TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

John Saul

Egyptian geese, oblivious to the end of time whether they were true geese or in fact ducks, only when they took over completely, might life move a hundred yards down the A4 at the arrival of a storm, and stay there. At last he was putting in a distance to the traffic, the waking nightmare of it, about which Dr Zaengl, who may of course have stolen the words from Dr Hamburger, cleverly declared: what we need is not driverless cars, it’s carless drivers; a clever realignment of syllables, there must a word for such verbal musical chairs, switching things around thatway; butwhatever theword itwould of course have altered nothing, he still stopped in the street, half behind a garden hedge (the garden was the hedge), where for the sake of practice, the sake of remaining firm in his resolutions, he did try a whistle through his teeth, which failed, producing only saliva over his fingers, whereupon he tried a second time and it worked—at the sound, which did hit a note audible even amid a new roar on the six lanes behind him, a squirrel with a bun in its mouth half-emerged from the hedge, its whole self cocked; it flicked its tail, holding tight to the bun. This display was an insight into the future, he felt keenly, it fitted a vision he was working on, of the aftermath of the Chinese age. For after the present age would come the Chinese age, when the Chinese crept ingradually, graduallyexhibiting inside thestatelyhouseaswell as outside, one day acquiring the keys, which of course they needed, they would lock up last at night, as they edged along, owning this and taking over that, until their cars were the only cars able to function, filling the A4, locking the roadway beyond any hope of rescue, not even from helicopters or military vehicles, bringing it to its ultimate, inescapable doom. Then before the final age, the republic of ants and grass—that was well documented and not 226