Descending Road - A PRESTIGIOUS NEW JOB FOR SULIMAR by Dana W. Paxson

A PRESTIGIOUS NEW JOB FOR SULIMAR

1560 4D

So now my cooking job was fried like tuber, and the coin from the cleaner job had to go for Annie Thing and me both, and I needed more work again. Cleaner work was too tiring. I wanted something I could relax at, you know, like talking. Those bigmouths on the sensi got tall stacks for just spewing words – why couldn’t I?

Walking one day with Annie, I saw the Mantis Man. The Fandarinn Coll is a scary bunch, and they’ve got weirds and weirlocks and lots of strange hantiih going for them. The Mantis Man was one of the strangest.

You couldn’t tell he was Fandarinn by his looks, because he wore this long, dark-green shroudy thing over his head and face and his black slipsuit. His voice carried all down the understreet like the beats of a big drum.

“Pay attention to your nouess! If you fail, you will fade into death! Your inner self needs feeding, and you must turn to its needs. We are all in prison here, the prison of the Cities, and how will we find freedom?” His right arm beat the accents as he spoke in this chant almost a song. His right hand, folded down like a claw, ripped downward again and again. A small knot of people stared at him from across the street.

“Freedom is in us! You know how the andros fly in their little space in their heads?”

I looked over at Annie. She watched him intently.

“We have a greater space within us. It is the space of our nouess, our spirits. We can share that space. Come with me and hear the story.” He held out his left hand, folded down like the claw, but holding a small open purse, and people dropped coin in it. Then he turned to go, and no one followed him.

They just gave him coin. Simple as that. I decided I liked how simple it was. That’s when I decided to become a Mantis Man.

Annie didn’t like the idea at all. “Fool,” she said. She called me that a lot. “You don’t know what to say. People will laugh at you, Sulimar.”

She never used my name, and so I looked at her hard. “You won’t stop working with me nights, will you?”

“I’ve done a lot worse, fool,” she said. “Nah. Not yet.”

It took me about five days to get the robe and cowl made to fit me. I practiced the hand movements and the speeches a lot. I made up stuff. It sounded good. I even found a sensi socket with a Mantis Man chanting on it, and a meter that showed how much coin was coming in, and I practiced while I watched him. Sometimes I’d kick in the filters and watch Jestice mocking him on the same socket like a nasty ghost, and if I was with Annie we’d laugh and she’d bang me again. That’s what the sysensi called positive reinforcement.

Soon I was on the street with it. Annie never came with me, though – she always mumbled something I didn’t understand and headed off somewhere else. That was okay, because then I could concentrate on something besides her playing spider all over me.

The key was in the cadence and the singing sound, I tell you – the people came to me like jagger beetles to hot blood. Coin stacked itself in the little green purse I opened for them. Then I’d invite them to come with me, they’d fade away with guilty looks, and I’d find Annie and take her to Kuklagrad to sip up some met and KPX and get oiled for gong gong together again back in my cubb. Cleaning up bodies in between started feeling much better.

It worked for about two eightdays. That’s when the weirds tracked me down.

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


	A PRESTIGIOUS NEW JOB FOR SULIMAR 1560 4D So now my cooking job was fried like tuber, and the coin from the cleaner job had to go for Annie Thing and me both, and I needed more work again. Cleaner work was too tiring. I wanted something I could relax at, you know, like talking. Those bigmouths on the sensi got tall stacks for just spewing words – why couldn’t I? Walking one day with Annie, I saw the Mantis Man. The Fandarinn Coll is a scary bunch, and they’ve got weirds and weirlocks and lots of strange hantiih going for them. The Mantis Man was one of the strangest. You couldn’t tell he was Fandarinn by his looks, because he wore this long, dark-green shroudy thing over his head and face and his black slipsuit. His voice carried all down the understreet like the beats of a big drum. “Pay attention to your nouess! If you fail, you will fade into death! Your inner self needs feeding, and you must turn to its needs. We are all in prison here, the prison of the Cities, and how will we find freedom?” His right arm beat the accents as he spoke in this chant almost a song. His right hand, folded down like a claw, ripped downward again and again. A small knot of people stared at him from across the street. “Freedom is in us! You know how the andros fly in their little space in their heads?” I looked over at Annie. She watched him intently. “We have a greater space within us. It is the space of our nouess, our spirits. We can share that space. Come with me and hear the story.” He held out his left hand, folded down like the claw, but holding a small open purse, and people dropped coin in it. Then he turned to go, and no one followed him. They just gave him coin. Simple as that. I decided I liked how simple it was. That’s when I decided to become a Mantis Man. Annie didn’t like the idea at all. “Fool,” she said. She called me that a lot. “You don’t know what to say. People will laugh at you, Sulimar.” She never used my name, and so I looked at her hard. “You won’t stop working with me nights, will you?” “I’ve done a lot worse, fool,” she said. “Nah. Not yet.” It took me about five days to get the robe and cowl made to fit me. I practiced the hand movements and the speeches a lot. I made up stuff. It sounded good. I even found a sensi socket with a Mantis Man chanting on it, and a meter that showed how much coin was coming in, and I practiced while I watched him. Sometimes I’d kick in the filters and watch Jestice mocking him on the same socket like a nasty ghost, and if I was with Annie we’d laugh and she’d bang me again. That’s what the sysensi called positive reinforcement. Soon I was on the street with it. Annie never came with me, though – she always mumbled something I didn’t understand and headed off somewhere else. That was okay, because then I could concentrate on something besides her playing spider all over me. The key was in the cadence and the singing sound, I tell you – the people came to me like jagger beetles to hot blood. Coin stacked itself in the little green purse I opened for them. Then I’d invite them to come with me, they’d fade away with guilty looks, and I’d find Annie and take her to Kuklagrad to sip up some met and KPX and get oiled for gong gong together again back in my cubb. Cleaning up bodies in between started feeling much better. It worked for about two eightdays. That’s when the weirds tracked me down.