SEPTFM BER.. Including Venture Science Fictiotl

NOVEL The Productions of Time (2nd of 2 parts) JOHN BRUNNER 25

NOVE LET Troubling of the Water ZENNA HENDERSON 100

SHORT STORIES Luana GILBERT THOMAS 5 Mr. Wilde's Second Chance JOANNA RUSS 65 Municipal Dump MAX GUNTHER 68 Narrow Valley R.A.LAFFERTY 77 fEATURES Cartoon GAHAN WILSON 13 Books JUDITH MERRIL 14 Science: I'm Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover ISAAC ASIMOV 89 F&SF Marketplace 129 Cover by Jack Gaughan (illustrating "The Productions of Time")

Joseph W. Ferman, PUBLISHEil Edward L Ferman, EDITOR Ted While, ASSISTANT EDITOR Isaac Asimov, SCIENCE EDITOR Judith Merril, BOOK EDITOR Robert P. Mills, CONSULTING EDITOR Dale Beardale, CIRCULATION MANAGEil

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Volume 31, No. 3, Whole No. 184, Sept. 1966. Published monthly by Mercury Press{;lnc., at 501 a copy. AnnuaJ subscription $5.00; $5.50 in Ca11ada and the Pan American 11ion, $6.fl0 in all other countries. Publication office, 10 Ferry Stree!~ Concord, N. H. 03302. Editorial and general mail should be sent to 347 East 53rd St., New York, N. Y. 10022. Second Class postage paid at Co11cord, N. H. Printed in U.S.A. ® 1966 by Mercury Press, Inc. All rights including translations into other languages, reserved. Submissions must be accompanied by stamped, sel/·addressed envelopes; the Publisher assumes no resPonsibility for return of unsolicited mannscripts. New novel by the author of Davy!

HE title: The Judgment of Eve. The time: after the T Holocaust. The cast: the beautiful Eve and the three men who love her. Their quest: to find for her the meaning of courage, honesty, laughter and love in ·a world where the law of the hunter is the only recog· nizable order. EDGAR PANGBORN The Judgment of Eve Just out • $3.95 • Simon and Schuster

New books by Sam Moskowitz BACK COPIES OF P. S. MODERN MASTERPIECES OF SCIENCE FICTION Nat Hentoff on jazz, William An anthology of stories by the most influential authors of science fiction Tenn on the student rebel, within the last four decades. Twenty­ Alfred Bester on the Negro two stories are included, in chrono­ logical order, from Edward E. Smith's in advertising; also articles "The Vortex Blasters" to Philip Jose Farmer's "Mother." $6.00 by Ron Goulart, Isaac Asi­ SEEKERS OF TOMORROW mov, Avram Davidson, Wil­ Here are in-depth biographical and critical studies of the twenty-two liam F. Nolan and many major science fiction authors repre· more-all in the April and sented in Modem Masterpieces. A final chapter summarizes the work of June issues of P. S.-both new authors who may become the harbingers of tomorrow's science issues for $1.00. Send to fiction literature. $6.00 Both volumes at your bookstore now. Mercury Press, 347 East 53 THE WORLD PUBUIHINII CDMPAIIY St., New York, N. Y. 10022 Cleveland and New York When science fiction is at its best, it conceives a perfect story out of the inconceivable; a story which has interior logic, which says something about the human situation and which contains a mini­ mum of contrivance no matter how startling the concept. Here's a perfect example, a wryly humorous closeup of a remarkable by­ product of a Gemini flight-and its odd but appropriate effects upon tl1e ttco men who share in its discovery.

LUANA

by Gilbert Thomas

AFTER A DAY OF MYCOLOGY-MY acid, DNA, without which life can­ specialty-I would turn to paint­ not exist-had been purchased by ing, to sculpture. Cutting women the Museum of Modern Art in out of my life-I had been hurt New York for their files. enough. Art, life's shadow, is not a I wanted to get my hands on good substitute, but it would have something big. Although my first to do. I'd begun by painting water wife had not been large, nor my colors of fungi. Nothing is so love­ second. Little women in fact, do­ ly as spring lichen spreading cile as the gentle morel, delicious across the face of crisp rock, crack­ fried in butter or added to soups. ing it into sand. Fungi shattering Evidently they found me more do­ the Parthenon into chips of mar­ cile still, interested only in my ble has never failed to amaze me work. That the lowly ubiquitous with its power. Thus does beauty Penicillium had saved millions become soil. and blue cheese gave them no It was after losing my first wife cause to rejoice. They didn't care that I turned to sculpture. Al­ that man's journey into the ex­ though I had captured the loveli­ panding universe of the mind is ness of Monascus purpureas on powered by diethylamide tartrate canvas, and my shaggymanes in of D-lysergic acid-LSD-25- tempura-guarded against decay rooted in ergot, fungus. by infusions of deoxyribonucleic ~ y first wife screwed up her 5 6 FANTASY l•XD SCIENCE FICTION courage to the point of calling me My second wife, the Greek, was moldy. "You moldy bastard," she dark and dainty but she turned up said one morning over coffee and one morning black and blue. She figs. I had taken to eating fruit for had taken to staying out overnight breakfast after my latest trip to Eu­ without my permission :md I had rope and found it suited my sys­ noticed bruises and what appeared tem. "Moldy fig!" our daughter to be the marks of teeth on her Priscilla shot from the next room from time to time. These occurred -she'd been put up to it, a fat lit­ most usually about the throat with tle girl, clinically speaking. Then some finding their way down to the Elva had gone to the cookie jar and breast. Pressed for an explanation pulled out a sack of glazed dough­ she would sav she refused to wear nuts; and defiantly dumping them glasses and ·had run into some­ on the table was about to eat one thing. When I said it was more when she noticed-may God likely something had run into her, strike me dead-they were moldy. she asked for a divorce. I didn't Bursting into tears she ran from remember her as being nearsight­ the room screaming: "You did it­ ed. At the little quaysidc cafe at you did it!" I hadn't, of course. Piraeus she had seen well enough. The fact is: spore is all around us, \Veil enough to come over and ready to feed on anything. Basidio­ ask: "Aren't vou Doctor Ravmond mycetes will feed on solid plastic, Kelpe, the fm;1ous mycologi;t from changing it into sugar. Elva had the United States?" When I said I waited too long to make her move was, she blushed, saying she was and the hyphae had taken over. interested in molds herself, was in Picasso is a good sculptor. (A fact an advanced student special­ man must have his heroes-par­ izing in torula as it pertains to ticularly when depressed.) I've al­ cracking oil into food-petro-pro­ ways enjoyed his goat, created at teins-at the University of Ath­ Vallouris in the 50s, using a mul­ ens; had actually seen me in lec­ tiplicity of materials. Whatever ture and knew I was in town to came to hand. \Vire, plaster, fruit help save the Parthenon. Which crates. Finished, he discovered still may be possible; often of a something was missing: the geni­ morning I've joined the little talia. His remedy-take an old tin workman there on the Acropolis, can, flatten it and double it back his cup of cement helping us re­ on itself, then insert it in the moist store the chips to their historic po­ plaster just below the stiff up­ sition. turned tail and protruding gas­ Pallas became my assistant, pipe. Daring. I like to think I warning me to beware of the "I model myself on that Picasso, love you, kiss-ing" girls of Ath- LUAKA 7 ens; and to make sure that I did, early in the evening-S or 9- seduced me. It was simple in the sleeping like the dead at 10 or 11. laboratory, for I often work late. I wouldn't have put it past them We were among the trays of sapro­ to be slipping me a little chloral phytes, which had just hatched­ hydrate. Love will find a way. No you could actually see the little one knows better than a doctor champiguons rise from their beds that the Oath of Hippocrates is as of crushed acorn, dead leaves, and outdated as the general practition­ coffee grounds lightly laced with er. Once I thought I heard her merde. There in the moist scented scream but couldn't rouse myself air-for the little tan fruit has a from my stupor; it was possible delicious odor-she reached for a they had invaded my bedroom for retort and fainted. Falling on a added thrills. soft bed of mushrooms six feet I returned to sculpture, experi­ long. Her laboratory dress, but­ menting after the manner of Pi­ toned down the front, was some­ casso, using bread as the basic ma­ what askew, and as I bent to lend terial; malleable, sprayed with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, she plastic, a variety of textures and moaned. colors was possible, whole wheat We were married; and it was to white to rye and pumpernickel, soon after arriving back in the the whole allowed to overrun with United States that I noticed she algae to give a patina of age. I was spending more and more time was invited to display in the patio away from me-in the company of of the Los Angeles County Art Dr. Gilroy Mannfried, doing re­ Museum, drawing much good search in parasurgery in Building comment among the works of Gia­ 29. I am in building 28. Although cometti, Rueben Nakian and Peter still my assistant, Pallas said she Volkos. My work was impervious was sick of it and wanted to go to the weather and this being a back to Greece where the light was modern era no one found fault right, that she was only 18 and with my using bread as the basis fungi had been a passing thing for a work of art. Tempura, after of youth. That she was now more all, being egg. interested in parasurgery, and And I still had to do my job. stuck her tongue out at me. Until Gemini 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Trickier now she had been docile, kind-I and more complex every year. One didn't like to see my wife chewed of these bitches was going to cause up. I couldn't help thinking Dr. me to blow a gasket. Mannfried had given her some­ Pallas showed up one Wednes­ thing-dexamyl or the like. And I day morning bleeding about the found myself getting sleepy too cheek. She now had enough of all 8 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Americans and was returning to made a pass at her because that Greece immediately via-so help was before his son had graduated me-the Far East where she hoped from college and he said he'd taken to gain some peace of mind a solemn oath in his youth not to through an examination of their screw up his life until his boy was religions. I was to give her passage. 2I. I'm not much of a talker, but And, oddly, she now used Elva's I'm a good listener-and I lis­ nasty remark, exactly. If fungi is tened as I patted sandwich loaf my jugular, Greece was hers. I into patterns of desire. I kept called her a name and was imme­ sculpting women; it was a com­ diately sorry; I believe in integra­ pulsion. tion. That's Italian, she said, and What hoppened next was mag­ stuck out her tongue. What a nificent, and almost cleared my beauty, crying, bleeding, her mind. !\Ian's first walk in space. clothes torn and her tongue stick­ (Actually the second, after the ing out. My last young girl. I had USSR.) As usual, I had been to give her her freedom, but not called to the Cape to head the de­ before talking to Dr. Mannfried. contamination and sterilization "I don't know what you're talking crew, getting Gemini 4 ready for about," he said, licking his lips. space. The planets must not be a He was a big bastard, like lots of dumping ground for human waste. them are with the knife. They look This was drill-preparation for like butchers but can thread a nee­ our coming flight to the moon. dle with their thumbs. "I hardly After Gemini 4 all my space know your wife," he said, "but I'll flights would be etc.-all my sys­ say this for her-I admire your tems were go. But I didn't know it taste, she's delicious." then. I wanted to hit the big son-of-a­ The microorganisms carried by bitch, but what would that prove.· a single astronaut-any man­ I needed my hands for my work as total approximately I 0 12, I 0 fol­ much as he needed his. lowed by I2 zeros. I cleaned up "Yes, isn't she," I said, and went our boys, using ethylene oxide gas to the market to buy all their sec­ on the capsule to spare the com­ ond-day bread. I'd have to keep ponents. Everything shipshape busy, now that I would be alone. and clean as a whistle. But when Oddlv, Dr. Mannfried seemed they opened the hatch in stellar drawn to me after Pallas left for space . . . something was coming Hong Kong. He enjoyed talking the other wav. about her, the bastard; even men­ I found ·spore. There was no tioning my first wife made his doubt about it, and only one. It mouth water, although he hadn't was impossible at that height-it LUANA 9 couldn't be one of ours. It had seen. A creamy off-white, its cap been sucked into the capsule vac­ a brilliant orange flecked with uum-cleaner in space, after the chaste white dots. The bread was hatch had been resecured. That gone and it was feeding on earth space is filled with more than and the wood surrounding it. I nothing-anti-matter matter and ran to my quarters off the labora­ the like-this we know: but spore. tory, where I do my sculpture, re­ I took it to my laboratory­ turning to bank loaves of bread home-by jet toward an optimum around the trunk. It rejected them, environment; and perhaps selfish­ having taken its full growth. Such ly told no one about it. texture! What tournedos aux I had no idea what food it chanzpignons it would makel This would take. I gave it a loaf of mushroom would make me fa­ bread and stood back to wait. Was mous! But now I couldn't reveal it alive? my secret; we're supposed to tell It had withstood the all but ab­ NASA everything; to hell with solute temperature of space; it had NASA. This was one triumph I withstood the devastating effects could enjoy privately. I didn't of radiation-it might prove a need the roll of drums and a wire mutation of its original form on from Stockholm. I touched its another planet. flesh. That it might eat me crossed I confess, I fell asleep watching my mind, but where work is con­ the load of rye bread on its emul­ cerned I am not passive. I sion of fungi-free earth. I'd been squeezed it. It was warm, soft and up since the discovery-and sleep giving, like a girl's trunk. I put is a protective device against sus­ my arms around it-what a baby! tained excitement. Perhaps it had­ I kissed it and the odor was sweet n't been chloral hydrate. It was and sophisticated as some mush­ quiet in the laboratory, a single rooms. Even here on earth. Now overhead light on the experiment. this one was on earth and it was I had even cut off the Muzak the mine. But would it spore? Go inky President feels will ease our prog­ or blow away as so much of our ress. It must have been ten o'clock; dew-raic;ed fungi spores to blow it was dawn when I awoke. away, sight unseen in· some for­ My God, it was huge! I'd never gotten pasture? No. The second seen anything like it. At first I and even the third day found it thought it was a tree, the trunk standing firm but undulating was three feet through. It was six slightly in the morning air. I had feet tall, of a perfect symmetry, a taken the mushroom across cam­ ruff under its chin and the most pus to my home, for the sake of beautiful mushroom I had ever privacy and experiment. It was 10 F.\NTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION surprisingly light, no heavier than rooms, but that didn't surprise me a girl. But then the world's record -and then I left off experiment­ yield of mushrooms per square ing, remo-.ing my sculpturing tools foot is only 7. 3 5 pounds. from Building 28, bringing them Its flesh seemed alive, palpi­ home to really go to work. What a tant-I'm no pantheist, yet I've figure! It was no trouble at all, she often felt that plants, trees, flow­ almost carved herself, orange giv­ ers, have a life we know nothing ing way to pale pink-and-gold of. I left the window open to let it making flowers in her hair. I breathe. The curtains moved gen­ swear it was as though she was tly with the breeze and my mush­ there, although she never spoke­ room would softly sway. I hadn't gone that far-nor did I Where in hell had it come speak to . her: there are limits. I from? That there was some form didn't know whether to leave of life on other planets, now we clothes on her. Or not. But I was knew. I knew. Well, others would never one to go along with that find out in time. Now the experi­ misguided Pope painting diapers ments could begin. Had to begin. on Michelangelo's cupids. I carved I was a scientist, after all, and had her whole and I carved her to do it. I had to cut. I didn't nude. No abstraction-who wants know what to expect, so gingerly, the portrait of a loved one in ab­ gingerly, I approached it, knife in straction? I'd rather have a photo­ hand, waited, then slipped it in. graph. Take my word for it, I'm a It seemed to sigh, but perhaps good sculptor-the Venus de it was my imagination. It cut nice­ Milo: that's my sort of thing. ly. What lovely texture! Like a Only lighter, more slender, more young girl's thighs. Soft and per­ docile. I knew Luana was docile fectly grained. -perhaps she was Japanese, a I took a leave of absence from sweet Japanese girl lisping sylla­ the university; and as the days bles I would never understand, went by carved more deeply into little Miss Suke, and that was the Lulu. I had now given her a name, day Dr. Mannfried walked in un­ after the manner of weather bu­ announced. reaus with hurricanes. Lulu. It The dirty bastard just stood seemed a good name for a tanned there, sucking in his breath and girl, perhaps a fine mulatto, a girl staring at Luana. He was stricken. from the islands, Polynesia­ I'd done better than I knew. But what skin! Luana. Good-bye, Lulu then, I was inspired. "My God," -you are Luana. Aloha-which he said, "what is it?" also means Hello. I couldn't place "Just a statue," I said. her in the known world of mush- "I'd swear it was alive." LUAI'A 11 "Don't stand too close." would turn on the fans, two oscil­ "Why not?" lating twelve inchers I had bought "She might bite you." for the purpose, plaeing one on He had the grace to blush; I each side of her. I would play never thought I'd ever see a sur· "Sweet Leilani" on the hi-6, "Bali geon blush. He wanted to touch H'ai", and watch her move to the Luana, but I led him into the pa· music-a lovely nymph from tio, rubbing mushroom off my some lost planet, perhaps now hands. I even had her in my hair. gone from the universe, a billion I stopped wiping her off; some· years ago, for spore is immortal. how it seemed a sacrilege. Her Almost. Raise the temperature of flesh was only slightly moist, earth but a few degrees and she pleasantly taut, excellent for sub· would take over the world. My tlety with the knife. Dr. Mann· beautiful dancing mushroom, Lu· fried picked a piece from my ana. hair and stupidly said, ". • • it's I kept her shored with cup· sprmgy.. " cakes in case she wanted to eat; it "Yes," I said, "isn't it." was impossible to know at what "What is it?" moment she might die. I tho•ght "What's what?" of covering her with moist cloth, "What material are you using?" but she seemed moist enough and "A "new plastiC." I didn't want to run the risk of "Oh." fungi forming, £ungi on fungi, it But I could see he didn't be· would only seem humorous to lieve me. And then I made the mis· someone who had never seen Lu· take of saying: ana. And yet something was miss· "I'd prefer you didn't tell any· ing and I knew what it was. Being one about this." shy, I just couldn't do it. But Dr. He smiled that rapacious smile; Mannfried could. Earthy bastard. he had something on his mind. I "She hasn't got that thing," said knew I shouldn't have trusted the Dr. Mannfried. He'd been ob­ big bastard. serving her closely for some min­ ''You can trust me," said Dr. utes. He moved one of the fans Mannfried. and changed the record. We were He came every day to see Lu­ both sharing her now, there was no ana. And oddly enough, to my way to shut him out, persistent knowledge, he did keep his word swine. -no one mentioned Luana or "No, my friend," said Dr. asked what I was doing on holi· Mannfried, "you are a great day. sculptor, but she hasn't got that When there was no breeze I thing." 12 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION I still hadn't allowed him to ing on her, tom by ecstasy, his touch her. teeth buried deep in her neck. "That's my department," said I'll never know how I got Dr. Mannfried. through the next few hours. I Remembering Picasso and the tried patching her throat with goat, I felt an inadequacy that brown bread, but it wasn't the goes beyond belief. That full­ same. I didn't turn on the fans blooded Spaniard could do it, but or play the music that night. not me. I had even considered It was sometime after midnight draping her with a pareau, a little when I received the call from my one, about the hips. Dr. Mann­ colleague Dr. Shih. He told me to fried was right. I had to let him come over to Dr. Mannfried's have his way. house at once, that this was an "I've taken a lot of them out," emergency. Oddly, I still believe he said; "but this is the first time in Hippocrates, and so I went, to I've ever put one in," and he was be met at the door by a wide-eyed sweating, even with the fans on, Dr. Shih with the contents of a his eyes beady. stomach in his hands. "Now?" I asked. "Raymond, Raymond," he said, "Now," he said. "Mannfried is dying .. ," "Can ... I watch?" "Is that so," I said. "No, it'll be better if you wait A ripping yell filled the house, outside." as if all the voices of the damned "You'll be careful ..." were being forced through the "Please, I know my business." throat of one man. I ran to the "How long will it be, Doctor?" bedroom-what had been Dr. "I'll let you know when it's Mannfried lay stretched on the over. There's nothing to worry mattress. One look at his face and about." And taking my smallest, I knew what was wrong. I had sharpest knife, he started for Lu­ seen that look on the faces of a ana. His eyes never left her and family of seven who had died in his hand was shaking. the 15th century-mummified in I must have walked the floor for the catacombs of France-the 10-15 minutes, smoking ciga­ look of unendurable pain persist­ rette after cigarette, which isn't ing through the centuries. Only like me-up and down outside one thing could put that look on a that door-letting Dr. Mannfried man's face-a look he would car­ do what I should have done. It ry to his grave under his cosmetics was his sudden scream that sent -poisoning by the Amanita. me hurtling into the room of my Luana was a toadstool. beloved. Dr. Mannfried was hang- I was afraid of that. ~ "It's :JUSt. as I'd a lways 13 hoped tt. would be." BOOKS

S'o YOU WANT TO BE A SCIENCE copy of W. R. Cole's CHECKLIST fiction anthologist? OF THE SCIENCE FICTION AN­ \Veil, now's the time. The mar­ THOLOGIES (F&SF, Books, Aug. ket is apparently insatiable, and 1965). In addition, you should everyone is getting into the act. have as many anthologies pub­ Really, it's very· easy, and enor­ lished in the last three years (Cole mously profitable. For an outlay of only goes through 1963) as you less than $50 (much less, if you can get hold of, unless you are in­ live near a good library), and terested only in the All-Time about two weeks of your time (at Greats type of collection, for most), you stand to make any­ which of course you will not want where from $250 to $2500, de­ to use anything too recent. But pending on your publisher, your fully as important as the Cole is jack«:t art, your title, your split the largest selection you can get to­ with the authors, and other such gether of individual (well-known) technical matters; if you're com­ authors' short story collections; pletely new to the game, better without these you will lay yourself .figure on a modest $500 or so the open to charges of using only pre­ .first time around. viously reprinted stories. (Stories The easiest way to become an in an author's own collections are anthologist is to edit a science .fic­ not, for advertising or jacket pur­ tion magazine. On second thought, poses, 'reprinted' -regardless of that is probably the hardest way; in how many times the collections any case, if you are not already an have been re-collected.) My ad­ editor, it is impractical to pursue vice is to invest in paperbacks, sec­ this method. There are quicker ond hand if necessary; among and far simpler methods for the other things, you will need tear­ newcomer. (All tried and tested sheets on your final selections, and by experienced anthologists.) the library is stuffy about tearing First thing, the essential you out stories. cannot do without (and your li­ Now, if you happen to have brary is unlikely to have it) is a read some science .fiction and have 14 BOOKS 15 a good memory, or if you do not ob­ You want only one story from each ject to putting in an extra week author, and no more than one from reading through your short story any previously published book. collections, you can think in 5) Type your remaining list tenns of a· 'theme' anthology. This neatly, including only author and is a good deal more demanding title and original place of publica­ than an All-Time Greats, but a tion (Cole supplies this; if the good deal easier for the new an­ short story collection does not have thologist, just breaking in, to sell this information on the copyright to a publisher. Let us start, how­ page, it is quite permissible to list ever, with the procedure for the the book itself as the source). At A-T G, as that is by all means the the top of the page you must simplest. have a title, of course, as well as I ) Pick one story from each of your own name and address. Titles the collections. You can do this for All-Time Greats often, but not blindfold with a pencil, or use a always, include the word "Treas­ rotation system (last item from ury." Use your originality here. first book, next-to-last from the The title is in many ways the most second, etc.). important part of your package. 2) Consult the second listing in Cole, where stories appear al­ Titles are even more important phabetically by title, and write for "tl1eme" anthologies: impor­ down the titles of all anthologies tant in two ways. First, the title in which the stories you have se­ must catch the imagination of the lected so far have appeared. publisher. Publishers have odd 3) Turn back to Cole's first imaginations, and it may take listing, by anthologies. Skipping some experimentation before you over any anthologies already rep­ hit the right note. But be careful resented in your first group of sto­ not to limit yourself too severely. ries, select a number equal to those For instance, don't let an overpar­ you already have, by the same sys­ ticipating publisher talk you into tem you used on the collections. changing a title like ouTPOST You may (if you are a science fic­ MARS to something like (with tion reader) have preferences in apologies to Arthur C. Clarke) anthologists; if so, by all means in­ SANDS OF MARS. Either of these is dulge your taste, and stick to peo­ okay for a novel (which both ple whose collections you enjoy. were), but in the first instance, Otherwise, it is rather good adven­ your stories need only have Mars ture just to open to a page at ran­ in them somewhere; in the second, dom. they must also have sand. (Do not 4) Eliminate any lap-overs. make the common amateurs' mis- 16 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION take of believing the stories in ei­ nuals; if you used a Gold GALAXY ther collection must be about READER, add a Pohl title to make Mars; it will do quite nicely to sure you have some good sick-com­ have them set on Mars-any old ic social satire; if you used a Mars-or en route to Mars, or Mills-or-later BEST FROM F&SF, dealing with Marsmen. YOtt know Boucher's own A-T G, A TREAS­ ...) URY OF GREAT SCIENCE FICTION, In any case, for a theme an­ will assure you of at least one story thology, it does become necessary of literary quality; one piece from to read some of the stories. (Some a recent (1960's) Merril An­ are quite obvious f~m their titles.) nual, if you avoid well-known sci­ But as long as you stick to collec­ ence fiction names, will give you tions and other anthologies as your one selection a little bit different, basic source, you can't go too far or way-out- wrong; the stuff must be good if As I said earlier, this is where someone else has used it. to exercise your personal prefer­ In many ways, you will be bet­ ence. Use the anthologists you ter off if you are not a regular yourself enjoy reading; if you reader of s-f (or if you have an ex­ don't read, or don't enjoy, how­ ceptionally poor memory), as you ever, be sure to balance out your will not be tempted to strike out list in some pattern like the one for yourself and include untested above. The best percentage for cur­ stories of almost certainly inferior rent standards of anthology pro­ quality. A word about picking out duction is about one-half from anthology guides: certain editors earlier anthologies, the rest from are more reliable than others. If short story collections. If there is you want a really representative something previously uncollected A-T G, for instance, don't limit in any form that you feel you must yourself to Moskowitz and Woll­ use, like a story of your own, or a heim on the one hand, or Boucher gem from a fanzine, or an unpub­ and Merril on the other. Nor can lished (for no good reason) manu­ you trust Knight and Conk1in by script by a famous author, my sug­ themselves, simply because they gestion is to slip it in after you are too representative; you might have a contract on the book; in­ get anything. A good assortment, cluding it beforehand may preju­ in a collection of twenty stories (a dice your chances of publication. good average number of an A-T G) Enough. If you have any talent is one each of Moskowitz, \Voll­ at all for this kind of work, there heim, and Martin Greenberg, for is no need to tell you more. As for that Good Old Science Fiction details of procedure regarding sub­ feel; one each of the magazine an- mission of manuscripts, the sales BOOKS 17 pitch, securing of story permis­ book market for original stories of sions, contract negotiation, etc. unusual quality unsuited to the de­ etc., for only six (6) different mands of the magazines. In my hacdcover Merril anthology wrap­ stack now are four of these series pers you can receive, absolutely publications. free, my instruction booklet en­ titled, "How to get rich and influ­ THE NINTH GALAXY READER1 ence events as a science fiction an­ is-like Galaxy-a very mixed thologist." bag, everything from excellent to inane. Outstanding are Richard And in case you thought I was Wilson's "The Watchers in the lddding or something, bear in Glade" and R. A. Lafferty's "Slow mind that the front-runners report­ Tuesday Night;" Wilson is moody ed on here are only the first of and dramatic, Lafferty outrageous what will probably be forty or and hilarious, but both are solidly more anthologies-hard and soft spectacular stuff in the symbolic cover, reprint, 'new' and original vein, first-rate examples of the new -published in the U.S. this year. kind of s-f. Harry Harrison's "How Just to start with, remember the Old World Died," Fred Pohl's that there are now nine 'annuals' "The Children of Night," and (or biennials in some cases) origi­ Larry Niven's "\Vrong-Way Street" nating in this country, and at least are all superior science fiction of two British volumes of the same the sort that typified the best in sort regularly published here, most Galaxy in the fifties. Roger Zelaz­ all of them appearing in both ny's "The Monster and the Maid­ hardcover and paperback editions en" and Damon Knight's "An An­ -say, fifteen books at least before cient Madness" are highly man­ you start counting the one-shots. nered fairy tales: the Zelazny, Most of these book-periodicals short and sharp, was the more ef­ serve a valid purpose, selecting fective for me-but I am not much new or recent work of superior of a fairy-tale buff. In addition, quality from current magazines there are three standards by Brian (five of the regular volumes are at­ Aldiss, John Brunner, and Lester tached to individual magazines) del Rey; a blunted savagery by and from the new books-or, in Philip Jose Farmer; and a dull the case of collections of originals joke by C. C. MacApp. Overall, (like the British NEW WRITINGS, the book leaves a curiously bad or the new ORBIT series here) pro­ taste; its one cohesive element is a viding what at least should be a sort of Black Humored dim view lyaE NINTH GALAXY READER, ed. Frederik Pohl; Doubleday, 1966; 203 pp., 12 stories; $3.95. 18 FAXTASY Al\'D SCIEJ'OCE FICTION of humanity, not so strong in most Also on hand is the reprint edi­ of the individual stories as to be tion of THE BEST FROM FCrSF: actively unpleasant, but mounting Eleventh Series 3; this is the one in cumulative effect. with Cordwainer Smith's "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," Vonnegut's The new IF READER 2 is less "Harrison Bergeron," John An­ representative of the magazine. If thony \Vest's "George," Davidson's has been following a consistent "The Sources of the Nile" . . . policy of introducing at least one The newest thing in series-an­ new writer per issue, and this thologies of course is Damon would have been a considerably Knight's ORBIT I, 4 the first volume more interesting collection (and of a book-periodical of original s-f. quite possibly a better-quality one) It emerges as a most uneven vol­ .if Pohl had resisted the under­ ume leaning more to polish than standable temptation to throw in profundity, rather stronger on the best 'names' available-unfor­ technique than concept. It is an ex­ tunately seldom represented in If cellently readable co11ection, but with their· best work. (This last applies to Keith Laumer, one of Of the nine stories, there are no the early If discoveries, but now a more than four I am likely to read budding 'name' himself, represent­ a second time, and of those four, ed in the magazine almost exclu­ only two 'needed' a book like this sively by the endless Retief sto­ to achieve publication. The out­ ries; the sample included here is standing inclusion here is Richard very standard stock.) Best-of-book McKenna's posthumous "The Se­ are Fred Saberhagen's "The Life cret Place," long overdue for pub­ Hater" and Jonathan Brand's lication, and by itself, I suppose, "Long Day in Court" (both au­ justifying the existence of the thors originally introduced in If), book. Almost the same thing might and John Brunner's "A Better be said of James Blish's "How Mousetrap." Leiber's "The 64- Beautiful with Banners," if he Square Madhouse" is great fun for had finished the story he began. chess buffs, but otherwise far from Rich, meaty, absorbing in its his best. Robert F. Young, Jerome opening pages, it seems to run out Bixby, A. E. van Vogt, and Pohl of content half way through: a himself contribute tiredly profes­ woman more complex and believ­ sional retellings of old ideas. able than any character of Blish's

2THE IF READER OF SCIENCE FICTION, ed. Frederik PohJ; Doubleday, 1966; 252 pp., 9 stories; $4.50. 3THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION: ELEVENTH SERIES, ed. Robert P. Mills; Act M-137, 1966 (reprint); 254 pp., 16 stories; 45¢. 4oRBIT I, ed. Damon Knight; Putnam, 1966, 192 pp., 9 stories; $3.50. BOOKS 19 I have ever read turns into a scicn­ and McKenna seem to me to fit tifictional spinster stereotype; a Knight's stated aims: "..• to put compelling emotional experience together a collection of unpub­ seems to degenerate into a pale lished stories good enough to stand dirty joke. Yet the first part is so beside an anthology of classic sci­ extraordinary that I know I will ence fiction." return to it, ignoring the dropoff Another Knight offering accom­ afterwards. I do not understand plishes this aim, except for the "un­ why the McKenna has not seen published" specification: CITIES print before now; I can see why a OF WONDER 5 is probably both the book of this sort would be necessary best collection and the most-pub­ for the publication of the Blish. lished one of the present group, The same applies to Sonya Dor­ containing as it does, Forster's man's "Splice of Life," for some­ "The !\lachine Stops," Blish's what different reasons: it, too, is "Okie," Benet's "Bv the \Vaters of flawed, for me at least, by what Babylon," and Heinlein's " 'It's seems like a last-minute insertion Great to Be Back!' " as well as Don of a science-fictional rationale in A. Stuart's "Forgetfulness," Mill­ what is otherwise a strong, satisfy­ er's "Dumb Waiter," and Korn­ ing, and completely unclassifiable bluth's "The Luckiest Man in story-this last characteristic Denv." Slightly less familiar ("un­ making it an unlikely sale for any reprinted" previously-which is to magazine I can think of. Virginia say, previously reprinted only in Kidd's "Kangaroo Court" is the "collections," not anthologies) are fourth valuable find here-less Ballard's "Billenium," Kuttner's potent than the McKenna in its "Jesting Pilot," and Aldiss' "The symbolic content, but a solid piece Underprivileged." Robert Aber­ of science fiction wrapped up in nathy's "Single Combat" is, I be­ some elegant prose. There are, also, lieve, reprinted here (in any use of a somewhat overwritten good idea the word) for the first time-and by Kate Wilhelm, a beautifully high time. Not a bad or even half­ smooth mood piece with not much bad story in the lot, and more than idea at all by Poul Anderson, a half are very good ones. If there shrill giggle by Allison Rice, a are more than two or three you gorgeously colored bottle of bird­ haven't read, it's worth buying; for woman relish by Tom Disch, and that matter, it's worth buyil)g any­ an unoriginal but strongly writ­ how, to give to someone new to s-f. ten underwater story by Keith Rob­ erts. Of them all, only the Kidd Next on the list are three period-

