THE MAGAZINE OF fontosv ·AN·o Science Fiction Including Venture Science Fiction

The Illuminated Man (novelet) J• G. BALLARD 5 Three Times Around JANE ROBERTS 32 You Have To Stay Inside CALVIN W. DEMMON 37 No Place Like Where RO~ERT M. GREEN, JR. 38 The Building of a Protein THEODORE L. THOMAS 49 ~ Invasion (verse) CHRISTOPHER CORSON 50 A Red Heart and Blue Roses MILDRED CLINGERMAN 51 Books A VRAM DAVIDSON 67 Sea Wrack (short novelet) EDWARD JESBY 72 Mar-ti-an ROBERT LORY 89 Science: Ghost Lines in the Sky ISAAC ASIMOV 93 Touchstone TERRY CARR 103 The New Encyclopaedist STEPHEN BECKER q5 Cantabile JON DECLES 117 Editorial 4 Letters 127 F&SP Marketplace 129

Cover by Ed Emsh (illustrating "The Illuminated Man")

Joseph fV. Ferma11, PUBLISHER Avram Davidson, EXECUTIVE EDITOll

[saac Asimov, SCIENCE EDITOR Edward L. Ferman, ~IANAGDIG EDITOR

Ted White, ASSISTANT EDITOR

The Magazine of Far~tasy a"d Science Fiction, Volume 26, No. 5, JVI!ole No. 156, May 1964. Published monthly by Mermry Press, b1c., at 40¢ a copy. Annual subscription $4.50; $5.00 in Canada a"d the Pan American Union; $5.50 in all other countries. Publi· cation office, 10 Ferry Street, Concord, N. H. Editorial and general mail should be sent to 341 East 53rd St., New York, N. Y. 10022. Second Class postage paid at Concord, N. H. Printed in U.S.A. © 1964 by Mercury Press, I11c. All rights, including translations into other languages, reserved. Submissions must be accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelopes; the Publisher assumes no responsibility for retum of unsolicited manuscripts. EDITORIAL

The former Kindly Editor once said, rather wist­ fully, to the subsequent Cruelly Editor, "What I would like . . • I think . . . I would like a story about a mile-long spaceship . . . it goes into the Coal Sack ... and it comes out dirty . . ." So would we. Whatever became of them? Are they all going to other magazines? Aren't they even being written? If not, why not? Is it really because rocket ships, even if they aren't yet a mile long, are now Reality? and, hence, assumed to be no longer subjects for Romance? Do SF writers, actual and potential, suffer from an inferiority complex or a sibling rivalry in comparing themselves to Colonel John Glenn? Or has SF leapfrogged the space­ ship-and not yet landed on the other side of it? Questions, ques­ tions . . . On one of Captain Cook's voyages he put into the re­ mote island of Ontong Java, and there he found a vessel of the Royal Navy which had gone aground fifteen years earlier. The officers had all died or gone mad, and the few remaining crewmen, headed by an ancient Gunner's Mate, shed tears into their long white beards at the thought that Captain Cook would now and at last take them back Home. But he had different ideas. "No, no, my men," he said, briskly. "You are guarding His Majesty's ship, and must remain here till properly relieved by the Admiralty!" \Ve told this to Horace Gold, and his comment, equally briskly, was, "Well, he got his, didn't he?" He did, indeed ... Are we, per­ haps, in a similar position? Are we urging others to continue to guard property (vessels, themes) gone aground and no longer ser­ vicable? And, if so, will it be our fate to be clubbed and devoured by speakers of the strange language whom we have ye t to encounter? One wonders. -AVRAM D AVIDSON

4 Sounds, seas, jewels, deserts, flowers, cry.stals . . . these are things which ]. G. Ballard in a very short time has nuule distinctively and peculiarly his-and distinctively and peculiarly beautiful as see, for instance, his THE GARDEN OF TIME (F & SF, Feb. 1962) and NOW WAKES THE SEA (May 1963). He has broken down the walls which Literature, no less than Nature, had seemed to erect between seemingly disparate elements, and from this breech has emerged his own strange beauty. Mr. Ballard is in his early thirties, was born in Shanghai (and interned there during the War), read medicine at Cambridge, has been a copy­ writer and an RAF pilot. He says, "The biggest development of the immediate future will take place, not on the Moon or Mars, but on Earth, and it is inner space, not outer, that needs to be ex­ plored."-And concludes: "The only truly alien planet is Earth."

THE ILLUMINATED MAN

by J. G. Ballard

By day fantastic birds flew through the petri­ fied forest, and jewelled alligators glittered like heraldic salamanders on the banks of the crys­ talline rivers. By night the illuminated man raced among the trees, his arms like golden cartwheels, his head like a spectral crown . • • •

