99- Going to the mountain

How she got that observ'tree door open, I ain't knowin' so don't mozzie me. A sort of umb'licky cord b'tween the door's dusted 'n'rusty niche an' her or- ison-egg worked in a beat or two. Now I was busy guardin' us from the dwellers o' that 'closure. My gran'pa's whispin's was now cussin' half faces what dis'peared when you stared straight. A sharp hiss as the observ'tree door cracked open. Air guffed out stale'n'sour like it was breathed b'fore the Fall an', yay, so it prob'ly was. In we stepped an' what did we find?

Describin' such Smart ain't easy. Gear there was what we ain't mem'ried on Ha-Why, so its names ain't mem'ried neither, yay, almost nothin' in there could I cogg. Shimm'rin' floors, white walls 'n'roofs, one great cham- ber, round'n'sunk, filled by a mighty tube wider'n a man an' longer'n five what Meronym named a radyo tel'scope what was, she said, the furthest- seein' eye Old Uns ever made. Ev'rythin' white'n'pure as Sonmi's robes, yay, not one flea o' dirt 'cept what we tromped in. Tables'n'chairs sat round waitin' for sitters on balconies made o' steel so our foots gonged. Even the Shipwoman was smacked wondersome by all this perfect Smart. She showed her orison ev'rythin' we seed. The orison glowed'n'purred an' win- dows came'n'went. It's mem'ryin' the place, 'splained Meronym, tho' I din't und'stand so good an' I asked what that Smart egg was true-be-telled.

Meronym rested a beat an' drank a mouth o' brew from her flask. An ori- son is a brain an' a window an' it's a mem'ry. Its brain lets you do things like unlock observ'tree doors what you jus' seen. Its window lets you speak to other orisons in the far-far. Its mem'ry lets you see what orisons in the past seen'n' heard, an' keep what my orison sees'n'hears safe from f'gettin'.

Shamed to mem'ry Meronym o' my sivvyin' I was, yay, but if I din't ask then I may not o' got the chance ever, so I asked it, The shimm'rin'n'beautsome girl what I seen in this … orison b'fore … was she a mem'ry or a window?

Meronym hes'tated. Mem'ry.

I asked if the girl was livin' still.

Nay, answered Meronym.

I asked, was she a Prescient?

She hes'tated, an' said she wanted to tell me a hole true now, but that oth- er Valleysmen'd not be ready for its hearin'. I vowed on Pa's icon to say nothin', nay, to no un. Very well. She was Sonmi, Zachry. Sonmi the freak- birthed human what your ancestors b'liefed was your god.

Sonmi was a human like you'n'me? I'd never thinked so nor'd Abbess ever speaked such loonsomeness, nay. Sonmi'd been birthed by a god o' Smart named Darwin, that's what we b'liefed. Did Meronym b'lief this Sonmi'd lived on Prescience I or on Big I?

She was borned'n'died hun'erds o' years ago 'cross the ocean west- nor'westly, so Meronym speaked, on a pen'sula all deadlanded now but its old-time name was Nea So Copros an' its ancient one Korea. A short'n'ju- dased life Sonmi had, an' only after she'd died did she find say-so over purebloods'nfreakbirths' thinkin's.

All this shockin' newness buzzed'n'busted my brain an' I din't know what to b'lief. I asked what Sonmi's mem'ry was doin' in Meronym's orison hun'erds o' years after.

Now I seen Meronym was sorryin' she'd beginned, yay. Sonmi was killed by Old-Un chiefs what feared her, but b'fore she died she spoke to an ori- son 'bout her acts'n'deedin's. I'd got her mem'ry in my orison 'cos I was studyin' her brief life, to und'stand you Valleysmen better.

That's why that girl'd haunted me so. I seen a sort o' Smart ghost?

Meronym yayed. Zachry, we got many buildin's to visit b'fore nighfall.

Now as we were crossin' the 'closure to the second observ'tree, the boulders began speakin'. Oh, you was right 'bout the dammit Prescients first time, Bro Zachry! She's fuggin' your b'liefs'n'all up'ndown'n'in'n'out! I clamped my ears, but yay, them voices went thru these hands. This woman only saved Catkin's life to cloudy your thinkin' with debt'n'honor! Crampsome was them stones' shapes'n'words. I clamped my jaw shut to stop me an- swerin'. She's scavvin'n'sivvyin' Big Isle Smart what truesome b'longs to Valleysmen! Grit devils got under my eyelids. Your pa'd not let no lyin' offlander worm into his trust, bro, nor use him as a pack mule! Them words was so true I cudn't argue back none, an' I stumbled painsome.

Meronym steadied me. I din't 'fess the boulders was yibber-stinkin' her, but she seen sumthin' weren't right. The air up here is thin'n'watery, she speaked, an' your brain'll get diresome hungry an' make this wyrd place wyrdsomer.

We got to the second buildin' an' I slumped droozy while the Prescient worked the door open. Oh, that hollerin' sun hollowed my head. She's a sly un, no frettin', Zachry! Truman Napes Third was perched on his boulder. Meronym'd not even heard him. You b'lief her or your own kin?he called me, mournsome. Are your truths jus' "thin'n'watery air"? Am I? Oh, I was reliefed the next beat when the observ'tree door open. Them ghosts'n'their spikery truths cudn't follow us inside, see, I s'pose the Smart kept 'em out.

So it went all aft'noon long, yay. Most o' the observ'trees was much like the first. The Prescient opened up, 'splored the place with her orison, an' mostly forgot I was there. Me, I just sat an' breathed that Smart air till she was done. But stompin' b'tween buildin's, twisted boulders chorused me, Judas! an' Pack mule! an' Ship slave! Ghosts o' Valleysmen pleaded me thru unpartin' frostbited lips, yay, She ain't your tribe! Ain't even your col- or! an' then'n'there, oh, frightsome sense they made, I 'fess it here'n'now.

S'picion rotted me.

No Prescient'd ever been straight with no Valleysman, an' that day I knowed Meronym was no diff'rent. The boulders'd changed the blue sky to anxin'n'flinty gray by the last buildin'. Meronym teached me it weren't no observ'tree but a gen'rator what made a Smart magic named 'lectricwhat worked the hole place like a heart works the body. She was whoahin' at the machines'n'all, but I was jus' feelin' stoopit'n'judased for bein' blinded by the Shipwoman since she'd come elbowin' into my dwellin'. I din't know what to do nor how to stop her plans, but Georgie'd got his plans, cuss him.

This gen'rator's innards was diff'rent from other buildin's. The Prescient woman glowed with fass'nation as we stepped into the echoey chambers, but I din't. See, I knowed we wasn't alone in there. Shipwoman din't b'lief me, o' course, but in the biggest space where a mighty iron heart stood si- lent was a sort o' throne s'rounded by tables o' littl' windows an' num- bers'n'all, an' on this throne was a died Old-Un priest slumpin' under an arched window. The Prescient swallowed hard an' peered close. A chief stron'mer, I reck'n, she spoke hushly, he must o' soosided here when the Fall came, an' the sealed air's saved his body from rottin'.