5cJTIES oF WONDER, ed. Damon Knight; Doubleday, 1966; 252 pp., 11 stories; $4.50. 20 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION piece collections, two of which was the com1leteness of the usur­ present themselves as comprehen­ pation of the strongholds of scien­ sive showcases of 'modern' science tific wonder, action, and romance fiction, although the definition va­ by stories of a philosophical, psy­ ries considerably. Sam Mosko­ chiatric, or sexual bent that posed witz's MODERN MASTERPIECES 8 a danger," Cerf proclaims that starts with E. E. Smith and goes "space-age fiction," dating from through Philip Jose Farmer, con­ the end of \Vorld War II, "has taining only three stories (out of helped to turn science-fiction writ­ 21) first published in the past Sf­ ers away from technology as an teen years; and only one from a end in itself, and, consequently, source outside the American sci­ has led them to subordinate their ence fiction specialty magazines scientific imagination to an in­ -Ray Bradbury's "Wake for the creased concern with human atti­ Living," ·from a 194 7 issue of tudes and emotions, on the one Dime Mystery. Christopher Cerf's hand, and with the field of sociol­ VINTAGE ANTHOLOGY 7 has only ogy on the other. This new trend," three (out of 20) stories pub­ he adds, "has succeeded in raising lished more than fifteen years ago: noticeably the literary standards the earliest is Martin Gardner's of the science fiction story." 1946 "No-Sided Professor," from Only five authors appear in Esquire, the most recent new story both anthologies: Sturgeon, by William Styron, published for Wyndham, Simak, Bradbury, and the first time in the anthology; on­ Clarke. (Typically, Moskowitz ly nine selections are from the represents Sturgeon with the 1941 American specialty publications, "Microcosmic God," and Cerf with with other sources including The the 1956 "And Now the News.") S11turday Evening Post and The MASTERPIECES adds to those al­ Harvard Lampoon, the British sci­ ready mentioned some well-tested, ence fiction magazines, transla­ tried-and-true selections by Lein­ tions from the Polish and Spanish, ster, Williamson, del Rey, Hein­ etc. lein, van Vogt, Asimov, and Lei­ The difference in the two books ber, and a shocking total of ten is clearly stated by the editors. stories for which I have not found Where Moskowitz deplores the any previous book publication (al­ fact that (after Farmer introduced though I believe two or three have Sex to science fiction) " ••• it appeared in collections not on my

6MODERN MASTI!.RPIECEs OF SCIENCE FICTION, ed. Sam Moskowitz; World, 1966; 518 pp., 21 stories; $6.00. 7TBE VINTAGE ANTHOLOGY OF sciENCE FIC'I'ION, ed. Christopher Cerf; Vintage Books, 1966; 307 pp., 20 stories, plus biographical notes; paper, $1.65. BOOKS 21 shelves), by Smith, Campbell, bright, Martin Gardner, C. M. Wyndham, de Camp, Bloch, Kornbluth, Robert Sheckley, Da­ Bradbury, Henry Kuttner, C. L. mon Knight, Fredric Brown, J. G. Moore, Edmond Hamilton, and Ballard, Avram Davidson, Alfred Eric Frank Russell. Unfortunate­ Bester, and Walter M. Miller, Jr. ly, my remarks earlier about avoid­ Box score for the two antholo­ ing untested selections were not gies (remembering that I am cit­ entirely sardonic; there are some ing only previous appearances I re-readable stories in the s-f maga­ am sure of, and that both scores zines more than two or three years are probably a bit higher) runs old that have not yet been reprint­ something like this (p.a. = previ­ ed anywhere-but most of them ous anthologization; c. = indi­ are either precocious examples of vidual author's collection): (what I call) modern science fic­ tion, just c,oming into its own (and VINTAGE: C. only-8, one p. a. apparently unrecognized as yet by -1, one p. a. and c.-1, two p. a. either Moskowitz or Cerf), or they and c.-2, two p. a.-3, three are for one reason or another un­ p. a.-1; total previously reprint­ available. Moskowitz's desire to ed-16of20. MASTERPIECES: C. only-3, make use of his vast knowledge one p. a.-2, one p. a. and c.-4, of the field to add some freshness to his book is understandable-but two p. a. and c.-0, two p. a.-1, on the whole, unfortunate. The three p. a.-1; total previously re­ printed-II of 21. Campbell and de Camp (both of which I suspect have been in col­ But of course if you go by the lections), are the only entries in usual rules, and shut out the 'col­ that last group that add anything lections' both books contain only much to the book. eight previously reprinted stories. Ced has been much more dis­ If, on the other hand, you were to creet. He includes only four items combine them so as to make one previously unreprinted in any good volume doing what both of form: the Styron original, the them purport to do (while still ig­ Lampoon item (a short-short by noring modern s-f of the sixties), John C. Brust), and selections you would take- from Jose Maria Gironella's fasci­ "Night," "With Folded Hands," nating PHANTOMS AND FUGI· ", . . \Ve Also Walk Dogs," TIVES and from THE MODERN Po­ "Liar!" "Huddling Place," "Com­ LISH MIND ("I Kill Myself" by ing Attraction," "Before Eden," Julian Kawalec). In addition to and "Mother" from MASTERPIEC· these and the five overlap authors, Es; and add "An Egg a Month he includes Roald Dahl, Idris Sea- from All Over," "There Will Corne 22 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Soft Rains," "And Now the News," reers of some of its most popular "No-Sided Professor," "The Death authors. The way to get the most of the Sea," "The Analogue&," out of Moskowitz is to remember "Chronopolis,'' and "A Canticle fer that the bibliographic and pub­ Liebowitz" from Cerf. It would lishing information is extremely make a good start, anyhow; of reliable, as are specific bits of fac­ course there wouldn't be anything tual information wherever offered very fresh in it-unless you added (and there are many offered): some modern stuff. dates, place names, pseudonyms, etc., have been assiduously re­ A valuable reference work, if searched. Everything else must be used with care, is the companion­ taken with one or more grains of piece to MASTERPIECES, SEEK­ salt. Moskowitz's tastes are strong, ERS OF TOMORROW,8 which offers and they tend to color his views biographical essays on twenty-one of individuals. His certainties are science fiction writers (from E. E. many, and highly questionable. Smith to Philip Jose Farmer), plus (Taking advantage of two of my a chapter on Superman and a final hats, let me, by way of example, catchall section recognizing the correct one such immediately. On contributions of another dozen or pp. 3 66-7, the author discusses so authors to the field. The book Ray Bradbury's influence on sev­ purports to be aimed at the aca­ eral writers; I cannot speak for demic world; I suspect a good Richard Matheson, Charles E. many professors of literature will Fritch, or James Blish, but I can stop short on the second page of the and do assert that although I have first chapter when they hit a sen­ admired much of Bradbury's work tence like: since then, I had not, to my knowl­ What were the elements that edge, read anything of his when I have caused writers as well as myself began writing science fic­ readers to cherish The Skylark of tion. Certainly, I could not have Space as the seedling of cosmic read "The Shape of Things" in the literature destined to burgeon lim­ February, 1948 Thrilling Wonder itlessly in awesome concepts? before writing "That Only A Moth­ But for those who can acclimate er ... ," which as Moskowitz themselves to the Moskowitz liter­ points out, appeared in the June, ary style and critical opinions, 194 8 Astounding, but was written there is a wealth of information to in the spring of 194 7. I suppose it be gained on the background of is possible to write and sell a story specialty science fiction, and theca- conceived in January in time to

BsEEKERS oF TOMORROW, Sam Moskowitz; World, 1966; 433 pp. plus 7 pp. index; $6.00. BOOKS 23 have it appear on the stands in one title. A useful idea, and with May-but it is highly unlikely.) the (requested) assistance of us­ Keep a sharp eye out for the ers in preparing the next edition, it distinction between facts and con­ should become a uniquely valuable clusions, and bear in mind that addition to any s-f reference li­ the choice of subjects is a highly brary. subjective one (so that, for in­ The M.I.T. INDEX TO THE SCI­ stance, Mort Weisinger is includ­ ENCE FICTION MAGAZINES10 is ed "for his role in transferring the now available in its final, enlarged, ideas of science fiction to the com­ revised hardbound version, a fully ic magazines," and Robert Bloch adequate successor now to the "to indicate the debt that the mo­ original Day Index (covering tion picture and television world 1926-1950). The list of maga­ owes to science fiction in its han­ zines covered is now, I believe, dling of suspense," but Anthony complete. (The original looseleaf Boucher's role as a 'shaper of sci­ M.I.T. book included only the ma­ ence fiction' is considered so in­ jor magazines.) And the new significant that he is mentioned book contains not only the usual al­ only twice-once in a roster of phabetical listing by title and au­ members of the 'Manana Club,' thor, but an additional list show­ once as narrator of a Bradbury ing the contents of each issue of script, not at all as author, editor, each magazine. Purchasers of the or critic). After you winnow out volume will receive notification the opinions, you will have a good from the publishers of any errata stock of pure gold information left. or omissions reported by users. A There are two more new and long-needed volume, handsomely valuable reference works: accomplished.

SCIENCE FICTION TITLE Burroughs fans will also be in­ CHANGES9 is an admittedly in­ terested in what is probably the complete-as-yet, first edition of an definitive bio/bibliographic vol­ index of stories and books which ume on his work, a meaty, exhaus­ have appeared under more than tive book by Richard Lupoff, 11 lav- DsciENCE FICTION TITLE CHANGEs, compiled by Michael Viggiano & Donald Franson; National Fantasy Fan Federation, 1965; 47 pp.; paper, $1.00. l01NDEX TO THE s-F MAGAZINES, 1951-1965, compiled by Erwin R. Strauss; the M.I.T. Science Fiction Society, 1966; 207 pp. (8.5 x 11 inches); $8.00. (Available from the M.I.T. S.F. Society, Room W20-443, M.I.T., 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cam­ bridge, Mass. 02139). llEDGAR RICE BURROUGHS, MASTER OF ADVENTURE, Richard A. Lupolf; Canaveral Press, 1965; 274 pp. plus 20 pp. bibliography and index, and 12 full-page illus (Frank Fazetta, Reed Crandall, AI Williamson); Preface by Henry Hardy Heins; $7.50. 24 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ishly illustrated, and available (if Franklin's FUTURE PERFECT,12 not already unavailable) in a spe­ the 'period piece' that kncnvs what cial limited edition at $15.00, in it is, mentioned earlier. This com­ addition to the trade edition. bined anthology and critical essay And once again, I find I have of/on 19th Century American sci­ left for last a volume that cannot ence fiction is witty, informative, be discussed in a few brief lines, literate, imaginative, well-select­ except this way: Buy it! ed, and-fresh. I am referring to H. Bruce -JuDITH MERRIL

]~FUTURE PERFECT-AMERICAN SCIENCE FICT~ON OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, H. Bruce Franklin; Oxford, 1966; 401 pp.; $6.50.

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Pleaae print Name Address------City------State ------Zip---- Here is the second and concluding part of John Brunner's new novel. If you missed the first installment, the author's synopsis will bring you right up to date. The story is about the preparations fot an unusual new play, and none of the mysteries su"ounding its production have yet begun to unravel. Here, the novel rushes toward a startling and unexpected conclusion.

