Answer to question: Very Few People (Correct. 10 points)
One day, either a weekday or a Saturday or Sunday, I am not quite sure, but I know it was at least one of these, the human being who or rather whom I have introduced to you in the previous paragraph before this one, decided that he would leave his two parents, each one of them and both together, and go off to seek his fortune in a far distant land a long way away across the sea. Then he changed his mind.
One day, also either a week day or a Saturday or Sunday, this human being, Pierre Melvin Horatio Gumbledown, decided again that he would leave those two close relatives who were the son and daughter respectively of two finite sets of grandparents, which were, more specifically, his mother and father, Mrs and Mr Gumbledown, and go off to seek his fortune in a far distant land a long way away across the sea. Then he realised that he already lived in a far distant land a long way away across the sea and he was so disappointed and SHOCKed that he stopped right in the middle of what he was
drip
drop
blood dripped down from the hole in the centre of the ceiling. Bright red blood dripping onto the clean white tablecloth at the table under which sat Mr Rudway.
No he thought No It's happened at last No I knew it would
No It must have happened at last.
His mind remembered, forming a picture, a picture of thick, suffocating darkness and a light suddenly appearing in the exact centre of it. Yes He wasn't dreaming it
Yes ct centre of it - a torch light - shining down on it - down on the hideous shapes of rotting disintegrating flesh that had once been a human being. And he knew that
Yes he knew all about it Yes He wasn't denying it Yes He certainly wasn't But the vague outlines of the flesh-pieces growing firmer, more solidly outlined, starkly represented in his mind until now they seemed to be inside that mind, the very pieces of flesh themselves, but not rotting now No but with blood oozing from them as if as though they had only recently been hacked from the body which they had once made up and which had been hacked to pieces, and these pieces, seeming to quiver and shake as though the life still ran through them and out of them as the red blood itself was running out of them, squeezing its way through the holes made by the large sharp knife which now lay red-stained and silver on the wooden floor where it had been left months ago, with the blood now dried up and only unrunning stains, not running except in Mr Rudway's head in Mr Rudway's mind, as it seemed to him. An aspirin quick he thinks and takes three aspirin from a packet of aspirin. He gulps them down with no water, then settles into the kitchen chair again, his mind more relaxed, as he watches another globule of blood drip onto the table. He settles himself, and thinks again, thinks back, over the years, to that day, that day many years ago in November.
It was on a rather cold day in November when they were first heard of. A Mr James Harris was the first to report it. It had happened on the morning of that day.
Mr Harris was in bed. He was asleep, and he had all the blankets over him to escape the chill of the early November morning. He woke up a little earlier than usual, and at first he wasn't sure why. He didn't notice anything yet. But then he felt it, just on the left side of his stomach, a patch of warmth. He wasn't cold under all the blankets, but he wasn't very warm either and as he lay there, he started to wonder at this patch of warmth slowly obtruding itself into his consciousness. He burrowed his hands through the sheets, into his pyjama coat, and touched it. A lump. A thing which seemed to fall away as he touched it and land warm and slimy against the skin on his left side. Putting his hand where the object had been, the hand seemed to slip across the skin, which was slippery with a slimy moisture left by the thing which was cuddling up to his skin on the side of his chest, and which, hurling the bedclothes back and ripping off his pyjama coat, Mr Harris let fall from up his singlet, onto the floor, where it wriggled and squirmed for a moment on the green carpet. He stared at it, a sick feeling inside him, while, with his pyjama coat, he wiped his stomach and left side where the the
It was about four or five inches long and was a yellowish white colour, made up of joined sections like a caterpillar, but with no legs, like a piece chopped out of a thick, grub-coloured snake, but with an end and a beginning, rounded, like a snake, an with pink-red eyes and a toothless mouth with no lips and perhaps no tongue. It moved as a worm moves, the front of the disgusting little body moving forward an inch, then the rest of the body inside moving forward, leaving the outside skin to catch up with and pass it and push forward the front of it again, until it touched Mr Harris's foot. He jerked his foot away and wiped it on the pyjama coat which he now intended to throw away. The little monster crawled towards him again and he rushed out of the room, grabbed a large jar, captured easily the beast without touching it, snapped the lid on the jar, dressed himself, and took it to a naturalist by the name of Pierre Melvin Horatio Gumbledown, a bald old man with a long white beard and a jet-black moustache.
