Descending Road - NOW THEY BLESSED HIM by Dana W. Paxson

NOW THEY BLESSED HIM

1563 4D

Walking in a puppet’s trudge the next day, he explored the house and the small barn and the vast sky, his legs and arms aching, his lungs smarting from the thin harsh air.

He tensed. A one-man flyer broke through the striated clouds over the farm. Near-silent, it banked and circled back toward the house and barn, its wide light wings letting it drift forward slowly, nearly hovering.

Fear pricked Andrew; he ducked between the barn and a large stack of bundled cuttings, and wormed his way in between two bundles. The whoosh of the flyer‘s turbines grew to a strong downdraft that rattled the stalks and grass in the stack where he hid; then the air stilled and the sound died away to a whisper. His arms shook as he huddled, warm and scratched, among the cuttings from the field. This one was looking for him.

Waiting, he closed his eyes and summoned the faces of his family: Leil his wife; sons Engel, the questioning oldest, Maiji, the dreamer, next to last, and Jan still the baby. When the corpos had rubbed his face in filth and defaced his skin with knives, remembering his family had saved his mind from bleeding into the floor and vanishing. Now they blessed him.

He stayed hidden, shaking, until Deen came out looking, calling his name.

Story List	SURPRISE ME	Author Page
USER SURVEY	PUZZLE ME	MAKE ELM MARK

HOVER Lucida Bright BARE	HOVER Lucida Bright FULL	HOVER Palatino Linotype BARE
HOVER Palatino Linotype FULL	HOVER Times New Roman BARE	HOVER Times New Roman FULL
PAD Arial BARE	PAD Arial FULL	PAD Lucida Bright BARE
PAD Lucida Bright FULL	PAD Times New Roman BARE	PAD Times New Roman FULL


	NOW THEY BLESSED HIM 1563 4D Walking in a puppet’s trudge the next day, he explored the house and the small barn and the vast sky, his legs and arms aching, his lungs smarting from the thin harsh air. He tensed. A one-man flyer broke through the striated clouds over the farm. Near-silent, it banked and circled back toward the house and barn, its wide light wings letting it drift forward slowly, nearly hovering. Fear pricked Andrew; he ducked between the barn and a large stack of bundled cuttings, and wormed his way in between two bundles. The whoosh of the flyer‘s turbines grew to a strong downdraft that rattled the stalks and grass in the stack where he hid; then the air stilled and the sound died away to a whisper. His arms shook as he huddled, warm and scratched, among the cuttings from the field. This one was looking for him. Waiting, he closed his eyes and summoned the faces of his family: Leil his wife; sons Engel, the questioning oldest, Maiji, the dreamer, next to last, and Jan still the baby. When the corpos had rubbed his face in filth and defaced his skin with knives, remembering his family had saved his mind from bleeding into the floor and vanishing. Now they blessed him. He stayed hidden, shaking, until Deen came out looking, calling his name.