THE PBODIJCTIONS OF TIAIE

by John Brunner

SYNOPSIS: At thirty-two, MUR­ even being told by Roger that when RAY DOUGLAS, one-time darling Delgado put on a similar play in of London's West End theatres, Paris the star killed himself and one looked fifty and felt a hundred. A of the actresses wound up in an disastrous marriage and a long spell asylum. of alcoholism had almost wrecked his Welcomed to Fieldfare House by career. the sinister steward VALENTINE, His agent, ROGER GRADY, could Murray was dismayed to discover find no work for him-until famous enough liquor to tempt a saint in his director SAM BLIZZARD started to lavishly furnished room. However, assemble a company for the mysteri­ that might be an honest oversight;· he ous but highly-regarded Argentine asked for fruit juice instead. playwright MANUEL DELGADO. It was a worse shock to find that The plan was to prepare a collective­ Burnett had been half right. The ly-improvised drama at Fieldfare company included no one of star House, a bankrupt country club pos­ calibre: CONSTANT BAINES had sessing its own miniature theatre. spent his working life in repertory, Nothing could stop Murray seiz­ without reaching the West End; AD­ ing the chance to join this venture: RIAN GARDNER's liking for little certainly not the views of drama boys was a public scandal; IDA critic PAT BURNETT who called the MARR, showing her age, was a noto­ company a bunch of has-beens; not rious lesbian-and already paying 25 26 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION attention to the youngest, least ex­ Lester ascribed all this to quasi­ perienced member of the cast, the at­ scientific mumbo-jumbo, and said for tractive HEATHER CARSON. JESS all he cared Del3ado could believe in AUMEN, the musical director, and magic so long as he got results. Mur· lighting engineer LESTER HARK­ ray wasn't so easily satisfied. HAM were reliable enough, but Troubled by many other subtle designer GERRY HOADING was problems-like the nightly locking of known to be a heroin addict. the gates, the fencing of the grounds Still, Blizzard believed in DelgadG, with barbed wire, and the willingness and on meeting the playwright Mur­ of everybody else to spend the eve­ ray realised he was indeed in the nings quietly sitting around like chil­ presence of a genius. An unsavoury dren at boarding-school-he con­ one, though. As he himself declared, tinued to needle Delgado in the hope his speciality was "cancer and gan· of getting at the truth, while achiev· grene"-in modern society-"at the ing some of his best-ever acting dur­ stage where the disease is past hope of ing their rehearsals. cure." Finally Delgado blew up. He ac­ The work took fire at once. But cused Murray of bad acting-a strange events disturbed 1\Iurray all charge denied by Ida, though no the time. He found liquor planted in friend of Murray's-and tore up the his suitcase, for instance. Gerry ap­ first draft, saying they would start pealed to him to take care of a jar of again from scratch. Everyone blamed heroin for him-he'd been given so Murray, to his bewilderment; he much he was afraid he might be knew this was an unfair attack. tempted to overdose himself; think­ The shock of wasting so much ing to hide it inside the TV set in­ good work drove Gerry to overdose stalled in his room, Murrav enlisted himself with heroin, as he'd feared. Lester's help to open the sit up, and Murray, enlisting Constant's help, found it contailled unaccountable broke down his door and saved his extra circuits. It was live, and life in the nick of time. Under the im­ couldn't be turned off. Its flex ran un· pact of this nerve-racking experience der the floor iato the next room, Constant too admitted that Delgado's Number 13, unoccupied because accusations were false. thea~e people are superstitious, but Murray now found that dirty containing gadgetry Valentine didn't books had been supplied to amuse want anybody to see-. Constant, like Gerry's heroin and the Moreover, there were tape decks liquor planted in his own room. Come hidden in all thek beds, connected to to think of it, though young Heather an inexplicable tracery of fine wire had ostensibly been hired to act in the embroidered on the mattresses. Chal­ play, no attempt had been made to lenged on this, Delgado maintained bring her on stage. Had she been the recorders were for "sleep-teach· "provided" in the same way for Ida's ing", to increase the actors' identifi­ benefit ... ? cation with their roles, but Murray What was Delgado trying to do­ found no speaker attached to his. work them all up until they were THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 27 screaming at each other, then put the air was heavy with an odour he at ~creaming on the stage? first refused to recognise. He rolled Determined to unravel at least one his head and could deny it no mystery, Murray decided he couldn't longer. remain content with what he'd been On the bedside table, a bottle of doing so far: petty nuisance-making like sabotaging the tape deck in his gin three parts empty. bed, regularly restored to working He touched a patch of moisture L·ondition and as regularly discon­ on the bed. The contact scented nected by himself. his fingers with juniper. Under Room 13 was the stage of It isn't true. God, let it not be the miniature theatre. He hunted true! among the flies and found a giant Fighting blind terror, he sat up equivalent of the wire tracery on the and put his legs to the floor. An­ mattresses, hidden by a grille over other wet patch, on the carpet. the ceiling. Across the room, under the wash­ Delgado interrupted him and or­ dered him to stop interfering. Murray basin, another bottle of gin. F•ll. accused him of lying, first about the Murray groaned and put his tape decks, then about his reason for head in his hands. Last night . . . tearing up the draft play. Wasn't the What happened to last night? His true explanation that he was angry memory held nothing but grey fog. with Murray for being so inquisitive? He forced himself to his feet. Delgado's only response was to Crossing the room, he bent to the sneer. "I can afford to throw you and cold tap, rinsed foulness from his any one else aside," he said. "And you mouth, scooped handfuls of water can't afford to do anything. I'm your over his face and head. His mind last hope, l\furray. On your head be it." cleared. "All right," he said aloud. "I don't believe it." And silently ended: I daren't. XIV Like a stage-set. Give the job to Gerry. Convey that the occupant of My-my head? Oh God, my the room is an alcoholic. Bottles. head/ Glinting on the floor, a broken Murray struggled back from a tumbler. An overfull ashtray. sink of nightmare. His stomach Was this a trick of Delgado's? felt acid-sour, and the taste in his This cynically evil trick? Because mouth was filthy. he hadn't spent last evening drink­ Then facts locked together in ing. He clung to that conviction. his mind and he was awake in hor­ Nothing could have driven him to ror. His eyes snapped open. He lay the suicide road again. Nothing. amid a tangle of bedclothes. The Therefore an article of faith : he 28 FANTAST AND SCIENCE FICTION had been framed. As soon as he se­ Murray looked at his watch. Not cured a firm grip on the idea, he yet seven o'clock. He had to have found he could reason with normal proof to support his trust in him· clarity. self. A doctor. Some way of telling He concentrated on himself. if there was alcohol in his blood· The headache felt on waking was stream. Breathalyser, urinalysis­ gone. Illusion? Ridiculous, but he'd seen it done at the sanatorium often enough. And if it turned out He rubbed his tongue around there was alcohol in his body, he'd his mouth. The foul taste, too, had come back and beat Delgado till he disappeared. When he had really crawled, make him confess, let the been drinking, he'd had to load his others know what a filthy sadist toothbrush three and four times with paste before ridding his He checked his thoughts. Be­ mouth of the overnight sourness. cause he had to answer the alterna­ That relieved him of one hor· tive question, too: what to do if his rifying possibility: that someone belief was confirmed, and he had had given him alcohol, perhaps by not been drinking last night. injecting him with it. He hurried into his clothes, A dream? The hope rose and fell poured away the rest of the gin and in the same heartbeat. He could opened the window to flush out the have dreamed the headache, the smell. Then he went into the corri­ foul taste, the nausea, but not the dor. spilt gin, the broken glass. As he pulled his door shut, room Something gleaming on the thirteen opened and Valentine tumbled bed. A coin? No, the cap emerged. He moved so swiftly that of the open gin-bottle. He seized it, there was no chance of seeing the meaning to hurl it violently away, mysterious "rediffusion" equip­ and misjudged his reach so that he ment. pulled up a handful of the under· "Good morning, Mr Douglas," sheet as well. he said smoothly. Revealed was the familiar trac· Murray muttered something ob· ery of wire embroidery. scene and pushed past. But I tore that off even before I "Are you thinking of going out?" saw Delgado in the theatre. And Valentine called after him. threw away the spools of tape I "What the hell does it matter to He wrenched back the mattress you?" Murray snapped. and exposed the tape-deck. Fresh "The main gate is not yet open, tape was in place; all but inches of sir." it had wound to the right-hand Murray swung around. 'Then spool. open it!" he exclaimed. THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 29 "I have instructions from Mr Murray rounded on Valentine. Blizzard, sir. The gate is to remain 'Well?" he forced out. closed until eight a.m. and it is not Valentine's composure had set yet seven. " solid, like ice. "I'm very sorry, Mr "Are you trying to make this Blizzard. From Mr Douglas's wild place into a prison? Which is Bliz­ behaviour I judged it advisable to zard's room?" dissuade him from going out. He "I don't think he would wish to drives a rather powerful car, and be disturbed, sir-" in his present condition . . ." "Blizzard!" Murray bawled at The door of another room, be­ the top of his voice, and hammered yond Blizzard's towards the front on the nearest door. "Blizzard!" of the house, dicked. Delgado ap­ "Go to hell," a voice answered: peared, wearing an impeccable Ilett Latham's, by the sound of it. wine-red dressing-gown and Turk­ :\<1 urray went to the end of the cor­ ish slippers. ridor and out on the landing sur­ "What is all the row about?" he rounding the main hall, banging inquired silkily. on doors and shouting as he went. "Oh-morning, Manuel." Bliz­ From the far end of the landing zard rubbed his face again. "Mur­ one of Valentine's fellow stewards ray wants to go out, and Valen­ appeared with loud protestations tine's been spinning some fool to match Valentine's. story about orders to keep the gate "Keep away from me," Murray shut till eight." said thinly. "Or I'll pitch you over A flicker of-dismay? Concern? the balusters. Blizzard/" -some emotion showed on the The door of one of the rooms sallow visage. But the voice was swung open. Sam Blizzard was casual. there, rubbing sleepy eyes. "Yes, I suggested shutting the "Murray! What are you yelling gates overnight. We have a good for?" deal of stuff here that might attract "Is this a prison? Are these thieves." black-coated ghouls warders? That Valentine inclined his head. "I bastard Valentine says he can't un­ confess I had forgotten it was you lock the gate for me!" and not Mr Blizzard who in­ "What the hell has that to do structed me." with me?" "All right, since you gave the or­ "So you didn't give him orders to ders, you tell him to let me out!" keep it shut till eight o'clock?" Murray rapped. Murray was shaking all over. 'What takes you out at this "Good God, of course not. Why hour, anyway?" Delgado said in a do you want to go out, anyway?" voice which was almost a purr. 30 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "I'm going-Sam, listen, this is Sighting a heavily-built woman important-I'm going to see a doc­ in tweeds, he braked and called to tor. You know why, Delgado." her. "Excuse mel Is there a doctor "I'm sure I don't," Delgado mur­ here?" mured, but his expression was "Yes! About a quarter of a mile again clouded. further on!" Blizzard took a step forward. "If He flung a word of thanks and you're ill, why didn't you say so? I accelerated away. can get a doctor immediately." It had begun to rain by the time "Someone Delgado suggested? he reached his goal. Oblivious, he No, thank you. I propose to wake hurried up to the door. To the nerv­ up the .first doctor I can find for ous, pale woman who answered his myself. And it's not because I'm ring, he said, "1 have to see the doc­ ill. Now does this creature open tor. It's very urgent." the gate for me?" The woman put her hand to her "Valentine!" Blizzard barked. mouth. "Oh, dear. Dr Cromarty is "Go and open the gate, and don't having breakfast. The surgery is let's have any more of this non­ open at-" sense. And that goes for you too, ''I'm afraid I must see him im- Manuel. I entirely sympathise mediately." with Murray after the way he was "Has there been an accident?" treated yesterday. Don't be longer "No, but it's desperately urgent." than you can help, Murray. To­ "Well, I suppose you'd better day's work is going to be hell in come in, Mr-Mr-?" any case." "Douglas." He gave a glare at Delgado and The woman's watery blue eyes went back to his room. widened. "Goodness! Are you Mur­ Murray turned to Valentine, ray Douglas, the actor? Yes? Come feeling as though he had won a bit­ in, come in!" ter struggle. But the steward was She hastened through a door already descending the stairs, and leading off the hall, leaving Mur­ there was no clue to his emotions ray just inside the entrance. He in his gait. wrestled with the explanation he was going to give the doctor. Be­ XV fore he had finished working it out, a man emerged into the hall wip­ Heart pounding, mouth dry, he ing egg-yolk from a shaggy grey turned right at random from the moustache. He put the napkin into main gate. He had to drive miles a pocket like an oversize handker­ before he came to a village, and he chief and slipped on a pair of found only a score or so of houses. glasses. "fHE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 31 "Mr Douglas! I recognise you last drink, and some people excrete from your pictures. Well, well! An­ it faster than others. At this time of gels unawares, and all that. Come the morning a negative finding into my consulting room." might not prove very much." Murray complied and dropped "I haven't emptied my bladder into a chair. "Dr Cromarty, can since waking," Murray said. you run a test for the presence of ''\Veil, as a fellow Scot I can't alcohol in my body?" refuse you. I just won't promise "As it happens, you've come to anything." the right ship-I do that sort of thing for the local bobbies. Drunk "Negative, Mr Douglas." driving cases." His expression It had seemed like an eternity of changed. "You haven't been in· waiting. Murray went weak with volved in an accident, have you? relief. "Thank heaven,'' he said. Because if so I'm afraid-" Cromarty shut the door of the "Nothing like that, believe me." consulting room and sat down at Murray wiped his forehead. "What his desk. "I take it you want a note it comes to is this. I'm rehearsing a from me to your producer, is that new play at Fieldfare House-" it?" he went on, uncapping a pen. ''Yes, I know the place," Cro­ "I shall put down the bare truth: marty nodded. that you came to me-let's say half Murray said awkwardly, "It an hour ago, which is near enough means a lot to me, because I've -and asked me to test for alcohol been out of work for some time­ in your bloodstream, and the re­ under treatment for alcoholism. sult was negative. I won't add the And of course if my director thinks qualifications I'd need for a law­ I'm back on the bottle he's bound court." to fire me. But someone who's-1 He wrote rapidly and slipped guess you'd say jealous-has the paper in an envelope. Murray played a dirty trick on me. I woke took out his wallet. up this morning to find bottles and "How much-?" he began, but glasses all over my room. So before Cromarty raised a hand. the director gets wind of it I've got "One of my oldest friends was to prove I haven't been drinking." too fond of his drink, and he made Cromarty raised grey-salted eye­ no such recovery as yours. There's brows. "And have you?" no charge." "God, no! Nothing on earth With fervent thanks Murray would drive me back to it!" headed towards the door. Cromarty "Hmphl Well, I'll see what I called after him. "One more thing, can do. But you realise the alcohol Mr Douglas. I'd prescribe a good level peaks about an hour after the breakfast. You've been badly 32 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION shocked-no point in making it you went to the trouble of getting worse." this!" Murray nodded and went out. Murray had his eyes fixed on Delgado. He didn't, even so, spot Breakfast was not yet over when any signal to Valentine, but the he arrived back. He could tell that steward spoke up. so far it hadn't been the calmest "I beg your pardon, Mr Bliz­ meal taken by the company. At the zard, but I myself have checked top of the table Blizzard and Del­ Mr Douglas's room and found gado were arguing in low tones; nothing such as he described!" Ida, Heather, Adrian, Rett and AI Delgado permitted himself a were also present, their faces mo­ quick smile for Murray only. But as rose. Murray was shaping his challenge, Murray strode towards Blizzard there was an interruption. and planted Dr Cromarty's certifi­ "That's a damned lie, for a cate in front of him. "All right," he start!" said harshly. "Laugh that off." All heads turned. Murray hadn't Blizzard read it. During the noticed Gerry Hoading come in. pause, Murray sent a triumphant He betrayed his condition of yes­ glance at Delgado. But the author's terday only by a slight flush. He expression was sardonic, and Mur­ was impeccably dressed and had a ray's self-satisfaction evaporated scrubbed look. the moment Blizzard looked up. "Valentine's lying," he went on. "Very commendable, Murray. "I went to Murray's room when I But is this why you kicked up that got up. I wanted to say-well, that ungodly row this morning?" doesn't matter. I didn't get an an­ Doom gathered in Murray's swer, but I watched the door be­ mind. His eyes flicked to Delgado, cause I was sure I'd heard move­ then to Valentine standing impas­ ments. And I saw this creep of a sive by the sideboard. He had to go steward come out with a couple of on, he realised, but clearly his green glass gin-bottles." visit to Dr Cromarty had caused a Murray felt an overwhelming switch in plans. surge of relief. He glanced at Del­ ''When I woke up this morning gado. The sallow face was con­ I found a bottle of gin by my bed, torted with fury. and a broken glass. I can't think of "Valentine?" Blizzard snapped. any trick more damnable to play Very pale, the steward said, "I on somebody in my condition, and apologise, sir. I am aware of Mr I want to know who did it." Douglas's unfortunate condition, Blizzard drew his eyebrows to­ and can only say I was being mis­ gether. "I agree! So that was why guidedly discreet." THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 33 "Sam, I think we'd better have a Ida rounded on him. "The doc­ word about this in private," Del­ tor said he hadn't been drinking, gado said with plausible concern. and Sam has a certificate to say so!" "We're going to have this out in "What good is a test so many publici" Murray thundered. "Sam, hours afterwards?" AI demanded. I'm accusing Delgado of putting "Some people get over the effects that liquor in my room, then back­ quicker than others, and a lush is ing down because I insisted on go­ probably quicker than anybody." ing to a doctor and trying to give "I believe Murray," Heather said you the impression I was having with defiance. delusions. And but for Gerry, isn't "But why should Delgado want that what would have happened?" to do a thing like that to him?" "Douglas is overwrought," Del­ Constant countered. "That's a gado said smoothly. "I'm not sur­ much better question." prised at this wild attack. He's an­ "I'll tell you," Murray flared. gry about my decision to abandon "Stop flapping your mouth and the existing draft of the play." start flapping your ears for a "Somebody put that liquor in my change!" room!" Murray rasped. "It didn't "Brilliant," Constant grunted. get there by itself!" "\Vho's doing your scripts?" "Clearly not. But a much more "Constant!" Ida snapped. "If likely explanation is that you Murray's got an explanation, then staged this little drama yourself to listen to it." impress Sam." Murray took a deep breath. "You The barefaced audacity of that don't honestly think Delgado's was too much even for Blizzard. abandoning the play was due to my He stood up. "No, Manuel, I'm not acting. You told me so last night." wearing that. But I don't want to A protest died still-born on Con­ start a witch-hunt. You suggested stant's lips. "He has a personal we discuss this privately, and I gripe against me. The only thing think it would be better that way. I've done which nobody else has is Murray, have some coffee and calm to rip off the nonsensical bits of yourself. I'll get to the bottom of wire he has on the mattresses. I-" this for you, don't you worry." "Not your damned tape-decks again!" Adrian thrust in. "You're XVI getting to be a bore about them." "Agreed," Jess Aumen said from "I think," Rett Latham said dog­ his stool at the piano. matically, "that Murray got stinko "It isn't just the tapes," Murray last night and had qualms of con­ said. "There's stuff in the TV sets, science this morning." and something in room tl1irteen. 34 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION And under room thirteen, too. Les­ Jesus, how did I get into this ter, go and look behind the grille madhouse? over the stage and you'll see what I He grew aware of someone mean." standing beside him. Gerry. Fum­ The lighting engineer shrugged. bling for a cigarette, the designer "You know my opinion of that, said, "Murray, how did you stop Murray. It's a lot of pseudo-scien­ yourself from beating Ade's head tific rubbish, and nothing to make m.. ';)" a fuss about." Of all those here, Murray would "Delgado doesn't think so," Mur­ perhaps have picked Gerry last as ray said. "It was when I was poking his staunch advocate, but as a re· at it yesterday that he-" suit of last night the matter was "Got you so worked up you de­ settled. He said shortly, "Maybe cided to get your own back?" That because the only reason I can think was Rett again. "Christ, I'm tired of for Delgado to do as he's doing is of this argument!" to provoke that kind of row." "Hear hear!" agreed Adrian. "I ''Yes-but what for? Just to add wish Sam and Delgado would stop a real-life tang to his play? It seems wasting time on this red herring of crazy!" · Murray's and come and join us." "I think we're all crazy to put up "What was done to Murray was with him," Murray muttered. sadistic and disgusting," Gerry ex­ There was a sudden stir. Bliz­ claimed. "How can you call it a red zard was coming down the aisle, herring?" followed by Delgado, and the au­ "We don't have to ask why you're thor didn't look his best. His fore­ taking his part, do we?" Adrian head was distinctly shiny. said, curling his lip. "Sam put up a better fight than I ''What's Delgado bought you gave him credit for," Murray said with, Ade?" Gerry whispered. "An under his breath to Gerry. endless supply of pretty little ''You don't imagine he's got him boys?" to back down, do you?" "Oh, can it, will you?" Jess Murray gave a bitter chuckle. Aumen shouted. ''You'll drive the "Oh, I doubt that." whole bloody lot of us up the walll" Murray recognised the truth of But that was exactly what Bliz­ the warning. He walked despond­ ard had done. ently to the side of the auditorium. Clambering up on the stage, he Obedient to Dr Cromarty's instruc­ said, "All right! You know about tions he had contrived to force what happened to Murray this down some breakfast, but it lay morning. I don't know who was re­ heavy as lead in his guts. sponsible, but I know I'm getting THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 35 through to him when I say here and A wave of relief went through now it was a disgusting trick. In his audience. spite of certain opinions to the "Why the hell couldn't you have contrary" -he didn't look at Del­ said this yesterday?" Gerry de­ gado, but no one could doubt manded, not sharing the general whom he meant-"1 think Murray inood. He waved at the big canvas has done bloody well to climb back flats he had slashed last night. "All out of the mess he got into, and he's that work wasted because of a petty worked bloody well since coming tantrum-it makes me sick!" here. If there's any repetition, the "I'm sorry, Mr Hoading," Del­ person responsible goes out on his gado said after a pause. ear and I will see that his member­ Murray started. It wasn't like ship of Equity is cancelled. He'll Delgado to apologise. He preferred never get work in this country to try and make the person of­ again. That suit you, Murray?" fended appear to be in the wrong "He isn't in Equity," Murray himself. Which implied . said. "Places, everybody!" Blizzard "I know what you mean by that, shouted. but I think everyone else would Murray walked towards the rather I pretended not to." stage, completing the train of his "Hear hear!" -in a subdued thoughts. voice from Rett. Which implies Delgado isn't "All right, let's get on. I've been pretending to care about the play having a long talk with Manuel any more. He's yielding to conceal about the draft of the play. Man­ his true interest. uel?" In wha.t? It was obvious the author didn't like what he had to say, but was XVII having to put up with it. Murray's estimate of Blizzard rose afresh. "There are no end of things "Sam has represented that it may about this place and about us be possible to salvage what we which are peculiar," Murray told have," he said. ''I'm willing to con­ the air. "Only ..." cede that a lot of effort has gone He let his voice trail away, un­ into it, and a lapse on the part of comfortably aware that if he was one of the cast"-his eyes flickered going to start talking to himself he to Murray-"needn't mean it all would make the situation even has to go to waste. So I've agreed worse. He drew on his cigarette that if he can get a better perfor­ and let the smoke drift towards the mance this morning we can go blank back of the TV set. ahead from there." Maybe it was irrational, but he 36 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION couldn't escape the sensation of Lester was ready to dismiss his being watched by the blank eye of electronic gadgets as mumbo­ the screen. He'd turned it to the jumbo not worth a second thought. wall. Blizzard didn't seem to have any Am l going crazy? Am l crazy inkling he was dealing with any­ already? thing but a conventionally tem­ He came to the same answer as peramental creative personality. always: there was someone in­ Gerry was siding with Murray for volved who wasn't sane, and the the moment, but you could ascribe prime candidate was Delgado. The that to the shock of nearly killing man made his flesh creep-and yet himself. Compare Constant's affa­ he hadn't been driven to walking bility of last night with his return out. There were too many concrete today to his habitual sarcastic in­ reasons for staying. tolerance. He thought all the way back to No, there was no real evidence the beginning of the affair. to support Murray's anxiety-only There had been the suspicion a list of cumulative subtleties. that the venture was absurd. People's behaviour, for instance. Against that, Delgado had his rep­ Thinking about TV sets brought utation; Blizzard thought the idea one point to mind. Murray hadn't could be made to work; and Mur­ turned on the set in here once­ ray Douglas needed any job he not even to catch the news. He could get. knew why: the additional circuitry The last item still held good. frightened him. But no one else The one before that-ditto. This had mentioned seeing any pro­ morning, Murray had realised he grammes on TV since coming here. was over-hasty in assuming that As to news: no one had troubled Blizzard was dazzled by Delgado. to order a paper as far as he could The director knew perfectly well tell. No one read one at breakfast. the difference between a fit of bad Whvnot? temper and a real crisis of artis­ Phone calls. The company had tic principle. Today's work, which been picked partly because they had carried them into a first-class had no domestic ties-well, fair symbolic nightmare of a final act, enough; you wouldn't want people was proof enough that Sam cared in a hurry to drive home at quit­ about getting out a worthwhile ting-time or risk them being de­ play. layed in the morning by a crisis at To Murray, it was also grounds home. for suspecting that Delgado didn't. By itself, it meant nothing that No one else, though, was taking everybody was single, or separated, Delgado at other than face value. or divorced. But that didn't exclude THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 37 all personal ties. So why had no ting-time today it had not been one been called to the phone? Why questioned that they should work hadn't Roger Grady, for instance, through the weekend on the regular rung up to inquire how things were schedule. Another oddity. going? He himself had few friends And how about the grounds? at the moment because he had been You'd expect a couple of young men avoiding people since leaving the like Rett and AI to be interested in sanatorium; was this a reason why the hut full of sports equipment. nobody should receive any calls? The weather had been cool and No letters, either. There was a showery, but not so bad you had to board for them in the hall. 1\furray huddle indoors. There was a tennis wasn't expecting letters himself, court, wasn't there? Not to men­ but now the significant point tion a swimming pool. struck him: he'd not yet seen any Nobody 'vent out! As far as he letters for anybody. could recall, the occasion when he There were at least five cars took Heather to a pub for a sand­ here: his own, Sam's Bentley, Ida's wich lunch was the last time any­ Corvette, Lester's Rover, and a one had driven out the front gate Ford he thought was Jess Aumen's. -apart from his panicky visit to Yet no one had suggested going up Dr Cromartv, of course. to town for a show, or a party, or Why? , dinner. Like childrr-1 in boarding­ And, thinking of Heather: she, school, like retired folk in a quiet Cherry Bell, who hardly counted residential hotel, the entire com­ because she spent most of her eve­ pany reported for every meal, spent nings typing, and Ida were the only their evenings in the lounge having three women here. Everyone knew a few drinks and playing records. about Ida. But that didn't stop Murray jumped to his feet. Heather being pretty. He had his How in God's name could you con­ own reasons for not making up to dition a bunch of pernickety thea­ her; Ade had his, and Gerry's ad­ tre people into such a placid rou­ diction had endowed him with an tine? eerie-near-sexlessness. That still True, the service Valentine and left Rett, AI, Jess Aumen, Lester­ his weird aides provided was such who, though double Heather's age, as a hotel might envy. Nonetheless, had something of a reputation as a it didn't figure. womaniser. Sam Blizzard, come to Murray paced back and forth. that, with his four marriages be­ One final point had come to him hind him, not to mention Con­ -elusive, because vague, but dam­ stant, who had always been chas­ ning when once recognised. To­ ing girls when Murray and he morrow was Saturday, and at quit- worked together in rep. 38 FANTASY AND SCIENCE. FICTION No lack of men. Yet because of He felt doubtful of his own sta­ their indifference he had been able bility; he had felt this way when he to formulate the idea that Heather • was first in the sanatorium and was laid on for Ida like Gerry's her­ spent his time devising elaborate oin and Constant's pornography. schemes for smuggling drink in. His head spun. This place was Thanks to Delgado's trick this sick, with an all-prevading nasti· morning, he knew he wasn't even ness copied from a Delgado play. yet free of the terror the desire for It was one thing to see it on the liquor could whip up in his mind. boards; it was another to be living Much more of the same treatment, it. and- He looked at the enigmatic The phone shrilled. He shape of the telephone. It had rung snatched at it, crying, "Roger?" for him only on.ce a day since his "Sorry, Mr Douglas. No reply arrival, each morning when Valen· from the number you gave me." tine reminded him of the time. Liar? Murray checked his watch. Who was Valentine, anyway? A quarter to eleven. No, Roger Murray didn't believe his claim might very well be out. Have to try that Blizzard had hired him spe­ again later. He cradled the phone cially. He must have a very close with muttered thanks. connection with Delgado- There was a knock at the door, Murray clenched his fists. No and his mouth went so dry he was good letting this thing run away barely able to choke out a question with him. Any minute now he'd be as he swung to face the blank pan­ a raving paranoiac. Determined to els. ''Yes? Who is it?" do something to allay his fears, he picked up the phone. Another XVIII steward answered, not Valentine. "Get me a call to London," Mur­ It was Heather, in jeans and a ray said, leafing through his ad­ white shirt. She looked incredibly dress book in search of Roger young, the more so as she was ra· Grady's home number. ther flushed. "Very good, sir," the steward "Murray, am I disturbing you?" said, ''I'll call you back." "No, come on in!" He hoped his Murray lit another cigarette, relief didn't show too much. hands shaking. Suppose the call "I-uh-I wanted to talk to doesn't go through? I'll have to you, ask you some advice. I must write two letters, give one to Val­ talk to somebody." entine, mail one myself, ask Roger Grandpa. Thirty-two and they're to call and let me know if he gets coming to me for advice already. both ... He covered the momentary bitter- THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 39 ness by waving her to the easy­ "I can't put a finger on it. But chair. Sam hired me, so presumably he She leaned back and spoke with wants some work out of me, yet he forced brightness, delaying the ut­ never bawls me out for making terance of what she really had to myself scarce. And no one but you say. "Well! It went better today, has commented about it. Although didn't it? That must be a load off Ida-" your mind." She broke off, looking with dis­ "And on yours," Murray re­ taste at her cigarette. joined, offering her a cigarette. "I'm smoking too much," she "What do you mean?" she said, said, stubbing it. "I've made my raising large nervous eyes. throat so dry . . . Can I have a "You wouldn't be human if you glass of water?" hadn't hoped that a start from "Sure," Murray said, rising. "Or scratch would give you a chance to -wait a second. I have some dig yourself in instead of sitting canned fruit juice which I haven't around or sliding away to help touched yet. Like some of that in­ Gerry." stead?" "You make me sound horribly She nodded, clearly not caring mercenary." what he gave her, and he opened "Wasn't that what you wanted the first can that came to hand and to ask about?" Murray sat down on poured from it. an upright chair facing her. She drank thirstily, downing "Ohhh! Part of it, I guess." She half the glassful at one go, and con­ was looking at the back of the TV tinued. "Yes-well ... I thought set, not liking to ask why it was I'd ask you because you've been turned to the wall. "I'm strictly a nice to me, and somehow you've fifth wheel here, aren't I? I thought got more initiative than the rest at first, well, I'm lucky to have this have. I mean, everybody seems so break even if it's only educational chained to a routine. This isn't -I'll have had a month or so at what I expected-work all day, rates double what I get in rep, and gossip all evening, and that's it. I I'll have learned a lot by being don't feel I've got to know anybody. around Delgado and Sam Blizzard I don't feel anybody is excited and you, and if I don't make the about what we're doing-except London production, so what? But you. You've asked awkward ques­ now I'm coming to feel that there tions, and found the tape record­ was something-well-planned ers in the beds . . . Am I making about it." sense?" Murray tensed. "What do you "All kinds of sense," Murray mean?" said grimly. "Go on." 40 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION She emptied her glass and set it "All I know," Murray said, "is down. "You know something? Ever that Delgado is more concerned since you showed me that gadget about things like that than about in my bed, I've been worried about his play or losing money. Was that it. So every night I tum down the what you wanted to ask me about?" sheet and cut the wire joining "No." She drained her glass the mattress to the tape recorder. again and reached for the second With my manicure scissors. Isn't it can. "Oh-am I taking your whole silly? But the idea of that thing supply?" she added. unwinding all night under my "Go ahead. Someone might as head bothers me. Is something well use it up." wrong?" "Thanks. It's very good, actually. "No! I do the same, only more Well-what I do need advice on is so. I pull the wire off my mattress this. I'm trying to decide whether and throw it away. It's always put I should call it quits. I can't kid back, but it must be a nuisance. myself I'm benefiting much from Which is why I'm doing it. I want this. I set such store by it, you to make Delgado admit what it's know! I pulled all the strings I really for." could, trying to make the West "You're sure he was lying when End, and nothing happened, and he said it was-?" then suddenly this turned up: a "Hypnopaedia? Of course. Even Delgado play, the sort of thing peo­ Lester said so. But he doesn't take ple mention in the same breath as it seriously, the way I do." Beckett or Ionesco, and a part spe­ She licked her lips. "Could I cially written-well, that was the have another glass of that fruit way I regarded the offer. Did you juice? I'm still thirsty." notice the stars in my eyes?" "Surely." He rose to get it for "I seem to recall I tried to put her, and opened a second can and some of them out." left it nearby. "I ought to have thanked you "Is the fact that you've turned for that." She sipped and went on your TV to the wall something else sipping at her fruit juice. to do with Delgado?" she asked. Murray gave her a puzzled "Clever of you. Yes, Lester glance. Her words were quicken­ found some extra gadgetry in it, ing, and she was betraying unchar­ and says it's permanently live. I acteristic emotionality. He probed, have this ridiculous feeling it's "But isn't the logical thing to stay? watching me. So-" He grimaced. Watching a Delgado play come "But what can it all be for?" Her alive is a chance a lot of people voice was very serious. "I can't get would like, isn't it?" anybody to help me wonder!" Unexpectedly, she giggled. "It TIIE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 41 isn't at all funny, and when I came Murray moved like a puppet, in I was taking it so seriously, but helping her to the washbasin and -" She looked alarmed, put her turning on the cold water. He left knuckles to her mouth, and failed her struggling to vomit and went to to repress a loud burp. "Goodness, sniff at the unfinished can of fruit what's come over me?" juice. He spilled a little into his Murray sighed. The explanation palm and with a terrible sense of was obvious. She must have been doom tasted it. The tartness of the lubricating her problem with a juice masked it well, but there was few drinks before she came to see no doubt the can had been spiked, him, and they were catching up on just possibly with vodka, but still her. He scowled to himself; still, more likely with raw alcohol. he was the last person to read a Heather would get over it. But lecture on temperance. He said, if Murray had opened one of those "It's no good making me guess what cans, he might as well have been you're talking about." drinking cyanide. "Haven't I told you yet? I'm sor­ ry! Ida says she's in love with me XIX and wants me to go to bed with her." Fearful visions crowded Mur­ "Weren't you expecting her to?" ray's brain. If Delgado were so Murray said blankly. Ida had a pos­ eager to-literally-poison him, itively masculine impatience with where would he stop? He could see preliminaries. And he'd assumed no sign of tampering on any of the Heather was as aware as anyone of cans. Should he offer one to Bliz­ the situation. She was young, but zard as evidence? Not all of them after two years in the theatre she need contain alcohol; he might couldn't be mistaken for a convent have chanced on the only two! schoolgirl. \Vhere next? In the glass of lime As her next remark underlined. juice brought to him at dinner by "It's impossible to take her serious­ Valentine? There was no knowing. ly, though!" She giggled again. Murray felt himself to be in a Dra­ "When it comes to saying some­ cula's castle, where every shadow thing she really means, she sounds held a threat. as if she's still acting-oh, God!" In any case, there was a grand Her voice changed between absurdity in trying to poison an ex­ words. "Murray, I feel dreadfully alcoholic with alcohol: who'd cred­ giddy. I feel drunk. How can I it the story? To stay and argue possibly be drunk? I only had one now would be fruitless. He would glass of lager with dinner-but I have to run. feel so sick!" Behind him, Heather turned 42 FANTASY AND ICIENCB FICTION dizzily away from the washbasin. ily on the bed. She didn't protest. He moved to steady her. Gently he exposed the head-end of "Leave me alone," she said. "Oh the mattress. Yes, the usual had God, leave me alone." happened: the embroidery had "Heather, it was meant for me, been replaced. notforyoul" Some sort of-electric field? She didn't reply. Possibly she Lester compared the pattern to a couldn't. Murray's estimate was field antenna- that she had drunk a tumblerful of The phone went. He could bare­ over-proof spirit, and even if she ly speak for relief when he heard had vomited back part it would hit Roger's familiar tones. her hard. "Roger, thank God! Murray She half-fell on the bed, head here!" pillowed on her arms, and after a "Oh, you. What the hell do you few moments she started to moan want at this time of night? You softly. Murray clenched his fists. realise that as a result of your pok­ Running was only half the answer. ing Burnett in the jaw he's mount­ He had been so blinded by his own ing a hate-campaign against the plight that he had forgotten the Delgado play?" obvious: Delgado would be con­ "There isn't likely to be a Del­ cerned with the corruption of ev­ gado play the way things are!" eryone. The plainest example was "I already have that impression. before him, wasn't it? Whatever strings Burnett can pull, Somehow he had not only to they work. You may not get the make his own escape, but to pre­ Margrave after all." vent Delgado repeating this­ "The hell with that-will you Click. Paris. Garrigue's suicide. listen? Roger, this man Delgado He had been going to call Roger ought to be in a lunatic asylum! Grady. We've had catastrophes enough to He seized the phone and told last most productions through a the steward to try the number year's run. In a fit of pique he tore again. Waiting for the call to go up the draft, and Sam had to cool through, he made sure no one was him down-" in sight along the passage, then "If he managed it, what arc you locked his door. Something Heath­ worrying about?" er had said itched at his mind. She "Unless you let me finish," Mur­ too kept breaking the connection ray said in a tight voice, "I will to the tape-deck under the pillow climb down this phone and stran­ gle you with the cord. Gerry Hoad­ He snatched breath in. Lifting ing has come within inches of kill­ her like a baby, he turned her bod- ing himself because Delgado's got THE. P.RODUCTIONI OF TIMI 43 him unlimited heroin. There's elec- · "She claimed that Delgado was tronic gadgetry everywhere-in persecuting her and trying to drive the beds, in the TV sets, over the her insane . • ." Roger hesitated. stage .•." His voice trailed away. "Damn it, though I If the place is He'd spotted the point he'd almost such a madhouse, how come Sam had from Heather. She was the on­ is putting up with it, and everyone ly other person asking awkward else? Is it all aimed at yourself?" questions and accustomed to dis­ "No, but-Oh, I can't give you connecting her tape-deck. More­ details over the phone. I'm going over, she, Ida and Gerry were the to try and get away. I don't know people to whom he'd first demon­ if I'll make it. The grounds are strated the existence of the decks­ fenced with barbed wire, and the and the latter two were also the gate is locked every night at eleven. readiest to talk back to Delgado. I may have to sneak out on foot and Coincidence? leave the car." "Hello, hello!" Roger was saying "What?" irritably. "Don't argue, just listen. I'll "Yes. Well, there's also a girl head for a doctor's place in the here who apparently wasn't hired nearest village-Bakesford, it's for the play at all-just laid on for called. The doctor's name is Cro­ Ida like Gerry's horse and a library marty. Got that? Don't think I'm of deep dirt for Constant Baines. quitting easily, but I think we're all And topping the list, someone is so set for a repeat performance of eager to get me back on the bottle Trois Fois and I won't be cast as he's spiking canned fruit juice and Jean-Paul Garrigue." leaving it for me." "I know how badly you wanted "Murray, is this true?" that job," Roger said slowly, "but if "I'd be crazy with relief if some­ things are as you claim, then surely one could show me it's not! I'm Sam-" doubting my own sanity half the "If Sam has to learn the hard time." way, by seeing his cast head for "Hmmm . . ," from Roger. jail, cemeteries or asylums, too "You're holding something back, bad! Roger, if I don't get to town damnyouW tomorrow morning, call Dr Cro­ "Yes, I suppose I am. I didn't marty; if he hasn't seen me, call credit it before, but-did I tell you here, and if they refuse to pass the why Lea Martinez wound up in the call come and see for yourself." bin?" There was a pause. At last Rog­ "No. You dropped some hints, er said, "Okay. But I tell you this: but I was too glad to have the offer if you quit, and they get out a play of a decent job to pick them up." and nobody kills himself because 44 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION of it, that'll be that. I'll be clean out XX of patience with you." "I'll take the risk;" Murray said, Sitting in the eerie near-silence and cradled the phone. of the house at night, Murray grad­ Talking to Roger had cleared his ually began to wonder whether in mind. He discarded a half-formed fact he lacked the courage to do as plan that involved making Valen­ he had told Roger he would. By tine open the gate, piling Heather one o'clock, when for over an hour in his .car and driving off straight there had been no sound except away. She'd already been talking Heather's irregular breathing, he about leaving; best, then, to per­ could stand it no longer. He rose suade her in the morning, then slip cautiously to his feet, intending to away inconspicuously-perhaps relieve the strain by fetching the around breakfast-time. spool of tape from her room. He Roger had only been partly con­ had counted doors closing as the vinced; what could he show as evi­ rest of the company came to bed; dence to bolster his story? How he had caught Ida's words of in­ about the wire embroidery and the quiry at Heather's door, but she spools of tape? He had nothing had not found the answering si­ more concrete. lence remarkable and had gone to He cut the whole area of wire her own room. There was little risk off· the mattress and pocketed it, of being heard. then opened the lid over the tape­ He felt in the pockets of Heath­ deck. A fresh tape was in position; er's jeans for her room-key. It that figured. He put it in his travel­ wasn't there. He pulled the bed­ ing bag, added the cans of fruit spread half over her and stole into juice, and looked wistfulfy at the the corridor. TV set. But whatever enigma had Pulling the door to, he heard been introduced into its vitals, that voices. was too big to carry off. The only For a second he was terrified. other thing he could hope to take Then a wave of icy control came would be the spool of tape from over him as he located the source Heather's bed. But he dared not of the words. They came from sneak into her room till everyone room thirteen. The door was not else had retired-Ida, for example, completely shut. might come calling, and there He crept closer. Hearing what would have to be embarrassing ex­ was said was one thing; making planations. sense of it would have to wait till He sat down in the easy-chair later. Jaw-muscles lumped with and lit a cigarette. It was going to concentration, he accepted the be a miserable wait. sounds passively. THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 45 The voices, as he'd expected, primitive bedlams, and by now she were those of Delgado and Valen­ probably really is out of her mind." tine. Curiously, though, Delgado's Delgado assayed a laugh; it failed. had a subservient inflection and "You and your indirect meth­ Valentine's revealed uncharacteris­ ods!" Valentine snarled. "Making tic authority. him think he was insane! Making "What's happened to the girl?" him drunk!" Valentine said. "But it's not too late for more "Outside, perhaps?" Delgado direct methods. He's still here, isn't ventured nervously. he?" Delgado was attempting defi­ "Don't be a fool. I know when ance now. anyone goes in or out." "For how long? He's told his "Have you checked Ida's signal agent he's leaving!" for a double trace?" "We can make up a tape with "She isn't there, thanks to that convincing reasons why he should interfering bastard Douglas. The .-tay," Delgado insisted. "So much urge was on her tapes four nights the better if the agent comes here ago. And we haven't had a single and hears why he decided to stay chance to play for her." after all." "We'll have to do something "So much the better if he goes," about Douglas," Delgado said. Valentine said coldly. "He's been "Uh-could the girl be in his a worse nuisance than Lea ever room?" was." "How am I supposed to know?" "But he's a leading actor in the Valentine snapped. "Putting the plav!" Delgado wailed. "If be goes, scanner in the television set was a we'll be ruined!" brilliant idea, you said. Nobody "The play's your worry, not would suspect, you said. And ~II mine. Anyhow, right now I'm more I'm getting is a beautiful scan of concerned about the girl. She's the wall of his room!" traf't<~hl, material." "He doesn't knaw anything," "So's Douglas! We got a primary Delgado mumbled. tape from him his first night here, "What he doesn't know is hardly and it said he was perfectly tract­ relevant. He called his agent in able!" London this evening and said he "But we've only been able to was leaving. He talked about Gar­ play to him once, haven't we?" Val­ rigue, and the agent told him about entine countered bitingly. "Come Lea. You remember Lea?" The on-1 want to find the girl. We'll voice was a whiplash of sarcasm. check the unscanned rooms, and if "But nobody believed what she we don't find her we11 look in said! They put her in one of their Douglas's room. And if she's there, 46 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION heaven help you. That wasn't the can keep her out of my hair." experience contracted for, was it?" "You won't be able to help it. It's Murray darted back to his own something to do with the talJe­ door and slipped inside. He turned decks-oh, never mind! They'll be the key, palms greasy with sweat. here any moment." What in hell was all that about? He swung around. The only pos­ Unscanned rooms! Tractable ma­ sible hiding-place seemed to be the terial! The urge was on her tapes! built-in wardrobe. He beckoned His skin crawled to remember it. Heather. She got off the bed and Right now, though, he had to took two hesitant paces toward act quickly. He strode to the bed him. · and tugged at Heather's arm. "Murray, I can't," she said in a 'Wake up!" he whispered. faint voice. "I'm a claustrophobe. I Fighting out of a mist of alcohol couldn't stand cupboards even and natural sleep, she opened her when I was a kid. I just scream. I eyes. "Leave me alone, will you? I can't help it." wanna sleep." "Oh, no," Murray said. He let ''You've got to hide! Delgado's his hands fall to his sides. after you!" "You can lock the door, though, Coming fully awake, she looked can't you?" blankly at the strange room. "Oh "I don't think locks will keep my God. I remember now! You bas­ them out. Well, we'll just have to tard, Murray. You-" face them, I guess. Unless-" Suddenly realising she was fully The last thing he'd heard Val­ dressed, she broke off. entine say: that wasn't the experi­ "I was meant to drink that stuff, ence contracted for . . . not you," Murray insisted. "I didn't "Unless we give them a false spike the cans-Delgado did. And idea!" He snapped off the one light he's out looking for you. You've got which was burning. "Don't argue. to hide." Get your clothes off. Put them on It was getting through at last. that chair in sight of the door." He "But why, in the middle of the made for the bed as he spoke, strip­ night? And why should he try to ping off the bedspread. "Come on, make you drunk?" I won't rape you! But I overheard "I don't know what's going on, Delgado say something to suggest but it's thoroughly nasty, and I'm he wants you in bed with Ida and getting the hell out in the morning. nobody else." You'd better come too, or you'll find "But how could he possi­ yourself in Ida's bed." bly-?" "Goodness, I'm not going to tum "I know it's crazy! So's the whole Les! I came to ask you how I damned business! At least this will THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 47 give him something to worry about. surprise. They had both gone Oh, please[" around to Heather's side of the bed. The vehemence of the last word "You fool." The words barely dis­ seemed to tip the balance. She put turbed the air; her hands up to the front of her "But there was nothing on their shirt. tapes to suggest-!" That was Del­ Shortly, the bed creaked very gado, slightly louder, almost bab­ faintly. Murray, having dumped bling. his own shirt, trousers and shoes "How could there be? We on the floor, clambered in on the haven't taped either of them since opposite side. His foot brushed hers the first night, except in the thea­ and she flinched away. tre. Outofherel" "Lie down," he whispered. "Pre­ Murray moved. tend for all you're worth that you're He was faster to the door than asleep. I think I hear them com­ either Delgado or Valentine. He ing." had shut it, turned the key and put There was a stealthy noise in the on the light within the space of a corridor. Suddenly Heather put her few heartbeats. leg over his and nuzzled her face In the bed, Heather gave a con­ into his neck. The very picture of vincing pantomime of waking up. satisfied lovers, they waited for the She didn't need to feign astonish­ door to open. ment, though. Delgado and Valentine were XXI masked. Black goggles with flat lenses covered their faces, a third Murray had left the key in the lens in the middle of the forehead lock, to foil a pass-key. The intrud­ suggesting an extra eye. Murray ers had more sophisticated means had never seen such equipment, of opening locked doors. There but he guessed at exceedingly com­ was a hushing on the thick-piled pact night-vision glasses with their carpet. He opened one eye invisibly own black-light source. close to the pillow and saw dark­ Valentine carried something ness as complete as before. harder to identify: a box, with a Apart from their cat-soft tread, handle on one side and an open­ the only sound from Valentine and meshed grille on the other. He was Delgado was a hissing intake of clearly alarmed at it being seen, breath. and tried to thrust it inside his Whatever the "experience con­ jacket. tracted for" might be, Murray 'What the devil are you doing?" thought grimly, there was no reason Murray said after a pause. why he shouldn't give them another Delgado's self-possession had de- 48 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION serted him, but Valentine made no Delgado whimpered, catching at attempt to prevaricate. "Delgado, Valentine's arm. what's he most likely to do?" he "Hold your tongue," Valentine said sharply. ordered. "He's trying to make us "Call-uh-call the others to angry so that we'll tell him more witness that we're in here, I guess." than he actually knows." "How many intractables are Murray curled his lip. "I know left?" enough-enough to avoid the tapes Murray interrupted harshly. He in my bed, and to turn my TV set was afraid his temporary control of around so that it couln't scan my events was slipping away. "Heath­ room." er, Delgado has a good idea. Take "Keep your head," Valentine ad­ my dressing-gown and go wake jured Delgado. "He's bluffing." Sam Blizzard. You know which is ''You can't be sure of that," Mur­ his room?" ray countered. "Because I've been ''Y-yes," Heather whispered, dodging your scanners and tapes pulling the robe around her. I'm a mystery to you." Heather, Judging by the way Sam had hurry up! "But I don't depend on made Delgado eat crow, he should such gadgets-all I used was com­ be a tough customer to argue with. mon sense. Delgado kidded Sam But it was nettling that neither okay, but not me. He lets it be seen Delgado nor Valentine tried to stop much too easily that he doesn't Heather leaving. care about the play. He's much too "Why the silence?" he gibed as interested in corrupting people." the door closed. "Not enjoying this "You don't count seducing experience, hey? Didn't you con- young girls as corrupting them?" tract for it?" • Valentine suggested with a sneer. Even Valentine's composure "I didn't have time. I laid a little fractured at that; as for Delgado, trap for you, and you fell into it his jaw dropped as though he had beautifully." seen a ghost. There was a tap at the door. The "Keep quiet!" Valentine rapped tension diminished. at him. "Now's your chance to explain," Murray cast around for some­ Murray said. "Come in!" thing else that might disturb the He turned. He was so convinced "steward." "What did you think he was going to see Sam Blizzard you'd got when you hired me?" he that he was stunned. Heather had went on. "Another Garrigue? Well, come back, all right-but pinioned you got another Lea Martinez in­ by another of the stewards, the tall­ stead, with teeth this time." est of the three, whose name he had ''We can't let him talk like this!" never learned. THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 49 Seizing his chance, Valentine "Too bad! As soon as I've made hit him over the head with the box my rounds, Manuel, I'll come and he was carrying, and he spun to­ help you edit a tape for Douglas. wards the floor in a blinding aura It'll have to be mainly basic wipes, of pain. with some kind of excuse for chang­ He lost consciousness for per­ ing his mind about leaving. Go on, haps a minute. When he came out with you." back, he could not rise. He lay, The door opened and closed. Ly­ hearing indistinct words. ing face down, Murray fought to "I was servicing Blizzard's tape." make sense of what he'd heard. That was the tall steward. "I'd just Concentrape-triple-they were changed it for the new playback just noises. But these men were when the girl came to the door. I talking as if they could adjust a hu­ imitated Blizzard's voice and took man brain as easily as a mechanic her in." could re-time an engine! "Very quick thinking, Walter." "What exactly happened?" That was Valentine. Walter inquired. "But what can we do?" Delgado Valentine recounted the past blurted. "We can't possibly let hour's events. "Somebody's been Douglas go after what he's seen, careless,'' he concluded. "Douglas can we?" has got hold of phrases-such as "Of course not,'' Valentine contracting for an experience­ barked. "He was bluffing, but he which oughtn't to be in his vocabu­ was building the bluff on too many lary. Cleaning his mind will be the hard facts. Walter, is everything devil's own job. Well, it has to be else in order?" done. I suppose he's played his us­ "Unless you want another tape ual trick and stripped the triplem changed besides Blizzard's." off the mattress, but the conditioner "We've overlooked something in may still be working after I hit him his case, that's certain, from the on the head with it. Help me put way he talked back to Manuel him on the bed, will you?" about the play. But we can live Murray summoned what power with that for a day or two . • • to act was left hiin by the pain in Manuel, go and edit up a concen­ his skull, and snatched at the only trape for the girl. Put in a basic thing within reach as the two men wipe to cure her of cutting the tri­ bent to take his legs. He gave a con­ plem to her recorder. I want the vulsive jerk, and something last four nights' urges solidly in snapped. her mind by morning." "Damn. I thought he was uncon­ "You might unstable her person­ scious," Valentine said. "Surprising ality,'' Walter countered. endurance they have, considering 50 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION their primitive physique." feet. The first thing he saw clearly A foot came down cruelly on his was Heather, eyes wide and roll­ fingers and opened them. What ing above a gag made from one had he clutched, anyway? Mur­ sleeve of his dressing-gown. Her ray saw foggily that it was the arms and ankles were bound. cable from the TV set. He hoped He fumbled in his discarded he had done more damage by haul­ trousers for his pocket-knife and ing on it this time; if what Valen­ slashed her bonds. tine said was true, it might be the "Go and wal{e the others!" he or­ last act he would make of his own dered harshly. "Hurry!" volition. She paused only long enough to "Just a second"-from \Valter. thrust her feet into her shoes, then "He's thrown away the tape again, fled from the room. as well." Murray stumbled to the wash­ Valentine sighed. "Get a fresh basin and scooped cold water over spool from Manuel, then." his aching head. His skull was "Right." \Valter moved towards ringing like a gong. Striving to the door. plan rationally, he spoke aloud to Painfully, Murray gathered the himself. tattered shreds of his faculties. If "Take something with me for he could even get to his feet while evidence. Tape. Or the box Valen­ Valentine was alone in the room- tine hit me with-Christ/" "ls something wrong?" Valen­ Without thinking, he had put tine said sharply. his hand on the wall for support. "I think I smell burning!" That wall was hot! And beyond it Walter snapped. was room thirteen, and Delgado! Sound of a door opening. A cry He dashed into the corridor. of alarm. "It's an inferno! He must Tearful, Heather confronted him. have caused an arc when he pulled "Murray, I can't wake anybody! that cable!" They're lying in their beds like­ "Get Victor! Run for it! These like vampires!" places were built like tinderboxes!" "Try again! If you can't manage "What about-?" it .we'll have to drop them out of "The rest of them can take their the windows-they won't stand a chance! I'm not going to be roasted chance in here!" alive! Out of my way, damn you!" He pointed at room thirteen. Fumes were leaking from the key­ XXII hole and between the door and the carpet. The stench of burning rubber "Delgado's still in there! We drove Murray unsteadily to his may never catch Valentine and his THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 51 chums, but at least we can hang on From Ida's room Heather to Delgado!" emerged, sheet-pale with terror. He brushed her aside and flung "Murray, I can't wake anybody! open the door of the room. Shouting, slapping-!" Walter's guess had probably "Get down in the hall," Murray been accurate. There was no short­ ordered savagely. "Find a phone. age of power here to cause an arc. Call the fire brigade, ambulances, A brilliant cascade of sparks was doctors and police. This wing is continuing under the window. bound to go first, but the rest of the Something exploded as he entered, house may last for a while." and he ducked instinctively. Hot He came to the landing and at fragments of glass peppered his the head of the stairs deposited his forehead. He was wearing nothing unconscious burden. Delgado but shorts and singlet, and the would live, he decided cynicall~ heat struck furnace-fierce at his He was slightly burned, but he'd bare skin. recover. He had no time to examine the "Get to that phone!" he added room. He received only a vague with violence, and dived back impression of banks ·of complex along the landing of the rear wing. equipment across which flames and sparks vied with each other There followed a period he nev­ before spotting the limp body of er remembered clearly. It was com­ Delgado slumped over what might pounded of nightmare, pain and a have been an elaborate tape-mix­ prevision of hell. It began in room ing panel. twelve, where Adrian Gardner lay Smoke and fumes stung Mur­ wax-white in his bed. No wonder ray's eyes. A red-hot fragment on Valentine and Delgado had grown the floor bit his foot like a snake. careless and left the door of room He got Delgado by one arm and thirteen open, if they were sure one leg and somehow on to his the other people in the house were shoulders. As he turned back, there in such corpse-deep slumber!. was a second explosion and the Already fumes were winding up floor lurched. He staggered out, from the skirting and the air smelt reaching to slam the door because pungently of burning. The crack­ he remembered one should not let ling beyond the wall was immense­ oxygen get to a fire. ly loud. In the same instant a third and As he was lifting Adrian, some­ this time vast explosion rent the thing shorted next door. The TV air. A jolt numbed his arm. A set in here exploded. Flames jet­ dreadful crackling sound like a ted from the point in the floor hundred bonfires followed. where its cable disappeared. 52 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Gasping, he carried Adrian out. masculine pyjamas • . • look out, Behind him the carpet began to fire attacking from the floor be­ smoulder. The paint on the door cause the edge of the bedcover . . • of room thirteen was blistering "All right, all right-" But that with the heat. wasn't Heather. Someone with a He was returning from dump­ helmet. Firemen. Hoses. Noise of ing Adrian as he had dumped windows being smashed. Hope. Delgado, when the whole upper Help. floor trembled. Something roared "Murray, they're all safe now! and crashed, and he pictured all Murray?" the equipment in room thirteen Murray clutched at the balus­ plunging on to the stage, with its ters, missed his hold, felt his foot perhaps inflammable hangings. tread on air. Someone snatched Once the fire got a hold down at his shoulder. He looked into a there, he would be separated only concerned face under a black by the floor from a real furnace. sloping helmet. Fireman. Frantically he tried to open the Murray fainted. next room-Constant's. The fool had locked his door. XXIII Using a chair as a kind of crude battering-ram he managed After he regained conscious­ to shatter its panels, and so ness, he was content to stay as he brought Constant out. By the time was for long moments, feeling a he had dragged Gerry from room blanket snug around him, hearing ten, there was no doubt about the shouts, the roar of engines and the theatre being alight: the floor was crackle of flames. distinctly hot. The door of room Then someone said, "Here he is, thirteen had broken open in doctor. He passed out." flames, and the carpet was lifting Heather's voice. like dry paper. Smoke billowed A gruff answer, with a trace of around. The floor shifted again Scots accent: ''I'm not surprised. and settled at an angle-or was When I met him the other day I that illusion? The slope seemed to was shocked to see how much old­ be against him whichever way he er he looked than his real age." happened to be going . . . Dr ... Dr Cromarty. Murray "Thank you," he muttered, and forced open his eyes. There was realised he was being helped: the doctor, the collar of a pyjama Heather, her robe in shreds, help­ jacket showing above the neck of ing him carry Ida in a filmy his sweater. nightdress ... funny, one would "Are the others all right?" he have thought she'd wear rather whispered. THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 53 "Yes, they're all safe," Cromar­ were no serious burn cases, and ty assured him. "Now you lie still then this young lady insisted I and let me examine you." examine you, because-" "I don't mean were they "Delgado?" Murray rapped. burned?" Murray interrupted, "He had an electric shock," struggling to raise himself. "Are Heather said. "But he's not badly they all right?" He pushed Cro­ hurt." marty aside impatiently. "I'm Relieved, Murray swung back okay-1 only passed out from the to the doctor. "Look, these people smoke and the heat. 1-" aren't asleep. They're-oh, see for "Your feet," Heather whispered. yourself!" She was right, of course: the soles He took the five strides needed of both his feet felt raw and ten­ to bring him level with the near­ der. Nonetheless, what counted est "undead", and on the last his was those undead he had carried feet gave such pain Heather had from their beds. to steady him. Cromarty opened "The hell with me," he grunted, his medical bag. and scrambled up. "I want to "Here, young woman!" he know ..." rapped. "Take this idiot and put The words trailed away as he some of this on his feet. I'll dress took in the scene. The headlights them properly later, but this will of two fire engines and several ease the pain." cars, including his own, showed He handed her a jar of salve that the verge fringing the gravel and some bandages. While she at­ drive was like an open-air mortu­ tended to Murray's injuries, he set ary. Dark-uniformed men were off to inspect the line of bodies. coming and going; from behind Finally he returned, face drawn. the house sparks spattered the pall "I don't know what to make of of smoke smearing the sky. this," he said. "But those people He turned to Dr Cromarty. aren't sleeping normally. They're "Why aren't there any ambulances in a hypnotic trance." here?" he demanded. "Why are "Are you certain?" Murray de­ they all lying on the grass?" manded. "There's been an accident on "Absolutely. Since I was a stu­ the motorway ," the doctor mut­ dent I've been interested in the tered. "A bus crash. But .they medical applications of hypnosis. promised to come shortly." I've even used it for painless 'Well, then-have you looked childbirth when the mother was these people over?" willing." "I only just got here, I'm afraid. "I thought they might be But the firemen assured me there drugged," Heather ventured. 54 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "There's one young man who's "I think Mr Douglas can best a heroin addict, or I'm an igno­ explain," Cromarty said. "Mr ramus. But I'd stake my reputation Douglas-Chief Inspector Wade­ on· them being in trance." ward, County Constabulary." "Can you get them out of it?" "I heard you were rehearsing Murray exclaimed. here," the inspector said. "Saw "If the induction was skilfully you in Skeleton a few years ago, done, they will respond only to by the way ... Well?" one particular stimulus." Heather had finished her work "They'll stay like that indefi­ with a 'Professionally knotted nitely?" Heather cried. bandage on each foot. Murray "Oh no! The trance will merge thanked her. "I hardly know where into normal sleep and they'll to begin." wake of their own accord. But-" "You could begin with the rea­ Cromarty hesitated. "But there son why all these people are hyp­ might be posthypnotic commands. notised," Cromarty growled. And unless we can find out what Wadeward started. they were, the poor folk will carry "Did you say hypnotised? For them out willy-nilly when they pity's sake, explain!" wake." "You know why we're supposed Murray had seen demonstra­ to be here?" Murray suggested. tions of hypnotism often enough "Yes, the local paper made a to realise the implications. Peo­ big story out of the play." ple could easily be hypnotised into "But the play turned out to be irrational behaviour. Did that a cover for something else. For mean-? •.. "Concentrape? Triplem? No But before he could speak good. He sighed. again, another car braked on the ''I'll go over it from the begin­ drive, and a man in a tweed jacket ning," he muttered. jumped out, accompanied by a He told them about Garrigue's uniformed policeman. He recog­ suicide, Lea Martinez's insanity, nized Cromarty and greeted him. Claudf:'tte Myrin's attempted in­ "Morning, doc! Sorry I'm so fanticide. At that point Wade­ late on the scene, but you prob­ ward exploded. ably heard about our coach-crash. "Wasn't something done about Sixty casualties! That's where all this-this maniac?" your ambulances are, of course, "He's so clever you have to ex­ but they've promised to send a perience his treatment to believe few along as soon as they're un­ it," Murray said. "And some peo­ loaded ... What's going on here, ple don't even then. Well, from anyhow?" the very first evening . . ." THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 55 The tape-decks, the gadgetry in not ask Delgado? Valentine and room thirteen, in the TV sets, over the others have probably got away, the stage; Delgado's touchiness but Delgado's right over there." and lying, Sam's unwillingness to pursue the matter; hints from Val­ XXIV entine about "scanning" and "bas­ ic wipes"; spiked cans of fruit The firemen's routine first-aid juice and trying to frame l\·furray had already brought Delgado into drinking again, and-and­ round, but Cromarty insisted on and ... examining him. Murray was al­ "I don't know what to make of most frantic with impatience by it," 'Vadeward confessed. "One the time he pronounced his ver­ thing I can do is put out a call dict: superficial burns and other­ for these mysterious 'stewards' on wise nothing but shock. suspicion of trafficking in dan­ The playwright was shivering gerous drugs. But beyond that ..." with terror; his eyes were enor­ He shook his head dubiously. mous and his repeated swallow­ "But the whole thing's incredi­ ing so loud it could be heard even ble!" Cromarty objected. "Mr over the racket of the firefighting. Douglas claims that these people On Cromarty's nod, Wadeward were hypnotised by wire patterns knelt beside him and demanded on their mattresses-but that's an explanation of Murray's story. absurd!" The only response was a moan. Murray made to voice counter­ "Talk!" Murray thundered, so arguments, but decided to save his furious he would have kicked the breath. All his evidence was in prostrate man had his feet not the wreckage of the new wing. hurt so much. Even if a few of the items were "It's no good keeping quiet," later salvaged, what would they Heather said suddenly. "It won't amount to in most people's view? help. Don't you realise your Bits of pseudo-scientific mumbo­ friends left you to die?" jumbo better fitting Lester's theory, A spark of interest showed in that Delgado was the dupe of Delgado's eyes. charlatans, than his own. "Valentine and Victor and He put his head in his hands. Walter left you to die in room Alarmed, Cromarty bent to exam­ thirteen," Heather insisted. "If it ine him and this time brooked no hadn't been for Murray you'd have denials. Murray submitted, and been roasted alive. Don't you un­ let his mind go so blank he barely derstand? Your stinking friends heard Heather's next words. left you and Murray saved your "Instead of wild guessing, why worthless dirty horrible life!" 56 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION She was almost crying from the lute discontinuity. At first Murray intensity of her emotion. Naked was able to believe he hadn't hatred replaced fear in Delgado's heard right-there was so much face. noise going on, after all . . . Then "Yes, I remember! I was going it dropped into place. He had to make up that tape Valentine heard right, and it fitted. It fitted wanted, and then something exactly. Incredible or not, it made sparked and I touched the console everything into a pattern. and ..." He said very slowly, "And­ He forced himself into a sitting tern poregs ?" position and stared at the blazing "Temporal regulators," mut­ house. tered Delgado. "A sort of police . . "You brought me out of there?" And when they catch Valentine I he croaked at Murray. hope they-" Murray gave a dispirited nod. "Substate?" Murray snapped. When Delgado spoke again, his "An incorrigible adult who's voice was so feral it was frighten­ had his personality wiped be­ ing to hear it from so small a man, cause he's too far gone for psycho­ as though one called kitty-kitty therapy." and a tiger came purring. "Redukes?" "Those sons of radiated ova. "He-educational tapes, used to Those gutless sewer-brained sad­ impress a social personality in ists. Leave me to burn? Then I'll place of a criminal one." leave them something. Let them "Concentrape?" Murray's other explain this to the temporegs. I'll listeners were completely bewil­ bury them in radiating garbage. dered, but Heather was hanging I'll have them wiped till they on every word. drool. I'll have them blanked into "An illegal tape prepared to substates and forbidden redukes." shift the foundations of an exist­ Substates? Redukes? Murray ing personality towards another leaned forward. orientation." Delgado's answers "Delgado, what's 'triplem'?" were recited as a child might The playwright closed his eyes mouth a poem memorised but not in absolute resignation. "The stuff understood. you kept tearing off your mat­ "Conditioner?" tress. Microminiaturised multi­ "A device giving temporary but core cable. You wouldn't have rec­ absolute control over the actions ognized it-it won't be developed of someone else." until 1989." "Does this-this conditioner produce a state resembling a hyp­ There was an instant of abso- notic trance?" THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 57 "It is a hypnotic trance." self. "What's the alternative?" he Right. Murray drew a deep muttered. "Stuck here among these breath. "Manuel Delgado, when backward idiots! If I keep my were you born?" mouth shut they'll probably lock Wadeward made to speak; me up like that girl in Paris-I Murray quieted him with a ges­ couldn't stand that, and at least ture. Finally Delgado licked his this is a quick way out . . ." lips. "Doctor!" Murray snapped. "It "After what I've told you al­ sounds as if he's talking about a ready ... All right. I wasborn in suicide pill." vear 218 of the World Calendar. Delgado waved Cromarty aside That would be-2429." with arrogant superiority. "Poi­ Murray rocked back on his son? Oh, I'm not that deviant, or heels. "Then I can tell you what they'd have wiped me during you've been doing here. Bootleg­ adolescence. I'm not a self-killer. ging experiences." I'm simply a condemned man." Delgado jerked like a frog's leg A sparkle of unaccountable glee connected to· a battery. flickered behind his eyes. "Now let's have the rest of it," "Executioner," he said softly. Murray said. Out of the corner of "Well, ask away. If you want re­ his eye he saw Cromarty tapping venge, you'll get it. I hope you his glasses on his hand with fasci­ have a strong stomach. I can get nated incomprehension. wipes when I go back each time, "No, I daren't," Delgado said. but you just have to endure your "I've revealed too much already." loathsome memories, don't you?" Murray loomed over him, pro­ "Mr Douglas," Cromarty put in, jecting with all the force at his "there's one thing we must know command, knowing this was the before you go on. How about the most important performance of -the rest of them?" his career. He said, "Do you want "They'll recover in · a few me to put you back where I found weeks," Delgado grunted. "Noth­ you?" ing's been done to them beyond the Delgado shivered. "But the reinforcement of tendencies al­ things they'll do to me if I tell you ready there. Thanks to your med­ any more-!" dling, Murray!" And once more he "Wipe you? That'd be an im­ seemed to wander: "Of course vou provement. Clean out that dirty have strong stomachs-couldn't mind of yours! But they aren't stand your daily lives otherwise. here and I am. Well?'' Bad enough up there where peo­ Delgado hesitated. Then he ple like this sort of thing for a seemed to take a fresh grip on him- forbidden thrill, but here they 58 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION glorify it as 'art' and discuss it "But some things, deviated openly •.." things, you can't get. Talk about "What are you really?" Murray the healthy primitivism of the past said stonily. and the sterile boredom of mod­ "A-I'll get the term in a mo­ em times and you mean you'd like ment, they gave me a good vocab­ to get drunk or bed your own sex, ulary •.. A fall guy. A stooge. or something." The coherence of Didn't expect to find anyone in his explanation was failing fast. this benighted century ready to "So Valentine tries to fill this accept the truth-but then, I gap by taping primitives like you. warned Valentine against picking Works in a plant making timers, you in the first place ..." only two on the planet because "Stick to the point," Murray the temporegs say you don't with­ rapped. out authority. Got one, anyway. "Point, yes . . ." Delgado was Did a dry run, this century-ear­ definitely weakening; his words liest we can empathise with the declined to a whisper. "We have people. Meaningless garble on the means to visit the past, and tech­ tapes, all that risk for nothing. niques for manipulating the per­ Tried next century up-too mod­ sonality. Some say it's the next ern, too civilised, no drunks, great step forward, others that it's dope-addicts except in comers of a living death because creative the world where we don't em­ individuals are often the least pathise people either." stable. I don't take sides, but I did He licked his lips. "Me . . . just find out how much I hate the This personality was taped on me. idea of being made over by some I was a mouse with ambitions smug official-pretty soon you'll when I started, but I had this one see how much, too." He chuckled clever idea. Actors, I said to Val­ at some private joke. entine. Get actors who live half "Now you can't wipe and re­ their lives in their imaginations. duke ten billion people, so they Unstable types, alcoholic, only treat criminals and volunteer drugged, sexually fouled-up . . . deviants. That leaves plenty who And it worked. Tried it in Ar­ behave in public and misbehave gentina, made one fortune. Tried in private. The machinery you've Paris, made two fortunes. Three seen is generally available; it's fortunes he's made out of my idea, used for entertainment and­ and leaves me to burn to death, well, you and your girl are sepa­ the radiated pig. rating and the last time you bed "Trying to find out how close her you make tapes to be reminded we can come to modem times, see. by, and like that . • • Next time America, or maybe 'THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 59 Sweden. Where the trends are set. "Beyond hope," he muttered, China's too respectable already, and added, "Thank God!" but Japan-" Then the ambulances were The words broke off as his face swinging up the drive and there contorted with pain, and Cro­ was a welcome distraction for marty started forward. Wadeward and Cromarty to seize. "The man's ill!" he exclaimed Murray, though, could only sway savagely. back and forth where he stood and He twitched aside the blanket feel his mind swimming with in which Delgado had been crazy visions. He'd been com­ wrapped, and they saw what pen­ pelled to accept at face value the alty he had brought on himself by most fantastic nonsense, and its telling the truth illegally, and impact had numbed him. what he had meant when he said Then Cromarty and Wadeward he hoped they had strong stom­ were directing stretcher-bearers to achs. carry away the loathsome ruin of Specialist in . cancer and gan­ Delgado, and he came to their at­ grene •.• tention again. Through what diabolical psy­ "You're shivering!" Wadeward chosomatic technique of the fu­ exclaimed. "Why, you're practi­ ture none of them could tell, his cally naked! Someone get a coati body had rotted as he talked. Un­ Doctor, are the ambulances full der the blanket, from chest to an­ up.';)" kles, his flesh had dissolved into "Damned fools only sent us revolting slime. two," Cromarty said. "But I'll take In the distance, shrill and ma­ care of Mr Douglas. I want to put niac as the laughter of devils, a proper dressing on those feet, there rang out the yammer of the anyway-no disrespect to you, ambulances' bells. young woman," he added to Heather. "A very tidy job of band­ XXV aging. You'd best come with me too, I think. My car's over there." Heather's hands closed on Mur­ Firm hands guided Murray's ray's arm so tightly the grip hurt. arms into the sleeves of a police W adeward began to gnaw at overcoat. Stumbling, leaning on his knuckles, and from all sides Cromarty, he suffered himself to men hurried up to stand petrified be put in the doctor's car. Heath­ at the disgusting sight. Even Cro­ er slipped in beside him and took marty, with his years of medical his hand. experience, had to force himself After the hellish glare of. the to feel for a pulse. fire, the darkness on the road 60 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION brought calm. He was able to marty said. "Not much further to ~ink and talk clearly again. He my place now, though." He added said at length, "Dr Cromarty, you to Murray, "Tell me, since you may have a visit from my agent in seem to have made sense of this the morning. I told him on the rigmarole, who do you think he phone I was going to try and really was?" make for your place." Murray sighed. Tomorrow it "Wish I had my pipe," the doc­ would all seem like a nightmare, tor muttered. "Didn't bring any­ with nothing to substantiate it thing except my surgical bag . . . bar the memory and a few twisted Try to make for my place, Mr scraps from the ruin of Fieldfare Douglas? Man, you talk as if you House. were in a prison camp!" Better so, perhaps . • . "Murray's been telling you "As near as I can make out," he about it," Heather said. said, "in the twenty-fifth century "I can hardly credit it," Cro­ they are supposed to have ad­ marty admitted. "You're over­ vanced sCience that includes time­ wrought, and-No, by the lord travel and a means of altering Harry! I do believe you, now I've people's personalities with a field seen that impossible dissolution. broadcast by an antenna like the It's like the story by Poe, isn't it?" one I kept finding on my mat­ "Monsieur Valdemar," Heather tress. To satisfy the illegal crav­ said. "He was hypnotised, wasn't ings of some perverts Valentine he? Doctor, there's no risk that was organising a supply of primi­ the others-?" tive people's experiences in re­ "You heard Delgado say they'd corded form. Maybe it's like cock­ wake up naturally," Murray re­ fighting in this country today­ minded her. it's illegal, but some people en­ "But I also heard him say he'd joy it so much they don't care. been born in a year that hasn't "His customers must be a pretty happened yet. I think he must horrible bunch, considering the have been mad." sort of thrills he had to provide. "If he wasn't telling the truth, Who'd want to look into the mind there's no explanation for what of a relapsing alcoholic, for God's happened, up to and including sake? Drugs, liquor, pornography, his dissolution." sexual kinks-and that was only "That was so horrible{" The the start! last word peaked to a moan of ter­ "But it's difficult enough to ror, and her teeth chattered. translate from one language into "Should have treated you for another. It must have proved shock too, young woman," Cro- much worse trying to present the THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 61 experiences of people in the past Mrs Garbett will have given the for-well-the modern mind. So young lady our only spare room­ Delgado hit on the idea of taping but we'll see what we can do . . . actors, and this worked and made Mrs Garbett!" fortunes for Valentine and his gang. XXVI "They deliberately heightened people's emotions by making them A shrilling noise. Instantly he rub each other up the wrong way. was awake and terrified,. thinking If I hadn't interfered they'd have of the phone beside his bed and got me down as a hopeless alco-­ Valentine's hateful voice telling holic-" hi~ that it was breakfast time. "And me as a Lesbian," Heather But he wasn't in a bed. He was said. on the big settee in the doctor's "It might not have worked, drawing room where they'd made young weman!" Cromarty said him a pallet of rugs and cushions with an attempt at reassurance. last night. Outside, sunlight. An "There's a bit of it in all of us," early bee buzzing. Oh, this was a she said obstinately. "I used to get miracle! crushes ·on older girls at school, He saw with puzzlement that so it's probably still in me, just his watch said one-twenty. below the surface." Stopped when Valentine knocked The car slowed at the gate of him down-? No, it was going all Cromarty's home. The housekeep­ right. er Murray had met before ap­ There was a tap at the door, peared to let them in. She ex­ and Mrs Garbett appeared. claimed in horror at Heather's "He's awake, doctor!" she called condition and led her away with over her shoulder, and continued promises of a bath and a comforta­ to Murray, "Dr Cromarty thought ble bed, while Cromarty tended it best you should be left to sleep Murray's feet in his surgery. yourself out after what you've It was not until new bandages been through." were in place that he put the key "Then it is twenty past one." question. Murray thrust back sleep-tousled "Mr Douglas, do you really be­ hair. "I'm sorry if I've been a nui­ lieve-?" sance." "Ask me tomorrow,'' Murray in­ "Bless you, sir, after what you terrupted wearily. did last night-it's all in the pa­ "Yes, of course. I'm sorry. I per-you deserve anything we can should let you go straight to bed. do for you. There's someone to see Not much of a bed, I'm afraid- you, or I'd not have come in." 62 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Some01ze to see me? Then the your rest, they therefore couldn't doorbell1vas what woke me. Mur­ tell any reporters." ray felt great satisfaction in estab­ "Here you are, sir," Mrs Garbett lishing the fact. Before he couiGl called, waving a morning paper ask what she meant about it being at Murray. "In the Stop Press! in the papers, Mrs Garbett had 'Actor in Fire Drama. Fire swept stepped aside and there was Rog­ Fieldfare House-, Bakesford, where er. company in rehearsal for new "Murray, am I glad to see you!" Delgado play, two a.m. All in he exclaimed. "When I heard tBe house were asleep except Murray news at breakfast-time I dropped Douglas, well-known actor, who everything. Can you forgive me gave alarm and carried to safety for not taking you seriously last members of cast overcome by night?" smoke. Three fire brigades "Just a moment," Murray said called.' " slowly. "What news?" "Anyone dismissing it as a pub­ "About Fieldfare House burn­ licity stunt?" Murray said bitterly. ing down and you rescuing all "As a matter of fact, yes," Roger those people." said with embarrassment. "Pat "But that happened so late Burnett is still smarting from that that-" sock in the jaw." "Not too late for the London "Well, he's not getting away papers, I gather. But I heard it on with it!" Blizzard barked. "I'm the radio, and then after I spoke going to his editor this afternoon, to Sam-" and if he bleats one snide word in Murray put up a hand feebly. his column I'll have him barred "You're going too fast for me-my from every theatre in the country. God, Sam! What are you doing Ah-Murray.'' His voice dropped. here? You're supposed to be in "I owe you not only thanks, but an hospital." apology. I don't know what Del­ "Nothing wrong with me," gado was up to, but he must have grunted the director. He had been been doing something abominable standing in the doorway waiting to us. I just don't believe we could to be noticed. "When I found out all have been snoring blithely where you were I told anyone who while the house was on fire. I stopped me coming here would get didn't even wake up in the am· a poke in the eye." bulancel We were sleeping like "Sam rang me to try and find the dead, and but for you, that's out what had .become of you," what we would have been. Del­ Roger amplified. "No one at the gado made a fool of me, that's the hospital knew-fortunately for plain truth.'' THE PRODUCTIONS OF TIME 63 "He was a genius. Or at least "I'm going to have a play," his tapes made him one." Blizzard said doggedly. "And it's "What?'' Blizzard said, bewil­ going to put your name back at the dered. top wh~re you belong. I owe it to "Skip it," Murray sighed. "Any­ you. I believe every accusation way, much as I appreciate your you laid against Delgado now. He kind words, I'd rather get hold of was playing with our lives like a some food and clothes-" Punch-and-Judy man. Making us "I brought a bagful of clothes," wallow in dirt and then boasting Roger said eagerly. "You're near about it!" enough my size. I'll fetch them." "Not right a\Yay, though-hm?" He vanished. Blizzard went Murray said absently. on, "I'm not going to waste the "Of course not. We've lost the money and effort I've sunk into house and its theatre. But we're these weeks of work, Murray. I'm insured, and between us we can going to finish the job, and Del­ re-create the outline we had and gado can rot in his grave." the dialogue too. Anyway, we "He rotted already." shan't get the Margrave, thanks to Blizzard checked. "Someone Patsy pulling strings, but the New said that at the hospital. Said his Brecht will take us in two months flesh had melted off his bones. But if we're available, and I wouldn't it sounds crazy." object to a pre-London run." "Just be glad you're not. Anoth­ Murray was illimitably weary. er couple of weeks, and you Time enough later for salvaging wouldn't have had a play. You'd the play and sorting out the fi­ have had a spectacle to make the nances. Right now there was only Marat-Sade look like a Christmas one point he had to make. pantomime." "If you're seriously going on

