[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-324876-105":59,"doc-detail-324876-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","tom-obedlam-chapter-1-chapter-1","Tom O’Bedlam - Chapter 1 - Chapter 1","","A fictional narrative opens with Tom O’Bedlam traveling westward across harsh, dry terrain in the early years of a new century. He encounters a group of armed men around an old ground-effect van marked with lightning bolts, yet they ignore him completely. Tom responds by tentatively trying to speak and then soothing himself through a quiet song. The opening frames his hunger, harmlessness, and the uneasy sense of danger on a lawless frontier, building suspense around whether the men will ever acknowledge him.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":10,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/tom-obedlam-chapter-1-chapter-1/324876/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/tom-obedlam-chapter-1-chapter-1/324876.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Genevieve","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-09-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",15,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"Where does Tom O’Bedlam go, and why does he choose that direction?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"Tom is told to try going westward, toward the sunset, as he believes it is a good direction and may lead him onward.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"What does Tom find near the ground-effect van?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"He sees seven or eight men in ragged clothes gathered around an old ground-effect van with lightning bolts painted on it.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"How do the men react when Tom tries to speak to them?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"They do not pay attention to him at all; it seems they ignore him completely, like they are playing a game with his presence.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},324876,1790827749,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":8,"category_name":10,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":145,"read_time":146},1374391974585,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Tom O’Bedlam  \nTom O’Bedlam  \nRobert Silverberg  \nNo part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, scanning or any information storage retrieval system, without explicit permission in writing from the Author.  \nThis book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locals or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.  \n© Copyright 1985 by Robert Silverberg First e-reads publication 1999  \n[www.e-reads.com](www.e-reads.com)[ ](www.e-reads.com)ISBN 0-75921-029-2  \nThis one’s for Don  \nTO CONSIDER THE Earth the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field sown with millet only one grain will grow.  \n—Metrodoros the Epicurean  \nc. 300 B. C.  \nTable of Contents  \nChapter 1 1  \nChapter 2 31  \nChapter 3 63  \nChapter 4 91  \nChapter 5 121  \nChapter 6 152  \nChapter 7 181  \nChapter 8 209  \nAbout the Author 245  \nTom O’Bedlam  \n1  \nFrom the hag and hungry goblin That into rags would rend ye, And the spirit that stands by the naked man In the book of moons, defend ye. That of your five sound senses You never be forsaken Nor wander from yourselves with Tom Abroad to beg your bacon.  \nWhile I do sing,“Any food, any feeding, Feeding, drink, or clothing? Come, dame or maid, Be not afraid Poor Tom will injure nothing.”  \n—Tom O’Bedlam’s Song  \nhis time something had told Tom to try going westward. West was a good direction, he figured. You head for the sunset, maybe you can  \nTwalk rLatigehtonofaf tJhuleyedgafteerintnooonthheestarscam.e struggling up the slope of a  \nsteep dry wash and paused in a parched field to catch his breath and look around. This was about a hundred, hundred-fifty miles east of Sacramento, on the thirsty side of the mountains, in the third year of the new century. They said this was the century in which all the miseries were supposed finally to end. Maybe they really would, Tom thought. But you couldn’t count on it.  \nJust up ahead he saw seven or eight men in ragged clothes, gathered around an old ground-effect van with jagged red-and-yellow lightning bolts painted on its rusting flanks. It was hard to tell whether they were repairing the van or stealing it, or both. Two of them were underneath, with their heads and shoulders poking into the propeller gearbox, and one was fiddling with the air intake filter. The rest were leaning against the van’s rear gate ina cozy proprietary way. All of them were armed. No one paid any attention to Tom at all.  \n“Poor Tom,” he said tentatively, testing the situation. “Hungry Tom.”There didn’t seem to be any danger, though out here in the wild country you could never be sure. He rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, hoping one of them would notice him. He was a tall, lean, sinewy man with dark, tangled hair, somewhere around thirty-three, thirty-five years old: he gave various answers when he was asked, which wasn’t often.“Anything for Tom?”he ventured.“Tom’s hungry.”  \nStill no one as much as glanced toward him. He might as well have been invisible. He shrugged and took his finger-piano from his pack, and began to strum the little metal keys. Quietly he sang:  \nTime and the bell have buried the day,  \nThe black cloud carries the sun away—  \nThey went on ignoring him. That was all right with Tom. It was a lot better than being beaten up. They could see he was harmless, and most likely they’d help him out, sooner or later, if only to get rid of him. People generally did, even the really wild ones, the killer bandidos: not even they would want to hurt a poor crazy simpleton. Sooner or later, he figured, they’d let him have a bit of bread and a gulp or two of beer, and he’d thank them and move onward, westward, toward San Francisco or Mendocino or one of those places. But five minutes more went by, and they cont","cbCaiepIoUfBgUN8","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiepIoUfBgUN8","pdf",1117732,253,"English","# Chapter 1\n## Opening journey and setting\n## Encounter with armed men and the van\n## Tom’s attempts to engage and sing","[{\"question\":\"Where does Tom O’Bedlam go, and why does he choose that direction?\",\"answer\":\"Tom is told to try going westward, toward the sunset, as he believes it is a good direction and may lead him onward.\"},{\"question\":\"What does Tom find near the ground-effect van?\",\"answer\":\"He sees seven or eight men in ragged clothes gathered around an old ground-effect van with lightning bolts painted on it.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the men react when Tom tries to speak to them?\",\"answer\":\"They do not pay attention to him at all; it seems they ignore him completely, like they are playing a game with his presence.\"}]","Tom O’Bedlam - Chapter 1 - Chapter 1 | PDF",1789969106,390]