What Abigail Did Tha Summer by Ben Aaronovitch (read 50 shades of grey TXT) ๐
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- Author: Ben Aaronovitch
Read book online ยซWhat Abigail Did Tha Summer by Ben Aaronovitch (read 50 shades of grey TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Ben Aaronovitch
โโBut all you ever do is complain that we are walking on you,โ said the bear.
โโI, for one,โ said the cow, โam tired of hearing your thoughts on the subject.โ
โAnd so everything in the world argued amongst themselves โ all except the man and the fox, who were over the horizon and practising their sniggering โ which they had just invented.
โFinally, as the sun rose from her fourth nap since the parliament began, the fox and the man wandered up and asked what was going on. The cat and the path through the forest told them the purpose of the parliament, and they laughed and sniggered and guffawed, another new invention of theirs, until they realised that everyone else was serious.
โโBut you canโt be serious,โ said the man.
โโBut we are,โ said the cat. โAnd, whatโs more, we have reached a consensus โ for the sake of peace we have decided to give up talking.โ
โโFine,โ said the man. โYou chaps give up talking if thatโs what you want, but fox and I will carry on if that is all the same to you. Right, fox?โ
โBut fox was troubled, because much as she liked man she also had many other friends as well. She particularly loved the soft earth and the bright moon, and she knew if she kept talking, and they did not, they would grow estranged.
โโI will give up talking,โ she said. โIf that is the consensus.โ
โBut the man refused. For even then man thought himself more important than all the other things of the world. And he glowered at the fox for not siding with him.
โโThe parliament of everything wishes this change,โ said the moon, who was pro tem speaker of the parliament. โAnd what the parliament decides applies to all things.โ
โโBut,โ said the cat, who had always coveted manโs bushy tail, โperhaps we could come to some arrangement.โ
โโYes, yes!โ cried all things. โIf you want to retain the gift of speech, you must renounce your other gifts.โ
โMan, even in those days being wise to the ways of the cat, agreed. But only if he could choose to whom he gave his gifts. The cat objected, but everything was wiser back in those days and the cat lost the subsequent motion everything else to one.
โโI give my thick fur coat to the ape and its cousins,โ said the man. And so he lost his fur save for patches here and there to remind him of his loss. He gave his long claws to the dog, who even now never retracts them in his honour, his teeth to the bear, and โ to spite the cat โ his beautiful bushy tail to the squirrel.
โโFor this insult I will enslave you, you and all your children,โ said the cat, but those were its last words.
โFinally, man had given away all his gifts except his wisdom, which he gave to the fox.
โโThank you,โ said the fox.
โโDonโt thank me,โ said the man. โI do this so that you and all your kind will know what a mistake you have made.โ
โSilence closed around the parliament like a noose. But everything hesitated because the ground, upon which everything rests, had a final demand.
โโI, for one, am sick of the sound of everyone talking,โ said the ground. โIf you plan to continue, please raise your mouth as far from me as possible.โ
โโAs you wish,โ said man, and reared up on his hind legs until he stood upright.
โAll the things laughed then, because there stood man โ naked and bereft of all his gifts. All the things save the fox, who looked up at the man and saw long slim fingers unencumbered by claws, fingers that could grasp and take and reshape things to suit manโs own purposes. And saw eyes alive with a dreadful intelligence unencumbered by wisdom. And fox was suddenly afraid.
โMan looked around from his new high vantage and saw that all the world was spread out about him like a neglected picnic.
โโI propose that man become the master of all things,โ man said. โAny objections?โ
โMan waited but objections came there none.
โโMotion carried,โ said man.
โAnd that is why everything that wants to talk has to find a man to talk for them,โ says Indigo.
โBut the foxes talk,โ I say.
โThatโs because we won our voices back,โ says Indigo. โCan I have the crumbs?โ
โSo how did you get your talking back?โ I ask, and hold the empty container in front of her muzzle.
โThatโs classified,โ she says, and snaffles up all the crumbs.
28
That Cylindrical Flickery Cartoon Toy Thing That I Canโt Remember the Name Of
Here is a bit of manโs wisdom for you โ when you think things canโt get worse, they usually do.
Real talk โ my dad was born poor into a small village with no health care and no prospects except subsistence farming, and youโd think that was bad enough, until the rebels came murdering, kidnapping and chopping off arms. He escaped, but most of the rest of the village didnโt. You never heard about it, because it was just one of thousands of shit things that happened far away and you probably wouldnโt have cared about it if you had.
Now, my dad did escape. And eventually there was my mum and Paul and me. But the first half was one shit thing after another โ and he was the lucky one, remember. So, knowing this, I shouldnโt have been surprised when House came looking for me.
*
Itโs getting dark again and Iโm thinking Iโve sat here too long listening to fox fairy tales. Indigo is trembling as I grab her and jump up.
โUp or down?โ she hisses.
โWe havenโt tried up yet,โ I say, and swing around the banister. But as I put my foot on the first step I see a flicker of light from the landing above. I stop and wait โ the light shivers and starts coming down. As it gets closer a shadow forms, a figure holding a
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