ITS CORRECT TO CLIP/ Filling in the coupon on the next page offers the foUowing advantages: 1. Guaranteed monthly delivery to your door of the best in science 6c­ tion and fantasy reading. 2. Reduced rate-it's cheaper to subscribe than to buy your copies at the newsstand. 3. An essentiaUy unmarred copy of this issue-the coupon is backed up with this box, and its removal does not affect the text of the surrounding material. 64 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION with it," he said, "then remember bilities you may have. Heather, won't you? You know "In the room on the right at the now why Delgado wanted her top of the stairs," the housekeeper around, I guess." called demurely. "I was just going "I think I've figured it out this to take her a cup of tea and-" morning," Blizzard agreed. "To­ She appeared with a laden tray. uh-to please Ida. Not for her There were two cups on it. Mur­ own sake." ray took it from her with a skeletal "Correct." Murray's eyes had grin and started up the stairs, fa­ roved to the window; here was vouring his sore feet equally. Roger coming back, carrying a But the pain seemed to belong bulging travelling bag. "Well, to the past, and he was heading she's going to be in the produc­ for the future. Like it or not. tion if I have to write her part True or false? A madman's rav­ myself." ing, a tissue of lies told by a "Thinking back," Blizzard said, twisted genius, or cold appalling "I realise we owe a good half of fact? the material to your suggestions, Never mind. Let the dead bury so-" their dead, in or out of time. For Murray wasn't listening. He him, at this moment and with luck had pulled on a dressing-gown of for ever, it was enough that in Dr Cromarty's and gone into the Delgado's death he had found his hallway, ignoring Roger at the own life anew. The idea was still door with the bag of clothes. strange, but it was comforting. "Mrs Garbett! Mrs Garbett! Where He tapped on the door to which did you put Heather?" he had been directed, went in, And the hell with any suscepti- and closed it behind him. ------Mercury Press, Inc., 347 East 53 Street, New York, N.Y. 10022 9A Send me The Magazine of FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. I enclose D $5.00 for one year D $9.00 for two years. D $12.50 for three years.

Name ...... ••...... •.....••.•.. Please print Address ...... ••••...... •...... ••.•...... • .•.•. City ...... • . • State • • . . . • . • . . • . . • • . • • • Zip # ...... Add 50¢ per year for Canada and P. A.; $1.00 far other foreign countries Oscar Wilde, the Irish dramatist and poet whose life was a series of briUiant and tragic excesses, added, near the end of it, "I am dying beyond my means." And after his death? Joanna Russ cap­ tures it perfectly here, and gives us a good story to boot.

MR. WilDE'S SECOND CHANCE

by Joanna Russ

This is a tale told to me by a own. The celebrated writer bent friend after the cointreau and the to watch her-she chanced to look music, as we sat in the dusk wait- up-it was Ada R--, the vic­ ing for the night to come: tim of the most celebrated scandal 'When Oscar Wilde' (he said) of the last decade. She had died of 'died, his soul was found too sad pneumonia or a broken heart in for heaven and too happy for hell. Paris; no one knew which. She A tattered spirit with the look of gave him, out of her black eyes, a a debased street imp led him look so tragic, so shrinking, so through miles of limbo into a large, haunted, that the poet (the most foggy room, very like (for what he courteous of men, even when could see of it) a certain club in dead) bowed and turned away. London. His small, grimy scud of The board before him was a maze a guide went up to a stand some- of colored squares and meander­ thing like that used by ladies for ing lines, and on top was written embroidery or old men for chess, "0. O'F. \Vilde" in coronet script, and there it stopped, spinning like for this was his life's pattern and a top. each man or woman in the room "Yours!" it squeaked. labored over a board on which was "Mine?" figured the events of his life. Each But it was gone. On the stand was trying to rearrange his life in- was a board like the kind used for to a beautiful and ordered picture, children's games, and nearby a and when he had done that he dark lady in wine-colored silk would be free to live again. As you moved pieces over a board of her can imagine, it was both exciting 65 6& FANTASY AND SCIEJSCE FICTION and horribly anxious, this reliving, him. It interposed itself between this being down on the board and him and old gentlemen in velvet at the same time a dead-if not vests; it hovered in front of ladies; damned-soul in a room the size it even blossomed briefly at the of all Aetna, but queerly like a elbow of a child. Then the poet London club when it has just got seemed to regain his composure; dark and they have lit the lamps. he began to work at the game; he The lady next to Wilde was pale sorted and matched and disposed, as glass. She was almost finished. although with what public in view She raised one arm-her dark it was not possible to tell. The sleeve swept across the board­ board-which had been heavily and in an instant her design was overlaid in black and purple (like in ruins. Mr. Wilde picked up sev­ a drawing by one of l\1r. Wilde's eral of the pieces that had fallen contemporaries)-began to take and handed them to the lady. on the most delicate stipple of "If you please," she said, "You color. It breathed wind and shad­ are still holding my birthday and ow like the closes of a park in June. my visits to my children." It spread itself like a fan. The poet returned them. 0. O'F. Wilde, the successful "You arc generous," said she, man of letters, was strolling witl1 "But then everyone here is gen­ his wife in Hyde Park in the year erous. They provide everything. nineteen-twenty-five. He was six­ They provide all of one's life." ty-nine years old. He had written The poet bowed. twenty books where Oscar Wilde "Of course, it is not easy," said had written one, fifteen plays the lady. "I try very hard. But I where the degenerate and de­ cannot seem to finish anything. I bauche had written five, innumer­ am not sure if it is the necessary able essavs, seven historical ro­ organizing ability that I lack or mances, three volumes of collected perhaps the aesthetic sense; some­ verse, had given many public ad­ thing ugly always seems to in­ dresses (though not in the last trude ..." She raised her colored few years) and had received a ci­ counters in both hands, with the tation (this was long in the past) grace that had once made her a from Queen Victoria herself. The favorite of societv. tulips of Hyde Park shone upon "I have tried ~everal times be­ the Wildes with a mild and equa­ fore," she said. ble light. 0. O'F. Wilde, who had It was at this point that the poet written twenty books, and-need­ turned and attemped to walk away less to sav-left his two sons an from his second chance, but wher­ unimpeachable reputation, started, ever he '''ent the board preceded clutched at his heart and died. MR.. WILDE's SECOND CHANCE 67 "That is beautiful, sir, beauti­ of our guests don't. Most of our ful," said a voice in the poet's ear. guests, if you'll permit me the lib­ A gentleman-who was not a gen­ erty of sayi:ng so, are not genteel. tleman-stood at his elbow. "Sel­ Not genteel at all. But you, sir-" dom," said the voice, "Have we Oscar Wilde, poet, dead at for­ had one of our visitors, as you ty-four, took his second chance might say, complete a work in such from the table before him and a short time, and such a beautiful broke the board across his knee. work, too. And such industry, sir!" He was a tall, strong man for all The gentleman was beside himself. his weight, nearly six feet tall.' "Such eRthusiasm! Such agreeable "And then?" I said. docility! You know, of course, that "And then," said my friend, "I few of our guests display such an do not know what happened.'' excellent attitude. Most of -our "Perhaps," s~tid I, "They gave guests-" him his second chance, after all. "Do you think so?" said Mr. Perhaps they had to.'' Wilde curiously. "Perhaps," said my friend, "Lovely, sir! Such agreeable "They did nothing of the kind ••. color. Such delicacy." "I wish I knew," he added. "1 "I see," said Mr. Wilde. only wish I knew/" ''I'm so glad you do, sir. Most And t1zere 1Pe left it.

