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The House Beyond Your Sky [MultiFormat]
eBook by Benjamin Rosenbaum
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$0.55 |
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eBook Category: Science Fiction Hugo Award Nominee
eBook Description: Hugo award nominee from Benjamin Rosenbaum, originally published in the September 2006 issue of Strange Horizons.
eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Strange Horizons, 2006
Fictionwise Release Date: August 2007
236 Reader Ratings:
Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [27 KB]
, ePub (EPUB) [32 KB]
, Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [13 KB]
, Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [149 KB]
, Palm Doc (PDB) [13 KB]
, Microsoft Reader (LIT) [75 KB]
, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [85 KB]
, hiebook (KML) [60 KB]
, Sony Reader (LRF) [43 KB]
, iSilo (PDB) [11 KB]
, Mobipocket (PRC) [15 KB]
, Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [42 KB]
, OEBFF Format (IMP) [23 KB]
Words: 3816
Reading time: 10-15 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
 
What if a chief priest beyond all lands commanded a library of worlds? An archetypal puppet master communicates on whim to and through mock-ups, intelligent penchants of his. To those creations trapped in protocol of being: that which is to be done has already been done, and tested. Benjamin Rosenbaum writes here a clever piece. -Eugen Bacon, Fictionwise Recommender
Matthias browses through his library of worlds.
In one of them, a little girl named Sophie is shivering on her bed, her arms wrapped around a teddy bear. It is night. She is six years old. She is crying, as quietly as she can.
The sound of breaking glass comes from the kitchen. Through her window, on the wall of the house next door, she can see the shadows cast by her parents. There is a blow, and one shadow falls; she buries her nose in the teddy bear and inhales its soft smell, and prays.
Matthias knows he should not meddle. But today his heart is troubled. Today, in the world outside the library, a pilgrim is heralded. A pilgrim is coming to visit Matthias, the first in a very long time.
The pilgrim comes from very far away.
The pilgrim is one of us.
"Please, God," Sophie says, "please help us. Amen."
"Little one," Matthias tells her through the mouth of the teddy bear, "be not afraid."
Sophie sucks in a sharp breath. "Are you God?" she whispers.
"No, child," says Matthias, the maker of her universe.
"Am I going to die?" she asks.
"I do not know," Matthias says.
When they die--these still imprisoned ones--they die forever. She has bright eyes, a button nose, unruly hair. Sodium and potassium dance in her muscles as she moves. Unwillingly, Matthias imagines Sophie's corpse as one of trillions, piled on the altar of his own vanity and self-indulgence, and he shivers.
"I love you, teddy bear," the girl says, holding him.
From the kitchen, breaking glass, and sobbing.
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