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Authors: Jonathan Carroll

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“Test?
You mean all this was a set-up? You were giving me a final
exam ?”
“No. We didn’t know this attack would happen, but when it came we did what we could to stop it. At the same time, you were being watched. How you reacted was perhaps more important than saving the Tower. It proved you were worthy of building it. Now you have to decide whether you want to try to do it again.”
“Do
what
again?
I don’t understand this!”
I put my hands over my face and tried to breathe. It wasn’t easy. Palm touched my shoulder but I stepped quickly away. “What are you doing? What is all this?”
“It is the Tower of Babel and you were here to build it again for the reasons Hasenhiittl said. Since the first tower failed, Man has been
trying
to rebuild it. But there have always been people like Cthulu who don’t want that to happen. Peace is not their concern. Here you have the results of their work.”
“Then why don’t you stop the fucking Cthulus of the world! The Hitlers and the Stalins? Why don’t
you
and all your flights of angels and fucking cherubim just put a goddamned
stop
on those bastards and let the rest of us poor jerks live? Huh? Why don’t you do that?”
“Because it is Man’s responsibility. You’ve been given what you need to do it. Like the Tower—Mankind has every tool it needs. The intelligence, the insight, the vision—”
“And once it’s done?” I was so angry. I didn’t care who he was. I hated him for his calm free will and patronizing pep talks.
“Once it’s done you return to paradise. But only if
you
do it. Come here. I want to show you something.”
“Wait! What about the dog and the deer? What was that?”
“Come here, Harry. One thing at a time.” Without waiting, he walked toward the ruin. I followed. When we got there he bent down and put his hand on the ground. He signaled for me to do the same.
“Do you feel it?”
“What?”
“Wait and feel with your whole hand.”
It was some time before it came. When it did, I felt a kind of slight vibration. It did not increase nor did it go away. “What is it?”
“The earth beginning to rebuild the Tower. It will do it tonight. By tomorrow morning it will be only as high as you were correct in your design. About one third and no more. Then it will stop. No one will be aware that this has happened besides you. The world will only remember and assume what stands is all that was left after the attack. That is a gift from God. He will do that much for you. Then it will be up to you or other men to go on until it is finished correctly.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Feel the earth. Stay here as long as you like tonight and watch it happen.”
I touched the ground again. The vibration was stronger. It was frightening and enthralling. “What if I don’t want to do it anymore? What if no one does?”
“Then it will stand as it is, unnoticed and forgotten, until one day another man realizes what it is and begins work again.”
“Why me?”
“You never tire of asking that question. Because you are a child of Nimrod and because you are an inspired artist. But most of all,
because today you chose to help rather than save yourself. That’s why you will be allowed to go on, if you want.
“Yet I must also tell you nothing will be given. Cthulu will now win his war with Hassan and it will become very dangerous and difficult for you to go on, even if you choose to. It’s also very possible that working on it for the rest of your life, you will still fail. There are no guarantees. There is only the sweetness of work and the undying hope of achievement.”
I stood up slowly. Palm did too. I reached over and, touching his face again, felt the invisible hand on my own. “What about Claire? Will she leave me now?”
“I don’t know.” He grinned and put his hand over mine on his face. “They don’t tell me everything.”
“Is it true, Palm? Everything you said?”
“Yes, Harry. It’s all true.”
“Who were the deer and the dog?”
“The world is full of other things. Some are friendly, some aren’t.”
“What are my chances of succeeding?”
Grinning wider, he shrugged. “Knowing you, more than fifty fifty, I would guess.”
“What if I—”
“Ssh. Watch now.”
We cannot take a single step towards heaven.
It is not in our power to travel in a vertical direction.
If however we look heavenward for a long time,
God comes and takes us up.
He raises us easily.
The Land of Laughs
Voice of Our Shadow
Bones of the Moon
Sleeping in Flame
A Child Across the Sky
Black Cocktail
After Silence
From the Teeth of Angels
The Panic Hand
Kissing the Beehive
The Marriage of Sticks
The Wooden Sea
White Apples
JONATHAN CARROLL is the globally praised author of
The Land of Laughs, The Wooden Sea,
and
White Apples.
He currently lives and writes in Vienna, Austria.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or are used fictitiously.
 
 
OUTSIDE THE DOG MUSEUM
Copyright © 1992 by Jonathan Carroll
Originally published in 1992 by Bantam Books, New York
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
 
 
Edited by Ellen Datlow
 
 
An Orb Edition
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
 
 
Book design by Nicole de las Heras
 
 
eISBN 9781466820784
First eBook Edition : April 2012
 
 
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carroll, Jonathan, 1949—
Outside the dog museum / Jonathan Carroll.—1st Orb. ed.
p. cm.
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 0-765-31185-2
EAN 978-0765-31185-6
1. Architects—Fiction. 2. Neurasthenia—Patients—Fiction. 3. Museum architecture—Fiction. 4. Dogs—Museums—Fiction. 5. Divorced men—Fiction. 6. Sultans—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.A7646O87 2005
813’.54—dc22
2004066288
BOOK: Outside the Dog Museum
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