DURING THE LAST YEAR, SINCE three focal areas in Florida, Bye­ the news of what is now variously lorussia and Madagascar that I known as the Hubble Effect, the feel it necessary to preface my own Rostov-Lysenko Syndrome and the account of the phenomenon with LePage Amplification Synchrono­ the assurance that it is entirely clasmiquc first gained world-wide based upon first-hand experience. attention, there have been so All the events I describe were wit­ many conflicting reports from the nessed by myself during the re- 5 6 FAI'TASY Al'D SCIESCE FICTION cent, almost tragic visit to the momentous events in Florida with Florida Everglades arranged by the a shrug, confident that some United States government for the means will be found to avert the scientific attaches in Washington. crisis when it comes. The only facts I was not able to And yet it now seems obvious verify are the details of Charles that the real crisis is long past. Foster Marquand's life which I Tucked away on a back page of obtained from Captain Shelley, the the same New York Times is a late chief of police at l\faynard, short report of the sighting of an­ and although he was a biassed and other 'double galaxy' by observers untrustworthv witness I feel that at the Hubble Institute on Mount in this single case he was almost Palomar. The news is summarised certainly accurate. in less than a dozen lines and How much longer remains be­ without comment, although the fore all of us, wherever we are, be­ implication is inescapable that yet come expert authorities upon the another focal area has been set up exact nature of the Hubble Effect somewhere on the earth's surface, is still open to conjecture. As I perhaps in the temple-filled jun­ write, here within the safety and gles of Cambodia or the haunted peace of the garden of the British amber forests of the Chilean high­ Embassy at Puerto Rico, I see a re­ land. But it is only a year since port in today's New York Times the Mount Palomar astronomers that the whole of the Florida penin­ identified the first double galaxy sula, with the exception of a sin­ in the constellation Andromeda, gle highway to Tampa, has been the great oblate diadem that is closed and that to date some three probably the most beautiful object million of the state's inhabitants in the universe, the island galaxy have been resettled in other parts M31. of the United States. But apart Although these sightings by now from the estimated losses in real es­ seem commonplace, and at least tate values and hotel revenues half a dozen 'double constellations' ("Oh, Miami," I cannot help say­ can be picked from the night sky ing to myself, "you city of a thou­ on any evening of the week, four sand cathedrals to the rainbow months ago when the party of sci­ sun") the news of this extraordi­ entific attaches landed at Miami nary human migration seems to Airport on a conducted tour of have prompted little comment. the stricken area there was still Such is mankind's innate opti­ widespread ignorance of what the mism, our conviction that we can Hubble Effect (as the phenome­ survive any deluge or cataclysm, non had been christened in the that we unconsciously dismiss the \Vestern Hemisphere. and the THE ILLUMINATED MAN 7 English-speaking world) actually hinterland of the island-was involved. Apart from a handful of about 1 50 miles from the nearest forestry workers and biologists road-head and totally inaccessible, from the U.S. Department of Agri­ while the Soviet authorities had culture, few qualified observers clamped a security cordon as tight had witnessed the phenomenon as Los Alamos's around their own and there were implausible stories affected area in the Pripet Marshes in the newspapers of the forest of Byelorussia, where a legion of 'crystallising' and everything 'turn­ scientific workers under the leader­ ing into coloured glass.' ship of the metabiologist Lysenko One unfortunate consequence (all, incidentally, chasing a com­ of the Hubble Effect is that it is plete red herring) was analysing virtually impossible to photograph every facet of the inexplicable anything transformed by it. As any phenomenon. reader of scientific journals knows, Before any political capital glassware is extremely difficult to could be made from this campaign, reproduce, and even ·blocks of the the Department of Agriculture in highest screen on the best quality Washington announced that all art papers-let alone the coarse facilities for inspection would be blocks used on newsprint-have gladly provided, and the invita­ failed to reproduce the brilliant tion to the scientific attaches pro­ multi-facetted lattices of the Hub­ ceeded as part of the programme ble EffeCt, with their myriads of of technical missions and tours. interior prisms, as anything more As we drove westwards from than a vague blur like half-melted Miami Airport it was immediately snow. obvious that in a sense the news­ Perhaps in retaliation, the papers had been right, and that newspapers had begun to suggest there was far more to the Hubble that the secrecy which surrounded Effect than the official handouts the affected area in the Everglades had let us believe. The highway -then no more than three or four to Maynard had been closed to acres of forest to the north-east of gener~l traffic, and our bus twice Maynard-was being deliberately overtook military convoys within imposed by the administration, twenty miles of Miami. In addi­ and a clamour was raised about tion, as if to remind us of the ce­ the rights of inspection and the lestial origin of the phenomenon, unseen horrors concealed from the the news of yet another manifes­ public. It so happened that the tation came through on the radio focal area discovered by Professor bulletins. Auguste LePage in Madagascar­ "There's an Associated Press re­ in the Matarre Valley, far into the port from New Delhi,'' George 8 FANTASY ... KD SCIE!I;CE FICTJOX Schneider, the West German at· could believe tl1at." Sidney Res· tache, came aft to tell us. "This ton, of the State Department, who time there are millions of reliable was acting as our courier, inter· witnesses. Apparently it should rupted his conversation with the have been plainly visible in the U.S. Army major in charge of the Western Hemisphere last night. bus to sit down with us. "But it Did none of you see it?" looks as if they're very much con· Paul Mathieu, our French con· nected. All the other satellites frere, pulled a droll face. "Last aloft are showing the same in· night I was looking at the moon, f,:reased albedo, seems more and my dear George, not the Echo sa tel· more like a case of 'Hubble bubble, lite. It sounds ominous, but if double trouble.' " Venus now has two lamps, so This absurd jingle echoed in much the better." my ears as we neared the eastern Involuntarily we looked out fringes of Big Cypress Swamp. through the windows, searching Five miles from Maynard we left above the roadside pines for any the highway and turned on to a glimpse of the Echo satellite. Ac· rough track which ran through cording to the AP reports its lumi­ the date palms towards the Opoto­ nosity had increased by at least ka River. The surface of the road ten-fold, transforming the thin had been churned by scores of pinpoint of light which had bur­ tracked vehicles, and a substantial rowed across the night sky for so military camp had been set up many faithful years into a brilliant among the great oaks, the lines of luminary outshone only by the tents hidden by the grey festqons moon. All over Asia, from the of the spanish moss. Large piles of refugee camps on the shores of the collapsible metal fencing were be· Jordan to the crowded tenements ing unloaded from the trucks, and of Shanghai, it was being ob­ I noticed a squad of men painting served at the very moment we were a number of huge black signs with a making our fifty-mile drive to vivid luminous paint. Maynard. "Are we going on manoeuvres, "Perhaps the balloon is break­ major?" the Swedish member of ing up," I suggested in a lame ef­ our party complained as the dust fort to revive our spirits. "The filled the cabin. "Why have we left fragments of aluminium paint will the highway?" be highly reflective and form a lo­ "The highway is closed," the cal cloud like a gigantic mirror. major replied evenly. "You'll be It's probably nothing to do with taken on a tour of the site, I as­ the Hubble Effect." sure you, gentlemen. The only ''I'm sorry, James, I wish we safe approach is by river." THE IllUMINATED MAN 9 "Safe approach?" I repeated to none of us and we were in high Reston. "I say, what is this, Sid­ spirits when we set off down the ney?" river in three of the landing craft, "Just the army, James," he as­ the green walls of the forest slip­ sured me, "you know what they're ping past on either side. I noticed like in emergencies. If a tree immediately the quieter mood, by moves they declare war on it." contrast, of the passenger beside With a shake of his head he me. A slimly built man of about peered out at the activity around forty, he was wearing a white us. "But I admit I can't see why tropical suit which emphasised the they have to proclaim martial thin rim of dark beard framing law." his face. His black hair was Reaching the bank of the river, brushed low over a bony forehead, where half a dozen amphibious and with the jaundiced gaze in vehicles were moored by a floating his small liquid eyes gave him the quay, we debarked from the bus appearance of a moody D. H. and were taken into a large quon­ Lawrence. I made one or two at­ set used for briefing visitors. Here tempts to talk to him, but he we found some fifty or sixty other smiled briefly and looked away notables-senior members of gov­ across the water. I assumed that ernment laboratories, public he was one of the research chem­ health officials and science jour­ ists or biologists. nalists-who had been brought by Two miles downstream we met a bus from Miami earlier that morn­ small convoy of motor launches ing. The atmosphere of light­ harnessed together behind a land­ hearted banter barely concealed a ing craft. All of them were growing uneasiness, but the elabo­ crammed with cargo, their decks rate precautions of the military and cabin roofs loaded with house­ still seemed ludicrously exagger­ hold possessions of every sort, ated. After an interval for coffee baby carriages and mattresses, we were officially welcomed and washing machines and bundles of issued with our instructions for the linen, so that there were only a day. These warned us in particular few precarious inches of freeboard to remain strictly within the amidships. Solemn-faced children marked perimeters, not to attempt sat with suitcases on their knees to obtain any of the 'contaminated above the freight, and they and materiaf, and above all never to their parents gazed at us stonily linger at any one spot but always as we passed. to remain in rapid motion. Now it is a curious thing, but Needless to say, the pantomime one seldom sees on the faces of humour of all this was lost on Americans the expression of wan 10 FAl\"TASY A!IID SCIENCE FICTIO!Ii resignation all too familiar to the yields are increased because traveller elsewhere in the world, there's an increase in tissue that sense of cowed helplessness weight. But the Hubble Effect is before natural or political disaster much closer to a cancer as far as seen in the eyes of refugees from we 6:an see-and about as curable CapOI'etto to Korea, and its un­ -a proliferation of the sub­ mistakeable stamp upon the fami­ atomic identity of all matter. It's lies moving past us abruptly put almost as if a sequence of dis­ an end to our light-hearted mood. placed but identical images were As the last of the craft pushed being produced by refraction slowly through the disturbed wa­ through a prism, but with the ele­ ter we all turned and watched it ment of time replacing the role of silently, aware that in a sense it light." As it transpired, these were carried ourselves. prophetic words. ''What is going on?" I said to We were rounding a bend as the bearded man. "They look as if the river widened in its approach they're evacuating the town!" towards Maynard, and the water He laughed briefly, finding an around the two landing craft unintended irony in my remark. ahead was touched bv a curious "Agreed-it's pretty pointless! But roseate sheen, as if refl~cting a dis­ I guess they'Jl come back in due tant sunset or the flames of some course." vast silent conflagration. The sky, Irritated by this elliptical com­ however, remained a bland limpid ment, delivered in a curt off-hand blue, devoid of all cloud. Then voice-he had looked away again, we passed below a small bridge, engrossed upon some more inter­ where the river opened into a wide esting inner topic-I turned and basin a quarter of a mile in diame­ joined my colleagues. ter. "But why is the Russian With a simultaneous gasp of approach so different?" George surprise we all craned forward, Schneider was asking. "Is the staring at the line of jungle facing Hubble Effect the same as this the white-framed buildings of the Lysenko Gyndrome? Perhaps it is a town. Instantly I realised that the different phenomenon?" descriptions of the forest 'crystal­ One of the Department of Agri­ lising' and 'turning into coloured culture biologists, a grey-haired glass' were exactly truthful. The man carrying his jacket over one long arc of trees hanging over the arm, shook his head. "No, they're water dripped and glittered with almost certainly identical. Lysenko myriads of prisms, the trunks and as usual is wasting the Soviets' fronds of the date palms sheathed time. He maintains that crop by bars of livid yellow and car- THE JLLU~li!'i;ATED MAN ll mine light that bled away across coloured bars across our clothes the surface of the water, so that transforming us into a boatload of the whole scene seemed to be re­ harlequins. There wa& a spontane­ produced by an over-active techni­ ous rowtd of laughter, more in re­ color process. The entire length lief than amusement. Then sev­ of the opposite shore glittered with eral arms pointed to the water­ this blurred chiaroscuro, the over­ line, where we saw that the process lapping bands of colour increas­ had not affected the vegetation ing the density of the vegetation, alone. Extending outwards for two so that it was impossible to see or three yards from the bank were more than a few feet between the the long splinters of what ap­ front line of trunks. peared to be crystallising water, The sky was clear and motion­ the angular facets emitting a blue less, the hot sunlight shining un­ prismatic light washed by the wake interruptedly upon this magnetic from our craft. These splinters shore, but now and then a stir of were growing in the water like wind would cross the water and crystals in a chemical solution, ac­ the trees erupted into cascades of creting more and more material to rippling colour that lanced away themselves, so that along the bank iato the air around us. Then, there was a congested mass of slowly, the coruscation subsided rhomboidal spears like the length­ and the images of the individual ening barbs of a reef. trunks, each sheathed in its bril­ Surprised by the extent of the liant armour of light, reappeared, phenomenon-! had expected, their dipping foliage loaded with perhaps under the influence of the deliquescing jewels. Lysenko theories, little more than Everyone in our craft was gap­ an unusual plant disease, such as ing at this spectacle, the vivid tobacco mosaic-I gazed up at crystal light dappling our faces the overhanging trees. Unmistake­ and clothes, and even my bearded ably each was still alive, its leaves companion was moved by astonish­ and boughs filled with sap, and yet ment. Clasping the seat in front at the same time each was en­ of him, he leaned across the rail, cased in a mass of crystalline tis­ the white fabric of his suit trans­ sue like an immense glace fruit. formed into a brilliant palimpsest. Everywhere the branches and Our craft moved in a wide arc fronds were encrusted by the same towards the quay, where a score of translucent lattice, through power cruisers were being loaded which the sunlight was refracted by the townsfolk, and we came into rainbows of colour. within some fifty yards of the pris­ A hubbub of speculation broke matic jungle, the hatchwork of out in our craft, during which only 12 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION myself and the bearded nian re­ suit, as if encouraging me. To my mained silent. For some reason I astonishment a faint multicol­ suddenly felt less concerned to oured dappling still remained, de­ find a so-called 'scientific' explana· spite the shadows of the people tion for the strange phenomenon getting to their feet around us, as we had seen. The beauty of the if the light from the forest had spectacle had stirred my memory, contaminated the fabric and set off and a thousand images of child­ the process anew. "What on-? ,hood, forgotten for nearly forty Wait!" I called. years, now filled my mind, recall­ But before I could speak to him ing the paradisal world of one's he stood up and hurried down the earliest years when everything gangway, the last pale shimmer seems illuminated by that prismatic from his suit disappearing along light described so exactly by the crowded quay. Wordsworth in his recollections of Our party was divided into