CHANGING YOUR ADDRESS? The Magazine of FANTASY and SCIENCE FICTION will follow you anywhere providing you let us know six weeks in advance. Please be sure to give us your old address as well as the new one, and be sure to add the ZIP number. (If convenient, send the address label from the wrap~r of the next copy of F&SF you receive.) MERCURY PUBLICATIONS Subscription Service 347 East 53 Street New York, N.Y. 10022 Max Gunther was born in England and came to the U. S. in 1939. He is a Princeton graduate, former news editor at Business Week, contributing editor at Time-and a freelancer since 1956. His first story for us is the lively account of R. J. Schroon, multi-miUionaire, king of the resort hotel builders and perpetrator of the most colos­ Bal public relations blunder in the universe. Will Big Business ever learn its lesson? Which, of course, is: Be careful how you brush oU pests; influence resides in the least likely places.

MUNICIPAL DUMP

by Max Gunther

"RODENTS f" YELLED R. J. "Oh, can't I?" rasped Schroon. Schroon. "Vermin!" He swiped "Can't I?" angrily at one that was sitting on "It would be like murder, al­ top of his head, affectionately ex­ most. It would be-" ploring his ear with its long, "Look, Ponder. I've got fifty quivering proboscis. "I've had million bucks riding on this resort. enough of them. Get the guns. Fifty million b-" He broke off to We'll blast them!" utter a howl of rage as one of the "Blast them?" asked Joe Pon­ creatures scrambled up his pants der, surprised. leg. He kicked savagely. The crea­ "Yeah, blast them I Wipe them ture shot out, bounced on the out!" ground, rolled over and bounded "But they're harmless," said Joe away gleefully. "Fifty million Ponder. He lifted one off his bucks, Ponder! Do you under­ shoulder, deposited it gently on stand what that means? Do you the ground, patted it on the rump understand fifty million bucks, and watched it leap exuberantly Ponder?" away. "They wouldn't hurt a fly, "Sure, sure," said Ponder ~ if there were flies here. You can't ably. "I understand." massacre creatures like these." He understood R. J. Schl'OOII 68 :\IUKICIPI\L DUMP 69 quite well, in fact. Schroon was a able universe. Interstellar space man who had devoted his life and swarmed with Schroon space­ energy to amassing wealth. A big, trains, equipped with the newest beefy, florid-faced man, Schroon harmonic drives that could hurl had lost interest in anything but vacationers and tourists across a dollars. He was a millionaire light-year in 707 seconds. Schroon many times over and could have was not the richest man in the uni­ retired to lifelong luxury years verse (some of the mining tycoons ago. But his compulsion to keep could have bought him with pock­ piling up money never slackened. et money), but he was certainly Nobody really knew where among the best-known. Schroon had come from. He had Not really well known, though. appeared one day at a small settle­ Of all the billions of human beings ment on Mars, bought an aban­ spreading through the Galaxy, doned storage dome from the Army only Joe Ponder had achieved any­ and converted it into the inter­ thing like closeness with Schroon planetary equivalent of a fleabag or felt the faintest tremor of liking hotel. That was the nucleus of his for him. Ponder was Schroon's present empire. He never told any­ vice-president in charge of prop­ body about his earlier life. There erty acquisitions. Tall, stoop­ were rumors about an unhappy shouldered, myopic of eye and love affair. Some said a girl had thin of hair, Ponder was a lawyer jilted him in favor of a wealthier with training in accountancy. He man, back in the days when had no great desire for money him­ Schroon was young and penniless. self but enjoyed the manipulation This might have accounted for his of money, as in a giant chess money fever. Others said simply game. He was good at it. Perhaps that he was an outrageously lucky, that was why Schroon, in a sour but still helplessly compulsive, and distant kind of way, liked gambler. Each of his ventures was him. bigger than the last. Each new "Rodents!" roared Schroon venture was built on an immense again. "Thieving little rodentsiH swaying structure of second mort­ One of them had landed on his gages and promissory notes-a shoulder and snatched a twenty­ structure so intricately tangled dollar gold pen out of his breast that, if the venture failed, the re­ pocket. Now it was leaping away, sulting mess could conceivably bounding sixty feet into the air wipe him out. and somersaulting as though un-· R. J. Schroon was the king of able to contain its delight. resort-hotel builders. There were "Maggots!" howled Schroon. Schroon resorts all over the travel- "Grubs!" 70 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Ponder could understand, sponse was predictably enthusias­ though he could not share, tic. Old Earth was so densely pop­ Schroon's vast dislike of these glee­ ulated that there were no more ful little creatures. He and real vacation areas left on its lim­ Schroon had discovered this plan­ ited land surfaecs. People had a et four years ago. Every word in Jot of leisure time but nowhere to their Initial Survey Team's first go in it. They yearned for un­ report made it seem ideal. It was crowded spaces. They dreamed of about the size of Earth's moon but wild beautiful places where they evidently had a dense core that could go to Jose sight of buildings, gave it a gravitational field only places where they could walk slightly weaker than the Earth's. without being jostled, places where Just eno!lgh weaker to put spring they could find solitude. No such in a tired vacationer's step. The heaven was available on Earth, climate at its equator was delight­ not any more. Upon these facts ful, warm but without mug!!iness. Schroon was building his fortune. Plant life was strikingly similar to And the Cooltropic Inn advertise­ that of Earth's own tropics. Atmos­ ments brought in a flood of in­ phere, solar radiation and other quiries bigger than even Schroon environmental elements all had hoped for. He ordered three seemed entirely suitable for hu­ extra floors added to the original man consumption. Schroon had plan of the hotel. Cooltropic was registered the planet with the Uni­ going to be his greatest work. verse Survey Bureau in Washing­ And then, from nowhere, came ton, D.C., and-exercising the the creatures. Through all the inalienable right of planet-finders years when the hotel was under -had given it a name: Cool­ construction, no animal life had tropic. been seen on the planet. There After the USB team had were insect-like things: ground checked Cooltropic over and certi­ burrowers, leaf crawlers and small fied it livable, Schroon had staked flying things that appeared to out 500 acres under the Planetary serve a function in. cross-pollinat­ Development Act and had begun ing plants. There was nothing rushing men, supplies and equip­ that seemed to have the remotest ment through space. Even before interest in plaguing humankind the Cooltropic Inn's giant Y­ -nothing resembling the mosqui­ shaped foundation was built, to, for instance. There was no in­ magazines and TV screens back telligent life of any kind, no crea­ on Earth were carrying advertise­ ture with a nervous-system devel­ ments: COOLTROPIC, GEM opment even as high as that of a OF THE UNIVERSE! The re- mouse or bird. Nor was there any MUNICIPAL DUMP 71 evidence that any tool-using intel­ would have to go. No guest at the ligence had ever inhabited the Inn would find peace or relaxa­ planet. This was no surprise, of tion with the Bounders around. course. Man in all his explorations Pour yourself a drink, and a through the Galaxy had never met Bounder would plop into the glass. an intelligence remotely like his Light a cigarette, and a Bounder own. The general assumption in would snatch it from your grasp. those days was that human brain­ Bring any unfamiliar object out power was a freak of nature, alone into the open-anything that the and lonely in the universe. Cool­ Bounders had not yet thoroughly tropic was no exception. explored-and you'd instantly But one morning, Ponder had have fifty of them surrounding awakened to find the construction you, poking and prodding the ob­ site alive with the strangest ani­ ject with their snouts to see what mals he had ever seen. In size and kind of thing it was. Stand still shape they were much like base­ for longer than ten seconds, and balls. Each had two grasshopper­ you'd have them sitting on your like legs, two huge eyes-some­ head and shoulders, wriggling in­ times blue, sometimes pink, some­ to your pockets. It was unwise to times purple, and not always carry keys, money or important matching-and a long, thin, documents in your pockets, for highly dexterous snout something you'd inevitably be fleeced of all like an elephant's trunk. Their within five minutes of stepping bodies were white and rubbery. outdoors. They were indoors, too. One of their favorite sports was to They'd wriggled down the hotel's leap high in the air, curl up like a chimneys and explored its laby­ ball and bounce-off the ground, rinthine air-conditioning ducts. off a wall, off a man if he hap­ They had an astounding ability to pened to be standing nearby. observe and then mimic human They seemed to live for fun. They acts, and they'd learned how to were mischievous, inquisitive and work simple door latches. entirely unafraid. "Miserable pests!" wailed Where they had come from, Schroon, slapping wildly at two why they had turned up so su.I­ that were swinging from his tie. denly-these were unanswered "Go away! Go away!" questions. But the fact was, they The two Bounders dropped to had come. And as far as Schroon the ground and bounced away in was concerned, they were a major search of new things to explore, disaster. It was obvious that either but another was sitting on the Cooltropic Inn or the Bound­ Schroon's shoulder, examining the ers (so Ponder had named them) back of his neck. Schroon hit at it. 72 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION It hopped to his other shoulder. old age." He plunged through the He Hailed murderously, and it doorway, pausing to kick a Bound­ hopped back .to where it had start­ er that tried to follow him in. He ed. Quivering with wrath, Schroon went to a steel locker and opened crossed hjs arms and whacked at it. both shoulders simultaneously. "Come and get 'em!" he· shout­ The Bounder jumped to the top of ed. Some of the men hung back, his head. l\feanwhile, another was but others came forward grimly. squirming into his jacket pocket. Schroon banded out high-powered Roaring curses, Schroon turned air rifles-the only weapons al­ and set off at a lumbering run to­ lowed in the hands of civilians. ward the construction headquar­ Then he and a dozen men filed ters building. out to battle the Bounders. "The guns!" he shouted to the "Wait!" Ponder shouted. But men who were lounging around nobody listened. the buildjng. "Get the guns! ~e're One of the Cooltropic Inn's going to get rid of these things glories was to be a seven-hundred­ once and for all!" foot tower, served by a high-speed Ponder ran after him. "Wait, elevator and topped by a cocktail Schroon!" he called. "Wait! There lounge whose walls were all win­ are other ways!" He caught up dows. The structural framework with the big man and ran along­ of this tower was complete, and it side. "Look, Schroon, if we sat had become a favorite playground down and thought we'd think of of the Bounders. They now something. Schroon, listen. We crowded it thickly, leaping and could-" somersaulting among the girders. "Save your breath, Ponder," Schroon led his armed force to­ Schroon panted, slowing to a pon­ ward the tower. He stopped -fifty derous trot. "Wiping them out is feet from it. the only sure way. What do you "Okay," he said. "Let 'em have want to do, build a fence two­ it." hundred feet high? Cover the He raised his rifle, not needing whole thing with a dome?" to aim with any particular care, "Listen, Schroon, I've been and fired. A Bounder fell, bounced thiuking. They seem to have some off a girder, plopped limply to the intelligence. Maybe we could-" ground and lay still. "Talk to them?" Schroon The other armed men had wheezed with sour laughter. fanned out beside Schroon, ready "Yeah, sure. All you've got to do to fire after him. But they did not is make one sit still. By the time fire. For suddenly all the hilarious you do that, we'll all be dead of activity on the tower ceased. The MUNICIPAL DUMP 73 Bounders sat as though abruptly That did it. The Bounders never frozen to the girders. They stared went back to the construction site. down at their dead comrade and They roamed the planet for a at Schroon. Ponder had not pre­ while in a state of shock, trying to viously thought it possible for a absorb the idea of somebody's at­ Bounder to look sad, but it seemed tacking them with a deliberate in­ to him now that all the sparkle had tent to kill. Such a ghastly concept gone out of their great round eyes. had never appeared on their hori­ He felt a squirming movement zons before. But they got used to at his side, looked down in time to the thought eventually. And by see a small Bounder scramble out the time the Keeper landed and of his pocket and leap away. Al­ called them for the voyage home, most simultaneously every Bound­ they had recovered all their old er in sight was leaping toward the joyousness. Almost all, anyway. jungle that rimmed the great con­ The Keeper was not exactly a struction site. Within a minute man, but he was enough like one there was not a Bounder left in so that it will not be grossly inac­ view. curate to refer to him in anthro­ The men were silent. Schroon pomorphic terms. His body had a harrumphed noisily. "Well, maybe head-like protruberance which that did it," he said. His voice contained the major part of his sounded unnaturally loud in the central nervous system, as in a stillness. man. He had two radiation-sensi­ The men who were holding tive organs which, while they rifles looked as though they wished dealt with radiation of a higher they weren't. Avoiding each oth­ frequency than what we call visi­ er's eyes, they turned and walked ble light, nonetheless performed back to the building. Ponder the functions of eyes. He commu­ found a shovel nearby and began nicated in a direct mind-to-mind to dig a grave for the dead fashion rather than making noises Bounder. as a man does, but in a general Schroon walked over to him way this could be referred to as and stood watching silently for a speech. He was not strictly speak­ while. Then he cleared his throat. ing a "he," but it is hard to know "Well, maybe that did it, Ponder," what else to call him since his race he said. He seemed to be pleading propagated by means of eighteen for Ponder to make some sign of distinct sexes. His name, if he agreement. But Ponder just went could have pronounced it, would on digging. probably have sounded something like Sar Gum. Schroon was right, though. Sar Gum climbed back into his 74 FANTASY A~'D SCIENCE FICTION interstellar ship hurriedly after he "It's easy for you to complain, had sent out the call to the Bound­ my dear fellow," replied Sar Gum ers. (He didn't use precisely that huffily. "You don't have to go out name for them, of course, but the in that-that leafery." name he did use included the con­ Stig Hop thought a nasty word. cept of leaping and other acroba­ A coarse fellow, Sar Gum re­ tic activitv. Thus the term "Bound­ flected, a fellow of meager intel­ er" is a fairly good translation.) lect and no sensitivity. Just like all For the thousandth time Sar Gum space pilots, and just like all those resolved to seek out another pro­ of the 3rd sex. (Sar Gum himself fession. Bounders were pleasing was of the 8th sex, noted for its little creatures, but the assign­ artistic accomplishments.) The ments they and their Keeper got things a Keeper had to suffer! were terrible-just terrible! Sar Sar Gum continued to stare Gum stared gloomily out the win­ morosely out the window. Some dow at the hideous leafy jungle of the Bounders had miniature that surrounded the ship. The un­ radar-like transmitters implanted tidiness of the jungle repelled him. in their skin, and this had enabled Leaves, stalks, branches: what Stig Hop to land close to the main horrible disarray! And the smell! part of the herd. But it would take (Sar Gum had no nose-like organ, a whiJe for the entire herd to re­ but he could detect airborne chem­ spond to the supersonic call and icals with his skin.) The whole straggle in to the ship. Sar Gum planet was utterly repulsive! settled down to wait. He retracted Shuddering, Sar Gum reached for his nether limbs, sank into a state a container of deodorant spray that was something like sleep and and enveloped himself in a cloud dreamed of Rock, his home planet, of perfume. light-years away. Ah, Rock! "Will you quit squirting that Beautiful Rock! The whitest, the stuff around?" It was Stig Hop, purest of planets-a world of the pilot, communicating in men­ smooth, white, sterile plains, tal tones that would correspond to where no hideous leafed things an enraged bellow. "The place filled the crystal air with their smells like a beauty parlor!" (Here fetid stench. Rock! The gem of the again, translation difficulties be­ universe! set us. Stig Hop didn't actually Sar Gum didn't like being a say "beauty parlor." He referred in­ Bounder Keeper because the job stead to a kind of-well, bar fre­ took him away from Rock so often. quented by those of the 15th and He stayed with the job only be­ 16th sexes and commonly sprayed cause it made him an important with skin-tingling perfumes.) and respected individual back MUNICIPAL DU:\!P 75 home. Bounders, with tl1eir insati· "I greet you with warm able curiosity and their enormous thoughts," he communicated. It capacity to cover land distances, was the traditional Keeper's greet­ were virtually indispensable to the ing. people of Rock. The Bounders responded with Sar Gum's people had become a chorus of thoughts which, if rather lazy in these golden years translated into sound, would have of their civilization. The old he­ been a deafening disharmony of roic times were gone. There were hoots, whistles, catcalls and ribald few individuals any more who remarks. Sar Gum was used to cared to take personal risks or en­ this and ignored it. He called the dure discomfort. Thus the explo­ herd leader forward. This was a ration of new territories needed by large and unusually intelligent the expanding civilization was al­ Bounder, but no more respectful most always entrusted to Bound­ than the rest of them. He bounded ers. Bounders weren't very intelli­ to the top of Sar Gum's head, gent-in human terms, perhaps where Sar Gum couldn't see him, as brainy as a kindergarten child and evidently made some kind of -but they were born explorers. vulgar gesture. The assembled Their relationship to Sa~ Gum's Bounders communicated a thought race was roughly that of a horse pattern analogous to a howl of or dog to a human being. As long glee. Huffily, Sar Gum grabbed as their masters treated them well, the leader by the snout and legs Bounders cheerfully did the dirty and lifted him down to eye level. work that needed to be done. "Have you explored this plan­ They cheerfully explored worlds et?" Sar Gum asked. like this horrible, green, leafy one, "Sure. What do you think we for instance-and did the job did, sat and . . • ?" (Here the very effectively. Put a few herds Bounder used an expression which of Bounders on such a world, and not only cannot be translated, but in a few years they'd find out al­ w~ich would be unprintable in most e\'erything of importance. any case.) There was only one thing Sar "Please try to show more respect Gum's civilization wanted to know to your superiors," Sar Gum chid­ about this particular green planet. ed primly. Normally he didn't Sar Gum waited until the bulk of chide the Bounders thus; it never the Bounder herd seemed to have did any good. But now, unac­ gathered in the cavernous dornli­ countably, he felt vaguely uneasy tory at the stern· of the ship, then in the Bounders' presence. It entered the dormitory to hear the wasn't the lack of respect that Bounders' exploration report. troubled him, nor the telepathic 76 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION catcalls and ribaldries. These rep­ at the receiving end of the trans­ resented nonnal Bounder behav­ mission channel. This hideous ior; these he was accustomed to. green planet fitted the require­ No: there was something else, ments precisely. This world was something in the choral thought to become the municipal dump for pattern that was not quite right. the planet, Rock. Something-something ever so Provided, of course, that there slightly wrong. were no intelligent beings living Sar Gum studied the herd lead­ here. It would be unthinkable to er closely. The leader seemed un­ subject intelligent beings to a con­ easy too. Not actually worried; it tinual rain of food wastes, broken was impossible for a Bounder to utensils and all the other kinds of worry. Just uneasy-faintly, un­ garbage that were to be fed into definably. the transmitter. But why, Sar Gum wondered "Let me now ask for your re­ -why should that be? This was port," Sar Gum communicated to a perfectly straightforward explo­ the herd leader. "Are there intelli­ ration assignment. Nothing tricky. gent beings here?" The home planet, Rock, was be­ "No," said the leader promptly. coming so crowded with people Sar Gum couldn't shake his and industries that there was no feeling of unease. The assembled longer enough room for dumping Bounders were all staring at him wastes. The Rock government had with their huge round eyes. They elected to build a giant matter were too quiet. transmitter so as to discharge all "Are you sure?" Sar Gum asked. of Rock's rubbish, sewage and "Absolutely sure?" other wastes out into space. Mat­ "Sure," replied the leader. "Sure ter transmission was, of course, a I'm sure." delicate engineering proposition. Sar Gum made a gesture some­ There had to be a dense body of thing like a shrug. He went for­ the correct mass, magnetic struc­ ward to tell Stig Hop that the ex­ ture and other physical properties ploration was completed. In which R. A. Lafferty (HOG-BELLY HONEY, F&SF, Septet;nber 1965) mlends a bit of cockeyed Paw­ nee magic ·aJHt:~ mixed-up bag of contemporary home­ steaders into·one of his distinctive and funny stories.

