Billy shrugged.
‘Anywhere, we’re just drifting along.’
The man stroked his beard.
‘You better stay on the stage right through to Hollow City. This here stage only stops at two other places. Sade and Galilee. Galilee is bad, and Sade you don’t even want to talk about in broad daylight.’
Billy and Reave looked at each other.
‘Looks like it’s Hollow City for us.’
Two men came down the boardwalk. Both wore peaked caps and heavy fur coats. One carried a long whip, while the other cradled a wicked-looking riot gun in the crook of his arm. The one with the gun climbed up on to the driver’s box of the stage, while the other stopped in front of Billy, Reave and the man in the hat and long coat.
‘Stage is leaving, let’s have your fares.’
The man dropped some coins in the driver’s hands and climbed into the coach. Billy was the next in line.
‘How much to Hollow City for the two of us?’
It didn’t look as though the Minstrel Boy was going to show.
‘Two hundred.’
Billy felt an empty feeling hit his stomach.
‘How far can we get on seventy-five each?’
‘Galilee.’
Billy thought about what the man in the hat had just said. Then he thought about what the police had said the night before.
‘I guess it better be Galilee then.’
They paid the driver and climbed inside the coach. The man in the hat looked at them inquiringly.
‘Thought you were going to Hollow City?’
Billy scowled.
‘We were, but we found we only had enough money to make it as far as Galilee.’
The man shook his head.
‘That’s too bad, boys. Rather you than me.’
Reave looked at him.
‘What’s wrong with Galilee?’
‘They don’t like strangers.’
Billy was about to ask him to go into more detail when the coach gave a lurch and then slowly began to rattle down the main street of Dogbreath. Once out of the town, the driver whipped up the lizards and soon they were bouncing over the plain at a merry pace. Reave grinned at Billy.
‘Sure beats walking.’
Billy sighed.
‘I guess it does.’
The man took off his hat, and laid it on the seat beside him. He fished a flask out of his coat, took a hit from it and offered it to Billy. Billy accepted the flask and took a healthy swig. It felt as though his mouth and throat were on fire. His eyes watered, and he coughed.
‘What in hell is this?’
The man winked.
‘You know what they say. Don’t ask no questions.’
Billy passed the flask to Reave, who, despite a little more caution, went through the same performance. He handed the flask back to the man, who took another swallow, put the cap back on the flask and pocketed it.
‘If we’re going to be travelling together, I’d best introduce myself. People call me the Rainman.’
He stuck out a hand. Billy and Reave both shook it.
‘I’m Billy, and he’s Reave.’
‘Pleased to know you.’
The stage rattled on, and Billy wondered if he ought to ask the Rainman what exactly was wrong with Galilee. Before he could say anything, Reave started a conversation with him.
‘If you don’t mind me asking, why do people call you the Rainman?’
The Rainman laughed.
‘Because I bring on the rain.’
‘Huh?’
‘These stasis towns, you know, they get bored and they hire me on. Ain’t you never heard my slogan?’
Reave shook his head.
‘Can’t say I have.’
The Rainman recited.
‘Change your weather, change your luck. Teach you how to … find yourself.’
‘Neat slogan.’
‘I think so.’
‘What I can’t figure Is why these people want the weather changed. Nobody grows nothing since Stuff Central set up in business,’
The Rainman grinned knowingly.
‘They don’t. Not until I get to town.’
‘So what happens?’
‘Well, I just ramble into town, hang around for a couple of days, tell a few people about how the weather used to be in the ancient days. I tell them about rain, clouds, sunshine, showers, thunder and hurricanes, and pretty soon they get to thinking about how dull it gets with the old white sky and even temperature, and that’s the time I make them an offer.’
‘An offer for what?’
‘An offer to lay on some weather.’
Reave looked impressed.
‘You can really do that?’
‘Sure can.’
He glanced up at his bag on the rack.
‘Got me this little old limited-field disrupter, trapped it myself out in the nothings a few years back, and I ain’t been short of a meal or a drink or a woman since.’
‘So what exactly do you do?’
‘It’s simple, son. I just set up that disrupter in the middle of those bored old stasis towns and give him a couple of kicks to get him going, and bingo. They got weather. Rain, snow, heatwave, lightning, fog, as much weather as they could want. Of course, it ain’t exactly like it was in the old days. They don’t have the same weather for more than ten minutes at a time, and now and then things get a bit out of hand, and they maybe get a hurricane or an earthquake or something like that that they didn’t exactly bargain for. When that happens, I find myself leaving town in a hurry, but it works out okay in the end.’
Reave scratched his head.
‘What happens when these people get all this weather? We never had anything like that in Pleasant Gap.’
The Rainman laughed again.
‘Son, you should see them go. They just about go crazy. Dancing about, singing and shouting. And the women, oh boy, you should see those women get it on. And me, well, I started it all and that puts the good old Rainman right at the front of the line.’
‘Sure sounds like a good life.’
The Rainman nodded.
‘It is. ‘Cept most towns get tired of weather after a few days and begin to hanker after everything getting back to normal. That’s when they pay me off and I shut off Wilbur, that’s the pet name I call the disruptor, and it’s time to move on. Like you say, though, it ain’t a bad life.’
Billy started to take an interest in the conversation. He looked at the Rainman.
‘You sound as though you don’t have too much regard for these stasis towns.’
The Rainman shook his head.
‘I don’t, and I must have seen a hundred of them since I got hold of old Wilbur.’
‘What’s wrong with them?’
‘Oh, nothing really. It’s just that they’re so goddamn self-satisfied. You know, they sit there, inside the field of their generator, everything they need coming in on a stuff beam. After a while they seem to fold in on themselves, refuse to believe there’s anything different from their little world. They start to get so fucking narrow, some then really turn weird.’
‘Weird?’
‘Yeah, these little towns all get caught up on some stupid detail and build their whole lives round it.’
Billy looked interested.
‘Is Galilee like that?’
‘Yeah, they’re all crazy.’
‘Crazy?’
‘Yeah, they have this thing about work. I mean, everything they need comes in on a stuff beam, but they have this kind of religion thing about work. They work all the time at these pointless jobs, hard physical work for maybe ten hours, a day. They have this mad priesthood which keeps everybody hard at it. It’s a terrible place to get busted for vagrancy. They’ll have you breaking up rocks with a goddamn hammer. You wouldn’t believe the way they carry on around Galilee.’
Reave looked alarmed.
‘And this is the place we’re heading for?’
The Rainman nodded sombrely.
‘If I was you, I’d get the hell out of it as quick as possible. It’s no place for freewheelers and ramblers.’