sev· childhood. Since the death of my eral smaller groups, each accom­ wife and three-year-old daughter panied by two NCO's, and we in a car accident ten years earlier moved off past the queue of cars I had deliberately repressed such and trucks loaded with the towns­ feelings, and the vivid magical folk's possessions. The families shore before us seemed to glow waited their turn patiently, flagged like the brief forgotten spring of on by the local police, eyeing us my marriage. without interest. The streets were But the presence of so many almost deserted, and these were soldiers and military vehicles, and the last people to go-the houses the wan-faced townsfolk evacuat­ were empty, shutters sealed across ing their homes, ensured that the the windows, and soldiers paced little enclave of the transfigured in pairs past the closed banks and forest-by comparison the re· stores. The sidestreets were packed mainder of the Everglades basin with abandoned cars, confirming seemed a drab accumulation of that the river was the only route peat, muck and marls-would soon of escape from the town. be obliterated, the crystal trees As we walked along the main dismembered and carried away to street, the glowing jungle visible a hundred antiseptic laboratories. two hundred yards away down the At the front of the landing intersections on our left, a police craft the first passengers began to car swerved into the street and debark. A h~md touched my arm, came to a halt in front of us. Two and the white-suited man, appar­ men stepped out, a tall blond­ ently aware of my mood, pointed haired police captain and a clergy­ with a smile at the sleeve of his man carrying a small suitcase and HiE lLLUl\liNATED MAN 13 a parcel of books. The latter was of strong physique, there was about thirty-five, with a high something weak and self-centered scholar's forehead and tired eyes. about his long fleshy face and pale He seemed uncertain which way blue eyes, and obviously his one to go, and waited as the police remaining ambition, having emp­ captain strode briskly around the tied the town of its inhabitants, car. was to clear out at the first oppor­ "You'll need your embarkation tunity. card, Dr. Thomas." The captain I turned to the corporal loung­ handed a ~oloured ticket to the ing by a fire hydrant and pointed minister, and then fished a set of to the glowing vegetation which keys attached to a mahogany peg seemed to follow us, skirting the from his pocket. "I took these from perimeter of the town. "Why is the door. You must have left them everyone leaving, corporal? Sure­ in the lock." ly it's not infectious-there's no The priest hesitated, uncertain danger from close contact?" whether to take the keys. "I left The corporal glanced laconical­ them there deliberately, captain. ly over his shoulder at the crystal­ Someone may want to take refuge line foliage glittering in the me­ in the church." ridian sunlight. "It's not infec­ "I doubt it, Doctor. Wouldn't tious. Unless you stay in there too help them, anyway." The captain long. When it cut the road both waved briefly. "See you in Miami." sides of town I guess most people Acknowledging the salute, the decided it was time to pull out." priest stared at the keys in his "Both sides?" George Schneider palm, then slipped them reluctant­ echoed. "How big is the affected ly into his cassock. As he walked area, corporal? We were told three past us towards the wharf his moist or four acres." eyes searched our faces with a The soldier shook his h~ad troubled gaze, as if he suspected doufly. "More like three or four that a member of his congregation hundred. Or thousand, even." He might be hiding in our midst. pointed to the helicopter circling The police captain appeared the forest a mile or so away, soar­ equally fatigued, and began a sharp ing up and down over the date dialogue with the officer in charge palms, apparently spraying them of our parties. His words were with some chemical. "Reaches lost in the general conversation, right over there, towards Lake but he pointed impatiently be­ Okeechobee." yond the roof-tops with a wide "But you have it under con­ sweep of one arm, as if indicating trol," George said. "You're cutting the approach of a storm. Although it back all right?" 14 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION ''\Vouldn't like to say," the cor­ ferns which rose from the brittle poral replied cryptically. He indi­ ground. The sandy surface seemed cated the blond policeman remon­ curiously hard and annealed, strating with the supervising of­ small spurs of fused sand protrud­ ficer. "Captain Shelley tried a ing from the newly formed crust. flame thrower on it a couple of Examining the specimens col­ days ago. Didn't help any." lected on the tables, I touched the The policeman's objections smooth glass-like material that over-ruled-he slammed the door sheathed the leaves and branches, of his car and drove off in dud­ following the contours of the origi­ geon-we set off once more and at nal like a displaced image in a de­ the next intersection approached fective mirror. Everything ap­ the forest, which stood back on ei­ peared to have been dipped in a ther side of the road a quarter of a vat of molten glass, which had mile away. The vegetation was then set into a skin fractured by sparser, the sawgrass growing in slender veins. clumps among the sandy soil on A few yards from the trailer two the verges, and a mobile labora­ technicians were spinning several tory had been set up in a trailer, encrusted branches in a centri­ 'U.S. Department of Agriculture' fuge. There was a continuous stencilled on its side. A platoon of glimmer and sparkle as splinters soldiers was wandering about, tak­ of light glanced out of the bowl ing cuttings from the palmettos and vanished into the brilliant air and date palms, which they care­ like an electrical discharge. All fully placed like fragments of over the inspection area, as far as stained glass on a series of trestle the perimeter fence running like a tables. The main body of the for­ serrated white bandage around the est curved around us, circling the prismatic wound of the forest, peo­ northern perimeter of the town, ple turned to watch. and we immediately saw that the When the centrifuge stopped we corporal had been correct in his peered into the bowl, where a estimate of the affected area's ex­ handful of limp branches, their tent. Parallel with us one block to blanched leaves clinging damply the north was the main Maynard­ to the metal bottom, lay stripped Miami highway, cut off by the of their glace sheaths. Below the glowing forest on both the eastern bowl, however, the liquid recepta­ and western approaches to the cle remained dry and empty. town. Twenty yards from the forest a Splitting up into two's and second helicopter prepared for three's, we crossed the verge and take-off, its drooping blades ro­ began to wander among the glace tating like blunted scythes, the THE ILLUMINATED MAN 15 down-drought sending up a show­ Several soldiers ran ahead of er of light from the disturbed vege­ us, waving us back, but we ig­ tation. With an abrupt lurch it nored them and hurried on through made a laboured ascent, swinging the trees. After only fifty yards we sideways through the air, and then were well within the body of the moved away across the forest roof, forest, and had entered an en­ its churning blades apparently chanted world, the spanish moss gaining little purchase on the air. investing the great oaks with bril­ There was a confused shout of liant jewelled trellises. The air was 'Fire!' from the soldiers below, and markedly cooler, as if everything we could see clearly the vivid dis­ were sheathed in ice, but a cease­ charge of light which radiated less play of radiant light poured from the blades like St. Elmo's through the stained-glass canopy fire. Then, with an agonised roar overhead, turning the roof of the like the bellow of a stricken ani­ forest into a continuous three-di­ mal, the aircraft slid backwards mensional kaleidoscope. through the air and plunged to­ The process of crystallisation wards the forest canopy a hundred was here far more advanced. The feet below, the two pilots plainly white fences along the road were visible at their controls. Sirens so heavily encrusted that they sounded from the staff cars parked formed an unbroken palisade, the around the inspection area, and frost at least a foot thick on either there was a concerted rush to­ side of the palings. The few houses wards the forest as the helicopter between the trees glistened like disappeared from sight. wedding cakes, their plain white As we raced along the road we roofs and chimneys transformed felt its impact with the ground, into exotic minarets and baroque and a sudden pulse of light domes. On a lawn of green glass drummed through the trees. The spurs a child's toy, perhaps once a road led towards the point of the red tricycle with yellow wheels, crash, a few houses looming at in­ glittered like a Faberge gem, the tervals at the ends of empty wheels starred into brilliant jasper drives. crowns. Lying there, it reminded "The blades. must have crystal­ me of my daughter's toys scattered lised while it was standing near on the lawn after my return from the trees!" George Schneider the hospital. They had glowed for shouted as we climbed over the a last time with the same pris­ perimeter fence. "You could see matic light. the crystals melting, but not quickly The soldiers were still ahead of enough. Let's hope the pilots are me, but George and Paul Mathieu all right." had fallen behind. Leaning against 16 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION the frosted white fencing, they ing the needles into spurs of basalt. were plucking the soles of their The panoply of coloured light had shoes. By now it was obvious why vanished, and a dim amber gloom the Miami-Maynard highway had moved across the trees, shadowing been closed. The surface of the the sequinned lawns. road was pierced by a continuous Simultaneously it had become carpet of needles, spurs of glass and colder. Leaving the car, I started quartz as much as six inches high, to make my way down the road­ reflecting the coloured light Paul Mathieu and a soldier, hands through the leaves above. The shielding their faces, were disap­ spurs tore at my shoes, forcing me pearing around a bend-but the to move hand over hand along the icy air blocked my path like a re­ verge of the road, where a section frigerated wall. Turning up the of heavier fencing marked the ap­ collar of my tropical suit, I re­ proach to a distant mansion. treated to the car, wondering Behind me a siren whined, and whether to take refuge inside it. the police car I had seen earlier The cold deepened, numbing my plunged along the road, its heavy face like a spray of acetone, and tires cutting through the crystal my hands felt brittle and Heshless. surface. Twenty yards ahead it Somewhere I heard the hollow rocked to a halt, its engine stalled, shout of the police captain, and and the police captain jumped out. caught a glimpse of someone run­ With an angry shout he waved me ning at full speed through the ice­ back down the road, now a tunnel grey trees. of yellow light formed by the inter­ On the right-hand side of the locking canopies overhead. road the darkness completely en­ "Get back! There's another wave 'Veloped the forest, masking the coming!" He ran after the soldiers outlines of the trees, and then ex­ a hundred yards away, his boots tended in a sudden sweep across crushing the crystal carpet. the roadway. My eyes smarted with Wondering why he should be pain, and I brushed away the so keen to clear the forest, I rested small crystals of ice which had for a moment by the police car. A formed over my eyeballs. Every­ noticeable change had come over where a heavy frost was forming, the forest, as if dusk had begun to accelerating the process of crystal­ fall prematurely from the sky. Ev­ lisation. The spurs in the roadway erywhere the glace sheaths which were now over a foot in height, enveloped the trees and vegetation like the spines of a giant porcu­ had become duller and more pine, and the lattices between the opaque, and the crystal floor under­ tree-trunks were thicker and more foot was grey and occluded, turn- trans~ucent, so that the original THE ILLUMINATED MAN 17 trunks seemed to shrink into a whether to follow him, I watched mottled thread within them. The the approaching wall of datkness interlocking leaves formed a contin­ slowly cress the lawn, the glitter­ uous mosaic, the crystal elements ing foliage overhead sinking into thickening and overlaying each its pall. The police car was now other. For the first time I suddenly encrusted by a thick layer of frozen visualised the possibility of the glass, its windshield blossoming entire forest freezing solidly into into a thousand fleur-de-lis crys­ a huge coloured glacier, with my­ tals. self trapped within its interstices. Quickly making my way around The windows of the car and the the house as the zone of safety black body were now sheathed in moved off through the forest, I an ice-like film. Intending to open crossed the remains of an old the door so that I could switch on vegetable garden, where seed­ the heater, I reached for the han­ plants of green glass three feet dle, but my fingers were burned by high rose into the air like exquisite the intense cold. ornamented sculptures. I reached "You there! Come on! This the forest again and waited there way!" as the zone hesitated and veered Behind me, the voice echoed off, trying to remain within the down the drive. As the darkness centre of its focus. I seemed to and cold deepened, I saw the po­ have entered a subterranean cav­ lice captain waving to me from the ern, where jewelled rocks loomed colonnade of the mansion. The from the spectral gloom like huge lawn between us seemed to belong marine plants, the sprays of crystal to a less sombre zone. The grass sawgrass like white fountains still retained its vivid liquid spar­ frozen in time. kle and the white eaves of the For the next hour I raced help­ house were etched clearly against lessly through the forest, my sense the surrounding darkness, as if of direction lost, driven by the this enclave were preserved like an swerving walls of the zone of island in the eye of a hurricane. safety as it twisted like a benign I ran up the drive towards the tornado among the trees. Several house, and with relief found that times I crossed the road, where the air was at least ten degrees the great spurs were almost waist warmer. The sunlight shone high, forced to clamber over the through the leafy canopy with un­ brittle stems. Once, as I rested interrupted brilliance. Reaching against the trunk of a bifurcated the portico, I searched for the po­ oak, an immense multicoloured lice captain, but he had run off in­ bird erupted from a bough over to the forest again. Uncertain my head and flew off with a wild lS FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION screech, an aureole of molten light alone prevented it from erupting cascading from its red and· yellow into the exotic spur-like forms of wings, like the birth-flames of a the remainder of the forest floor. phoenix. As I paused by the boat, feeling At last the strange whirlpool the huge topaz and amethyst subsided and a pale light filtered stones encrusted along its sides, a through the stained glass canopy, grotesque four-legged creature half transfiguring everything with its embedded in the surface lurched iridescence. Again the forest was a forwards through the crust, the place of rainbows, the deep car­ loosened pieces of the lattice at­ mine light glowing from the jew­ tached to its snout and shoulders elled grottos. I walked along a nar­ shaking like a transparent cuirass. row road which wound towards Its jaws mouthed the air silently as a great white house standing like a it struggled on its hooked legs, un­ classical pavilion on a rise in the able to clamber more than a few centre of the forest. Transformed feet from the hollow trough in its by the crystal frost, it appeared to own outJine now filling with a thin be an intact fragment of Versailles trickle of water. Invested by the or Fontainbleu, its ornate pilasters glittering sparkle of light that and sculptured friezes spilling poured from its body, the alligator from the wide roof which over­ resembled some fabulous armourial topped the forest. From the upper beast. It lunged towards me again Boors I would be able to see the with sudden energy, and I kicked distant water-towers at Maynard, its snout, scattering the crystals or at least trace the serpentine which choked its mouth. progress of the river. Leaving it to subside once more The road narrowed, declining into a frozen posture, I climbed the slope which led up to the the bank and limped across the house, but its annealed crust, like lawn towards the mansion, whose half-fused quartz, offered a more fairey towers loomed above the comfortable surface than the crys­ prismatic trees. Although out of tal teeth of the lawn. Suddenly I breath ·and almost completely came across what was unmistake­ exhausted, I had a curious premo­ ably a jewelled rowing boat set nition of hope and longing, as if I solidly into the roadway, a chain were some fugitive Adam chanc­ of lapis lazuli mooring it to the ing upon a forgotten gateway to