Oliver Benjamin
“I inspire other people to make strategies,” she said, “I inspire
people to make everything. Then they aspire. It’s always been like
that.” She cast her eyes down “I don’t know why it’s not like that
now,” she said. Then she looked up again into his metallic green eyes.
Impulsively, she leaned over and kissed him, trying to infuse him
with her love so that he might instinctively know what to do. He
reeled backwards as she did so, stumbling a bit. She looked over at
the assembled forces. They disapproved.
“Hussy,” the old lady said under her breath.
“Excuse me,” Heck said. “What was that for?”
“For inspiration.”
“That’s not the way we do things in ourarmy, soldier,” he said,
wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. So she had been
demoted. Murmurs of disaffection came from the battalion. Sprout
looked at them and her lower lip started to curve downwards. Yak
quickly ran up to her and took her aside. They sat on the step as
everyone else looked on. Some decided that they had made a mistake
in coming and drifted back to the bus stop.
“It’s okay,” Yak said, pulling her aside. Numbly, she tried to kiss
him as well, but he put his hand on her forehead to prevent it. “No.
Get a hold of yourself,” he said, “Look, you’re trying to do good here.
But you can’t just expect things to happen by themselves.”
Sprout gripped at Yak’s shirt. “I always thought that if you just
really believed something would happen, then it would.”
“That’s not true. Not always.”
“But I feel it. I can’t stop feeling it. Every day I feel it pouring
through me. It’s like love fills me up and I give birth to the world of
dreamed things. I can’t control it. It just happens. It’s just not
happening now. Why isn’t it happening now?”
“Look,” Yak said, “We don’t need to start trouble that we can’t
finish. We can call this off right now and everything will be fine.
We’re alive and healthy and we can find a new place to stay and live
our lives. We can find work and a house and comfort and safety for
all of us. Let’s get out of here.”
“But I don’t want just that. We can’t let Bidden get away with
this.”
“Why not?” Yak said, “It’s just a business. Like a big, strong
carnivorous animal. It looks evil but it’s just trying to stay alive.”
“It’s a stain on the world.” Her eyes began to water themselves.
“There are many stains. It will always be stained.”
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