Odnośniki
- Indeks
- Alan Burt Akers [Dray Prescot 14] Krozar of Kregen (pdf)
- Debra Dean Confessions of a Fallen Woman (pdf)(1)
- Alan Drew Gardens of Water (pdf)
- Dean R. Koontz W okowach lodu
- Beastchild Dean R. Koontz
- Foster Siblings 2.1 Snowfall Cameron Dane
- Kaza Kingsley Erec Rex 01 Dragon's Eye
- Jeff Head Dragon's Fury 2 Trodden Under
- Andrzej Sapkowski [Witcher 02] Blood of Elves (pdf)
- McMann Lisa Koniec cz.3
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- torres9.htw.pl
FREE AT LAST! FREE AS FREE AS I'LL EVER
BE AFTER TEN THOUSAND YEARS! FREE TO SPEAK
AND ACT, MY WILL TO BE KNOWN!
Danny went over backward. The sound was as mind-
throttling as being at ground zero. The window glass blew out. Every light
bulb in the apartment shattered. From the carton containing their meager
chinaware came the distinct sound of hailstones as every plate and cup
dissolved into shards. Dogs and cats blocks away began to howl. Connie
screamed though it could not be heard over the foghorn thunder of the
voice and was knocked head over ankles into a comer, still clutching the
dustrag. Plaster showered in the little apartment. The window shades rolled
up.
Danny recovered first. He crawled over a chair and stared at the lamp with
horror. Connie sat up in the comer, face white, eyes huge, hands over her
ears. Danny stood and looked down at the seemingly innocuous lamp.
"Knock off that noise! You want to lose us the lease?"
CERTAINLY, OFFSPRING OF A WORM!
"I said: stop that goddam bellowing!"
THIS WHISPER? THIS IS NAUGHT TO THE HURRI-
CANE I SHALL LOOSE, SPAWN OF PARAMECIUM!
"That's it," Danny yelled. "I'm not getting kicked out of the only apartment
in the city of New York I can afford just because of some loudmouthed genie in
a jug ..."
DJINN, NO CHASER 235
He stopped. He looked at Connie. Connie looked back at him.
"Oh, my god," she said.
"It's real," he said.
They got to their knees and crawled over. The lamp lay on its side on the
floor at the foot of the daybed.
"Are you really in there?" Connie asked.
WHERE ELSE WOULD I BE, SLUT!
"Hey, you can't talk to my wife that way "
Connie shushed him. "If he's a genie, he can talk any way he likes. Sticks and
stones; namecalling is better than poverty."
"Yeah? Well, nobody talks to my "
"Put a lid on it. Squires. I can take care of myself. If what's in this lamp
is even half the size of the genie in that movie you took me to the Thalia to
see ..."
"The Thief of Bagdad . . . 1939 version . . . but Rex
Ingram was just an actor, they only made him look big."
"Even so. As big as he was, if this genie is only half that big, playing macho
overprotective chauvinist hubby "
SO HUMANS CONTINUE TO PRATTLE LIKE MON-
KEYS EVEN AFTER TEN THOUSAND YEARS! WILL
NOTHING CLEANSE THE EARTH OF THIS RAUCOUS
PLAGUE OF INSECTS?
"We're going to get thrown right out of here," Danny said. His face screwed up
in a horrible expression of discomfort.
"If the cops don't beat the other tenants to it."
"Please, genie," Danny said, leaning down almost to the lamp. "Just tone it
down a little, willya?"
OFFSPRING OF A MILLION STINKS! SUFFER!
"You're no genie," Connie said smugly. Danny looked at her with disbelief.
"He's no genie? Then what the hell do you think he is?"
She swatted him. Then put her finger to her lips.
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THAT IS WHAT I AM, WHORE OF DEGENERACY!
"No you're not."
236 Harlan EUison
I AM.
"Am not."
AM
"Am not."
AM SO, CHARNEL HOUSE HARLOT! WHY SAY
YOU NAY?
"A genie has a lot of power; a genie doesn't need to shout like that to make
himself heard. You're no genie, or you'd speak softly. You can't speak at a
decent level, because you're a fraud."
CAUTION, TROLLOP!
"Foo, you don't scare me. If you were as powerful as you make out, you'd tone
it way down."
is this better? are you convinced?
"Yes," Connie said, "I think that's more convincing. Can you keep it up,
though? That's the question."
forever, if need be.
"And you can grant wishes?" Danny was back in the conversation.
naturally, but not to you, disgusting grub of humanity.
"Hey, listen," Danny replied angrily, "I don't give a damn what or who you
are! You^can't talk to me that way."
Then a thought dawned on him. "After all, I'm your master!"
ah! correction, filth of primordial seas. there are some djinn who are
mastered by their owners, but unfortunately for you i am not one of them, for
i am not free to leave this metal prison, i was imprisoned in this accursed
vessel many ages ago by a besotted sorcerer who knew nothing of molecular
compression and even less of the binding forces of the universe, he put me
into this thrice-cursed lamp, far too small for me, and i have been wedged
within ever since.
over the ages my good nature has rotted away. i am powerful, but trapped,
those who own me cannot request anything and hope to realize their boon. i am
unhappy, and an unhappy djinn is an evil djinn. were i free, i might be
DJINN, NO CHASER 237
your slave; but as i am now, i will visit unhappiness on you in a thousand
forms!
Danny chuckled. "The hell you will. I'll toss you in the incinerator."
ah! but you cannot, once you have bought the lamp, you cannot lose it, destroy
it or give it away, only sell it. i am with you forever, for who would buy
such a miserable lamp?
And thunder rolled in the sky.
"What are you going to do?" Connie asked.
do? just ask me for something, and you shall see!
"Not me," Danny said, "you're too cranky."
wouldn't you like a billfold full of money?
There was sincerity in the voice from the lamp.
"Well, sure, I want money, but "
The djinn's laughter was gigantic, and suddenly cut off by the rain of frogs
that fell from a point one inch below the ceiling, clobbering Danny and Connie
with small, reeking, wriggling green bodies. Connie screamed and dove for the
clothes closet. She came out a second later, her hair full of them; they were
falling in the closet, as well. The rain of frogs continued and when Danny
opened the front door to try and escape them, they fell in the hall. He
slammed the door he realized he was still naked and covered his head with his
hands. The frogs fell, writhing, stinking, and then they were knee-deep in
them, with little filthy, warty bodies jumping up at their faces.
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what a lousy disposition i've got! the djinn said, and then he laughed. And he
laughed again, a clangorous peal that was silenced only when the frogs
stopped, disappeared, and the flood of blood began.
It went on for a week.
They could not get away from him, no matter where they went. They were also
slowly starving: they could not go out to buy groceries without the earth
opening under their feet, or a herd of elephants chasing them down the street,
or
238 Harlan EUison hundreds of people getting violently ill and vomiting on
them. So they stayed in and ate what canned goods they had stored up in the
first four days of their marriage. But who could eat with locusts filling the
apartment from top to bottom, or snakes that were intent on gobbling them up
like little white rats?
First came the frogs, then the flood of blood, then the whirling dust storm, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]