verge. Then I realised that I was the lost paradise. walking along a small tributary of High in an upstairs window, a the river. A thin stream of water shot-gun cradled in his arm, the still ran below the solid crust, and bearded man in the white suit evidently this vestigial motion watched me reflectively. THE ILLUMINATED MAN 19 Now that ample evidence of the total store of time. It is random Hubble Effect is available to scien­ discharges of this type, set off by tific workers throughout the world, the creation of anti-galaxies in there is general agreement upon its space, which have led to the de­ origins and the few temporary pletion of the time-store available measures whkh can be taken to re­ to the materials of om own solar verse its progress. Under pressure system. of necessity during my flight Just as a supersaturated solu­ through the forests of the Ever­ tion will discharge itself into a glades I had discovered the princi­ crystalline mass, so the supersatu­ pal remedy-to remain in rapid ration of matter in a continuum of motion-but I still assumed that depleted time leads to its appear­ some accelerated genetic mutation ance in a parallel spatial matrix. was responsible, even though such As more and more time 'leaks' inanimate objects as cars and away, the process of supersatura­ metal fencing were equally af­ tion continues, the original atoms fected. However, by now even the and molecules producing spatial Lysenkoists have grudgingly ac­ replicas of themselves, substance cepted the explanation given by without mass, in ar. attempt to in­ workers at the Hubble Institute, crease their foothold upon exist­ that the random transfigurations ence. The process is theoretically throughout the world are a reflec­ without end, and it is possible tion of distant cosmic processes of eventually for a single atom to pro­ enormous scope and dimensions, duce an infinite number of dupli­ first glimpsed in the Andromeda cates of itself and so fill the entire spiral. universe, from which simultane­ We know now that it is time ously all time has expired, an ulti­ ('Time with the Midas touch,' as mate macrocosmic zero beyond the Charles Marquand described it) wildest dreams of Plato and De­ which is responsible for the trans­ mocritus. formation. The recent discovery of anti-matter in the universe inevi­ As I lay back on one of the tably involves the conception of glass-embroidered chesterfields in anti-time as the fourth side of this the bedroom upstairs, the bearded negatively charged continuum. man in the white suit explained Where anti-particle and particle something of this to me in his collide they not only destroy their sharp intermittent voice. He still own physical identities, but their stood by the open window, peering opposing time-values eliminate down at the lawn and the crystal each other, subtracting from the stream where the jewelled boat universe another quantum from its and the alligator lay embalmed, 20 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION driving the butt of his shot-gun We made our way down the through the broken panes as they crystal stairway. Everything in the annealed themselves. His thin house was covered by the same beard gave him a fevered and glace sheath, embellished by ex­ haunted aspect. For some reason quisite curlicues and helixes. In he spoke to me as if to an old the wide lounges the ornate Louis friend. XV furniture had been trans­ "Damn it, B--, it was obvi­ formed into huge pieces of opales­ ous years ago," he said with dis­ cent candy, whose countless reflec­ gust. "Look at the viruses with tions glowed like giant chimeras in their crystalline structure, neither the cut-glass walls. As we disap­ animate nor inanimate, and their peared through the trees towards immunity to time." He swept a the stream my companion shouted hand along the sill and scooped exultantly, as much to the forest as up a cluster of the vitreous to myself: "\Ve're running out of grains, then scattered them across time, B--, running out of the Boor like smashed marbles. time!" "You and I will be like them soon, Always he was on the look-out and the rest of the world. Neither for the police captain. Which of living nor dead!" them was searching for the other He broke off to raise his shot­ I could not discover, nor the sub­ gun, his dark eyes searching be­ ject of their blood-feud. I had vol­ tween the trees. "We must move unteered my name to him, but he Qn," he announced, leaving the brushed aside the introduction. I window. "When did you last see guessed that he had sensed some €aptain Shelley?" spark of kinship as we sat together "The police captain?" I sat up in the landing craft, and that he weakly, my feet slipping on the was a man who would plunge his floor. Several plate glass windows entire sympathy or hostility upon appeared to have been fractured such a chance encounter. He told and then fused together above the me nothing of himself. Shot-gun .carpet. The ornate Persian pat· cradled under his arm, he moved terns swam below the surface like rapidly along the fossilised stream, the floor of some perfumed pool his movements neat and deliber­ in the Arabian Nights. "Just after ate, while I limped behind. Now we ran to search for the helicop­ and then we passed a jewelled ter. Why are you afraid of him?" power cruiser embedded in the I asked, but he shook his head ir­ crust, or a petrified alligator would ritably at the question. rear upwards and grimace at us "He's a venomous man," he re­ noiselessly, its crystalline skin plied. "As cunning as a pig." ~lowing with a thousand prisms THE ILLUMINATED MAN 21 as it shifted in a fault of coloured At last we reached the fringes glass. of a sman clearing, bounded on Everywhere there was the same three sides by the fractured danc­ fantastic corona of light, trans­ ing Boor of a river bend, where a figuring and identifying all ob­ high-gabled summer house pushed jects. The forest was an endless its roof towards the sky through a lab)Tinth of glass caves, sealed off break in the overhead canopy. from the remainder of the world From the single spire a slender web (which, as far as I knew, by now of opaque strands extended to the might be similarly affected), lit by surrounding trees, like a diapha­ subterranean lamps. nous veil, investing the glass gar­ "Can't we get back to Maynard?" den and the crystalline summer I shouted after him, my voice echo­ house with a pale marble sheen, ing among the vaults. "We're going almost sepulchral in its intensity. deeper into the forest." As if reinforcing this impression, "The town is cut off, my dear the windows on to the veranda B--. Don't worry, I'll take you running around the house were there in due course." He leapt now encrusted with elaborate nimbly over a fissure in the surface scroll-like designs, like the orna­ of the river. Below the mass of dis­ mented stone casements of a solving cry&tals a thin stream of tomb. fluid rilled down a buried channel. Waving me back, my compan­ For several hours, led by this ion approached the fringes of the strange white-suited figure with garden, his shot-gun raised be.fore his morose preoccupied gaze, we him. He darted from tree to tree, moved through the forest, some­ pausing for any sign of movement, times in complete circles as if my then crossed the frozen surface of companion were familiarising the river with a feline step. High himself with the topography of that above him, its wings pinioned by jewelled twilight world. When I the glass canopy, a golden oriole sat down to rest on one of the vitri­ flexed slowly in the afternoon fied trunks and brushed away the light, liquid ripples of its aura crystals now forming on the soles circling outwards like the rays of a of my shoes, despite our constant miniature sun. movements-the air was always "Marquand!" icy, the dark shadows perpetually A shot roared into the clearing, closing and unfolding around us its report echoing around the glass -he would wait impatiently, trees, and the blond-haired police watching me with ruminative eyes captain raced towards the sum­ as if deciding whether to abandon mer house, a revolver in his hand. me to the forest. As he fired again the crystal trel- 22 FAl\TASY Al\D SCIENCE FICTION lises of the spanish moss shattered a madman, completely crazy." He and frosted, collapsing around me started to walk up the steps, ap­ like a house of mirrors. Leaping parently prepared to let me make down from the veranda, the beard­ my own way into the forest. "You'd ed man made off like a hare across better be careful, there's no know­ the river, bent almost double as he ing what the forest is going to do. darted over the faults in the sur­ Keep moving but circle around on face. yourself, or you'll get lost." The rapidity with which all this "Wait a minute!" I called after had happened left me standing him. "Can't I rest here? I need a helplessly by the edge of the clear­ map-perhaps you have a spare ing, my ears ringing with the two one?" explosions. I searched the forest "A map? What good's a map for any signs of my companion, now?" He hesitated as my arms and then the police captain, stand­ fell limply to my sides. "All right, ing on the veranda, gestured me you can come in for five minutes.'' towards him with his pistol. This concession to humanity was "Come here!" When I tentative­ obviously torn from him. ly approached he came down the The summer house consisted of steps, scrutinising me suspiciously. a single circular room and a small "What are you doing around kitchen at the rear. Heavy shutters here? Aren't you one of the visit­ had been placed against the win­ ing party?" dows, now locked to the casements I explained that I had been by the interstitial crystals, and the trapped after the crash of the only light entered through the helicopter. "Can you take me back door. to the army post? I've been wan­ Shelley holstered his pistol and dering around the forest all day." turned the door handle gently. A morose frown twisted his long Through the frosted panes were face. 'The Army's a long way off. the dim outlines of a high four­ The forest's changing all the time." poster bed, presumably stolen from He pointed across the river. one of the nearby mansions. Gild­ "What about Marquand? Where ed cupids played about the ma­ did you meet him?" hogany canopy, pipes to their "The bearded man? He was lips, and four naked carytids with taking shelter in a house near the upraised arms formed the corner river. Why did you shoot at him? posts. Is he a criminal?'' "Mrs. Shelley," the captain ex­ Shelley nodded after a pause. plained in a low voice. "She's not His manner was somehow furtive too well." and shifty. "Worse than that. He's For a moment we gazed down THE ILLUMINATED MAN 23 at the occupant of the bed, who :counterpane to the stones. Her Jay back on a large satin bolster, a child-like face had become almost febrile hand on the silk counter­ vulpine with greed. Seizing a pane. At first I thought I was look­ handful, she brought them up to ing at an elderly woman, probably her neck and pressed them tightly the captain's mother, and then re­ against her skin, where the bruises alised that in fact she was little formed like fingerprints. Their more than a child, a young woman contact seemed to revive her and in her early twenties. Her long she stirred slowly, several of the platinum hair lay like a white jewels slipping to the floor. shawl over her shoulders, her thin "What were you shooting at, high-cheeked face raised to t~e Shelley?'' she asked after an inter­ scanty light. Once she might have val. "There was a gun going off, it had a nervous porcelain beauty, gave me a headache." but her wasted skin and the fading "Just an alligator, Emerelda. glow of light in her half-closed There are some smart alligators eyes gave her the appearance of around here, I have to watch someone preternaturally aged, re­ them. You get some rest now." minding me of my own wife in the "But, Shelley, I need more of last minutes before her death. these, you only brought me a few "Shelley." Her voice cracked today ...." Her hand, like a faintly in the amber gloom. "Shel­ claw, searched the counterpane. ley, it's getting cold again. Can't Then she turned away from us you light a fire?" and seemed to subside into sleep, "The wood won't burn, Emerel­ the jewels lying like scarabs on the da. It's all turned into glass." The white skin of her breast. captain stood at the foot of the Captain Shelley nudged me and bed, his peaked hat held in his we stepped quietly into the kitch­ hands, peering down solicitously as en. The small cubicle was almost if he were on duty. He unzipped his empty, a disconnected refrigerator leather jacket. "I brought you standing on the cold stove. Shelley these. They'll help you." opened the door and began to He leaned forwartis, hiding empty the remainder of the jewels something from me, and then on to the shelves, where they lay spilled several handfuls of red and like cherries among the half-dozen blue gem-stones across the counter­ cans. A light glace frost covered pane. Rubies and sapphires of the enamel exterior of the refriger­ many sizes, they glittered in the ator, as everything else in the kitch­ thin light with a fevered power. en, but the inner walls remained "Shelley, thank you ...."The unaffected. girl's free hand scuttled across the "Who is she?" I asked as Shelley 24 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FIC'flON pried the lid off a can. "Shouldn't her from leaving the house or see­ you try to get her away from ing anyone except a blind negro here?" servant. Apparently he saw his Shelley stared at me with his bride in a sort of PreRaphaelite ambiguous expression. He seemed dream, caged within his house like always to be concealing some­ the lost spirit of his imagination. thing, his blue eyes fractionally When she finally escaped, with lowered from my own. "She's my Captain Shelley's assistance, he wife," he said with a curious em­ had gone beserk and spent some phasis, as if unsure of the fact. time as a voluntary patient at an "Emerelda. She's safer here, as asylum. Now he had returned long as I watch out for Mar­ with the sole ambition of returning quand." with Emerelda to his house in the ''Why should he want to hurt swamps, and Shelley was con­ her? He seemed sane enough to vinced, perhaps sincerely, that me." his morbid and lunatic presence "He's a psycho!" Shelley said was responsible for Emerelda's with sudden force. "He spent six lingering malaise. months in a straight-jacket! He At dusk I left them, barricaded wants to take Emerelda back to his together in the white sepulcher of crazy house in the middle of the the summer house, and set off in swamp." As an afterthought, he the direction of the river which added: "She was married to Mar-· Shelley said was half a mile away, quand." hoping to follow it to Maynard. As we ate, forking the cold meat With luck an army unit would be straight from the can, he told me stationed at the nearest margins of of the strange melancholy archi­ the affected zone, and the soldiers tect, Charles Foster Marquand, would be able to retrace my steps who had designed several of the and rescue the police captain and largest hotels in Miami and then his dying wife. two years earlier abruptly aban­ Shelley's lack of hospitality did doned his work in disgust. He had not surprise me. In turning me out married Emerelda, after bribing into the forest he was using me her parents, within a few hours of as a decoy, confident that Mar­ seeing her in an amusement park, quand would immediately try to and then carried her away to a reach me for news of his former grotesque folly he had built among wife. As I made my way through the sharks and alligators in the the dark crystal grottos I listened swamp. According to Shelley he for his footsteps, but the glass never spoke to Emerelda after the sheaths of the trees sung and marriage ceremony, and prevented crackled with a thousand voices THE ILLUMINATED MAN as the forest cooled in the darkness. streets, which were waist-high for· Above, through the lattices be­ ests of fossil spurs, the abandoned tween the trees, I could see the cars embedded within them like great fractured bowl of the moon. armoured 5aurians on an ancient Around me, in the vitreous walls, ocean floor. the reflected stars glittered like Everywhere the process of myriads of fireflies. transformation was accelerating. At this time I noticed that my My feet were encased in huge own clothes had begun to glow in crystal slippers. It was these long the dark, the fine frost that cov· spurs which enabled me to walk ered my suit spangled by the star­ along the street, but soon they light. Spurs of crystal grew from would fuse together and lock me the dial of my wrist-watch, im· to the ground. prisoning the hands within a me­ The eastern entrance to the dallion of moonstone. town was sealed by the forest and At midnight I reached the river, the erupting roadway. Limping a causeway of frozen gas that might westwards again, in the hope of have soared high across the Milky returning to Captain Shelley, I Way. Forced to leave it when the passed a small section of the side­ surface broke into a succession of walk that remained clear of all giant cataracts, I approached the growth, below the broken window outskirts of Maynard, passing the of a jewellery store. Handfuls of mobile laboratory