NARROW VALLEY

by R. A. Lafferty

IN THE YEAR 1893, LAl\"D AL- mer lodge that he had there and lotments in severalty were made to made it an all-season home. But the remaining eight hundred and he sure didn't intend to pay taxes twenty-one Pawnee Indians. Each on it. would receive one hundred and So he burned leaves and bark sixty acres of land and no more, and made a speech: and thereafter the Pawnees would "That my valley be always wide be expected to pay taxes on their and flourish and green and such land, the same as the White-Eyes stuff as that!" he orated in Paw­ did. nee chant style, "but that it be "Kitkehahkel" Clarence Bi~ narrow if an intruder come." Saddle cussed. "You can't kick a He didn't have any balsam bark dog around proper on a hundred to bum. He threw on a little cedar and sixtv acres. And I sure am not bark instead. He didn't have any hear before about this pay taxes elder leaves. He used a handful o£ on land." jack-oak leaves. And he forgot the Clarence Big-Saddle selected a word. How you going to work it nice green valley for his allotment. if you forget the word? It was one o£ the half dozen plots "Petahauerat!" he howled- out he had always regarded as his with the confidence he hoped own. He sodded around the sum- would fool the fates. 77 78 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "That's about the same long of There was a disturbance in the a word," he said in a low aside to courthouse one day. The place himself. But he was doubtful. seemed to be invaded in force, but "What am I, a White Man, a actually there were but one man, burr-tailed jack, a new kind of nut one woman, and five children. ''I'm to think it will work?" he asked. Robert Rampart," said the man, "I have to laugh at me. Oh well, "and we want the Land Office." we see." "I' m R o bert R ampart Jumor, . " He threw the rest of the bark said a nine year old gangler, "and and the leaves on the fire, and he we want it pretty blamed quick." hollered the wrong word out again. "I don't think we have anything And he was answered by a daz­ like that," the girl at the desk zling sheet of summer lightning. said. "Isn't that something they "Skidi!" Clarence Big-Saddle had a long time ago?" swore. "It worked. I didn't think "Ignorance is no excuse for in­ it would." efficiency, my dear," said Mary Clarence Big-Saddle lived on Mabel Rampart, an eight year old his land for many years, and he who could easily pass for eight paid no taxes. Intruders were un­ and a half. "After I make my re­ able to come down to his place. port, I wonder who will be sitting The land was sold for taxes three at your desk tomorrow?" times, but nobody ever came down "You people are either in the to claim it. Finally, it was carried wrong state or the wrong century,N as open land on the books. Home­ the girl said. steaders filed on it several times, "The Homestead Act still ob­ but none of them fulfilled the tains," Robert Rampart insisted. qualification of living on the land. "There is one tract of land carried Half a century went by. Clar­ as open in this county. I want to ence Big-Saddle called his son. file on it." "I've had it, boy," he said. "I Cecilia Rampart answered the think I'll just go in the house and knowing wink of a beefy man at a die." distant desk. "Hi," she breathed as "O.K. dad," the son Clarence she slinked over. "I'm Cecilia Little-Saddle said. "''m going in to Rampart, but my stage name is town to shoot a few games of pool Cecilia San Juan. Do you think with the boys. I'll bury you when that seven is too young to play in­ I get back this evening." genue roles?" So the son Clarence Little-Sad­ "Not for you," the man said. dle inherited. He also lived on the "Tell your folks to come over here." land for many years without pay­ "Do you know where the Land ing taxes. Office is?" Cecilia asked. NARROW VALLEY 79 "Sure. It's the fourth left-hand They stopped at the house of a cat­ drawer of my desk. The smallest tle and wheat farmer named Char­ office we got in the whole court­ ley Dublin. Dublin met them with house. We don't use it much any a grin which indicated he had more." been tipped off. The Ramparts gathered around. · "Come along if you want to, The beefy man started to make out folks," Dublin said. "The easiest the papers. way is on foot across my short pas­ "This is the land description ture here. Your land's directly -" Robert Rampart began, "­ west of mine." why, you've got it down already. They walked the short distance How did you know?" to the border. "I've been around here a long "My name is Tom Rampart, time," the man answered. Mr. Dublin." Six year old Tom They did the paper work, and made conversation as they walked. Robert Rampart filed on the land. "But my name is really Ramires, "You won't be able to come onto and not Tom. I am the issue of an the land itself, though," the man indiscretion of my mother in Mex­ said. ico severaJ years ago." ''Why won't I?" Rampart de­ "The boy is a kidder, Mr. Dub­ manded. "Isn't the land descrip­ lin," said the mother Nina Ram­ tion accurate?" part, defending herself. '1 have "Oh, I suppose so. But nobody's . never been in Mexico, but some­ ever been able to get to the land. times I have the urge to disappear It's become a sort of joke." there forever.• "Well, I intend to get to the "Ah yes, Mrs. Rampart. And bottom of that joke," Rampart in­ what is the name of the youngest sisted. "I will occupy the land, or boy here?" Charles Dublin asked. I will .find out why not." "Fatty," said Fatty Rampart. "I'm not sure about that," the "But surely that is not your beefy man said. "The last man to given name?" file on the land, about a dozen "Audifax," said five year old years ago, wasn't able to occupy Fatty. the land. And he wasn't able to "Ah well, Audifax, Fatty, are say why he couldn't. It's kind of you a kidder too?" interesting, the look on their faces "He's getting better at it, Mr. after they try it for a day or two, Dublin," Mary Mabel said. "He and then give it up." was a twin till last week. His The Ramparts left the court­ twin was named Skinny. Mama house, loaded into their camper, left Skinny unguarded while she and drove out to find their land. was out tippling, and there were 80 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION wild dogs in the neighborhood. rocks. They winged them out over When mama got back, do you the little gully. The stones acted know what was left of Skinny? funny. They hung in the air, as it Two neck bones and an ankle were, and diminished in size. And bone. That was all." they were small as pebbles when "Poor Skinny," Dublin said. they dropped down, down into "Well, Rampart, this is the fence the gully. None of them could and the end of my land. Yours is throw a stone across that ditch, just beyond." and they were throwing kids. "Is that ditch on my land?" "You and your neighbor have Rampart asl{ed. conspired to fence open land for "That ditch is vour land." your own usc," Rampart charged. "I'll have it filled in. It's a dan­ "No such thing, Rampart," gerous deep cut even if it is nar­ Dublin said cl1cerfully. "l\ly land row. And the other fence looks checks perfectly. So does Hyde's. like a good one, and I sure have a So does yours, if we knew how to pretty plot of land beyond it." check it. It's like one of those trick "No, Rampart, the land beyond topological drawings. It really is a the second fence belongs to Holis­ half mile from here to there, but ter Hyde," Charley Dublin said. the eye gets lost somewhere. It's "That second fence is the end of your land. Crawl through the your land." fence and figure it out." "Now, just wait a minute, Dub­ Rampart crawled through the lin! There's something wrong here. fence, and drew himself up to My land is one hundred and sixty jump the gully. Then he hesitated. acres, which would be a half mile He got a glimpse of just how deep on a side. Where's my half mile that gully was. Still, it wasn't five width?" feet across. "Between the two fences." There was a heavy fence post "That's not eight feet." on the ground, designed for use as "Doesn't look like it, does it, a corner post. Rampart up-ended Rampart? Tell you what-there's it with some effort. Then he plenty of throwing-sized rocks shoved it to fall and bridge the around. Try to throw one across gully. But it fell short, and it it." shouldn't have. An eight foot post "I'm not interested in any such should bridge a five foot gully. boys' games," Rampart exploded. The post fell into the gully, "I want my land." and rolled and rolled and rolled. But the Rampart children were It spun as though it were rolling interested in such games. They outward, but it made no progress got with it with those throwing except vertically. The post came NARROW VALLEY 81 to rest on a ledge of the gully, so the bird itself could hardly be dis­ close that Rampart could almost cerned; but it was far short of the reach out and touch it, but it now other side of the five foot ditch. appeared no bigger than a match A man identified by Charley stick. Dublin as the neighbor Hollister "There is something wrong with Hyde had appeared on the other that fence post, or with the world, side of the little ditch. Hyde or with my eyes," Robert Rampart grinned and waved. He shouted said. "I wish I felt dizzy so I could something, but could not be :heard. blame it on that." "Hyde and I both read mouth,'' "There's a little game that I Dublin said, "so we can talk across sometimes play with my neighbor the ditch easy enough. Which kid Hyde when we're both out," Dub­ wants to play chicken? Hyde will lin said. "I've a heavy rifle and I barrel a good-sized rock right at train it on the middle of his fore­ your head, and if you duck or head as he stands on the other side flinch you're chicken." of the ditch apparently eight feet "Me! Mel" Audifax Rampart away. I fire it off then (I'm a good challenged. And Hyde, a big man shot), and I hear it whine across. with big hands, did barrel a fear­ It'd kill him dead if things were some jagged rock right at the head as they seem. But Hyde's in no of the boy. It would have killed danger. The shot always bangs him if things had been as they ap­ into that little scuff of rocks and peared. But the rock diminished boulders. about thirty feet below to nothing and disappeared into him. I can see it kick up the rock the ditch. Here was a phenome­ dust there, and the sound of it rat­ non-things seemed real-sized on tling into those little boulders either side of the ditch, but they comes back to me in about two diminished coming out over the and a half seconds." ditch either way. A bull-bat (poor people call it "Everybody game for it?" Rob­ the night-hawk) raveled around ert Rampart Junior asked. in the air and zoomed out over the 'We won't get down there by narrow ditch, but it did not reach standing here," Mary Mabel said. the other side. The bird dropped ''Nothing wenchered, nothing below ground level and could be gained," said Cecilia. "I got that seen against the background of from an add for a sex comedy." the other side of the ditch. It grew Then the five Rampart kids smaller and hazier as though at a ran down into the gully. Ran distance of three or four hundred down is right. It was almost as if yards. The white bars on its wings they ran down the vertical face of could no longer be discerned; then a cliff. They couldn't do that. The 82 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTJ0::-1' gully was no wider tha~ the stride They attacked the thing from of the biggest kids. But the gully all four sides and the top, and by diminished those children, it ate inner and outer theory. If a thing them alive. They were doll-sized. measures a half mile on each side, They were acorn-sized. They were and the sides are straight, there ruaning for minute after minute just has to be something in the across a ditch that was only five middle of it. They took pictures feet across. They were going deep­ from the air, and they turned out er in it, and getting smaller. Robert perfect. They proved that Robert Rampart was roaring his alarm, and Rampart had the prettiest hundred his wife Nina was screaming. Then and sixty acres in the country, the she stopped. "What am I carrying larger part of it being a lush green on so loud about?" she asked her­ valley, and all of it being a half self. "It looks like fun. I'll do it too." mile on a side, and situated just She plunged into the gully, di­ where it should be. They took minished in size as the children ground-level photos then, and it had done, and ran at a pace to showed a beautiful half mile carry her a hundred yards away stretch of land between the boun­ across a gully only five feet wide. daries of Charlev Dublin and Hol­ That Robert Rampart stirred ister Hyde. Bu't a man isn't a things up for a while then. He got camera. None of them could see the sheriff there, and the highway that beautiful spread with the eyes patrolmen. A ditch had stolen his in their heads. Where was it? \vife and five children, he said, Down in the valley itself every­ and maybe had killed them. And thing was normal. It really was a if anybody laughs, there may be half mile wide and no more than another killing. He got the colonel eighty feet deep with a very gentle of the State National Guard there, slope. It was warm and sweet, and and a command post set up. He beautiful with grass and grain. got a couple of airplane pilots. Nina and the kids loved it, and Robert Rampart had one quality: they rushed to see what squatter when he hollered, people came. had built that little house on their He got the newsmen out from land. A house, or a shack. It had T-Town, and the eminent scien­ never known paint, but paint tists, Dr. Velikof Vonk, Arpad Ar­ would have spoiled it. It was built kabaranim, and Willy 1\fcGilly. of split timbers dressed near That bunch turns up every time smooth with axe and draw knife, you get on a good one. They just chinked with white clay, and sod­ happen to be in that part of the ded up to about half its height. country where something interest­ And there was an interloper stand­ ing is going on. ing by the little lodge. ~\ARROW VALLEY 83 "Here, here what are you doing of hair on- A\v, I can't tell a joke on our land?" Robert Rampart Jun· like that to a little girl! How come ior demanded of the man. "Now you're not wearing the Iron Crown you just shamble off again wher· of Lombardy if you're a white girl? ever you came from. I'll bet you're How you expect me to believe a thief too, and those cattle are you're a little white girl and your stolen." folks came from Europe a couple "Only the black-and-white hundred years ago if you don't calf," Clarence Little-Saddle said. wear it? There were six hundred "I couldn't resist him, but the rest tribes, and only one of them, the are mine. I guess I'll just stay Oglala Sioux, had the war bonnet, around and see that you folks get and only the big leaders, never settled all right." more than two or three of them "Is there any wild Indians alive at one time, wore it." around here?" Fatty Rampart "Your analogy is a little asked. strained," Mary Mabel said. "No, not really. I go on a bend· "Those Indians we saw in Florida er about every three months and and the ones at Atlantic City had get a little bit wild, and there's a war bonnets, and they couldn't couple Osage boys from Gray very well have been the kind of Horse that get noisy sometimes, Sioux you said. And just last night but that's about all," Clarence Lit· on the TV in the motel, those tie-Saddle said. Massachusetts Indians put a war "You certainly don't intend to bonnet on the President and called palm yourself off on us as an In· him the Great White Father. You dian." Mary Mabel challenged. mean to tell me that they were all "You'll find us a little too knowl· phonies? Hey, who's laughing at edgeable for that." who here?" "Little girl, you as well tell this "If you're an Indian where's cow there's no room for her to be a your bow and arrow?" Tom Ram· cow since you're so knowledgeable. part interrupted. "I bet you can't She thinks she's a short-horn cow even shoot one." named Sweet Virginia. I think I'm "You're sure right there," Clar· a Pawnee Indian named Clarence. ence admitted. "I never shot one of Break it to us real gentle if we're those things but once in my life. not." They used to have an archery "If you're an Indian where's range in Boulder Park over in T­ vour war bonnet? There's not a Town, and you could rent the feather on you anywhere." things and shoot at targets tied to "How you be sure? There's a hay bales. Hey, I barked my whole story that we got feathers instead forearm and nearly broke my 84 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION thumb when the bow-string Rampart jittered at seeing her thwacked home. I couldn't shoot again. "What-where are the chil­ that thing at all. I don't see how dren?" anybody ever could shoot one of ''Whv, I left them down in the them." valley, Robert. That is, ah, down "O.K. kids," Nina Rampart in that little ditch right there. Now called to her brood. "Let's start you've got me worried again. I'm pitching this junk out of the shack going to drive the camper down so we can move in. Is there any there and unload it. You'd better way we can drive our camper down go on down and lend a hand too, here, Clarence?" Robert, and quit talking to all these "Sure, there's a pretty good dirt funny-looking men here." road, and it's a lot wider than it And Nina went back to Dublin's looks from the top. I got a bunch place for the camper. of green bills in an old night char­ "It would be easier for a camel ley in the shack. Let me get them, to go through the eye of a needle and then I'll clear out for a while. than for that intrepid woman to The shack hasn't been cleaned out drive a car down into that narrow for seven years, since the last time ditch," the eminent scientist Dr. this happened. I'll show you the VelikofVonk said. road to the top, and you can bring "You know how that camel does your car down it." it?" Clarence Little-Saddle offered, "Hey yoa old Indian, you licdl" appearing of a sudden from no­ Cecilia Rampart shrilled from the where. "He just closes one of his doorway of the shack. "You do have own eyes and Oops back his ears a war bonnet. Can I have it?" and plunges right through. A cam­ •I didn't mean to lie, I forgot el is mighty narrow when he closes about that thing," Clarence Little­ one eye and Oops back his ears. Be­ Saddle said. "My son Clarence sides, they use a big-eyed needle in Bare-Back sent that to me from the act." Japan for a joke a long time ago. ''\Vhere'd this crazy man come Sure, you can have it." from?" Robert Rampart demand­ All the chiJdren were assigned ed, jumping three feet in the air. tasks carrying the junk out of the 'Things are corning out of the shack and setting fire to it. Nina ground now. I want my Iandi I Rampart and Clarence Little-Sad­ want my chiJdren I I want my wife! dle ambled up to the rim of the Whoops, here she comes driving it. valley by the vehicle road that was Nina you can't drive a loaded wider than it looked from the top. camper into a little ditch like that! ''Nina, you're backl I thought You'll be killed or collapsed!" you were gone forever," Robert Nina Rampart drove the loaded NARROW VALLEY 85 camper into the little ditch at a chanted dully. "Damn, I let her. get pretty good rate of speed. The best away again." of belief is that she just closed one "I tell you, Rampy," Clarence eye and plunged right through. Little-Saddle squared on him, "a The car diminished and dropped, man that lets his wife get away and it was smaller than a toy car. twice doesn't deserve to keep her. I But it raised a pretty good cloud of give you till nightfall; then you for­ dust as it bumped for several hun­ feit. I've taken a liking to the dred yards across a ditch that was brood. One of us is going to be only five feet wide. down there tonight." "Rampart, it's aldn to the phe­ . After a while a bunch of them nomenon known as looming, only were off in that little tavern on the in reverse," the eminent scientist road between Cleveland and Arpad Arkabaranan explained as Osage. It was only a half mile h~ attempted to throw a rock across away. If the valley had run in the the narrow ditch. The rock rose other direction, it would have been very high in the air, seemed to hang only six feet away. at its apex while it diminished to "It is a psychic nexus in the form the size of a grain of sand, and of an elongated dome," said the then fell into the ditch not six eminent scientist Dr. Velikof inches of the way across. There Vonk. "It is maintained subcon­ isn't anybody going to throw across consciously by the concatenation of a half mile valley even if it looks at least two minds, the stronger of five feet. "Look at a rising moon them belonging to a man dead for sometime, Rampart. It appears many years. It has apparently ex­ very large, as though co,·ering a isted for a little less than a hundred great sector of the horizon, but it years, and in another hundred only covers one half of a degree. It years it will be considerably weak­ is hard to believe that you could ened. We know from our checking set seven hundred and twenty of out of folk tales of Europe as well such large moons side by side as Cambodia that these ensorceled around the horizon, or that it areas seldom survive for more than would take one hundred and eighty two hundred and fifty years. The of the big things to reach from the person who first set such a thing in horizon to a point overhead. It is being will usually lose interest in also hard to believe that your val­ it, and in all worldly things, with­ ley is five hundred times as wide in a hundred years of his own as it appears, but it has been sur­ death. This is a simple thanato­ veyed, and it is." psychic limitation. As a short-term "I want my land. I want my chil­ device, the thing has been used dren. I want my wife," Robert several times as a military tactic. 86 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "This psychic nexus, as long as the case of Mad Mountain in Mor­ it maintains itself, causes group il­ gan County, Tennessee, which lusion, but it is really a simple isn't there all the time, and also the thing. It doesn't fool birds or rab­ Little Lobo Mirage south of Pre­ bits or cattle or cameras, only hu­ sidio, Texas, from which twenty mans. There is nothing meteorolog­ thousand barrels of water were ical about it. It is strictly psycho­ pumped in one two-and-a-half pe­ logical. I'm glad I was able to give riod before the mirage reverted to a scientific explanation to it or it mirage status. I'm glad I was able would have worried me." to give a scientific explanation to "It is continental fault coincid­ this or it would have worried me." ing with a noospheric fault," said "I just don't under5tand how he the eminent scientist Arpad Arka­ worked it," said the eminent sci­ baranan. "The valley really is a entist Willy McGilly. "Cedar bark, half mile wide, and at the same jack-oak leaves, and the word 'Peta­ time it really is dnly five feet wide. hauerat.' The thing's impossible! If we measured correctly, we When I was a boy and we wanted would get these dual measure­ to make a hide-out, we used bark ments. Of course it is meteorologi­ from the skunk-spruce tree, the cal! Everything including dreams leaves of a box-elder, and the word is meteorological. It is the animals was 'Boadicea'. All three elements and cameras which are fooled, as are wrong here. I cannot find a sci­ lacking a true dimension; it is only entific explanation for it, and it humans who see the true duality. does worry me." The phenomenon should be com­ They went back to Narrow Val­ mon along the whole continental ley. Robert Rampart was still fault where the earth gains or loses chanting dully: "I want my land. a half mile that has to go some­ I want my children. I want my where. Likely it extends through wife.'' the whole sweep of the Cross Tim­ Nina Rampart came chugging bers. Many of those trees appear up out of the narrow ditch in the twice, and many do not appear at camper and emerged through that all. A man in the proper state of little gate a few yards down the mind could farm that land or raise fence row. cattle on it, but it doesn't really ex­ "Supper's ready and we're tired ist. There is a clear parallel in the of waiting for you, Robert," she luftspiegelungthal sector in the said. "A fine homesteader you are! :Black Forest of Germany which ex­ Afraid to come onto your own ists, or does not exist, according to land! Come along now, I'm tired the circumstances and to the atti­ of waiting for you." tude of the beholder. Then we have "I want my land! I want my NARROW VALLEY 87 children! I want my wife!" Robert row Valley, which now appeared Rampart still chanted. "Oh, there its true half-mile extent. The moon you are, Nina. You stay here this was just rising, so big that it filled time. I want my land! I want my a third of the sky. Who would have children! I want ail answer to this imagined that it would take a hun­ terrible thing." dred and eighty of such monstrous "It is time we decided who wears things to reach from the horizon to the pants in this family," Nina said a point overhead, and yet you stoutly. She picked up her hus­ could sight it with sighters and fig­ band, slung him over her shoulder, ure it so. carried him to the camper and "I had the little bear-cat by the dumped him in, slammed (as it tail and I let go," Clarence seemed) a dozen doors at once, groaned. "I had a fine valley for and drove furiously down into free, and I have lost it. I am like Narrow Valley, which already that hard-luck guy in the funny­ seemed wider. paper or Job in the Bible. Destitu­ Why, that place was getting tion is mv lot. n normaler and normaler bv the min­ Willy. McGilly looked around ute! Pretty soon it lookecl' almost as furtively. They were alone on the wide as it was supposed to be. The edge of tl1e half mile wide valley. psychic nexus in the form of an "Let's give it a booster shot,• elongated dome had collapsed. The Willy McGilly said. continental fault that coincided Hey, those two got with it! They with the noospheric fault had faced started a snapping fire and began facts and decided to conform. The to throw the stuff onto it. Bark from Ramparts were in effective posses­ the dog-elm tree-how do you sion of their homestead, and Nar­ know it won't work? row Valley was as normal as any It was working! Already the oth­ place anywhere. er side of the valley seemed a hun­ "I have lost my land," Clarence dred yards closer, and there were Little-Saddle moaned. "It was the alarmed noises coming up from the land of my father Clarence Big­ people in the valley. Saddle, and I meant it to be the Leaves from a black locust tree land of my son Clarence Bare­ -and the valley narrowed still Back. It looked so narrow that peo­ morel There was, moreover, terri­ ple did not notice how wide it was, fied screaming of both children and and people did not try to enter it. big people from the depths of Nar­ Now I have lost it." row Valley, and the happy voice of Clarence Little-Saddle and the Mary Mabel Rampart chanting eminent scientist Willy McGilly "Earthquake I Earthquake!" were standing on the edge of Nar- "That my valley be always wide 88 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION and flourish and such stuff, and "It's closing in! It's closing in!" green with money and grass!" Clar­ Robert Rampart roared, and he ence Little-Saddle orated in Paw­ was no thicker than if he had been nee chant style, "but that it be made out of cardboard. narrow if intruders come, smash "We're smashed like bugs," the them like bugs!" Rampart boys intoned. "We're thin People, that valley wasn't over a like paper." hundred feet wide now, and the Mort, ruine, ecrasementl" screaming of the people in the bot­ spoke-acted Cecilia Rampart like tom of the valley had been joined the great tragedienne she was. by the hysterical coughing of the "Help! Help!" Nina Rampart camper car starting up. croaked, but she winked at Willy Willy and Clarence threw ev­ and Clarence as they rolled by. erything that was left on the fire. "This homesteading jag always did But the word? The word? Whore­ leave me a little flat." members the word? "Don't throw those paper dolls "Corsicanatexas!" Clarence Lit­ away. They might be the Ram­ tle-Saddle howled out with confi­ parts," Mary Mabel called. dence he hoped would fool the The camper car coughed again fates. and bumped along on level ground. He was answered, not only by a This couldn't last forever. The car dazzling sheet of summer light­ was widening out as it bumped ning, but also by thunder and rain along. drops. "Did we overdo it, Clarence?" "Chahiksi!" Clarence Little-Sad­ Willy McGilly asked. "What did dle swore. "It worked. I didn't one flat-lander say to the other?" think it would. It will be all right "Dimension of us never got now. I can use the rain." around," Clarence said. "No, I The valley was again a ditch on­ don't think we overdid it, Willy. ly five feet wide. That car must be eighteen inches The camper car struggled out of wide already, and they all ought narrow valley through the little to be normal by the time they gate. It was smashed flat as a sheet reach the main road. The next of paper, and the screaming kids time I do it, I think I'll throw wood­ and people in it had only one di­ grain plastic on the fire to see who's mension. kidding who." SCIENCE

I'M LOOKING OVER A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER

by Isaac AsimOD

HISTORY IS FULL OF APOCRYPHAL stories; stories about people saying and doing things they never really said and did-like George Wash­ ington chopping down the cherry-tree, or Galileo dropping weights off the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Unfortunately, apocryphal stories are so much more interesting than the truth that it is impossible to kill them. And what's even more unfortunate for me, specifically, is that my memory is so selective that I never forget an apocryphal story, even though I frequently have trouble remembering facts. For instance, here's a story, probably apocryphal (or I wouldn't re­ member it so tenaciously) about St. Augustine. He was asked once, by a scoffer, "What did God spend His time doing before He created Heaven and Earth?" And St. Augustine roared back, without hesitation, "Creating Hell, for those who ask questions like that!" But I hope St. Augustine was just joshing when he said that, for having talked about the conservation laws two articles ago and about the expanding Universe one article ago, it is now time to discuss my theories as to the birth and development of the Universe in the light of the conservation laws; and to do that I will (among other things) have to ask that unaskable question-what came before the beginning?

I ended last month's article with the picture of an oscillating Uni­ verse; one that first expands, then contracts, then expands, then con­ tracts and so on over and over again, with each cycle of expansion and contraction taking some eighty billion years, and with an extremely dense "cosmic egg" at the point of maximum contraction in each cycle. In continuing the discussion, let's begin by asking whether all the 89 90 FANTASY AND SCIF.NCF. FICTION cycles are identical, or whether there is some change from cycle to cy­ cle; perhaps a steady, one-way change. For instance, we might argue that as the Universe expands, it radi­ ates massless partiCles-photons and neutrinos-constantly. These photons and neutrinos, we can say, move outward and are forever lost. \Vhen the Universe contracts again, the mass that comes together into a cosmic egg is smaller by the loss of the mass-equivalent of the energy represented by the lost radiation. This would continue with each cy­ cle; each cosmic egg being Jess massive than the one before, until fi­ nally, a cosmic egg is formed that possesses so little mass that it can no longer explode properly. When that happens the entire Universe is represented by one extremely large but slowly dying mass of condensed matter. In that case, we Wotlld be living not merely in an oscillating Uni­ \'erse but in a damped oscillating one. The Universe, in that view, would be like a bouncing ball that is not very elastic. Each bounce is lower than the one before and finally the ball does not bounce at all but just lies there. That is rather a neat picture for it produces a logical end, the kind of an end we are familiar with in ordinary life and one we might there­ fore be disposed to accept. But suppose we look backward in time? What about the cosmic egg that existed before the one that started the present expansion? That earlier one had to be larger than ours; and the one before that had to be even larger; and the one before that still larger. To move back in time and find ever larger cosmic eggs, exploding with ever-greater violence is troublesome, for an endlessly increasing mass may be hard to handle. The damped oscillating Universe pro­ duces a neat overall end but no neat overall beginning. Fortunately, we don't have to complicate matters by picturing such a damped oscillation. Photons and neutrinos are not "forever lost." To be sure, they move outward from their source of radiation in a straight line" but what do we mean by a "straight line?" Suppose we draw a straight line on the surface of the Earth. It might seem to us that if we extend that line with perfect straightness, it will go on and on forever and that a point travelling along it will be "forever lost" to anyone standing at the place of origin of the line. However, you know and I know that the Earth's surface is curved and that the "straight line" will eventually (if we assume the Earth to be a perfect sphere) come back to the place of origin. -· In the same way, photons and neutrinos, in travelling a "straight line" by our local-neighborhood-of-the-Universe definition are actu- (1\1 LOOKING OVER A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER 91 ally travelling in a grand circle and will return, roughly speaking, to the point of origin. The Universe of "curved space" has a finite volume and all it contains, matter and energy, must remain within that volume. As the Universe contracts, not only matter, but also photons and neutrinos must be crowded together. The massless particles are still travelling in "straight lines" but these "straight lines" curve ever more sharply; and in the end all the contents of the previous cosmic egg are brought back into another cosmic egg, with nothing lost. Each cosmic egg is precisely like the one before and the one that will come after and there is no damping. In a strictly oscillating Universe of this sort, there is neither beginning nor end, llOT on the whole, any change. If this faces us with the uncomfortable concept of eternity, it is at least an essentially unchanging eternity. Within a single cycle of the oscillation, of course, there is a begin­ ning at one cosmic egg, and end at the next, and colossal change in between.

But what is the nature of the cosmic egg? That depends on the na­ ture of the Universe. On the subatomic scale, our portion of the Uni­ verse is made up, in the main, of six kinds of particles: protons, elec­ trons, neutrons, photons, neutrinos and antineutrinos. The other par­ ticles that exist are present in vanishingly small traces on the whole and may be ignored. The subatomic particles are associated into atoms at the moment and these atoms are associated into stars and galaxies. \Ve can assume that the six kinds of particles that make up our part of the Universe make up all of it and that even the farthest galaxy is essentiaJly similar in fun­ damental makeup to our own bodies. As all the mass and energy of the Universe crunch together into the cosmic egg, the levels of organization of the Universe break down, one by one. The galaxies and stars come together in one contracting mass. The more complicated atoms decompose into hydrogen, absorb­ ing neutrinos and photons as they do so. The hydrogen atoms break apart into protons and electrons, absorbing antineutrinos as they do so. In the end, the Universe has been converted into a cosmic'egg made up of a mass of hard-packed neutrons-a mass of "neutronium." Well-packed neutronium would have a density of about 400,000,- 000,000,000 grams per cubic centimeter, so that if the mass of the Sun were packed into neutronium, it would form a sphere with a radius of about 6.6 miles. If we consider that the mass of the Milky Way Galaxy is about 92 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION 135,000,000,000 times that of the Sun, then the whole of our Galaxy, converted into neutronium, would form a sphere with a radius of about 33,600 miles. If we consider the Universe to contain a mass I 00,000,000,000 times that of our Galaxy, then the cosmic egg would have a radius of 156,000,000 miles. If the center of such a cosmic egg were made to coincide with the center of our Sun, the surface of the cosmic egg would almost coincide with the orbit of Mars. And even if the mass of the Universe were twenty thousand times as large as the mass I have cited, the cosmic egg, if it were composed of pure, well-packed neu­ tronium, would be no larger than the orbit of Pluto.

How does the cosmic egg fit in with the conservation laws discussed in BALANCING THE BOOKS? (F & SF, July 1966) Well-in a very interesting fashion. One ean easily imagine that the momentum of the cosmic egg as a whole is zero, by defining the egg as motionless. When the cosmic egg explodes and expands, the individual portions have momentum in one direction or another, but all the momenta add up to zero. In the same way, the angular momentum of the cosmic egg can be defined as zero and while the parts of the expanding universe have individual angular momenta that are not zero, the total is zero. In short, it is tempting to try to establish a rule that for any con­ served quantity, the value of that quantity in the cosmic egg is zero, or is capable of being defined as zero without logical difficulties. Since this notion is, as far as I know, original with me-especially in the manner I intend to develop it in the course of this article-1 shall throw modesty to the dogs and speak of it as "Asimov's Cosmogonic Principle." The most economical way of expressing the principle, is-"In the Beginning, there was Nothing." For instance, how about the conservation of electric charge? Of the six particles making up the Universe, one (the proton) has a positive charge and one (the electron) has a negative charge. In forming the cosmic egg, the two combine to form neutrons and the electric charge of the cosmic egg is then zero. (In the Beginning, there was No Charge.) In the course of the explosion and expansion of the cosmic egg, charge appears, to be sure, but in equal quantities of positive and nega­ tive so that the total remains zero. And what about lepton number (see BALANCING THE BOOKS). Of the six particles making up the Universe, three are leptons. The I'M LOOKING OVER A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER 93 electron and the neutrino have lepton numbers of + 1, while the antineutrino has a lepton number of -1. In the formation of neutrons, all three disappear, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that the manner of the disappearance is such as to cancel out the lepton number and leave the cosmic egg with a lepton number of zero. On the whole, one can arrange matters to show that the values of all but two of the conserved quantities known to physicists are zero in the cosmic egg, or can logically be defined as zero. The two ex­ ceptions are baryon number and energy. Let's begin with the baryon number. Of the six particles making up the Universe, two are baryons, the proton and the neutron. Each has a baryon number of + 1. Since there is no particle with a baryon number of -1 in the list of those making up the Universe, there is no chance of cancellation of baryon number, and no chance (or so it would now appear) of a cosmic egg possessing a baryon number of zero. In the process of cosmic egg formation, the protons disappear, to be sure, but for each proton that disappears, a neutron is formed and the baryon number remains positive. Indeed, if the cosmic egg contains the mass of 100,000,000,000 galaxies the size of ours, then it is made up of 1.6 X 1079 baryons and its barvon number is +I 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,- 000,0-00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,- 000,000,000. This is a terribly long way from zero and makes hash of Asimov's Cosmogonic Principle.

There's a way out. There are particles with negath·e baryon num­ bers, even if those do not seem to occur in any but the tiniest traces in our neck of the woods. The antineutron, for instance, has a baryon number of -1, Well, suppose that the cosmic egg does not consist of neutrons only, but of neutrons and antineutrons, half and half. The baryon number would then be zero, as the Principle requires. The neutron half of the cosmic egg would explode to form protons and electrons which would combine to form atoms. The antineutron half would explode to form antiprotons and antielectrons (positrons) which would combine to forin antiatoms. In short, we have now talked ourselves into supposing that the Uni­ verse is made up of equal quantities of matter and antimatter-but is It? It is absolutely inconceivable that the Universe be made up of matter and antimatter all mixed up, for if it were, the two would in­ teract at once to produce photons. (That's exactly what happens when we, by might and main, produce a trifling quantity of antimatter in the FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION laboratory.) A Universe composed of equal quantities of matter and antimatter, all mixed up, would actually be composed of a mass of photons, which are neither matter nor antimatter. The cosmic egg would be nothing more than compacted photons. But the Universe is not made up of photons only. If, then, it is made up of equal quantities of matter and antimatter, those must be separated-effectively separated-so that they do not interact to form photons. The only separation that is separate enough would be on the galactic scale. In other words, there may be galaxies made up of matter, and other galaxies made up of antimatter. Galaxies and anti­ galaxies, so to speak. We have no way of telling, so far, whether the Universe actually contains galaxies and antigalaxies. If a galaxy and an antigalaxy met, enormous quantities of energy would be formed as matter-antimatter annihilation took place. No clear-cut case of such an event has yet been detected, though there are some suspicious cases. Secondly, galaxies produce vast quantities of neutrinos as the hydrogen atoms are built up to helium in the stars they contain; while antigalaxies produce vast quantities of antineutrinos by way of the analogous process in­ volving antimatter. When the day comes that astronomers can detect neutrinos and antineutrinos from distant galaxies, and pinpoint their sources-the galaxies and antigalaxies may be identified. In a Universe made up of galaxies and antigalaxies, we can picture the crunching together of the cosmic egg in a new way. Neutrons and anti­ neutrons would be formed and would undergo mutual annihilation to form photons. \Ve would have "photonium" in the cosmic egg, rather than neutronium. What its properties would be like, I can't imagine. But what causes the photonium to break up into matter and anti­ matter in such a way that separate galaxies of each kind can be formed? Why doesn't the photonium break up into neutrons and antineutrons so well-mixed that they annihilate each other at once. In short, why isn't the photonium stable? Why doesn't it remain photonium? Well, there are theories that an antiparticle is merely a particle that is moving backwards in time. If you take a film of a positron in a magnetic field, it seems to curve, let us say, leftward, rather than rightward, as an electron would under similar conditions. However, if the film is run back­ ward, the positron curves rightward, like an electron. On the subatomic scale, it makes no difference whether time moves "forward" or "backward" as far as the laws of nature are concerned and consistent pictures of subatomic events can be drawn up in which par­ ticles move forward in time and antiparticles move backward. I'M LOOKING OVER. A FOUR-LEAP CLOVER 95 Could it be then, that the photonium cosmic egg, with a baryon number of zero, breaks up into two smaller eggs, one of neutronium and one of antineutronium; and that the former moves forward in time and the latter backward, so that the two are out of reach of each other before they can interact? The neutronium egg with a positive baryon number can be called a "cosmon"; while the antineutronium egg with a negative baryon number can be called an "anticosmon." We can picture the cosmon and anticosmon as both undergoing ex­ pansion and as continuing to separate along the time axis. We begin with a tiny cosmon and anticosmon, both close to the zero-point on the time axis. As they move apart, they grow larger and larger and more and more separated. For the moment let's concentrate on the cosmon (our Universe). As it expands, the various forms of energy are spread out within it more and more evenly. We express this fact by saying that entropy increases (see ORDER! ORDER!, F & SF, February 1961) and, indeed, en­ tropy has sometimes been called "time's arrow: If entropy increases, you know time is moving forward. But when the cosmon begins to contract, all the atomic and subatomic processes that took place during expansion begin to reverse. Entropy then begins to decrease and time begins to run backward. In other words the cosmon moves forward in time when it is ex­ panding, and backward when it is contracting. The anticosmon (be­ having symmetrically) moves backward in time when it is expanding, and forward in time when it is contracting. Each does this over and over again. Instead of an oscillating Universe, we have an oscillating double­ Universe, the two oscillations being exactly in phase, and both Uni­ verses coming together to form a combined cosmic egg of photonium.

But if this picture takes care of baryon number, it does not take care of energy. The law of conservation of energy is the most fundamental generalization we know and no matter how I have sliced things so far, the Universe, cosmon and anticosmon combined, is made up of energy. If the cosmon consists of 1.6 X 1079 neutrons and their descendant particles, and the anticosmon consists of 1.6 X 10711 antineutrons and their descendant particles, then the total energy content of the pho­ tonium cosmic egg formed by the coming together of the cosmon and anticosmon must be something like 4.8 X 1078 ergs, and that must always exist, at all stages of the cosmon-anticosmon separation, ex­ pansion, contraction, and coalescence. 96 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION That is the final hurdle for Asimov's Cosmogonic Principle, for in the photonium cosmic egg, all conserved quantities, except energy, can be set equal to zero. How then can one set the energy equal to zero as well? To do so, one must postulate something we might call negative-energy. There is no such thing as far as we know. It has never been observed. Nevertheless, the Principle makes its existence necessary. . In a Universe consisting only of negative-energy, all the manifesta­ tions would be broadly identical with those in our own Universe con­ sisting of ordinary energy. However, if samples of ordinary energy and of negative-energy were brought together, they would cancel each other and produce Nothing. There are familiar cases of partial cancellation of physical properties. Two billiard balls moving in opposite directions at equal speeds, and coated with glue to make them stick on collision, will, if they collide head-on, come to a dead halt. Momentum will have been cancelled out (but the energy of motion of the billiard balls will be converted to heat). Two sound beams, or light beams, exactly out of phase, will combine to form silence, or darkness (but the energy content of the wave-fonns will be converted into heat). In all tqese partial cancellations, the energy-most fundamental of all-always remains. \Veil, in the case of the combination of energy and negative-energy, cancellation will be complete. There will be left Nothing! Negative-energy is made up of negative-photons, which can break down to form negative-neutrons and negative-antineutrons. The nega­ tive-neutrons can break down to form negative-matter which can be built up to negative-stars and negative-galaxies, forming a negative­ cosmon. Negative-antineutrons can break down to form negative-anti­ matter which will build up to a negative-anticosmon. Suppose a cosmon and anticosmon contract and combine to form a photonium cosmic egg. A negative-cosmon and a negative-anticosmon can contract to form an antiphotonium cosmic egg. The two cosmic eggs, photonium and antiphotonium can then combine to form Nothing! We are then left with no cosmic egg at all! We are left with Nothing! In the beginning was Nothing and this Nothing formed a photonium cosmic egg and an antiphotonium cosmic egg. The photonium cosmic egg behaves as already described, forming a cosmon moving forward in time and an anticosmon moving backward in time. The antiphotonium cosmic egg must behave analogously, forming a negative-cosmon moving forward in time and a negative-anticosmon moving backward in time. I'M LOOKING OVER A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER 97 But if the cosmon and negative-cosmon are both moving forward in time why don't they combine and cancel out to Nothing? It seems to me they must remain separate and this separation may come about through gravitational repulsion. So far, we know of gravitational at­ traction only, and there is no such thing ( as far as we know) as gravita­ tional repulsion. If, however, there is negative-energy, and if negative­ matter is formed from it, perhaps a gravitational repulsion can also exist and be expressed between matter and negative-matter. As the cosmon and negative-cosmon expand, gravitational repulsion drives them steadily apart, perhaps, along the space axis (see Figure), while both move together up the time axis. Similarly, the anticosmon and negative-anticosmon drive steadily apart along the space axis as they move downward along the time-axis.

Figure-The Four-Leaf Clover

negatlve cosmon flme (+) eosmon

s •p p a a c c 8 a (-) (+)

antlcosmoa flme C-J negative anticosmon 98 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION As the Figure shows, the result is rather like a four-leaf clover (which is the significance of the title of this essay, in case you've been wondering). Once the various Universes pass their expansion peak and begin to contract again, is it possible that not only time is reversed, but the gravitational effect as well? There are theories advanced by important physicists to the effect that gravitational force may be weakening with time. Could it be, therefore, that it reaches zero at expansion peak and that during contraction matter repels matter and negative-matter repels negative-matter, while matter attracts negative-matter? You might object at once by asking how the cosmon, for instance, will contract, if all its parts experience a mutual repulsion. To which I reply, why not? Right now the cosmon is expanding even though all its parts experience a mutual attraction. Perhaps the cosmon and its sister-Universes are so arranged that the grand expansion or contraction is always in opposition to the force of gravity. The force of gravity is incredibly weak (see FIRST AND REARMOST, F & SF, October 1964 ), and it may be its fate always to be overborne by other forces and effects. However, in the process of contraction, the overall iravitational at­ traction between cosmon and negative-cosmon on the one hand, and between anticosmon and negative-anticosmon on the other, may bring them together along the space-axis just as time-reversal brings them together along the time-axis. When cosmon, anticosmon, neiative-cosmon and negative-anticos- mon all come together, they produce-Nothing. In the Beginning, there is Nothing. In the End, there is Nothing.

