Another Roadside Attraction (44 page)
She is not packing as would one who was off to an institution or an execution. Or who was returning to the family hearth. She packs like one who is about to run away with the whirlwind of life. She just put in some gypsy toe-bells. And the tsetse fly.
As it has for days, a language of rain babbles against the windows. It sounds fresh and right to me now.
Oh oh. From below, they just called my name. Not “Marx Marvelous,” but my
real
name. The bastards! On top of everything else, there will be alimony to face.
They call again. I recognize the voice. The voice thumps up the stairs one word at a time, as if the words were lead basketballs dribbled by a rusty robot. It is Father Gutstadt calling. “Get your things together,” says his geological boom. “You've got five minutes.”
I already have my things together. So I will add a few last words to this report. Amanda is starting to come toward me now. Coming to kiss me good-bye. In her face I notice a terrible beauty. Like the terrible beauty of nature itself. It reveals to me two facts. One: she loves me deeply. Two: she is completely indifferent as to whether she ever sees me again.
Looking past her to her suitcase, I ascertain that it is not yet full. Good. For she has promised to leave room in it for this manuscript.
Reader! Let this be a signal to you. If this manuscript has survived, it will mean that Amanda has survived.
And if
AMANDA IS ALIVE
. . .
And
JESUS
is
DEAD
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pine Cones on the Tent,
It's a cold, clear morning; the sun has come over the canyon wall, but you're still dozing around, when something hits the tent. Open the flap and the sun's in your face; the world is ready.
Let Amanda be your pine cone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
TOM ROBBINS has been called “a vital natural resource” by The Portland Oregonian, “one of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world” by the Financial Times of London, and “the most dangerous writer in the world today” by Fernanda Pivano of Italy's Corriere della Sera. A Southerner by birth, Robbins has lived in and around Seattle since 1962.
BOOKS BY TOM ROBBINS
Another Roadside Attraction
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Still Life with Woodpecker
Jitterbug Perfume
Skinny Legs and All
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates
Villa Incognito
ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam trade paperback edition published May 1990
Bantam trade paperback reissue / May 2003
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
Copyright © 1971 by Thomas E. Robbins
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 90-80237
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
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eISBN: 978-0-553-89788-3
v3.0