpent's tongue deserted him. Had he
kept his head he could have convinced the grooms and stablehands
that he was the