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Its always been like that. Always. Tears stood in the young mans eyes; he was ashamed and turned away. Astonishment made Lenina forget the deprivation of soma. She uncovered her face and, for the first time, looked at the stranger. Do you mean to say that you wanted to be hit with that whip? Still averted from her, the young man made a sign of affirmation. For the sake of the puebloto make the rain come and the corn grow. And to please Pookong and Jesus. And then to show that I can bear pain without crying out. Yes, and his voice suddenly took on a new resonance, he turned with a proud squaring of the shoulders, a proud, defiant lifting of the chin, to show that Im a man Oh! He gave a gasp and was silent, gaping. He had seen, for the first time in his life, the face of a girl whose cheeks were not the colour of chocolate or dogskin, whose hair was auburn and permanently waved, and whose expression (amazing novelty!) was one of benevolent interest. Lenina was smiling at him; such a nice- looking boy, she was thinking, and a really beautiful body. The blood rushed up into the young mans face; he dropped his eyes, raised them again for a moment only to find her still smiling at him, and was so much overcome that he had to turn away and pretend to be looking very hard at something on the other side of the square. Bernards questions made a diversion. Who? How? When? From where? Keeping his eyes fixed on Bernards face (for so passionately did he long to see Lenina smiling that he simply dared not look at her), the young man tried to explain himself. Linda and heLinda was his mother (the word made Lenina look uncomfortable)were strangers in the Reservation. Linda had come from the Other Place long ago, before he was born, with a man who was his father. (Bernard pricked up his ears.) She had gone walking alone in those mountains over there to the North, had fallen down a steep place and hurt her head. (Go on, go on, said Bernard excitedly.) Some hunters from Malpais had found her and brought her to the pueblo. As for the man who was his father, Linda had never seen him again. His name was Tomakin. (Yes, Thomas was the D.H.C.s first name.) He must have flown away, back to the Other Place, away without hera bad, unkind, unnatural man. And so I was born in Malpais, he concluded. In Malpais. And he shook his head. The squalor of that little house on the outskirts of the pueblo! A space of dust and rubbish separated it from the village. Two famine-stricken dogs were nosing obscenely in the garbage at its door. Inside, when they entered, the twilight stank and was loud with flies. Linda! the young man called. From the inner room a rather hoarse female voice said, Coming. They waited. In bowls on the floor were the remains of a meal, perhaps of several meals. The door opened. A very stout blonde squaw stepped across the threshold and stood looking at the strangers, staring incredulously, her mouth open. Lenina noticed with disgust that two of the front teeth were missing. And the colour of the ones that remained She shuddered. It was worse than the old man. So fat. And all the lines in her face, the flabbiness, the wrinkles. And the sagging cheeks, with those purplish blotches. And the red veins on her nose, the bloodshot eyes. And that neckthat neck; and the blanket she wore over her headragged and filthy. And under the brown sack-shaped tunic those enormous breasts, the bulge of the stomach, the hips. Oh, much worse than the old man, much worse! And suddenly the creature burst out in a torrent of speech, rushed at her with outstretched arms andFord! Ford! it was too revolting, in another moment shed be sickpressed her against the bulge, the bosom, and began to kiss her. Ford! to kiss, slobberingly, and smelt too horrible, obviously never had a bath, and simply reeked of that beastly stuff that was put into Delta and Epsilon bottles (no, it wasnt true about Bernard), positively stank of alcohol. She broke away as quickly as she could. |
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