used by the De­ looted stones were scattered across partment of Agriculture. The trail­ the _pavement, ruby and emerald er, and the tables and equipment rings, topaz brooches and pen· scattered around it, had been en­ dants, intermingled with count­ veloped by the intense frost, and less smaller stones and industrial the branches in the centrifuge had diamonds that glittered coldly in blossomed again into brilliant jew­ the starlight. elled sprays. I picked up a dis­ As I stood among the stones I carded helmet, now a glass porcu· noticed that the crystal outgrowths pine, and drove it through a from my shoes were dissolving and window of the trailer. melting, like icicles exposed to In the darkness the white· sudden heat. Pieces of the crust roofed houses of the town gleamed fell away and slowly deliquesced, like the funerary temples of a ne­ vanishing without trace into the cropolis, their cornices ornamented air. with countless spires and gar­ Then I realised why Captain goyles; linked together across the Shelley had brought the jewels to roads by the expanding tracery. A his wife, and why she had seized frozen wind moved through the upon them so eagerly. By some 26 FANTASY AND SCIE"CE FICTIU:\ optical or electromagnetic freak, I woke into brillMint sunshine the intense focus of light within in a street of golden temples, a the stones simultaneously produced thousand rainbows spangling the a compression of time, so that the gilded air with a blaze of prismatic discharge of light from the surfaces colours. Shielding my eyes, I lay reversed the process of crystallisa­ back and looked up at the roof­ tion. (Perhaps it is this gift of time tops, their gold tiles apparently which accounts for the eternal ap­ inlaid with thousands of coloured peal of precious gems, as well as gems, like the temple quarter of of all baroque painting and archi­ Bangkok. tecture? Their intricate crests and A hand pulled roughly at my cartouches, occupying more than shoulder. Trying to sit up, I found their own volume of space, so con­ that the semicircle of clear side­ tain a greater ambient time, pro­ walk had vanished, and my body viding that unmistakable premo­ lay sprawled on a bed of sprouting nition of immortality sensed with­ needles. The growth had been in St. Peter's or the palace at most rapid in the entrance to the Nymphenberg. By contrast the ar­ store, and my right arm was en­ chitecture of the 20th century, cased in a mass of crystalline spurs, characteristically one of rectangu­ three or four inches long, that lar unornamcnted facades, of sim­ reached almost to my shoulder. ple Euclidean space and time, is My hand was sheathed in a huge that of the New World, confident frozen gauntlet of prismatic crys­ of its firm footing in the future and tals, almost too heavy to lift, my indifferent to those pangs of mor­ fingers outlined by a rainbow of tality which haunted the mind of colours. old Europe.) Overwhelmed by panic, I man­ Quickly I knelt down and filled aged to drag myself on to my my pockets with the stones, cram­ knees, and found the bearded man ming them into my shirt and cuffs. in the white suit crouching behind I sat back against the store front, me, his shot-gun in his hands. the semi-circle of smooth pave­ "Marquand!" With a cry, I ment like a miniature patio, at raised my jewelled arm. "For God's whose edges the crystal under­ sake!" growth glittered like a spectral My voice distracted him from garden. Pressed to my cold skin, his scrutiny of the light-filled the hard faces of the jewels seemed street. His lean face with its small to warm me, and within a few sec­ bright eyes was transfigured by onds I fell into an exhausted strange colours that mottled his sleep. skin and drew out the livid blues and violets of his beard. His suit THE ILLUMINATED MAN 27 radiated a thousand bands of col­ "Run! Nothina else can help our. you!" His illuminated face flick­ He moved towards me but heM ered angrily. "Don't waste the fore he could speak there was a stones, they won't last you for­ roar of gunfire and the glass sheet ever!" encrusted to the doorway shattered Forcing myself to run, I set off into a shower of crystals. Mar­ tewards the forest, where I en­ quand flinched and hid behind me, tered the first of the caves of light. then pulled me backwards through I whirled my arm like a clumsy the window. As another shot was propeller, and felt the crystals re­ fired down the street we stumbled cede slightly. By ruck I soon past the looted counters into an reached a tributary of the river, office where the door of a safe and hurled myself like a wild man stood open on to a jumble of metal along its petrified surface. cash boxes. Marquand snapped For how many hours, or days, I back the lids on to the empty trays, raced through the forest I can no and then began to scoop together Ienger remember, for all sense of the few jewels scattered across the time deserted me. If I stopped for floor. more than a minute the crystal Stuffing them into my empty bands would seize my neck and pockets, he pulled me through a shoulder, and I ran past the trees window into the rear alley, and for hour after hour, only pausing irom there into the adjacent street, when I slumped exhausted on the tFansformed by the overhead lat­ glass beaches. Then I pressed the tices into a tunnel of crimson and jewels to my face, warding off the vermilion light. We stopped at the glace sheath. But their power slow­ first turning, and he beckoned to ly faded, and as their facets blunt­ the glistening forest fifty yards ed they turned into nodes of unpol­ away. ished silica. "Run, run! Anywhere, through Once, as I ran through the dark­ the forest, it's all you can do!" ness, my arm whirling before me, He pushed me forwards with I passed the summer house where the butt of his shotgun, whose Captain Shelley kept guard over breach was now encrusted by a his dying wife, and heard him fire mass of silver crystals, like a me­ at me from the veranda, perhaps diaeval flintlock. I raised my arm confusing my spectral figure with helplessly. In the sunlight the jew­ Charles Marquand. elled spurs coruscated like a swarm At last, late one afternoon, of coloured fireflies. "My arm, Mar­ when the deepening ruby light of quand! It's reached my shoul­ dusk settled through the forest, I der!" entered a small clearing where the 28 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION deep sounds of an organ rever­ around us. At dusk, when the sun berated among the trees. In the sank in a thousand fragments into centre was a small church, its the western night, he would break gilt spire fused to the surrounding off and stand on the porch, looking trees. -out at the spectral trees. Raising my jewelled arm, I I remembered him as Dr. drove back the oak doors and en­ Thomas, the priest Captain Shel­ tered the nave. Above me, refracted ley had driven to the harbour. His by the stained glass windows, a slim scholar's face and calm eyes, brilliant glow of light poured down their serenity belied by the nerv­ upon the altar. Listening to the ous movements of his hands, like surging music, I leaned against the the false calm of someone recover­ altar rail and extended mv arm to ing from an attack of fever, would the gold cross set with rubies and gaze at me as we ate our small emeralds. Immediately the sheath supper on a foot-stool beside the slipped and dissolved like a melt­ altar, sheltered from the cold all­ ing sleeve of ice. As the crvstals de­ embalming wind by the jewels in liquesced the light poured from the cross. At first I thought he re­ my arm like an overflowing foun­ garded my survival as an example tain. of the Almighty's intervention, and Turning his head to watch me, I made some token expression of the priest sat at the organ, his firm gratitude. At this he smiled ambig­ hands drawing from the pipes its uously. great unbroken music, which Why he had returnetl I did not soared away, interweaved by try to guess. By now his chmch countless overtones, through the was surrounded on all sides by panels of the windows towards the the crvstal trellises, as if over­ distant dismembered sun. topped by the mouth of an im­ mense glacier. Life, like a dome of many-coloured One· morning he found a blind glass, snake, its eyes transformed into Staim the white radiance of eter­ enormous jewels, searching hesi­ nity. tantly at the door of the porch, and carried it in his hands to the For the next week I stayed with altar. He watched it with a wry him, as the last crystal spurs dis­ smile when, its sight returned, it solved from the tissues of my arm. slid away noiselessly among the All day I knelt beside him, work­ pews. ing the bellows of the organ with On another day I woke to the my arm as the rippling graces of early morning light and found Palestrina and Bach echoed him, alone, celebrating the Eucha- "filE ILLUMINATED MAN '}!) rist. He stopped, half-embarrassed, ding brilliant pools of light. The and over breakfast confided: "You bands of liquid colour rippled out­ probably wonder what I was doing, wards through the forest, the re­ but it seemed an appropriate mo­ flections of the melting plumage ment to test the validity of the enveloping us in endless concen­ sacrament." He gestured at the tric patterns. The overlapping arcs prismatic colours pouring through hung in the air like the votive win­ the stained glass windows, whose dows of a city of cathedrals. Every­ original scruptural scenes had where around us I could see count­ been transformed into paintings of less smaller birds, butterflies and bewildering abstract beauty. "It insects, joining their miniature may sound heretical to say so, but haloes to the coronation of the the body of Christ is with us every­ forest. where here-in each prism and He took my arm. "Here in this rainbow, in the ten thousand faces forest everything is transfigured of the sun." He raised his thin and illuminated, joined together hands, jewelled by the light. "So in the last marriage of time and you see, I fear that the church, like space." its symbol-" here he pointed to Towards the end, when we the cross "-may have outlived its stood side by side with our backs function." to the altar, as the aisle trans­ I searched for an answer. "I'm formed itself into an occluding sorry. Perhaps if you left here-" tunnel of glass pillars, his convic­ "No!" he insisted, annoyed by tion seemed to fail him. With an my obtuseness. "Can't you under­ expression almost of panic he stand? Once I was a true apostate watched the keys of the organ -I knew God existed but could manuals frosting like the coins of a not believe in him. Now,'' he bursting coffer, and I knew that he laughed bitterly, "events have over­ was searching for some means of taken me." escape. With a gesture he led me down Then at last he rallied, seized the nave to the open porch, and the cross from the altar and pointed up to the dome-shaped pressed it into my arms, with a lattice of crystal beams which sudden anger born of absolute reached from the rim of the forest certainty dragged me roughly to like the buttresses of an immense the porch and propelled me to one cupola of diamond and glass. Em­ of the narrowing vaults. bedded at various points were the "Go! Get away from here! Find almost motionless forms of birds the river!" with outstretched wings, golden When I hesitated, the heavy orioles and scarlet macaws, shed- sceptre weighing upon my arms, 30 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION he shouted fiercely: "Tell them I hind him. I flinched back behind ordered you to take it!" the cross, but he vanished as sud­ I last saw him standing arms denly as he had appeared, whirl­ outstretched to the approaching ing himself away among the crystal walls, in the posture of the illum­ vaults. As his luminous wake faded inated birds, his eyes filled with I heard his voice echoing across wonder and relief at the first cir­ the frosted air, the plaintive words cles of light conjured from his up­ jewelled and ornamented like ev­ raised palms. erything else in that transmogri­ fied world. Struggling with the huge golden "Emerelda ... I Emerelda ... I" incubus of the cross, I made my way towards the river, my totter­ ing figure reflected in the. hanging Here on this calm island of mirrors of the spanish moss like a Puerto Rico, in the garden of the lost Simon of Cyrene pictured in a British Embassy these few months medieval manuscript. later, the strange events of that I was still sheltering behind it phantasmagoric forest seem a doz­ when I reached Captain Shelley's en worlds away. Yet in fact I am summer house. The door was no more than 1 000 miles from open, and I looked down at the Florida as the crow (or should I bed in the centre of a huge frac­ say, the gryphon) flies, and al­ tured jewel, in whose frosted ready there have been numerous depths, like swimmers asleep on other outbreaks at many times this the bottom of an enchanted pool, distance from the three focal Emerelda and her husband lay to­ areas. Somewhere I have seen a gether. The Captain's eyes were report that at the present rate of closed, and the delicate petals of a progress at least a third of the blood-red rose blossomed from the earth's surface will be affected by hole in his breast like an exquisite the end of the next decade, and a marine plant. Beside him Emer­ score of the world's capital cities erelda slept serenely, the unseen petrified beneath layers of pris­ motion of her heart sheathing her matic crystal, as Miami has al­ body in a faint amber glow, the ready been-some reporters have palest residue of life. described the abandoned resort as Something glittered in the dusk a city of a thousand cathedral behind me. I turned to see a bril­ spires, like a vision of St. John the liant chimera, a man with incan­ Divine. descent arms and chest, race past To tell the truth, however, the among the trees, a cascade of prospect causes me little worry. particles diffusing in the air be- It is obvious to me now that the THE ILLUMINATED MAN 31 origins of the Hubble Effect are by the crimson dust, it seems to be more than physical. When I stum­ crossed by a distinctive lattice­ bled out of the forest into an work, a vast portcullis which will army cordon ten miles from May­ one day spread outwards to the nard two days after seeing the planets and the stars, halting helpless phantom that had once them in their courses. been Charles Marquand, the gold I know now that I shall return cross clutched in mv arms, I was to the Everglades. As the example determined never ·to visit the of that brave apostate priest who I\ erglades again. By one of those gave the cross to me illustrates, ludicrous inversions of logic, I there is an immense reward to be found myself, far from acclaimed found in that frozen forest. There as a hero, standing summary trial in the Everglades the transfigura­ before a military court and tion of all living and inanimate charged with looting. The gold forms occurs before our eyes, the cross had apparently been stripped gift of immortality a direct conse­ of its jewels, and in vain did I quence of the surrender by each of protest that these vanished stones us of our own physical and tem­ had been the price of my survival. poral identity. However apostate At last I was rescued by the em­ we may be in this world, there per­ bassy in Washington under the force we become apostles of the plea of diplomatic immunity, but prismatic sun. my suggestion that a patrol So, when my convalescence is equipped with jewelled crosses complete and I return to Wash­ should enter the forest and attempt ington, I shall seize an opportu­ to save the priest and Charles nity to visit the Florida peninsula Marquand met with little success. again with one of the many scien­ Despite my protests I was sent to tific expeditions. It should not be San Juan to recuperate. too difficult to arrange my escape The intention of my superiors and then I shall return to the soli­ was that I should be cut off from tary church in that enchanted all memory of my experiences­ world, where by day fantastic perhaps they sensed some small birds fly through the petrified but significant change in me. forest and jewelled alligators glit­ Each night, however, the frac­ ter like heraldic salamanders on tured disc of the Echo satellite the banks of the crystalline rivers, passes overhead, illuminating the and where by night the illumi­ midnight sky like a silver chande­ nated man races among the trees, lier. And I am convinced that the his arms like golden cartwheels sun itself has begun to effioresce. and his head like a spectral At sunset, when its disc is veiled crown ..... lane Roberts is married, lives in upstate New York, and is the author of the memorable THE RED WAGON (F&SF, Dec. 1956), THE CHESTNUT BEADS, (Oct. 1957) and THE BUNDU (March 1958)-what else do you need to know? ... A time there WO$ when the father of Benvenuto Cellini, goldsmith and auto­ biographer to the Renaissance and the ages, playing at the viol by the laundry fire, espied in the glowing coals a salamander ..• but those days are long since gonB: we shall not see them come again in our time. What we have seen come in our time are the hideous whirling machines, the horrible heated air, the mesmeric trance into which so many patrons fall, of the automated laundry: for no other purpose, these, than the mere cleansing of clothes?

