A Box of Nothing Read Online Free Page B

watering. But …
    â€œIs it alive?” he whispered.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œOh, then I can’t …”
    â€œIt is less alive than it was when it was a cow and a plant. It is less alive than it will be if you eat it. It never chose to become chips and hamburgers, but since that has happened it would prefer to go through with the job. If you do not eat it, it will become garbage again. We do not like being garbage. We are trying not to be.”
    James chose the smallest fry and nibbled the end off. It tasted just ordinary. So did the burgers. He was chewing a proper mouthful when another thought struck him. The way the Burra kept talking about “we.”
    â€œIs this food part of you?” he said.
    â€œIt was some of us.”
    â€œThat’s not English.”
    â€œThen it must be Dumpish. In any case, it is now becoming part of you.”
    â€œSome of you—inside me?”
    â€œWe do not see what you are worrying about. After all, you are inside us at the moment.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    The Burra waved its green arm at the walls of the cavern.
    â€œAll this is us,” it said. “This part here”—it tapped itself on the chest—“this part here is only what you might call a central committee. The Burra Council. Ho, ho.”
    â€œOh. Is that why there’s a sort of gap before you say anything?”
    â€œWe are a democratic institution. We ask around.”
    â€œHow did you begin, then? I mean, did you have a Mum and Dad? Or anything?”
    â€œNo. Though our first voice came from a doll and said ‘Mama’ and ‘Papa.’ It was not much use. This one came from a video game. What do you think of it?”
    â€œPretty good,” said James, mumbling because he’d started eating again without noticing. “Do you mean you just happened?”
    â€œWe are not quite sure. But we think we are the result of the Dump’s ceasing to function.”
    â€œWhat’s that mean?”
    â€œWe do not know. It is just a feeling we have.”
    â€œI still don’t understand,” said James. “I saw everything outside’s sort of gone fossil. And why’s it all so enormous? Is that because of the Dump getting stuck? What do you mean, stuck? Like an engine seizing up?”
    â€œA bit like that, we think. We don’t really understand ourself. But nothing is totally dead, you know. Everything is a bit alive, only it is a shapeless kind of life. Unorganized. People get hold of that loose life-stuff and give it a bit of shape and use it for a year or two. Then they throw it away. Nature does much the same. It seems a pity, but it is all part of a process—or it was until the Dump ceased to function. Then most of the stuff here did what you call ‘going fossil,’ but some of us somehow put our lives together and started to become what we are now.”
    â€œWhat were you like then?”
    â€œWe do not remember. Do you remember when you were a jellyfish? Ages ago some cells decided to work together and help each other, so they invented themselves into a jellyfish. That was how you started. If you can, we can too. It is the logical way to go about things.”
    â€œBut I’m me. You keep talking about ‘we’ and ‘us.’”
    â€œYou may not be as different as you think. You just feel more like an ‘I’ inside that skin of yours. We are looser.”
    Up on the roof the light twisted itself into new coils, as if it were trying to help explain. James remembered how it had dimmed, and how the Burra had gone into a trance while his supper was getting ready. The “life” must have been busy doing the cooking. Now he suddenly felt that the whole cavern, with its faint lights and hums, really was all alive, all one creature, that twitched and quivered the whole time, a bit like a dog having a dream. The Burra didn’t even stop where the cavern