The teen-ager marched up to the platform and took the parade-rest
position learned in some high-school debating society--in the days when
there were debating societies and high schools. "Ladies and gentlemen,
well, let's start at the beginning. Guy tells this better'n I do,
of course, but I guess I remember it all pretty well too. I ought
to. I was in on it and all." She grimaced and said, "Well, anyway,
ladies and gentlemen--people of Orph'lese--the way Guy organized
this Orphalese self-protection society was, like Walter says, he was
possessed. The only difference between Guy and you and me was that he
knew what to do about it, because he read the book, you see. Not that
that helped him at first, when he was took over. He was really seized.
Yes, people of Orph'lese, he was taken and while his whole soul and
brain and body was under the influence of some foul wanderer fiend
from hell he did things that, ladies and gentlemen of Orph'lese, I
wouldn't want to tell you. He was a harp in the hand of the mighty, as
it says. Couldn't help it, not however much he tried. Only while he
was doing--the things--he happened to catch his hand in a gas flame
and, well, you can see it was pretty bad." With a deprecatory smile Guy
held up a twisted hand. "And, do you know, he was free of his imp right
then and there! Now, Guy is a scientist, people of Orph'lese, he worked
for the telephone company, and he not only had that training in the
company school but he had read the book, you see, and he put two and
two together. Oh, and he's my uncle, of course. I'm proud of him. I've
always loved him, and even when he--when he was not one with himself,
you know, when he was doing those terrible things to me, I knew it
wasn't Uncle Guy that was doing them, but something else. I didn't know
what, though. And when he told me he had figured out the Basic Rule,
I went along with him every bit. I knew Guy wasn't wrong, and what he
said was from Scripture. Imps fear pain! So we got to love it. That one
I know by heart, all right: 'Could you keep your heart from wonder at
the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous
than your joy.' That's what it says, right? So that's why we got to
hurt ourselves, people of Orph'lese--and new brothers--because the
wanderers don't like it when we hurt and they leave us alone. Simple's
that.
"Well--" the girl's face stiffened momentarily--"I knew _I_ wasn't
going to be seized. So Guy and I got Else, that's the other girl he'd
been doing things to, and we knew she wasn't going to be taken either.
Not if the imps feared pain like Guy said, because," she said solemnly,
"I want to tell you Guy hurt us pretty bad.
"And then we came out here, and found this place, and ever since then
we've been adding brothers and sisters. It's been slow, of course,
because not many people come this way any more, and we've had to kill
a lot. Yes, we have. Sometimes the possessed just can't be saved, but--"
Abruptly her face changed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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