But if we begin with Nothing-why doesn't it stay Nothing? Why should it? We can say that 0 + 0 = 0, and that +I+ (-1) = 0. Both 0 + 0 and + 1 + (- I) are equivalent ways of saying "zero" and why should one be any more "real" or "natural" than the other? The situation can slide from Nothing to Four-Leaf Clover without difficulty, for no essential has been changed by that transition. But why should the shift come at one time rather than another? The mere fact that it comes at a particular time means that something has made it shift. Indeed? What do you mean by time? Time and space only exist in connection with the expansion and contraction of the leaves of the Four-Leaf Clover. When the leaves don't exist, neither does time nor space. I'M LOOKING OVER A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER 99 In the Beginning, there is Nothing-not even time or space. The Four-Leaf Clover comes into existence at no particular time and in no particular place. When it is in existence, time and space exist in a cycle of expansion and contraction that takes eighty billion years. There is then a timeless, spaceless interval and again an ex­ pansion and contraction. Since there is nothing we can do with a time­ less, spaceless interval, we can eliminate it and consider the cycles of expansion and contraction to be following immediately upon one an­ other. We then have an oscillating quadruple-Universe, an oscillating Four-Leaf Clover. And who says only one need exist. There are no limits, no bounds, no ends, no edges to Nothingness. There may therefore be an infinite number of oscillating Four-Leaf Clovers, separated by something that is neither time nor space. And here the mind boggles. I have gone as far as I care to, and I leave it to the Ardent Readers to carry matters further. For myself, enough (to coin a phrase) is enough.

NEXT MONTH IS ASiltiOY MONTHt

F&SFs October issue will feature: • THE KEY, a brand-new science fiction novelet by Isaac Asimov • A profile of Asimov by L. Sprague de Camp • PORTRAIT OF THE WRITER AS A BOY, a charming and informative autobiographical essay by Dr• .A5imov • A bibliography of Dr. Asimov's writings • A cover done especially for this issue by Ed Emsh Watch for the SPECIAL ISAAC ASIMOV ISSUE, on sale September 1. Or, send us the coupon on page 64. We will start your subscription with the Asimov issue. Zenna Henderson's stories of the visitors to Earth ('aliens' being an inappropriate description) known simply as 'The People', have long been one of the rrwst popular and asked-for features of this maga­ zine. It is with pleasure that we present here the latest story. (A second collection of Miss Henderson's stories, THE PEOPLE: NO DIFFERENT FLESH, will be published by Doubleday early next year.)

TROUBLING OF THE WATER

by Zenna Henderson

SoMETIMEs IT's LIKE BEING A ure the world full circle, thinking castaway, being a first settler in a -the Turn Of the Century! The big land. If I were a little younger, Turn of the Century! And seeking maybe I'd play at being Robinson and seeking as though time were a Crusoe, only I'd die of surprise if tide that would come racing I found a footprint, especially a through the land at midnight 1899 bare one, this place being where and that I could see the front edge it is. of the tide beginning already! But it's not only being a cast­ But things have happened so away in a place, but in a time. I fast recently that I'm not sure feel as though the last years of the about Time or Place or Possible or century were ruffling up to my Impossible any more. One thing I knees in a tide that will sweep me am sure of is the drought. It was into the next century. If I live real enough. seven more years, I'll not only be It's the responsibility of the men of age but I'll see the Turn Of The of the house to watch out for the Century! Imagine putting 19 in welfare of the women of the house, front of your years instead of 18! so that day I went with Father up So, instead of playing Crusoe and into the hills to find out where scanning the horizon for sails, I Sometime Creek started. We used to stand on a rock and meas- climbed up and up along the 100 TROUBLING OF THE WATER 101 winding creek bed until my lungs mouthful. It was cold and tasted· pulled at the hot air and felt of silt. It was shallow enough that crackly clear down to their bot­ I bumped my nose as I ducked my toms. We stopped and leaned hot face into its coldness. against a boulder to let me catch "Not always." Father waited my breath and cool off a little in until I finished before he cupped what shadow there was. We could his hands in a small waterfall a see miles and miles across the step upstream and drank briefly. country-so far that the moun­ "It's dropped to less than half its tains on the other side of Desola­ flow of last week. Tanker told me tion Valley were swimmy pale yesterday when he stopped for against the sky. Below us, almost melons that there's no snow left at our feet because of the steepness in the Coronas Atlas, this early in of the hill, was the thin green the summer." line of mesquites and river willows "But our orchard!" I felt dread that bordered Chuckawalla River crawl in my stomach. •All our and, hidden in a clump of cotton­ .fields!" woods down to our left, was our "Our orchard: said Father, no cabin where Mama, if she had comfort or reassurance in his .finished mixing the bread, was voice. "And all our .fields.• probably standing in the doorway We didn't find a spring. We with Merry on her hip, looking up stood at the bottom of a slope too as I was looking down. steep to climb and watched the "What if there isn't a spring?" I water sheet down it from the top asked, gulping dryly, wanting a we couldn't see. I watched Father drink. I thought Father wasn't go­ as he stood there, one foot up on ing to answer. Sometimes he does­ the steep rise, his knee bent as if n't-maybe for a day or so. Then he intended to climb up sheer suddenly, when you aren't even rock, looking up at the silver fall­ thinking of the same thing, he'll ing water. answer and expect you to remem­ "If the river dries up, • I offered, ber what you'd asked. '"The creek isn't enough to water "Then we'll know why they call everything." this Sometime Creek," he said. ·u Father said nothing but turned you've cooled down some, go get a back down the hill. drink." We went down in half the time "But we've always got the river: it took us to climb. Part way down I said, as I bellied down to the I stumbled and fell sideways into edge of the plunging water. It a catclaw bush. Father had to pull flowed so fast that I couldn't suck me out, the tiny thorns clinging it up. I had to bite at it to get a to _my clothes like claws and strip- 102 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ing the backs of my hands and Merry and me as far as my eye can one of my cheeks with smarting reach, I knew how he felt. Well, scratches. maybe the new baby would be a "People have to drink," said boy. Father. "And the animals." I read pretty well. Father didn't \Ve were leveling out on the have to correct my pronunciation flat by the house when I finally very often. Then !\'lama read from figured out what Father meant. He Sense and Sensibility and I listen­ had already given our young or· ed even if it was dull and sleepy chard back to the wilderness and to me. You never know when turned his back on the vegetable Father is going to ask you what a crops that were our mainstay and word means and you'd better have on the withering alfalfa fields. He some idea! was measuring water to keep us Then Father read from Plut­ alive and still clinging to Fool's arch's Lives which is fun some· Acres Ranch. times, and we ended the evening Mama and Merry met us as we with our Bible verses and prayers. came down the pa,th. I took the I was half asleep before the burden of Merry and carried her lamp was blown out, but I came on down to the house. I wasn't wide awake when I heard Mama's supposed to know that Mama was low carrying voice. going to have a baby in a couple of "Maybe mining would have months. Boys aren't supposed to been better. This is good mining notice such things-not even boys country." who are past fifteen and so almost "Mining isn't for me," said men. Father. "I want to take living That night we sat around the things from the earth. I can feel table as usual and read to each that I'm part of growing things, other. I read first. I was reading and nothing speaks to me of God Robinson Crusoe for the second more than seeing a field ripening time since we came to the ranch ready for harvest. To have food and I had just got to where he was where only a few months before counting his wheat seeds and was only a handful of seed-and figuring out the best way to plant faith." them. I liked this part better than "But if we finally have to give the long, close pages where he the ranch up anyway-" Mama be­ talks philosophy about being alone gan faintly. and uses big, hard to pronounce "\Ve won't give it up." Father's words. But sometimes, looking out voice was firm. across the plains and knowing there is only Father and Mama and Father and I rode in the sup- TROUBLING OF THE WATER. 103 ply wagon from Raster Creek Mine grinned to myself as I said, "It over the plank bridge across the means 'The Little Hills'," and dwindling thread of the river to watched Father,· for a change, sort our last gate. I opened the gate, through past conversations to un­ wrestling with the wire loop hold­ derstand what I was talking about. ing the top of the post while Father Mama's time was nearing and thanked Mr. Tanker again for the we were all worried. Though, as I newspapers he had brought us. said, politeness had it that I wasn't "I'm sorry there is so little for you supposed to know what was going this time," he said, glancing back on. But I knew about the long gap at the limp gunny sacks and half­ between Merry arid me-almost empty boxes. "And it's the last of fourteen years. Mama had borne it all." and buried five children in that Mr. Tanker gathered up the time. I had been as healthy as a reins. "Reckon now you're finding horse, but after me none of the out why this is called Fool's Acres babies seemed able to live. Oh, Ranch. You're the third one that's maybe a week or so, at first, but tried farming here. This is mining finally only a faint gasp or two and country. Never be nothing else. No the perfectly formed babies died. steady water. Shame you didn't try And all this back East where there in Las Lomitas Valley across the were doctors and midwives and Coronas. Artesian wells there. comfort. I guess Mama gave up Every ranch got two-three wells after the fifth baby died, because and ponds with trees and fish. none came along until after we Devil of a long way to drive for moved to Fool's Acres. When we fresh garden truck, though. Maybe knew Merry was on the way, I if we ever get to be a state instead could feel the suspense building of a territory-• up. I couldn't really remember all Father and I watched him drive those other babies because I had away, the wagon hidden in dust been so young. They had come before it fairly started. We walked each year regularly after me. But back to the planks across the it had been ten years between the stream and ·stopped to look at the last one and Merry. So when Merry few pools tied together with a was born out in the wilderness thread of water brought down by with Father for midwife, none of Sometime Creek that was still flow­ us dared breathe heavily for fear ing thinly. Father finally said, she'd die. But she was like me­ "'What does Las Lomitas mean in big lungs, big appetite and no English?" And I wrestled with idea of the difference between day what little Spanish I had learned and night. until that evening at the table. I Mama couldn't believe it for a 104 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION long time and used to turn sudden­ kept its shape as it blackened and ly from her work and go touch plunged like an arrow down Merry, just to be sure. through the roaring skies-headed And now another baby was al­ straight for me! I threw my arms most due and dust and desolation up to shield my face and felt some­ had settled down on the ranch and • thing hit below me with a swishing the whole area except for our or­ thud that shook the hill and me. chard. Father explained the up­ And stillness came back to the side-down running of the rivers in ranch. a desert area that was, so far, keep­ Only a brief stillness. I heard ing our young trees alive. the crackle of flames and saw the Anyway, there came a day that smoke plume up! I scrambled I took the water bucket and went down-hill to the flat, seeing, like to find a new dipping place be­ lightning, the flames racing across cause our usual one where the our cinder-dry fields, over our creek flowed into the river was so house, through our young orchard, shallow even a tin dipper scooped across the crisped grass of Desola­ up half sand at each attempt. tion Valley, leaving nothing but a I had started up Sometime smudge on the sky and hundreds of Creek hoping to find a deeper pool miles of scorched earth. It had and had just stopped to lean in the happened other places in dry years. thin hot shade of a boulder when I skidded to a stop in the edge it came. of the flames, and, for lack of any­ Roaring! Blazing! A locomotive thing else I could do, I started across the sky! A swept-back foun­ stamping the small licking tongues tain of fire! A huge blazing some­ of flame and kicking dirt over thing that flaked off flames as it them. roared away across Desolation Val­ "Barney!" I heard Father's ley! shout. "Here's a shovel!" Scared half to death, I crouched I knuckled the smoke tears out against my boulder, my eyes blink­ of my eyes and stumbled to meet ing against the violence and thun­ him as he ran towards me. "Keep dering speed, my front hair fairly it from going up the hill!" And he frizzling into beads from the im­ sped for the weed-grown edge of pression of heat. Some of the the alfalfa field. flames that flaked off the main Minutes later I plopped sand blaze blackened as they zig-zagged over the last smoking clump of down out of the sky like bits of grass and whacked it down with charred paper from a bonfire. But the back of my shovel. We were some flakes darted away like angry lucky. The fire area was pretty well hornets and one-one flame that contained between the rise of the TROUBLING OF THE WATER 105 hill and the foot of the field. I felt Mama disappeared into the soot smudge across my face as I cabin and I heard the clatter of backhanded the sweat from my stove lids. I hurried back to Father forehead. Father was out of my and hovered anxiously as he laid sight around the hill. Helting the his burden down on the little front shovel, I started around to see if porch. Carefully we peeled off the he needed my help. There was an­ burned clothes until finally we had other plume of smoke! Alerted, I the body stripped down and put dropped the point of my shovel. into an old night shirt of Father's. Then I let it clatter to the ground The fire hadn't got to his legs nor as I fell to my knees. to his body, but his left shoulder A blackened hand reached up was charred-and his face! And out of a charred bundle! Fingers arms! A tight cap thing that spread convulsively then clench­ crumpled to flakes in our hands ed! And the bundle rolled jerkily. had saved most of his hair. "Father!" I yelled. "Father!" And Father's mouth tightened. '"His grabbed for the smoldering black­ eyes," he said. "His eyes." ness. I stripped away handsful of "Is he dead?'' I whispered. Then the scorching stuff and, by the time I had my answer as one blackened Father got there, my hands were hand lifted and wavered. I took it scorching, too. carefully in mine, my blisten "Careful! Careful!" Father cau­ drawing as I closed my fingers. The tioned. "Here, let me." I moved blackened head rolled and the back, nursing my blistered fingers. mouth opened, soundlessly and Father fumbled with the bundle closed again, the face twisting and suddenly it ripped from one with pain. end to the other and he pulled out, We worked over the boy-may­ like an ear of corn from its shuck, be some older than I-all after­ the twisting body of a person! noon. I brought silty half-bucket "He's badly burned," said Father. after half-bucket of water from the "Face and hands. Help me lift dipping place and strained It him.H I helped Father get the body through muslin to get the silt out. into his arn1s. He staggered and We washed the boy until we lo­ straightened. "Go tell your mother cated all his burns and flooded the to brew up all the tea we have in places with strong cold tea and put the house-strong!" I raced for the tea packs across the worst ones. house, calling to Mama as soon as Mama worked along with us until I saw her anxious face, "Father's the burden of the baby made her all right! I'm all right! But we breathless and she had to stop. found someone burned! Father says She had given Merry a piece of to brew up all our tea-:-strongl" bread and put her out in the little 106 FANTASY AND SCIENCE. FICTION porch-side pen when we brought "'Odd' is a better word," Father the boy in. Merry was crying now, corrected. "Where did the boy her face dabbled with dirt, her come from?" bread rubbed in the sand. Mama I let my eyes sweep the whole gathered her up with an effort and wide horizon before us. No one on smiled wearilv at me over her foot and alone could ever have head. ''I'd bett~r let her cry a little made it from any where! Where more, then her face will be wet had he come from? Up out of the enough for me to wash it clean!" ground? Down out of the sky? "I guess he rode in on the mete­ I guess I got enough tea on my or," I said, and grinned at the hands working with the boy that idea. Father blinked at me, but my own burns weren't too bad. didn't return my smile. Blisters had formed and broken, "There's what set the fire," he but I only needed my right thumb said. We plopped through feathery and forefinger bandaged with strips ashes toward a black lump of some­ from an old petticoat of Mama's. thing. We left Mama with the boy, now "Maybe we could send it to a clean and quiet on my cot, his face museum," I suggested as we neared hidden under the wet packs, and it. "Most meteors burn up before went slowly down the path I had they hit the ground." run so many times through the Father pushed the chunk with afternoon. \Ve took our buckets on his foot. Flame flared briefly from past the dipping place where a under it as it rocked, and a clump palm-sized puddle was all that was of grass charred, the tips of the left of the water, and retraced our blades twisting and curling as they steps to where the fire had been. shriveled. "A meteor?" I asked, looking "Still hot," said Father, hunker­ across the ashy ground. "I always ing down on his heels beside it. He thought they came only at night." thumped it with a piece of rock. It "You haven't thought the matter clanged. "Metal!" His eyebrows over or you'd realize that night and raised, "Hollow!" day has nothing to do with mete­ Carefully we probed with sticks ors," said Father. "Is meteor the from the hillside and thumped correct term?" with rocks to keep our hands from "How funny that that fellow the heat. We sat back and looked happened to be at the exact place at each other. I felt a stir of some­ at the exact time the piece of the thing like fear inside me. meteor hit here," I said, putting "It's-it's been made!" I said. Father's question away for future "It's a long metal pipe or some­ ref~rence. thing! And I'll bet he was inside TROUBLING OF THE WATER 107 it! But how could he have been? almost spilling the olive oil we How could he get so high in the were using on him. I looked at the sky as to come down like that? And boy's left wrist where I remembered if this little thing has been made, a big, raw oozing place just where what was the big thing it came the cuff of his clothes had ended. , .. f rom. The wrist was dry now and covered "I'll go get water," said Father, with the faint pink of new skin. getting up and lifting the buckets. "But his face," said Mama. "His "Don't burn yourself any more." poor face and his eyes!" She turned I prodded the blackened metal. away, blinking tears, and reached "Out of the sky," I said aloud. "As for a cup of water. "He must have high and as fast as a meteor to get lots of liquids," she said, matter-of­ that hot. What was he doing up factly. there?" My stick rocked the metal "But if he's unconscious-" I hulk and it rolled agai!l. The split clutched at my few lessons in ends spread as it turned and a home care of the sick. small square metal thing fell out Father lifted the boy's head and into the ashes. I scraped it to one shoulders carefully, but even his side and cautiously lifted it. The care wasn't gentle enough. The soot on it blackened my bandanges boy moaned and murmured some­ and my palms. It looked like a box thing. Father held the cup to his and was of a size that my two blistered mouth and tipped the hands could hold. I looked at it, water to the dry lips. There was a then suddenly overwhelmed and moment's pause, then the water scared by the thought of roaring was gulped eagerly and the boy meteors and empty space and bil­ murmured something again. lowing grass fires, I scratched a "More?" asked Father clearly, hasty hole against a rock, shoved "More?" the box in and stamped the earth The face rolled to him then over it. Then I went to meet Father away and there was no answer. and take one of the dripping "He'll need much care for a buckets from him. We didn't look while," Father said to Mama as back at the crumpled metal thing they anointed his burns and put on behind us. fresh bandages. "Do you think you can manage under the circum­ Father could hardly believe his stances?" eyes when he checked the boy's Mama nodded. "With Barney to burns next morning. "They're heal­ help with the lifting." ing already!" he said to Mama, "Sure I'll help," I said. Then to "Look!" Father, "Should I have said mete­ I crowded closer to see, too, orite?" 108 FANTASY AND SCIENCE PICnON He nodded gravely. Then he him that there would be no more said, "There are other planets." basin for his use, but that the And left me to digest that one! chamberpot under the cot was for him! How do you explain to some­ Father was spending his days one who can't see and doesn't talk digging for water in the river bot­ and that you're not at all sure even tom. He had located one fair-sized hears you? pool that so far was keeping our "Come on, fellow," I said to livestock watered. We could still him, glad we had the cabin to our­ find drinking water for us up selves. I tugged at his unscarred Sometime Creek. But the blue right arm and urged him until, his shimmer of the sky got more and breath catching between clenched more like heated metal. Heat was teeth, he sat up and swung his feet like a hand, pressing everything over the cot edge. His hand went under the sky down into the pow­ out to me and touched my cheek. dery dead ground. His bandaged face turned to me The boy was soon sitting up and and his hand faltered. Then quick­ eating a little of the little we had. ly he traced my features-my eyes, But still no word from him, not a my nose, my ears, across my head sound, even when we changed the and down to my shoulders. Then dressings on his deeply charred he sighed a relieved sigh and both left shoulder, or when the scabs his hands went out to rest briefly across his left cheek cracked across on my two shoulders. His mouth and bled. distorted in a ghost of a smile, and Then, one day, when all of us he touched my wrist. had been out of the cabin, strain­ "What did you expect?" I laugh­ ing our eyes prayerfully at the . ed. "Horns?" faint shadow of a cloud I thought Then I sat back, astonished, as I had seen over the distant his finger tip probed my temple Coronas, we came back, disheart­ just where I had visualized a hom, ened, to find the boy sitting in curled twice and with a shiny Mama's rocker by the window. But black tip. we had to carry him back to the "Well!" I said, "Mind-reader!" cot. His feet seemed to have for­ Just then Marna and Father gotten how to make steps. came back into the cabin. The boy Father looked down at him ly­ lay down slowly on the cot. Oh, ing quietly on the cot. "If he can well, the explanations could wait make it to the window, he can until the need arose. begin to take care of his own needs. We ate supper and I helped Mother is overburdened as it is." Mama clear up afterwards. I was So I was supposed to explain to bringing the evening books to the TROUBLING OF THE WATER 109 pool of light on the table around "Because that's his name," I said the lamp when a movement from blankly, "Timothy." the cot drew my eyes. The boy was sitting on the edge, groping to come After a while Timothy came to to his feet. I hurried to him, won­ the table to eat, dressed in some of dering what to do with Mama in my clothes. He was wonderfully at the room, then as I reached for the ease with knife and fork and spoon boy's arm, I flicked a glance at though his eyes were still scabbed Father. My mouth opened to won­ over and hidden behind bandages. der how I had known what the boy Merry babbled to him happily, wanted and how he knew about the whacking at him with her spoon, Little House outside. But a hand her few words meaning as much to closed on my arm and I moved to­ him as all our talking, which ap­ wards the door with the boy. The parently was nothing. He labored door closed behind us with a at making his feet take steps again chuck. Through the starry darkness and Mama didn't have his stepless­ we moved down the path to the ness to worry about any more. He Little House. He went in. I waited sat with us during our evening by the door. He emerged and we readings with no more response went back up the path and into the than if we sat in silence. Except house. He eased himself down on that after the first evening he join­ the cot, turned his face away from ed us, his right hand always made the light and became quiet. some sort of sign in the air at the I wet my astonished lips and beginning and end of our prayer looked at Father. His lips quirked. time. His left arm wasn't working "You're some mother cat!" he said. yet because of the deep bums on But Mama wasn't smiling as I his shoulder. slid into my place at the table. Her Though Mama's worries over eyes were wide and dark. "But he Timothy's steplessness were over, I didn't touch the floor, James! And had all kinds of worries to take my he didn't take one single step! He mind off the baking, dust-blown -he floated!" fields outside and even off the Not one single step! I swiftly re­ slow, heart-breaking curling of the viewed our walk and I couldn't re­ leaves on our small orchard trees. member the rhythm of any steps at I was beginning to hear things. all-except my own. My eyes Well, not hear things because questioned Father but he only said, there were no words, but to know "If he's to mingle with us, he must things. I began to know when have a name." Timothy was thirsty or when he "Timothy," I said instantly. wanted to go to the Little Home. "Why Timothy?" asked Father. I began to know what food he 110 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION wanted more of and what he didn't ming above the furrows in the or­ care for. And it scared me. I didn't chard. His arms were out in front want to know-not without words. of him like a sleep-walker but he Then Mama's time came. When was threading between the trees as at last the pains were coming though he could see. I started·after pretty close together, Father sent him, fumbling with Merry who me with Timothy and Merry away was sliding out of my arms, leaving from the house, away from the task her crumpled clothes behind, her the two had before them. I knew bare legs threshing and her cries the worry they had plaguing them mufHing in her skirts. I snatched besides the ordinary worry of child­ her up more securely and, shuck­ birth and I prayed soundlessly as ing her dress down around her as I lifted Merry and herded Timothy I ran, dropped her into her porch­ before me out to our orchard. And pen. Timothy was fumbling at the when my prayers tripped over their door latch. I opened it and we own anxiety and dissolved into went into the house. wordlessness, I talked. Father was working over a small I told Timothy all about the bundle on the scrubbed kitchen ranch and the orchard and how table. Timothy crouched by Father had found me the other Mama's bed, his hands holding one night pouring one of my cups of of hers tightly. Mama's breath was drinking water on the ground by quieting down in shuddering my favorite smallest tree and how gulps. She turned her face and he'd told me it wouldn't help be­ p-ressed her eyes against her free cause the roots were too deep for so wrist. "It hasn't cried," she whis­ little water to reach. And I talked pered hopelessly, "Why doesn't it about all the little dead babies and cry?" how healthy Merry was but how Father turned from the table, worried we were for the new baby. his whole body drooping. "It never And-and-well, I babbled un­ even breathed, Rachel. It's perfect­ til I ran out of words and sat under ly formed, but it never breathed at my dying favorite, shivering in the all." heat and hugging Merry: I pushed Mama stared up at the roof of mv face against her tumbled hair the cabin. "The clothes are in the so no one could see my face pucker­ trunk," she said quietly, "And a ing for tears. After I managed to pink blanket." snuff them back, I looked up and And Father sent me out to find blinked. a burying place. Timothy was gone. He was The light went out of our house. streaking for the house, with not We went the weary round of things even one step! His feet were skim- that had to be done to keep living TROUBLING OF THF. WATER 111 and even Merry stood quietly, her gave him into our keeping. 'The hands on the top board of her La~d giveth-' " porch-pen, her wide eyes barely "I'm sorry, Rachel," Father gath­ over-topping it and stared out at ered Mama closely with one arm. the hillside for long stretches of "This 'taking away' period is bad. time. And Father, who had always Not only the baby-" been an unmoved mainstay no "I know," said Mama. "But when matter what happened, was Timothy touches me, the sorrow is broken, silent and uncommunicat­ lessened and I can feel the joy-" ing. "Joy!" Father spun Mama away We seldom mentioned the baby. from his shoulder. I shook for the We had buried my hoped-for little seldom seen anger in his face. brother up on the hill under a scrub "James!" said Mama," 'Weeping oak. When l\'lama was well may endure for a night but joy enough, we all went up there and cometh in the morning'. Let read the service for the dead, but Timothy touch your hand-" no one cried as we stood around Father left the house without a the tiny, powdery-dry, naked little glance at any of us. He gathered grave. Timothy held Mama's hand up Merry from the porch-pen and all the way up there and all the trudged away through the dying way back. And Mama half smiled orchard. at him when we got back to the That night, while Mama was house. reading, I got up to get Timothy a Father said quietly, as he laid drink. down the prayer book, "Why must ''You're interrupting your moth­ he hang onto you?" Mama and I er," said Father quietly. were startled at his tone of voice. "I'm sorry," I said, "Timothy is "But, James," Mama protested. thirsty." "He's blind!" "Sit down," said Father omi­ "How many things has he bump­ nously. I sat. ed into since he's been up and When our evening was finished, around?" asked Father. "How I asked, "May I get him a drink often has he spilled food or groped now?" for a chair?" He turned a bitter Father slowly sat down again at face towards Timothy. "And hang­ the table. "How do you know he ing onto you, he doesn't have to wants a drink?" he asked. see-" Father broke off and turned "1-1 just know," I stumbled to the window. watching Timmy leave the table. "James," Mama went to him "It comes into my mind." quickly, "Don't make Timothy a "Comes into your mind." Father whipping boy for your sorrow. God seemed to lay the words out on the 112 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION table in front of him and look at beside him on the cot. He didn't them. After a silence he said, "How put out his hand for the cup of does it come into your mind? Does water he wanted. He knew I didn't it say, Timothy is thirsty-he have it. wants a drink?" "You have to ask for it," I told "No," I said, unhappily, looking him. "You have to say you're at Father's lamplight-flooded face, thirsty." His blind face turned to wondering if he was, for the first me and two of his fingers touched time in my life, ridiculing me. my wrist. I suddenly realized that "There aren't any words. Only a this was something he often did feeling-only a kno'll'ing that he's lately. Maybe being blind he could thirsty." hear better by touching me. I felt "And you." His face shadowed the thought was foolish before I as he turned it to look at Mama. finished it. But I said again, "You "When he touches your hand, are have to ask for it. You must tell there words-Joy, have joy?" me, 'I'm thirsty. I want a drink, "No," said Mama. "Only the please.' You must talk." feeling that God is over all and Timothy turned from me and that sorrow is a shadow and that­ lay down on the cot. Mama sighed that the baby was called back into sharply. Father blew out the lamp, the Presence." leaving me in the dark to spread Father turned back to me. "If my pallet on the floor and go to Timothy can make you know he is bed. thirsty, he can tell you he is. You The next morning we were all are not to give him a drink until he up before sunrise. Father had all asks for it." our good barrels loaded on the hay­ "But Father! He can't talk!" I rack and was going to Tolliver's protested. Wells for water. He and Mama "He has a voice," said Father. counted out our small supply of "He hasn't talked since he became cash with tight lips and few words. conscious after the fire, but he In times like these water was gold. said some words before then. Not And what would we do when we our words, but words. If he can be had no more money? blind and still not stumble, if he We prayed together before Fath­ can comfort a bereaved mother by er left, and the house felt shadowy the touch of the hand, if he can and empty with him gone. We make you know he's thirsty, he can pushed our breakfasts around our talk." plates and then put them aw_ay for I didn't argue. You don't with lunch. · Father. They started getting ready What is there to do on a ranch for bed. I went to Timothy and sat that is almost dead? I took Pilgrims TROUBLING OF THE WATER 113 Progress to the corner of the front mosquito bar over them to keep the porch and sat with it on my lap flies off. I wallowed my dry and stared across the yard without tongue and swallowed. Then I seeing anything, sinking into my staggered up from my pallet. own Slough of Despond. I took a Where was Timothy? deep breath and roused a little as Maybe he had gone to the Lit­ Timothy came out onto the porch. tle House by himself. I looked out He had a cup in his hand. the window. He wasn't in sight ''I'm thirsty," he said slowly but and the door swung half open. I distinctly, "I want a drink, please." waited a minute but he didn't I scrambled awkwardly to my come out. Where was Timothy! feet and took the cup from him. I stumbled out onto the front l\fama came to the door. "What did porch and looked around. No you say, Barney?" Timothy. I started for the barn, "I didn't say anything," I said, rounding the corner of the house, my grin almost splitting my face. and there he was. He was sitting "Timmy did!" We went into the on the ground, half in the sun, house and I dipped a cup of water half in the shade of the house. He for Timmy. had the cup in one hand and the "Thank you," he said and drank fingers of the other hand were it all. Then he put the cup down splashing in the water. His blind by the bucket and went back to the face was intent. · porch. "Timmy!" I cried, and he "He could have got the drink looked up with a start, water slop­ himself," Mama said wonderingly, ping. "Daggonel You had me "He can find his way around. And scared stiff! What are you doing yet he waited, thirsty, until he with that water?" I slid to a seat could ask you for it." beside him. His two wet fingers "I gues5 he knows he has to mind touched my wrist without fum­ Father, too!" I laughed shakily. bling for it. 'We don't have enough It was a two days round-trip to water to play with it!" Tolliver's Wells and the first day He turned his face down to­ stretched out endlessly. In the ward the cup, then, turning, he heat of noon, I slept, heavily and poured the water carefully at the unrefreshingly. I woke, drenched bottom of the last geranium left with sweat, my tongue swollen and alive of all Mama had taken such dry from sleeping with my mouth tender care of. open. I sat up, my head s~vimming Then, with my help, he got to and my heart thumping audibly in his feet and because I could tell my ears. Merry and Mama were what he wanted and because he still sleeping on the big bed, a said, "Walk!" we walked. In all 114 FANTASY Ar..'D SCIENCE FICTION that sun and dust we walked. He · please," said Timmy again and I led me. I only went along for the brought him his drink. "Thank exercise and to steer him clear of you," he said, touching my wrist. cactus and holes in the way. Back "It's sure hot!" and forth we went, back and forth. "It sure is!" I answered, startled To the hill in front of the house, by his new phrase. He drank slow­ back to the house. To the hill ly and poured the last drop into again, a little farther along. Back his palm. He put the tin cup down to the yard, missing the house on the porch by him and worked about ten feet. Finally, halfway the fingers and thumb of his other through the weary monotony of hand in the dampness of his palm, the afternoon, I realized that Tim­ his face intent and listening-like my was covering a wide area of under his bandaged eyes. land in ten-foot swaths, back and Then his fingers were quiet and forth, farther and farther from the his face turned towards Merry. He house. got up and took the two steps to By evening we were both ex­ the porch-pen. He reached for hausted and only one of Timmy's Merry, his face turned to me. I feet was even trying to touch the moved closer and he touched my ground. The other one didn't botll­ wrist. I lifted Merry out of the pen er to try to step. Finally Timmy and put her on the porch. I lifted said, "I'm thirsty. I want a drink, the pen, which was just a hollow please." And we went back to the square of wooden rails fastened to­ house. gether, and set it up on the porch, Next morning I woke to see too. Timmy paddling in another cup Timmy sat down slowly on the of water and all morning we cov­ spot where the pen had been. He ered the area on the other side of scraped the dirt into a heap then the house, back and forth, back set it to one side and scraped and forth. again. Seeing that he was ab­ 'What are you doing?" Mama sorbed for a while, I took Merry in had asked. to be cleaned up for dinner and "I don't know," I said. "It's Tim­ came back later to see what Tim­ my's idea." And Timmy said noth­ my was doing. He was still scrap­ ing. ing and had quite a hole by now, When the shadows got short un­ but the dirt was stacked too close der the bushes we went back to so that it kept sliding back into the the porch and sat down on the hole. I scraped it all away from steps, Merry gurgling at us from the edge, then took his right arm her porch-pen. and said, "Time to eat, Timmy. "I'm thirsty. I want a drink, Come on." TROUBLING OF THE WATER 115 He ate and went back to the ple could insist on hard metal in hole he had started. Seeing that he exchange for life. meant to go on digging. I gave "They didn't have water him a big old spoon Merry some­ enough," said Father. "Others were times played with and a knife waiting, too. This is the last they with a broken blade, to save his can let us have." hands. We took care of the horses but All afternoon he dug with the left the water barrels on the wag­ tools and scooped the dirt out. on. That was as good a place as And dug again. By evening he had any and the shelter of the bam enlarged the hole until he was sit­ would keep it-well, not cool ting in it, shoulder deep. maybe, but below the boiling Mama stood on the porch, sag­ point. · ging under the weight of Merry It wasn't until we started back who was astride her hip and said, to the house that we thought of "He's ruining the front lawn." Then Timmy. We saw a head rising she laughed. "Front lawn! Ruin­ from the hole Timmy was digging ing it!" And she laughed again, and Father drew back his foot to just this side of tears. keep it from being covered with a Later that evening, when what handful of dirt. cooling-off ever came was coming "'What's going on," he asked, let­ over the ranch, we heard the jin­ ting his tiredness and discourage­ gle of harness and then the creak ment sharpen his voice. of the hayrack and the plop of "Timmy's digging," I said, stat­ horses' hooves in the dust. ing the obvious which was all I Father was home! We ran to could do. meet him at our gate, suddenly "Can't he find a better place conscious of how out-of-step ev­ than that?" And Father stomped erything had been without him. I into the house. I called Timmy opened the gate and dragged the and helped him up out of the hole. four strands wide to let the wagon He was dirt-covered from head to through. heels and Father was almost Father's face was dust coated through with his supper before I and the dust did not crease into got Timmy cleaned up enough to smiles for us. His hugs were al­ come inside. We sat around theta­ most desperate. I looked into the ble, not even reading, and talked. back of the wagon, as he and Ma­ Timmy sat close to me, his fingers ma murmured together. Only half on my wrist. the barrels were filled. "Maybe the ponds will fill a lit­ "Didn't we have enough mon­ tle while we're using up this wa­ ey?" I asked, wondering how peo- ter," said Mama, hopelessly. 116 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Father was silent and I stared looked up and saw Father stand­ at the table, seeing the buckets of ing stern and tall on the porch. water Prince and Nig had sucked "What's going on?" He repeated up so quickly that eveniug. his earlier question. The sound of "We'd better be deciding where digging below stopped. So did my to go," said Father. "When the wa­ breath for a moment. ter's all gone-" His face shut "Timmy's digging," I said, as I down, bleak and still and he had before. opened the Bible at random, miss­ "At night?" What for?" Father ing our marker by half the book. asked. He looked down and read, " 'For in "He can't see, night or light," I the wilderness shall waters break said, "But I don't know why he's out, and streams in the desert.' " digging." He clapped the book shut and sat, "Get him out of there," said his elbows on each side of the Father. "This is no time for non­ book, his face buried in his two sense." hands, this last rubbing of salt in I went to the edge of the hole. the wound almost too much to Timmy's face was a pale blur be­ bear. low. "He's too far down," I said. I touched Timmy and we crept ''I'll need a ladder." to bed. "He got down there," said Father unreasonably, "Let him get out!" I woke in the night, hearing a "Timmy!" I called down to him. noise. My hand went up to the cot "Father says come up!" and I struggled upright. Timmy There was a hesitating scuffie, was gone. I scrambled to the door then Timmy came up! Straight up! and looked out. Timmy was in the As though something were lifting hole, digging. At least I guess he him! He came straight up out of was. There was a scraping sound the hole and hovered as the rocks for a while then a-a wad of dirt had, then he moved through the would sail slowly up out of the air and landed on the porch so hole and fall far enough from the close to Father that he stumbled edge that it wouldn't run down in back a couple of steps. again. I watched the dirt sail up "Father!" My voice shook with twice more, then there was a clat­ terror. ter and three big rocks sailed up. Father turned and went into the They hovered a little above the house. He lighted the lamp, the mound of dirt then thumped down up-flare of the flame before he put -one of them on my bare foot. the chimney on showed the deep I was hopping around, nursing furrows down his cheeks. I prod­ my foot in my hands, when I ded Timmy and we sat on the TROUBLING OF THE WATER 117 bench across the table from Fa­ place before he settled on where ther. he's digging. Father, what if he's a "Why is he digging?" Father -a dowser? \Vhat if he knows asked again. "Since he responds to where water is? He's different-" you, ask him." I was afraid to look at Father. I I reached out, half afraid, and kept my eyes on my own hand touched Timmy's wrist. "Why are where Timmy's fingers rested on you ·digging?" I asked, "Father my wrist. wants to know." "Maybe if we helped him dig-" Timmy's mouth moved and he I faltered and stopped, seeing the seemed to be trying different words stones come up and hover and fall. with his lips. Then he smiled, the "He has only Merry's spoon and an first really truly smile I'd ever seen old knife." on his face. " 'Shall waters break "And he dug that deep!" thun­ out and streams in the desert'," he dered Father. said happily. "Yes," I said, "All by himself." "That's no answer!" Father ex· "Nonsense!" Father's voice was claimed, stung by having those flat. "There's no water anywhere unfitting words flung back at him. around here. You saw me digging "No more digging. Tell him so." for water for the stock. We're not I felt Timmy's wrist throb pro­ in Las Lomitas. There will be no testingly and his face turned to more digging." me, troubled. "Why not!" I was standing now, "Why no digging? What harm's my own fists on the table as I he doing?" My voice sounded leaned forward. I could feel my strange in my own ears and the eyes blaze as Father's do some­ pit of my stomach was ice. For the times. "What harm is he doing? first time in my life I was. standing What's wrong with his keeping up to Father! That didn't shake me busy while we sit around waiting as much as ·the fact that for the to dry up and blow away? What's first time in my life I was seriously wrong with hoping!" questioning his judgment. Father and I glared at each oth­ "No digging because I said no er until his eyes dropped. Then digging!" said Father, anger whit­ mine filled with tears and I ening his face, his fists clenching dropped back on the bench and on the table. buried my face in my arms. I "Father," I swallowed with diffi­ cried as if I were no older than culty, "I think Timmy's looking Merry. My chest was heavy with for water. He-he touched water sorrow for this first real anger I before he started digging. He felt had ever felt toward Father, with it. \Ve-we went all over the the shouting and the glaring, and 118 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION especially for his eyes falling be­ something," I said up to Father's fore mine. questioning face. I climbed down Then I felt his hand heavy on and knelt by Timmy. My hands my shoulder. He had circled the followed his tracing hands and I table to me. "Go to bed now," he looked up and said, "Father!" with said quietly. "Tomorrow is another such desolation in my voice that day." he edged over the rim and came "Oh, Father!" I turned and down, too. clung to his waist, my face tight We traced it again and again. against him, his hand on my head. There was solid rock, no matter Then I got up and took Timmy which way we brushed the dirt, back to the cot and we went to bed no matter how far we poked into again. the sides of the wall. We were Next morning, as though it was down to bedrock. We were our usual task, Father got out the stopped. shovels and rigged up a bucket on We climbed soberly up out of a rope and he and I and Timmy the well. Father boosted me up worked in the well. We called it a over the rim and I braced myself well now, instead of a hole, mavbe and gave him a hand up. Timmy to bolster our hopes. · came up. There was no jarring of By evening we had it down a his feet on the ladder, but he came good twelve feet, still not finding up. I didn't look at him. much except hard, packed-down The three of us stood there, river silt and an occasional clump ankle-deep in dust. Then Timmy of round river rocks. Our ladder put his hands out, one hand to was barely long enough to help us Father's shoulder and one to mine. scramble up out and the edges of " 'Shall waters break out and the hole were crumbly and sifted streams in the desert'," he said off under the weight of our knees. carefully and emphatically. I climbed out. Father set the "Parrot!" said Father bitterly, bucket aside and eased his palms turning away. against his hips. Timmy was still "If the water is under the in the well, kneeling and feeling stone!" I cried. "Father, we blasted the bottom. out the mesquite stumps in the far "Timmy!" I called. "Come on up. pasture. Can't we blast the Time to quit!" His face turned up stone-" to me but still he knelt there and I Father's steps were long and found myself gingerly groping for swinging as he hurried to the the first rung of the ladder below barn. "I haven't ever done this ex­ the rim of the well. cept with stumps," he said. He "Timmv wants me to look at sent Mama and Merry out behind TROUBLING OF THE WATER 119 the barn. He made Timmy and me ered them to him. He put both stay away as he worked in the bot­ hands, lapping over each other, tom of the well, then he scrambled across the top of the stack and up the ladder and I ran out to help leaned his chin on them, hi& face pull it up out of the well and \Ve below the bandage thoughtful and all retreated behind the bam, too. still. Timmy clung to my wrist and "I have words enough now," he when the blast came, he cried out said slowly. "I have been learning something I couldn't understand them as fast as I could. Maybe I and wouldn't come with us back will not have them always right, to the well. He crouched behind but I must talk now. You must not the barn, his face to his knees, his go away, because there is water." hands clasped over the top of his Father closed his astonished head. mouth and said wearily, "So you We looked at the well. It was a have been making fools of us all dimple in the front yard. The this time!" sides had caved in. There was Timmy's fingers went to my nothing to show for all our labor wrist in the pause that followed but the stacked-up dirt beside the Father's words. '1 have not made dimple, our ladder, and a bucket fools of you," Tinimy went on. "I with a rope tied to the pail. We could not speak to anyone but watched as a clod broke loose at Barney without words, and I must the top of the dimple and started a touch him to tell and to under­ trickle of dirt as it rolled dustily stand. I had to wait to learn your down into the hole. words. It is a new language." "'And streams in the desert,' •, "Where are you from?" I asked said Father, turning away. eagerly, pulling the patient cork I picked up the bucket, dumped out gf my curiosity. "How did you out a splinter of stone and put the get out there in the pasture. What bucket carefully on the edge of the is in the-" Just in time I remem­ porch. bered that I was the only one who "Supper," said Mama quietly, kne\V about the charred box. sagging under Merry's weight. "My cahilla.t" cried Timmy­ I went and got Timmy. He then he shook his head at me and came willingly enough. He paused addressed himself to Father. "I'm by the dimple in the front yard, his not sure how to tell you so you will hand on my wrist, then went with believe. I don't know how far your me into the shadowy cabin. knowledge-" After supper I brought our eve­ "Father's smarter than anyone in ning books to the table, but Timmy the whole Territory!" I cried. put out seeking hands and gath- "The Territory-" Timmy 120 FANTASY AND SCIENCE. FICTION paused, measuring Territory. "I 'We came to your world. We was thinking of your world-this did not know of it before. We came world-" far, far. At the last we came too "There are other planets-" I fast. We are not space travelers. repeated Father's puzzling words. The big ship that found your "Then you do know other plan­ world got too hot. We had to leave ets," said Timmy. "Do you-" he it in our life-slips, each by him­ groped for a word. "Do you trans­ self. The life-slips got hot, too. I port yourself and things in the was burning! I lost control of my sky?" life-slip. I fell-" He put his Father stirred. "Do we have fly­ hands to his bandages. "I think ing machines?" he asked. "No, not maybe I will never see this new yet. We have balloons-" world." Timmy's fingers were on my "Then there are others, like you, wrist again. He sighed. "Then I here on Earth," said Father slow­ must just tell and if you do not ly. know, you must believe only be­ "Unless they all died in the cause I tell. I tell only to make you landing," said Timmy. "There know there is water and you must were many on the big ship." stay. "I saw little things shoot off the "My world is another planet. It big thing!" I cried, excited. "I was another planet. It is broken in thought they were pieces breaking space now, all to pieces, shaking off only they-they went instead and roaring and fire-and all of falling!" gone." His blind face looked on "Praise to the Presence, the desolation and his lips tightened. Name and the Power!" said Tim­ I felt hairs crisp along my neck. my, his right hand sketching his As long as he touched my wrist I sign in the air, then dropping to could see! I couldn't tell you what my wrist again. all I saw because lots of it had no "Maybe some live still. Maybe words I knew to put to it, but I my family. Maybe Lytha-" saw! I stared, fascinated, as I saw "We had ships for going in Lytha, dark hair swinging, smiling Space," he said. I saw them, nee­ back over her shoulder, her arms dle-sharp and shining, pointing at full of flowers whose centers the sky and the heavy red-lit glowed like little lights. Daggone! clouds. "\Ve went into space be­ I thought, Daggone! She sure isn't fore our Home broke. Our Home! his Merry! Our-Home." His voice broke and "Your story is most interesting," he leaned his cheek on the stack of said Father, "And it opens vistas books. Then he straightened again. we haven't begun to explore yet, TllOUBLING OF THE WATER 121 but what bearing has all this on "Now it's time for bed." Father our water problem?" took the Bible from the stack of "We can do things you seem not books. He thumbed back from our able to do," said Timmy. "You place to psalms and read the must always touch the ground to "\Vhen I consider the heavens" go, and lift things with tools or one. As I listened, all at once the hands, and know only because you tight little world I knew, over­ touch and see. \Ve can know with­ topped by the tight little Heaven I out touching and seeing. We can wondered about, suddenly split find people and metals and water right down the middle and -we can find almost anything stretched and grew and filled with that we know, if it is near us. I such a glory that I was scared and have not been trained to be a find­ grabbed the edge of the table. If er, but I have studied the feel of Timmy had come from another water and the-the-what it is planet so far away that it wasn't made of-" even one we had a name for-I I "The composition," Father sup­ knew that never again would my plied the word. mind think it could measure the "The composition of water," said world-or my imagination, the Timmy. "And Barney and I ex­ extent of God's creation! plored much of the farm. I found the water here by the house." I was just dropping off the edge "We dug," said Father. "How of waking after tumbling and toss­ far down is the water?" ing for what seemed like hours, "I am not trained," said Timmy when I heard Timmy. humbly. "I only know it is there. It "Barney," he whispered, not be­ is water that you think of when ing able to reach my wrist. "My you say 'Las Lomitas'. It is not a cahilla-You found my cahilla?" dipping place or-or a pool. It is "Your what?" I asked, sitting up going. It is pushing hard. It is in bed and meeting his groping cold." He shivered a little. hands. "Ohl That box thing. Yeah, "It is probably three hundred I'll get it for you in the morning." feet down," said Father. "There "Not tonight?" asked Timmy, has never been an artesian well wistfully. "It is all I have left of this side of the Coronas." the Home." "It is close enough for me to "I can't find it tonight," I said. find," said Timmy. "Will you "I buried it by a rock. I couldn't wait?" find it in the dark. Besides, Fa­ "Until our water is gone," said ther' d hear us go, if we tried to Faither. "And until we have de­ leave now. Go to sleep. It must be cided where to go. near morning." 122 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "Oh yes," sighed Timmy. "Oh minute like sun through a knot­ yes." And he lay back down. hole in a dusty room. I absently "Sleep well." picked up the piece of stone I had And I did, going out like a dumped from the bucket last eve­ lamp blown out, and dreamed ning I fingered it and said, "Ouch!" wild, exciting dreams about rid­ I had jabbed myself on its sharp ing astride ships that went sailless point. Sharp point! across waterless oceans of nothing­ "Look," I said, holding it out to ness and burned with white hot Father. "This is broken! All the fury that woke me up to full morn­ other rocks we found were round ing light and Merry bouncing hap­ river rocks. Our blasting broke pily on my stomach to wake me something/" up. "Yes," Father took the splinter After breakfast, Mama carefully from me. "But where's the water?" oiled Timmy's scabs again. "I'm al­ Timmy and I left Father look­ most out of bandages," she said. ing at the well and went out to the "If you don't mind having to foot of the field where the fire had see," said Timmy, "don't bandage been. I located the rock where I me again. Maybe the light will had buried the box. It was only a come through." couple of inches down-barely We went out and looked at the covered. I scratched it out for him. dimple by the porch. It had sub­ "\Vait," I said. "It's all black. Let sided farther and was a bowl­ me wipe it off first." I rubbed it in shaped place now, maybe waist a sand patch and the black all deep to me. rubbed off except in the deep lines "Think it'll do any good to dig of the design that covered all sides it out again?" I asked Father. of it. I put it in his eager hands. "I doubt it," he answered heav­ He flipped it around until it ily. "Apparently I don't know how fitted his two hands with his to set a charge to break the bed­ thumbs touching in front. Then I rock. How do we know we could guess he must have thought at it break it anyway? It could be a because he didn't do anything else mile thick right here." It seemed but all at once it opened, cleanly, to me that Father was talking to from his thumbs up. me more like to a man than to a He sat there on a rock in the sun boy. Maybe I wasn't a boy any­ and felt the things that were in more! the box. I couldn't tell you what "The water is there," said Tim­ any of them were except what my. "If only I could platt-" His looked like a piece of ribbon, and a hand groped in the sun and it withered flower. He finally closed streamed through his fingers for a the box. He slid to his knees be- TROUBLING OF THE WATER 123 side the rock and hid his face on to rust there or for us to come back his arms. He sat there a long time. for. When he finally lifted his face, it Mama took Merry that evening was dry, but his sleeves were wet. and climbed the hill to the little I've seen Mama's sleeves like that grave under the scrub oak. She sat after she had looked at things in there a long time with her back to the little black trunk of hers. the sun, her wistful face in the "Will you put it back in the shadow. She came back in silen~e, ground?" he asked. "There is no Merry heavily sleepy in her arms. place for it in the house. It will After we had gone to bed, Tim­ be safe here." my groped for my wrist. "You do So I buried the box again and have a satellite to your earth, don't we went back to the house. you?" he asked. His question was Father had dug a little, but he without words. said, "It's no use. The blast loos­ "A satellite?" Someone turned ened the ground all around and it restlessly on the big bed when I won't even hold the shape of a hissed my question. well any more." "Yes," he answered, • A smaller We talked off and on all day world that goes around and is about where to go from here, mon· bright at night." eyless and perilously short of pro­ "Oh,'' I breathed. "You mean visions. Mama wanted so much to the moon. Yes, we have a moon go back to our old home that she but it's not very bright now. There couldn't talk about it, but Father was only a sliver showing just after wanted to go on, pushing West sunset." I felt Timmy sag. "Why?" again. I wanted to stay where we "We can do large things with were-with plenty of water. I sunlight and moonlight together,• wanted to see that tide of Time came his answer. "I hoped that at sweep one century away and start sunrise tomorrow-" another across Desolation Valley! "At sunrise tomorrow, we'll be There would be a sight for you! finishing our packing," I said. •oo We began to pack that after­ to sleep." noon because the barrels were -Then I must do without: he emptying fast and the pools were went on, not hearing me. "Barney, damp, curling cakes of mud in the if I am Called, will you keep my hot sun. All we could take was cahilla until someone asks for it? what we could load on the hay­ If they ask, it is my People. Then rack. Father had traded the wagon they will know I am gone ... we came west in for farm machin· "Called?" I asked. 'What do you ery and a set of washtubs. We'd mean?" have to leave the machinery either "As the baby was," he said soft- 124 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ly, "Called back into the Presence the porch splinter. Then there was from which we came. If I must lift a lot of silence. with my own strength alone, I I crept on all fours across the may not have enough, so will you floor. Where was Timmy? I could keep my cahilla?" see the front door hanging at a ''Yes," I promised, not knowing crazy angle on one hinge. I crept what he was talking about. "I'll towards it. keep it." My hands splashed! I paused, "Good. Sleep well," he said and confused, and started on again. I again waking went out of me like was crawling in water! "Father!" a lamp blown out. My voice was a croak from the dust and shock. "Father! It's wa­ All night long I dreamed of ter!" storms and earthquakes and floods And Father was suddenly there, and tornadoes all going past me­ lifting me to my feet. We stum­ fast! Then I was lying half awake, bled together to the front door. afraid to open my eyes for fear There was a huge slab of rock pok­ some of my dreaming might be ing a hole in the siding of the true. And suddenly, it was! house, crushing the broken porch I clutched my pallet as the under its weight. We edged around floor humped, snapping and it, ankle deep in water, and saw groaning, and flopped flat again. in the grey light of early dawn our I heard our breakfast pots and whole front yard awash from hill pans banging on the shelf and to porch. Where the well had been then falling with a clatter. Mama was a t.m'ving hump of water that called, her voice heavy with sleep worked away busily, becoming and fear, "James! James!" larger and larger as we watched. I reached for Timmy, but the "Water!" said Father. "The wa­ floor humped again and dust rolled ter has broken through!" in through the pale squares of the "Where's Timmy?" I said windows and I coughed as I came "Where's Timmy/" I yelled and to my knees. There was a crash of started to splash out into the yard. something heavy falling on the "Watch out!" warned Father. roof and rolling off. And a sharp "It's dangerous! All this rock came hissing sound. Timmy wasn't in out of there!" We skirted the front bed. Father was trying to find his yard searching the surface of the shoes. The hissing noise got loud­ rising water, thinking every shad­ er and louder until it was a bur­ ow might be Timmy. bling roar. Then there was a rum­ We found him on the far side ble and something banged the of the house, floating quietly, face front of the house so hard I heard up in a rising pool of water, his TROUBLING OF THE WATER 125 face a bleeding mass of mud and ner of the house and tethered it to raw flesh. the barn. "No use losing the lum­ I reached him first, floundering ber if we don't have to," he said. through the water to him. I lifted By the time the sun was fully his shoulders and tried to see in up, the house was floating off its the dawn-light if he was still foundation rocks. There was a breathing. Father reached us and pond filling all the house yard, we lifted Timmy to dry land. back and front, extending along "He's alive!" said Father. "His the hill, up to the dipping place, face-it's just the scabs scraped and turning into a narrow stream 0 ff . " going the other way, following the "Help me get him in the house," hill for a while then dividing our I said, beginning to lift him. dying orchard and flowing down "Better be the barn," said Fa­ toward the drv river bed. Father ther. "The water's still. rising." It and I pulled the house slowly over had crept up to us already and toward the barn until it grated seeped under Timmy again. We solid ground again. carried him to the barn and I Mama had cleaned Timmy up. stayed with him while Father He didn't seem to be hurt except went back for Merry and Mama. for his face and shoulder being It was lucky that most of our peeled raw. She put olive oil on things had been packed on the him again and used one of Merry's hayrack the night before. After petticoats to bandage his face. He Mama, a shawl thrown over her lay deeply unconscious all of that nightgown and all our day clothes day while we watched the miracle grabbed up in her arms, came of water growing in a dry land. wading out with Father who was The pond finally didn't grow any carrying Merry and our lamp, I wider, but the stream widened and gave Timmy into her care and deepened, taking three of our dead went back with Father again and trees down to the river. The water again to finishing emptying the was clearing now and was deep cabin of our possessions. enough over the spring that it did~ Already the huge rock had gone n't bubble any more that we could on down through the porch and see. There was only a shivering of disappeared into the growing the surface so that circles ran out pond of water in the front yard. to the edge of the pond. The house was dipping to the Father went down with a buck­ weight of our steps as though it et and brought it back brimming might float off the minute we left. over. We drank the cold, cold wa~ Father got a rope from the wagon ter and Mama made a pack to put and tied it through the broken cor~ on Timmy's head. 126 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Timmy stirred but he didn't ter and his lips turned upward in waken. It wasn't until evening a ghost of a smile. "Shall waters when we were settling down to a break out!" scratch-meal in the bam that we "Plenty of water," I laughed. began to realize what had hap- Then I sobered. "What were you pened. · doing out in it, anyway?" "\Ve have water!" Father cried Mama and Father were sitting suddenly, "Streams in the desert!" on the floor beside us now. "It's an artesian well, isn't it?" "I had to lift the dirt out," he I asked. "Like at Las Lomitas. It'll said, touching my wrist. "All night go on flowing from here on out, I lifted. It was hard to hold back won't it?" the loose dirt so it wouldn't slide "That remains to be seen," Fa­ back into the hole. I sat on the ther said, "But it looks like a good porch and lifted the dirt until the one. Tomorrow I must ride to Tol­ rock was there." He sighed and liver's Wells and tell them we was silent for a minute. "I was not have water. They must be almost sure I had strength enough. The out by now!" rock was cracked and I could feel "Then we don't have to move?" the water pushing, hard, hard, un­ I asked. der. I had to break the rock enough "Not as long as we have water," to let the water start through. It said Father. "I wonder if we have wouldn't break! I called on the growing time enough to put in a Power again and tried and tried. kitchen garden-" Finally a piece came loose and I turned quickly. Timmy was flew up. The force of the water­ moving. His hands were on the it was like-like-blasting. I had bandage, exploring it cautiously. no strength left. I went uncon­ "Timmy," I reached for his scious." wrist. "It's all right, Timmy. You ''You dug all that out alone!• just got peeled raw. We had to Father took one of Timmy's hands bandage you again." and looked at the smooth palm. "The-the water-• His voice "We do not always have to was barely audible. touch to lift and break," said Tim­ "It's all over the place!" I said. my. "But to do it for long and "It's floated the house off the foun­ heavy takes much strength." His dations and you should see the head rolled weakly. pond! And the stream! And it's "Thank you, Timothy," said Fa­ cold!" ther. "Thank you for the wen.• "I'm thirsty," he said. "I want a drink, please." So that's why we didn't mo?e. He drained the cup of cold wa- That's why Promise Pond is here TROUBLING OF THE WATER 127 to keep the ranch green. That's "Oh," said the woman. "I why this isn't Fool's Acres any thought he talked kinda foreign." more but Full Acres. That's why Her voice was critical. "Seems like Cahilla Creek puzzles people who we're gettin' over-run with for­ try to make it Spanish. Even Fa­ eigners. Like that sassy girl in ther doesn't know why Timmy and Margin." I named the stream Cahilla. "Oh?" Mama fished Merry out The pond had almost swallowed from under the wagon by her up the little box before we re­ dress-tail. membered it. "Yes," said the woman, "She That's why the main road across talks foreign too, though they say Desolation Valley goes through not as much as she used to. Oh, our ranch now for the sweetest, them foreigners are smart enough! coldest water in the Territory. Her aunt savs she was sick and had That's why our big new house is to learn td talk all over again, built among the young black wal­ that's why she sounds like that." nut and weeping willow trees that The woman leaned confidingly to­ surround the pond. That's why it wards Mama, lowering her voice. has geraniums window-sill high "But I heard in a round-about way along one wall. That's- why our that there's something queer about orchard has begun to bear a cash that girl. I don't think she's really crop. And that's why, too, that one their niece. I think she came from day a wagon coming from the far some where else. I think she's side of Desolation Valley made really a foreigner!" camp on the camping grounds be­ "Oh ?" said Mama, quite unim­ low the pond. pressed and a little bored. We went down to see the peo­ "They say she does funny things ple after supper to exchange news. and Heaven knows her name's fun­ Timmy's eyes were open now, but ny enough. I ask you! Doesn't the only light came into them, not way these foreigners push them­ enough to see by. selves in-" The lady of the wagon tried not "Where did your folks come to look at the deep scars on the from?" asked Mama, vexed bv side of Timmy's face as her man the voice the lady used for 'foi­ and we men talked together. She eigner'. listened a little too openly to Tim­ The lady reddened. "I'm native my's part of the conversation and born!" she said, tossing her head. said softly to Mama, her whisper "Just because my parents- It isn't spraying juicily, "He your boy?" as though England was-" She "Yes, our·boy," said Mama, "But pinched her lips together. "Abigale not born to us." Johnson for a name is a far cry 128 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION from Marnie Lytha Something-or­ "Two days!" Timmy stopped and other!" clung to a small tree. "Only two Lytha! I heard Timmy's cry days away all this time!" without words. Lytha? He stum­ "It might not be your Lytha," I bled toward the woman, for once warned. "It could be one of us. his feet unsure. She put out a hasty I've heard some of the wildest hand to fend him off and her face names! Pioneering seems to addle drew up with distaste. people's naming sense." "Watch out!" she cried sharply. "I'll call," said Timmy. ''I'll call "Watch where you're going!" and when she answers-!" "He's blind," Mama said softly. "If she hears you," I said, know­ "Oh," the woman reddened ing his calling wouldn't be aloud again. "Oh, well-" and would take little notice of the "Did you say you knew a girl distance to Margin. "Maybe she named Lytha?" asked Timmy thinks everyone is dead like you faintly. did. Maybe she won't think of lis­ "Well, I never did have much tening." to do with her," said the woman, "She will think often of the unsure of herself. "I saw her a time Home," said Timmy firmly, "And or two-" when she does, she will hear me. I Timmy's fingers went out to will start now.;, And he threaded touch her wrist and she jerked his way expertly through the wal­ back as though burned. "I'm sor­ nuts and willows by the pond. ry," said Timmy. "\Vhcre are you I looked after him and sighed. coming from?" I wanted him happy and if it was "Margin," said the woman. his Lytha, I wanted them together Timmy's hands shook a little as again. But, if he called and called he turned away, "Thanks." again and got no answer- "Well, you're welcome, I guess," ! slid to a seat on a rock by the snapped the \Voman. She turned pond, thinking again of the little back to Mama who was looking lake we were planning where we after us, puzzled. "Now all the would have fish and maybe a boat new dresses have-" -1 dabbled my hand in the cold "I couldn't see," whispered Tim­ water and thought, this was dust my to me as we moved off through before Timmy came. He was stu~ the green grass and willows to the born enough to make the stream orchard. "She wouldn't let me break through. touch her. How far is Margin?" "If Timmy calls," I told a little "Two days across Desolation bird balancing suddenly on a Valley," I said, bubbling with ex­ twig, bobbing over the water, citement. "It's a mining town." "Someone will answer!" Selling collection sf mags. Write for details. L. BOOKS-MAGAZINES Rose, 7 Southgate, Great Neck, N. Y. 11023.