"What is it, professor?" he asked nervously. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Neither have I," added the professor, "but sit down and I'll tell you what I think."
He sat down.
He told him what he thought.
"It's a long story, my boy, a long, long story. You see, many years ago, many, many years ago, many, many, many years ago, when I was young, I lived in a far distant land a long way away across the sea, in a big house which was extremely small for its size, and in which lived my mother and my father, Mr and Mrs Gumbledown, who were married, according to the custom of that land, by a minister of the church, some years before I was born. They met at a rock and roll dance one night and fell in love at first sight. You see, they both looked exactly alike, and at first they both thought they were looking in a mirror. Anyway, the point is, that at that dance that night that they went to, was a mysterious-looking character called Mr Rudway, who had spent a little while in prison for murdering five hundred people and storing them up in his attic, He was let out fairly early because of good behaviour, and went to a psychiatrist occasionally to find out what was wrong with him, if anything. It turned out that he had had an unhappy childhood, and had hated his father, who had often smacked him. This was because of a favourite pastime that Rudway had of murdering his sisters and hacking them into pieces, an act which he repeated once too often and made his father very cross.
"This psychiatrist had a pretty secretary named Lulu, who was pretty. She had pretty eyes and pretty hair and pretty teeth and pretty breasts and this was pretty nice for the psychiatrist, who used to just sit there and stare at her all day, until one day he spoke to her. She was so surprised that she began to tell him the story of her life, including a strange episode involving her brother, Jim. Jim was riding out on a horse one day when he spied an old man, who asked him for something to eat. Jim said, "I haven't got any food," and the old man said, "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" When he had finished it the old man thanked Jim for his kindness and gave him a magic ring which he must wear all his life and then his whole life would be extremely happy, but he must leave the ring in his will to a Mr Gregers Granderlow, or many years later a terrible plague would come upon the Earth. Jim died of exhaustion on the fifty-mile walk back home, after an extremely happy life, which had been spent thinking of the extremely happy life he was going to have. Of course he had not yet had time to alter his will in order to bequeath his ring to Mr Gregers Granderlow, so many years later there would be a terrible plague coming upon the Earth. And I reckon this must be it!"
Professor yes Gumbledown stopped talking and his eyes and the eyes of Mr Harris watched a little white repulsive enormous slug-like creature slither towards them across the room. They walked to the door and saw, out in the streets hundreds and thousands of them, warm slimy sickening yellowy-white monsters, climbing all over people and being brushed off easily. But night yes we need them yes oh yes yes came. Some people slept, and were found suffocated under a pile of the Worms.
Then the next night more died, and then more. Anyone that went to sleep was immediately taken advantage of by the Worms, which attacked in vain during the day yes we love them oh yes yes. Millions of them, everywhere. Worms! Disgusting! And I have not yet slept. I am writing, brushing away Worms, and no one will ever read this story, or any other, so yes indeed we can't do without them oh yes I may as well reveal my identity and admit now that my name is Pierre Melvin Horatio Gumbledown, which is why I remained anonymous throughout the story. Last night I dissected one of the Worms, the one Mr Harris brought mer, and out of it crawled hundreds of tiny maggots, which had filled it completely, swelling up and swiftly growing into big Worms.
Now they are all over me, on my legs, on my arms, on my oh yes to crawl to them as if magnetized as if yes my face, in my mouth. I am going to sleep. I can last no longer. I am going. Goodbye World, goodnight my friends. Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Goodbye.
And the Worms oh yes human beings how we need them our one desire oh yes yes lived happily ever after yes.