THREE TIMES AROUND

by Jane Roberts

JERRY Fox PARKED THE STA­ door. High pitched squeals rose tion wagon in front of the laundro­ from the driers and the whole mat. It was nine P. M. and the room seemed filled with vibrations. rest of the business section was His head whirled. "Hot in here," he dark. He eyed the squat building muttered to one one. distastefully. Yellow lights from A man seated on one of the the steamy plate glass windows green park style benches looked up stained small patches of still un­ wearily. Sweat ran down his broad melted snow. He'd never been in a forehead. A limp magazine lay dis­ laundromat before and he wasn't carded on his lap. "Awful," he anxious to go in now. said. Once inside, he paused to get Jerry Fox put the basketful of his bearings. The floor was sloppy clothes down. The special deter­ with slush carried in on shoes and gent that his wife had given him rubbers. Gummy white detergent lay on top. "Wife's sick," he said. lay here and there in hard undis­ "I've been putting off coming here solved mounds. Hot gusts of air for a week. She finally raised cain rushed at him as he closed the -no clean clothes." He grinned 32 THREE TIMES AROUND 33 weakly. The other man nodded. distant greedy drone arose as the Three men and three women sat machine digested the money. Jerry around the room on benches. They threw some clothes in, almost looked up vacantly but no one else frantically, and slammed the lid. spoke. Three times he repeated the proc­ The air was stifling after the ess. The other people still watched, faint crispness of the Spring but absently. An outlay of old night. Jerry sat down for a minute, sports magazines caught his eye. looking around. A variety of finger­ He picked one up and sat down marked signs were tacked to the next to the man with the sweating walls. One read: "Don't leave your forehead. clothes unattended. Laundromat is So much steam covered the win­ not responsible for loss." Jerry bent dows that Jerry couldn't see out­ down to take the laundry out of side. The high pitched squeals the basket when another sign in drom the driers hurt his eardrums. black heavy lettering made him He looked over. Towels and sheets pause anxiously. This sign said: spun in the transparent circle of "Danger. Do not put any rubber glass, toppled and turned like backed materials in driers. Due to pieces of paper in a hurricane. He chemical reactions, the machines felt dizzy, fascinated and yet odd­ might explode." ly horrified by the motion. None Beneath the sign was a news­ of the people spoke. Jerry felt paper clipping about a fire in a tired himself from the heat and to laundromat caused by a rubber· amuse himself he let his gaze ized mat thrown into a drier. travel from one face to another. No Jerry grimaced and pawed through one seemed to notice. Heads were the dirty clothes. He tried to re­ bowed in magazines or newspapers member-had he seen a mat like and two women just napped sit­ that in the laundry-or hadn't he? ting up. They looked half dead, No one seemed to pay him any Jerry thought disgustedly. That attention but he felt sheepish was what modern civilization did when he found the bathroom rug to you-made you flabby-no ex­ with the rubber back. Apparently ercise. At the same time he realized it could be washed but not dried that he was growing more dizzy and he made a mental note not to every minute. put it in the drier. Unsteadily he got up. Every A few empty washers stood like night he took a stint around the eerie white enamel animals. Jerry block. He'd missed it tonight and examined them warily, then put a Sarah had made him promise not quarter in one of the slots that to leave the clothes unattended. stuck out like a metal tongue. A But the heat was driving him mad. 34 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION He felt imprisoned. Staggering to­ The laundromat was on a cor­ ward the door, he tried the knob. ner. He came up to it from the It didn't turn. He tried again, feel­ rear. A smell like a million women ing panicky and foolish at the washing and ironing all at once same time. The people had appar­ spread down the street. A neon ently forgotten him. No one sign glowed: "Open twenty four seemed to notice. His dizziness hours a day." He paused, dis­ grew worse. The door shimmered. mayed. A sudden return of panic Desperately he tried the knob made him weak. He hated like the again. "Uh, door doesn't work," he devil to go back in there again. said with silly embarrassment. No Walking around to the front, he one answered. The man with the called himself all kinds of a fool. sweaty forehead seemed asleep. Granted, the place was worse than Just then he heard footsteps he expected. The people in there outside. The door opened. A wom­ were as lethargic as idiots and the an came in, loaded down with heat was almost unbearable, but clothes. Quickly Jerry slid through next week if Sarah was still sick, the door as she entered. The cold he'd just send the clothes to the air sent shivers through him. He laundry no matter what she said. was ashamed at his own relief but He didn't care if she was right and he stood there gratefully, shaking, it was more expensive. So all he taking deep breaths of air. You had to do was go in now, wait for couldn't see into the laundromat the clothes, and go home. No one from the outside either. Little riv­ could force him to come here ers of steam ran eternally down again next week. the glass windows. He grinned at Besides, he told himself angrily, his earlier panic, and began to the whole thing was ridiculous to trot down the street. begin with. He was a grown man, Amazing though, how weak he thirty eight years old and if wom­ felt. Everyone, even his wife, en could put up with laundromats seemed flabby lately and that was week after week, it certainly why he'd started his nightly seemed that he could stand it for sprints over a month ago. Boy, one night. He straightened his you're really out of shape, he told shoulders, opened the door, and himself disgustedly. Look what went back in. Nothing seemed to working in an office does for you. have changed. If anything, the Nevertheless he felt better. The air heat was worse, and an added was reviving. He passed a few pressure weighed down the air. shops and turned up a dark side Three angry clicks called out to street where old two story houses him and he ran over to the three shot up from brick sidewalks. · washers, threw open the doors and TllltEE Tl:'.lES ARO"Cl'.:O 35 peered in. His clothes were done, to look about. It was an effort to now all he had to do was dry tum his head. The room was very them! peaceful. The woman with the He gathered up the damp soda bottle had spilled it. Her clothes and put them in the huge hand, looking incredibly white driers, remembering at just the and soft, had fallen over the top last moment to take out the rub­ of the bottle so that the brownish berized mat. Already the dizziness liquid spilled onto the floor. was returning, but the drying cy­ Slowly it occurred to Jerry that cle was only supposed to take ten something was wrong, and yet he minutes and he told himself stern­ couldn't feel concerned. The soda ly that he guessed he could last pop went on dripping. The eerie that long. Again he looked around, but somehow peaceful noises and trying not to be bothered because clicks of the machines continued. no one looked up to meet his gaze. And then he tried to move and a The woman who had entered when sweet nightmarish fear spread he left for his walk seemed to be through his bones far beneath con­ in a pleasant stupor now. She sciousness. His mouth was aston­ sat with a box of detergent on her ishingly dry and his skin burned lap, and a half empty bottle of as if he'd fallen asleep while sun­ soda pop beside her. bathing. The alarms reached his Jerry moved his head, to check brain. He still hadn't made the the driers. Sarah's clothing spun conscious decision to do any­ round and round in one machine. thing, ~ut already his body He caught sight of her blue night­ stirred. He made it, on his hands gown, flimsy and light as air, bil­ and knees to the nearest steady lowing and falling. His head looking object, the raised platform dropped. His eyes were very on which the washers were lined. heavy. The dizziness was almost With each motion, the heavy comforting. He had the odd craey air pressed down upon him. Heat sensation that the whole room was came from everywhere. The awful spinning around. hypnotizing machine noises Beside him, the man with the whirred above him. With deter­ sweaty forehead dropped over mined desperation he reached out gently with a slight squash. His for the platform and slowly weight fell against Jerry's shoul­ dragged himself up, keeping one der. Jerry grimaced slightly, an­ foot on the floor for support. The noyed at being disturbed. But foot wobbled, skained, pulled. He something in the man's faoe yanked it up and looked down, wouldn't let Jerry relax again. He bewildered. The whole floor of the managed to epen his eyes enough room was revolving. Only the plat- 36 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION fonns were not. He was sure that woman who'd spilled the soda pop. he was out of his mind, or suffer­ She fell over so quickly and easily ing from hallucinations, or having that Jerry caught his breath. Then heat stroke. Worse, the heat itself he looked at the others. They was growing more intense. He saw slouched emptily, as if their in­ a door behind the machines and sides were gone, soft and rubbery tried to reach it. and light. "They're all done," the More frightened and confused woman said. There was a cool lilt than he'd ever been in his life, he to her voice, a frightening clarity. dragged himself along. Finally he She and the man picked up the touched the small uneven wooden billowy bodies, threw them over door. Just then voices caught his their arms like empty garments, attention. He tried to stand up and washed, spun dried, barely wrin­ yell for help, but he couldn't quite kled. The man pushed a button. make it to his feet and his throat The oppressive hot air shot up was too dry to make any sound through vents in the walls. In at all. through other vents came the Footsteps came from somewhere sweet summer scent of clothes dry­ above. Jerry pushed the little door ing. The caretaker said, "Hurry open and shoved himself through. up. We've got to get this place Then he pulled the door almost aired out." shut. He was in a narrow passage­ The woman threw the airy pile way behind the machines, obvi­ of bodies into a clothesbasket and ously used by repairmen. His draped a towel on top, tucking ev­ whole body was shaking, but he erything in neatly. "Three times knew that he was wide awake now, around does it every time," she sick, but in ·full possession of his said in a clear cold voice. She and senses. The air inside the passage­ 'the man smiled at each other. way was dank but it was cool. His They looked about as if making head stopped pounding so much, sure that they hadn't forgotten and he tried to collect himself. anything, then picked the basket He peeked through the door. A up, carried it between them and man and a woman came into the opened the front door. Jerry laundromat from a side entrance watched from his hiding place. he hadn't noticed earlier. Then he Then he rushed to the window remembered that the building had and cleared away a tiny patch of two stories, with the caretakers steam with his hand so he could living upstairs. He started to move, see out. The man and woman sat then paused again, uncertain. in the front seat of an automo­ The caretakers went up to the bile parked right out front. The first bench. The man touched the basket was beside them. As Jerry THREE TIMES AROUND 37 stood there, the car pulled out, ground. A glove, he thought auto­ turned the corner, and was gone. matically, but when he picked it Jerry ran outside. Something up and felt its limp, soft, skin-like lay, fallen and forgotten on the texture, he dropped it with a cry.

