Joe Haldeman berättelse titel

10

Jag letar efter en kort historia som min hjärna råder var skrivet av Joe Haldeman. Jag brukar vara ganska bra på webbsökning men har ritat en blank på den här.

Historien ligger i en dystopisk framtid på en tråkig kant av universumsplanet där livet i allmänhet är svårt och de flesta kolonisterna är låga betalda & överarbetade och hoppas kunna gå någon annanstans men har ett minimalt hopp om att någonsin kunna göra det. Människor arbetar med infödingar som har mänsklig nivå intelligens och är multi limbed - Jag har ett intryck av något liknande en stor 6 legged hund. Utsiktspunkten karaktär / berättare är en sådan. Han och hans mänskliga vän arbetar långa timmar i en gruva.

Men vänta - det blir värre. Gamla moster, vars namn (eller kanske mormor) har bestämt sig för att blåsa hennes hårt vunna pensionskassor för att betala för en enda biljett till detta helvetehål. Hon anländer midtal och hennes brorson / sonson / ... är orimlig att hon har slösat bort sina pengar sålunda när hon kunde ha gått i pension i ett halvt universum borta. Hon berättar för barntidshistorier.

Det ska vara tillräckligt för att identifiera berättelsen till den som har läst det - oavsett om det är Joe H eller en annan. Om någon kan identifiera titel och författare skulle jag vara mest tacksam.

    
uppsättning Russell McMahon 15.05.2015 11:18

2 svar

10

Det är " La Befana " av Gene Wolfe.

“La Befana.” An old woman comes to a hostile planet in search of redemption for her sins, committed long, long ago.

Vissa citat från historien:

When Zozz, home from the pit, had licked his fur clean, he howled before John Bannano's door. John's wife, Teresa, opened it and let him in. She was a thin, stooped woman of thirty or thirty-five, her black hair shot with gray; she did not smile, but he felt somehow that she was glad to see him. She said, "He's not home yet. If you want to come in we've got a fire."

....

Bananas nodded. Maria said, "Daddy, how did Grandmother come here?"
"Same way we did."
Mark said, "You mean she signed a thing?"
"A labor contract? No, she's too old. She bought a ticket - you know, like you would buy something in a store."
Maria said, "That's what I mean."
"Shut up and play. Don't bother us."
Zozz said, "How'd things go at work?"
"So-so." Bananas looked toward the back room again. "She came into some money, but that's her busines - I didn't want to talk to the kids about it."
"Sure."
"She says she spent every dollar to get here - you know, they haven't used dollars even on Earth for fifty, sixty years, but she still says it, how do you like that?" He laughed, and Zozz laughed too. "I asked how she was going to get back, and she said she's not going back, she's going to die right here with us. What could I say?"

....

"She could have lived good for the rest of her life on what that ticket cost her." Bananas was silent for a moment. "She used to be a big, fat woman when I was a kid, you know? A great big woman with a loud voice. Look at her now - dried up and bent over; it's like she wasn't my mother at all. You know the only thing that's the same about her? That black dress. That's the only thing I recognize, the only thing that hasn't changed. She could be a stranger - she tells stories about me I don't remember at all."
Maria said, "She told us a story today."
Mark added: "Before you came home. About this witch."
Maria said: "That brings the presents to children. Her name is La Befana the Christmas Witch."
Zozz drew his lips back from his double canines and jiggled his head. "I like stories."

Vridningen, som den querenta inte inkluderade, är:

Grandmother is implied to be "La Befana", doomed to walk the world seeking the Christ child, here even to other worlds, although the last line implies her journey is almost at an end. As Russel hinted in his comment, the last line is, "Not forever, dearest; only until tomorrow night."

    
svaret ges 28.05.2018 20:38
12

Det är kategoriskt inte en av Joe's; Jag mailade honom i morse och det var hans svar;

"It does sound like a Haldeman story, but not in this universe, I'm afraid. It has elements of "All My Sins Remembered" -- story and novel -- and a couple of the other stories I wrote set in the Confederacion universe. Please do let me know if you track it down!"

Ledsen, folk: - (

    
svaret ges 20.05.2015 23:10