Read about heroic heroes of sword-&-sorcery; FOR SALE, ASF collection. Harvey Slaton, 23 articles by de Camp and Leiber; drawings by Ford, Harrisburg, Illinois, Krenke! and Barr; subscription 8 issues $2; sample for 3.5¢; Amra, Box 9120, Chicago, 60690. SPECIALISTS: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Weird Fiction. Books, Pocketbooks. Lists issued. Ste­ phen's Book Service, 63 Third Avenue, New York, SF Bargains. List free. Werewolf Bookshop, N.Y. 10003. Verona 4G, Pa. FLYING SAUCER, OCCULT BOOKS. New. Scarce. Catalog 2.5¢. John Roby, 1811-C Carfax, Lang Locate any bookl Caribbean Magic Bookhuntera, Beach, California 90815. Box 1.5070-C, Orlando, Fla. FIFTEEN books, dollar for fifteen different. 25,000 magazines for sale. Thousands wanted in Shofron, 1300 NE 201st Terrace, Miami, Florida excellent condition; science fiction, weird, hor­ 33162. ror, spicy, western, adventure, others. Send list, enclosing stamp, Magazine Center, Box 214, Little Rock, Ark. HORROR BOOKS-free literature. Trans-Interna­ tional, Box 2942, Paterson, N. J, Inventory Clearance. Send $1. for seven mystery pocket books-Mercury Mysteries, Bestseller BOOKPLATES Mysteries, Jonathan Press Mysteries-in good con­ dition. Maximum order, 21 books for $3, Send FREE CATALOGUE-Many beautiful designs. order and remittance to: Mercury Press, Box 271, Special designing too, Address BOOKPLATES, Rockville 'Centre, N. Y. 11571. Yellow Springs 4, Ohio,

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LOUIS ARMSTRONG writes: "I believe The of Fantasy and Science appeals to me because In it one finds refuge and release from everyday life. We are all little children at heart and READ THE MAGAZINE OF find comfort In a dream world, and these episodes In the magazine encourage our building castles In space." FANTASY AND SCIENCE ·FICTION

BASIL DAVINPOR~ writer Stars of ·the entertainment· world ••. notc;~bles in and editor, judge ot the Book-of-the-Month Club, the news •. . distinguished authors and editors writes: "I haoe been a fan -all owe much of their success to imagination. So of science fiction all my life, and of The Magazine of when they want relaxation or stimulation in read­ FantaSI/ and Science Fiction ing, they turn naturally to the finest works of for all ita life. F&SF gioes us some of the beat writing imagination; tales of science fiction. And they in the field, and the field find such stories-exciting, fast-paced an ex­ is one of great importance." ceedingly well written-in THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. Here they HUGO GERNSBACK, find curre~t top-notchers such as Robert Hein­ pioneer in science fiction publishing, writer and editor, lein, Arthur C. Clarke, Theodore Sturgeon and writes: "Plus ~a change, plus Isaac Asimov; plus unexpected fantasies from c'est Ia mime chose-is a French truism, lamentably writers famous in other fields, such as Stuart accurate of much of our Palmer and Mark Van Doren. As a bonus, F&SF latter day science fiction. Not so in the cyclotronic Magazine has a unique record of finding stimulating new of Fantasy and Science Fiction talents-such fine writers as Mildred Clingerman, which injects sophisticated Richard Matheson and Chad Oliver first appeared isotopes, pregnant with imagination, into many in these pages.... In a word, here is the best of its best narratives." of fantasy and science fiction. ORVILLI PRISCOn, literary critic and author, Book Review Editor for the New at better newsstands everv month York Times, writes: "People who think that their literary 50c By subscription $5.00 ja year I.Q. it too high for them to enjoy the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 347 East 53 Street New York 22, N.Y. don't know what they are missing. The number of well­ written, ingenious and enter­ taining stories it regularly publishes is astonishingly high."

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