YOU HAVE TO STAY INSIDE

SEE, THERE WAS THIS PERSON NAMED Edward, who didn't know very much about anything. Anyway, one day, bacause it was so hot outside, Edward went inside. This may have been the smartest thing he ever did in his life, and, indeed, it was, for when he got inside not only did he get some of the lemonade which his mom had fixed for him, but he escaped the Harris Thing by a good margin of two inches, and then, sipping his lemonade, he could watch it through the window as it nibbled on this other person named \Villiam, who was screaming. His mother gave him some more cool lemonade, and it burned his throat a little but he drank it all because it was so hot outside. He didn't go outdoors anymore that day, because he could hear the Harris Thing snuffling around out there. His mother was afraid to go out too, and she sent for the grocery boy, but he was grabbed on his way up the front stairs and smashed to the sidewalk. He didn't get up, and he bled for a long time until the men in the metal cage came and picked him up. This person named Edward Harris just sat upstairs at the bowl of water and made faces in it. -CALVIN w. DEMMON Early one Spring evening a few pair of years ago, Robert Silver­ berg and we approached one of those vast, towering, impersonal &Ad repetetive housing "developments" which infest Manhattan Island like a case of shingles. The two of us, by common and un­ spoken consent, stopped, gazed at its height, length, breadth. "I have a feeling," said Mr. Silverberg, musingly, "that if one were to go into any one of those units he would find it inhabited by duplicates of the same people living in the equivalent apartments of any of the other units." Struck by the extreme likelihood of this we said, .. yes, and probably each set of duplicates functions on only one of a given set of days, and sits immobile in its own apartment on the other days." Mr. S. nodded. ... "Watching television," he suggested. We agreed. "There's a story in that," he said. "Yes, there is," we said; "and it could be called The Thursday People . • . ,"A truck snorted nearby, seven little girls named Mary Ther­ esa darted down upon us mounted on roller skates, Mr. Silverberg and we started, jumped a bit, continued on our way. So far as we are aware, Robert Silverberg has never written The Thursday People; and we know that we never did. It will never be written now, and why? Because Mr. Robert M. Green, ]r., has taken as his theme just such a conglomerate of human ant-heap, and­ without at aU having written the same story, no indeed-has none­ theless written a story which obviates the need for it. We feel that we have gained as much as we have lost and we trust that all of you (including Robert Silverberg) will agree.

NO PLACE L11KE WHERE

by Robert M. Green, Jr.

AT SIX O'CLOCK EVERY EVENING, "Plenty of hot water and the John Jackson parked his car in the landlord pays the bill," he count­ lot and counted his blessings, hol­ ed, looking toward the cheerless lowly, as a ritual to stave off panic. apartment development he laugh- 38 NO PLACE LIKE WHERE 39 ingly called home-six looming, haved as well as could be expected. square-cornered beehives, housing With his customary air of resigna­ some 16,000 people (the popula­ tion, colored only faintly with de­ tion of a bustling prairie city) on spair, John pushed the 15 button barely six acres of land. and watched the door slide shut. "Stores, movies, services-right Now he was completely at the at your elbow, so to speak," he mercy of the fanged, malevolent­ counted. He looked up to the fif­ looking children who always teenth floor of the third beehive seemed to be in this elevator at this from the left. In the row of identi­ time. Maybe they lived in it. cal windows there, four looked out Sometimes the children pushed from-or in upon-the inade­ all the buttons and ran out at the quate livingroom-bedroon-kitch­ next stop. This was a nuisance. It enette-unit in which he, his wife, meant that the elevator stopped two daughters and dog lived, or and opened up to discharge in­ rather, huddled, out of sight of the visible passengers at every floor. -roughly-15,996 other inade­ Tonight they pushed only the quately hived bees. even-numbered buttons, which "No upkeep; no roofs to shin­ were all in one vertical row. Then gle; no paint jobs; no plaster jobs," they held up the elevator for about he counted. \Vhkh four of those twenty minutes on the fourth floor windows up there were home he while they all got off, giggling. could never tell. The bedroom was John couldn't estimate exactly how either seventh or eighth from the many there were. He would have southwest corner. Maybe. guessed roughly 12lh. Two of the He walked like a good soldier little ones seemed to have anten­ into his entryway and took the nae. The elevator wasn't well­ right hand elevator. The left hand lighted. elevator never seemed to work for John was alone now. The eleva­ John. The first time he had tried it tor lumbered to a stop next at the he had gone up and up, it seemed, sixth floor and the door opened on for hours, but when the door a view of the half-lit sixth floor opened he was in the basement. hallway. John had ample time to The second time had had become inspect it. It wasn't much. stuck between the ninth and tenth John also had ample time to in­ floors. This sort of thing didn't spect the dim hallways of the seem to happen to anybody else eighth, tenth, twelfth and four­ but John, but despite poohs from teenth floors. These differed from all sides John remained loyal to the sixth floor hallway in that they the right hand elevator. were higher up-one presumed. Within its limitations, it be- One consolation was that John 40 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION was able to keep posted on his as usual, wrangling at the top of progress. There had been days their lungs on the only sofa, while. when he had gone the whole way inches away from them, the Thing non-stop and wondered whether was tuned up full blast filling the he was going up, down or side­ room with Western dialogue, ways. Then about midway he fre­ adult or otherwise; who knew the quently had a feeling that there difference? was a struggle between the eleva­ John made the drinks. Then, tor and its motive machinery-as after stepping on the dog, as usual, though it wanted to turn itself in­ en route to his customary inch of side out or drift into another di­ space on the sofa, he sat and stared mension. at nothing, trying to imagine him­ He didn't know how long it self weio:htless in space. took him tonight to get to 15. It took his daughters about half Probably not as long as it seemed. an hour to agree on some sort of In any event, when he stepped armistice, and his wife about an out, expecting to feel a certain hour to run out of oratory on the amount of relief, he felt hugely subject of standing over a hot stove and incomprehensively confused. all day. After the third time of be­ He was on the wrong 15th floor. ing put out of John's lap, the dog Or he was on the right 15th floor succumbed to the inevitable and but he was the wrong John Jack­ went to sleep. son. Somebody turned off the Thing. He had felt this way before. The second drink began to take Nothing had come of it. hold. He strode to his apartment, Magically, wife, daughters and 15A, and stood outside the door dog were alchemized into crea­ for awhile, hearing, as he had tures whom he loved. heard upon other occasions, the Suddenly the front door was tinkling of a piano, which some­ thrown open. A lumpy, gap­ times played "1\1 y Isle of Golden toothed girl of about seven gawked Dreams," and sometimes "Beauti­ in. ful Ohio," but always with lots of John sat there and looked at sustaining pedal and fat, squashy her, waiting for somebody else to rolled chords. say something or do something. He shrugged and opened the The little girl looked back at door and saw, as usual, his own him. pianoless apartment unit. His wife "Where's the piano?" she asked. was crowding into the kitchenette "You must be crazy," said John as well as one person could. His Jackson, wishing immediately he daughters (aged 11 and 12) were, had sounded like less of a grouch. NO PLACE LIKE WHERE 41 '1 mean: where would we put a everybody on the 15th floor. You piano?" don't know Mr. Potwin, because 'Who are you?" asked the little he leaves here every morning at girl. six o'clock and doesn't come back "Good question," said John, not until after ten o'clock. So how trying to be kind. "You beat me to could you know him?" it." "Is this Mr. Potwin," said the "Where are my Mommy and 12-year-old, pointing at the little Daddy?" asked the little girl. girl. "Anyway I do too know Mr. "What are you people doing in my Potwin, because I got up real early apartment?" one morning and I peeked out the "Oh I see," said John's wife. door and saw him." "The poor little dear has come to "How did you know it was Mr. the wrong apartment." Potwin if you never-" "I wouldn't jump to any con­ John Jackson barely suppressed clusions," said John. "Maybe we a faint tremolo in his voice. ought to toss a coin or something. "Mr. Potwin has a round bald It's awfully hard to tell around head with one horn in the middle. here. It could easily be us that's It is barbed ctnd poisonous, and wrong." his eyes emit a deadly gamma ray. "I won't either toss any coin," He is green all over except for his said the little girl. "My daddy torso, which is invisible. The next pays rent here." person who utters an even mildly "I know," said the 11-year-old controversial word will be taken to daughter. "She got off the elevator the room of Mr. Potwin and left at the wrong floor." there to be eaten." "No, I did not," said the little "But she said-" girl. "I got off at the same floor I "Even mildly controversial. always do. 15." DID YOU HEAR ME?" "Well," said the 11-year-old John Jackson's wife turned to daughter, "maybe you came to the the strange little girl and said: wrong room. \Vhat apartment "Mr. Jackson is always tired at number do you have? 15-B?" this time of day. He can't seem to "No," said the 12-year-old cope with things. Don't be fright­ daughter. "Somebody goofed. She ened of him." doesn't live on this floor at all. I "Well," said the little girl, "Of know everybody on this floor, and course I didn't believe any of that I never saw this little girl in my silly stuff about the green man. whole life." But I wish somebody would tell me "Pooey," said the 11-year-old where my Mommy and Daddy are daughter. "You don't either know . . . Are you bad people?" 42 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION

