[...] "You know who you are," he said. "You all know. Some of you have no reason to love me but, with or without love, I know the same."
Among the people sitting on benches ran a buzz, a little hustle.
"I've been here before you. Like you I believed it was possible to get away with what was there. Not enough to be happy, however, enough to get by."
"Maybe this is now no longer possible. There's a storm coming and it is not a storm unleashed on us. "He stopped
. He stepped forward and folded his arms across his chest.
" Coming to America people has brought with him. Led me, Thor and Loki, Anansi and the God-Leone, leprechauns, goblins, and banshees, Kubera and Frau Holle and Astaroth, and have brought you. We arrived here traveling in their minds, and we have taken root. We traveled with the settlers, across oceans, to new lands.
"This land is boundless. Soon our people has abandoned us, remember us only as creatures of the country of origin, creatures who believes he has brought to the new world. Our people are dead or have stopped to believe in us, and we were left alone, lost, frightened and dispossessed, to get away with what little faith and reverence that we could find. And to survive as best we could.
"And so we did, we survived keeping us at the margins without attracting attention.
" Let's face it, we carry a very little influence. They looted, robbed them and survive, put off, there prostituiamo and drink too much work at gas stations and steal and cheat and live in the cracks at the margins of society.
old gods, in this new land without gods. "
Wednesday paused to watch his listeners one by one with the severity of a statesman. They were staring at him impassive, impenetrable faces as masks. Wednesday cleared his throat and spat into the fire with violence. The flames roar revived with illuminating the interior of the house.
"Now, as you have got to discover for themselves the new gods are being born in America that grow above nodes of faith: the gods of credit card and highways, the Internet and the telephone, radio and hospital and television, made of plastic, ring tones and neon. Gods full of pride, and foolish creatures fat, bloated because they are new and important.
"They are aware of our existence, they fear us and hate us, 'said Odin." There err, if you believe that it is not. There destroy, if you let it. It 's time for us to join forces. It 's time to act. "
The woman with the red sari walked toward the glow of the fire. On the front was a small dark blue gem. He said:" You made us come here to hear this talk nonsense?. "Then he snorted . snort
One that was both amused and irritated.
Wednesday looked at her frown. "I asked you to come here, it's true. But this conversation a sense they do, Mama-ji. Even a child would notice. "
" I would be a girl, then? "The waved a finger at." I was already old, in Kalighat, before you were conceived, foolish old man. I would be a girl, eh? All right, are, because in your crazy talk there's nothing to understand. "
Another moment of double vision: Shadow saw the old lady, her face wrinkled with wrinkles and dark disapproval, but behind her he also saw something huge , a naked woman and a black leather jacket as new, lips and tongue red as arterial blood. Around his neck he wore a necklace of skulls, and in his hands he held numerous knives, and swords, and severed heads.
"Do not call me baby, Mama-ji," he said Wednesday in a conciliatory tone. "But it seems clear ..."
"The only thing clear," replied the old woman pointing a finger (and behind her, or through or above, a dark finger with sharp claws echoed the movement) "is your lust for glory. In this country we have long lived in peace. Some of us are doing better than others, it is true. I I manage well. In India There is my incarnation that is not going much better, but so goes the world. I'm not jealous. I saw the new born and die. " He dropped his arm down the side. Shadow saw the others looking on, with different expressions - friendly, fun, self-conscious - in the eyes. "You loved the railroad, less than a blink of an eye ago. And now the gods of iron are gone by the wayside like the prospectors of emeralds ..."
"comes down to it, Mama-ji," he said Wednesday. [...]
[...]
The restaurant was a ten minute drive. Wednesday had told everyone that evening were guests and had arranged transport to the restaurant for those who had come without means.
Shadow wondered how they did to get there, first of all, without their own transport and how they would leave, but chose to say nothing. It seemed the smartest thing to do.
His car was full of guests on the seat next to her had taken place the woman with the red sari. Behind were two men, the stocky young man with the strange air of which Shadow had not grabbed the name, which still sounded like Elvis, and another man in a dark suit that Shadow could not remember.
had been standing beside him as he opened the door, had they opened and closed, and yet he could not remember anything. He turned to look at him, carefully osservandon face, hair, clothes, doing everything to make sure you recognize it, if he had met again, and when he looked ahead to start immediately discovered that the 'man had slipped out of his memories. Had left an impression of wealth, nothing more.
I'm tired, she thought. He glanced to his right, the Indian woman. He noticed a silver necklace with small skulls that adorned her neck, bracelet charm with severed heads and hands that rattled such as bells, when it moved, the blue jewel on his forehead. Smelled of spices, cardamom and nutmeg, and flowers. His hair was salt and pepper and when he realized that he was looking at her and smiled.
"Call me Mama-ji," he said.
"I am Shadow, Mama-ji."
"And what do you think of the plans of your employer, Mr. Shadow?"
slowed to let a big black van exceeded by spraying them with mud. "I do not do requests, he does not give explanations."
"If you want my opinion, I think you're trying to make a big departure from the scene. He wants to blow up in a halo of glory. That's what he wants. And we are old enough or stupid enough, to tell him so, at least some of us. "
" My job is not to ask questions, Mama-ji, "said Shadow. The interior of the machine's silvery laugh rang the woman.
The man in the back seat - not the strange-looking young , the other - said something, and the Shadow said, but after a moment for anything in the world could remember what they said.
[...] From "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, Ed Little Biblioteca Oscar Mondadori, 2006, pp. 129-131, 133-134.
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