John Jackson went to the lritch~ "I most certainly am not," said enette, poured himself a straight John Jackson. shot of whiskey and gulped it "Are too," said the little girl, down. Then, being an inveterate taking another step backward. counter of things, he counted his "Oh now for Heaven's sake," fingers (thumbs included). As he said John Jackson, sickly-sweet. neared ten he was conscious of "We won't get any where this way. rags of gloom peeling off life and I am not a bad man. Sometimes blowing away, leaving specks of I'm pretty awful, but not really naked cheer. At the count of ten bad. It has even been suggested he was aware of a growing glow. that I have a heart of gold. Be By great effort he managed to get that as it may, all I really want to off a sort of smile. do is deliver you to your· Mommy "Look little girl," he said, al­ and Daddy. Think hard, honey, most kindly, "This is 15A. It is and see if you can remember the the only 15A in this building. number of your building." Please, God, it is the only 15A in The little girl started to cry. this building." "It's this building. It's Number 55 "Of course it is," said the little and apartment 15A, and I know p;irl. "I )mow that. I live in 15A." it because my Mommy always "Oh ho ho," said John's wife. "I makes me say it in case I get lost." see it now! She's in the wrong The eleven-year-old said : "I bet building. They all look alike. Re­ I know. I bet she lives in number member when I went in building 55 on some other street." number 3 5 by mistake? This is "Who could be that dumb," said building number ~5, little girl. 55 the 12-year-old. "Except you" Watkins Avenue." "Oh shut up," said the 11-year­ "That's right, little girl," said old, pushing the 12-year-old onto John Jackson. Still flushed with his the dog, who yawped. victory in the matter of the smile, John Jackson said "You two he pushed his luck and essayed a girls go to the bedroom at once. chuckle. It was at any rate distin­ Now. Now. Now." guishable from a growl. "Where do He watched the rags of gloom you live now. 35? 85? They do return to squat on top of the few look alike. They may in fact be specks of cheer, while the girls exactly the same place with dif­ stamped to the bedroom, both ferent numbers on the doors to complaining at once. puzzle insurance salesmen." "Now," said John Jackson to The little girl was staring in the little girl. "Let's ~xplore this horror now. She stepped backward. last suggestion, witless as it may "You are a bad man," she said. appear on the surface." NO PLACE LIKE WHERE 43 "I live at 55 Watkins Avenue," about? Why isn't Mary home? It's said the little girl, sullenly. past her suppertime." "Well, dammit to-Listen, lit­ 'Well to tell you the truth she is tle girl, this is 55 Watkins Avenue, just as anxious to go home as you and this is Apartment 1 SA, and are to have her there-which is no by God you don't live here." doubt almost as anxious ~ I am. "I don't care," sobbed the little There seems to be a hitch~ in the girl. "I do too, and you don't proceedings." either, and my Daddy's name is "Are you by any chance phon­ George Street, and my telephone ing from somewhere in the Wat­ num-" kins Avenue Apartment Develop­ "Aha," said John Jackson and ment?" asked the voice of Mrs. his wife at exactly the same time. Street. His wife won the race to the "Yes." telephone book. "Street," she said. "Oh then surely she can find her "R . . . S. . . . Sk, Sm, Ste, way here. We live in number 55." Sty, Stu, Stre, Street William­ "Pardon me," said John Jack­ George! 55 Watkins Avenue!" son. "This may sound silly to you. "55 Watkins Avenue," said What apartment do you live in?" John Jackson. "Ah-hh- well. But "15A. Mary knows that." not 1 SA. And I'm sorry about "Hold the line," said John Jack­ that. I hate pedestrian solutions. son. He turned to his wife, winked There is really no mystery in this toward the window and said: workaday world." "Let's jump. It's less complicated He dialed the number of George that way." Street. A woman's voice answered. She gulped. "That's the cow­ In the background a piano was ard's way. Let's try screaming our playing "My Isle of Golden guts out." Dreams." Lot of sustaining pedal. "What guts?" John Jackson Fat, squashy rolled chords. turned to the phone again. "Mrs. "Mrs. Street?" asked John. Street," he said, "My name is John "Yes." Jackson. I live in Apartment 1 SA, "There's a little girl here who 55 Watkins Avenue. That is where says you are her mother-not that your little girl is at the moment. I doubt her, understand-but Want to make something out of there seems to be some confusion it?" about apartments. That is to say, There was a shriek from the somebody seems to be in the wrong bedroom. The 11-year-old was tell­ apartment, and I'm quite sure it ing the 12-year-old: "It's mine; isn't 1." give it to me," and the 12-year-old "What on earth are you talking was replying oratorically: "No, it FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION isn't; I saw it first •• "Yes," said Mrs. Street, "He aJ.. John Jackson said to his wife: ways hits her at six-thirty." HGo back there with a buD-whip." "He starts throwing bottles at "Are you bull-whipping my seven-ten," said John Jackson. daughter?" asked the voice ot Mrs. "She calls the police at seven­ Street. twenty-five," said Mrs. Street. "I am not," said John Jackson. "Seven-thirty," said John Jack­ "Don't you think I have daughters son. of my own to bullwhip? Here talk "Seven-twenty-five," said Mrs. to your little girl." Street. "What do you know about Mary whined into the phone: the Blemishes?" "He's a bad man. Why aren't you "No one," said John Jackson, here, Mommy? I came home and "can live over the Blemishes and you weren't here." not know some things about them." John Jackson snatched away "And you," said Mrs. Street, the phone and shouted into it: "I "live-over-the Blemishes?" am not a bad man." "Directly." There was one of those un­ "--Oh--dear--" plumbable silences, such as one "Let me talk to my Mommy, has noticed occasionally at ban­ you bad man," cried little Mary. quets just as one is telling one's "Is that little girl still out neighbor the hostess is a harridan. there?" cried the 11-year-old from A fervent bass voice made itself the bedroom. 'Why can't we come heard through the radiator pipe out?" aperture leading to the apartment "Will you hush?" said John below: Jackson's wife. "Your Daddy's "WHAT DO YOU THINK phoning.'' . I'M MADE OF, STUPID: MON­ "If you live over the Blemishes," EY?" said Mrs. Street, "then we really And a female wail: "No, no. are in trouble. Please take care of Put it down. Don't hit me." my little girl." John Jackson smiled and looked "That's easy to say," said John at his watch. "Six-thirty on the Jackson. button," he said. "The Blemishes "I said let me talk to my Mom­ are right on time." my. I'll kick you," said the little "What did you say?" asked the girl. voice of Mrs. Street. "Why do I have to stay cooped "It wouldn't mean anything to up here with meany old stupid?" you. I said 'The Blemishes are wailed the 12-year-old. right on time.' " "Be quiet," said· the wife. A giggle came over the phone. "She likes milk and tomatoes es- NO PLACE LIKE WHERE 45 pecially," said Mrs. Street, "but she John's wife said: "If you girls hates cabbage. She has an ap­ don't stop bickering this instant pointment with the pediatrician I'll have your father whip you. next Wednesday. Dr. Hemphill on You're not too old to be whipped." Ridge Street. She'll go quietly if "Who is?" asked John Jackson. you promise her a package of lem­ "Or too young for that matter." He on drops when she comes home." gave the little girl a long look. She "I know something about her cowered. too," said John Jackson. "She John Jackson dialed Slath, the threatens to kick people. For what maintenance superintendent, who it's worth: I tend to kick back." lived in a room near the furnace. "You better not," said the little Slath had black bushy eyebrows, a girl. perpetual sneer, apd a smell of "I don't know what to do," said brimstone. He always wore a tall Mrs. Street. hat and a pair of oversized cover­ "Oh mother," wailed the 12- alls. year-old in the bedroom. "Look "Slath," said John Jackson. what she did to my dress. I'm go­ 'Who lives in apartment 15A in ing to kill her. I really am." this building?" "Look, Mrs. Street," said John ''You do, Mr. Jackson." Slath's Jackson. "Frankly I think we're be­ voice was poisonous. ing defeatist about this thing. "Is that my Mommy you're talk­ Surely there's a way out." ing to?" asked the little girl. "Why "Haven't you girls got home­ do you say 'slap'? You better not." work to do?" wailed John's wife. "Slath!" said John Jackson. "Does "I could call the police," said the name 'George Street' mean Mrs. Street. anything to you? Don't lie." "I wonder if this is a job for a John Jackson thought he heard policeman." , a silky electric crackle in the ear­ "A policeman is going to arrest piece of the phone. you," said the little girl. "I'm very busy now," said Slath. "How can I do my homework if "You'll have to call the renting of­ she takes all my pencils?" said the fice if you have any complaints to 12-year-old. make." "You keep taking my pencils, Slath hung up. you mean," said the 11-year-old. "I think you'd better feed those "Maybe I should call the main­ girls," said John Jackson to his tenance superintendent of this wife. "It's the only way I can apartment building," said John think of to get peace around here." Jackson. "I'll call you back." "There isn't much to eat. What He hung up the phone. about the little girl?" 46 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION John Jackson sighed. "I sup­ will have a worse headache in pose you had a bite planned for about half a minute. It is almost me. I'll make it on whiskey, I ten after seven, at which time, as think. Let her have my supper, you well know, you are going to provided it doesn't include cab­ have a bottle thrown at you." bage. She hat-es cabbage." He slammed down the phone. "I hate fish too," said the little "John! You shouldn't have!" said girl. "Particularly the eyes. And I John's wife. But she giggled. She hate blue cheese with gravy on it." turned to the daughters who were The phone rang. reassembling th~mselves after the "This is the police," said a nasal wreck. "Take ten cents apiece and voice. go to the store. Do your fighting "Come and get me," shrilled there." John Jackson. "You'll never take "Are they gonna get some can­ me alive." He laughed wildly and dy?" asked the little girl. hung up. "Here," said John Jackson to the The 11-year-old ran sobbing out little girl. "Here's a dime. Go on of the bedrcx>m and tripped over out with them. If my wife can be a the dog. The 12-year-old fellowed mercenary appeaser, so can I. immediately, brandising a ruler . . . No! Wait a minute. Don't and tripped over both of them. anybody move." John Jackson could not decide An electric light bulb with the which had the highest decibel word "Idea" in it had appeared count: the 11-year-old, the 12- above his head. Nobody happened year-old, or the dog. to look, how-ever, because the "She took my candy bar out of phone picked that moment to ring. my drawer," screeched the 12- "Listen, wise guy, this is Blem­ year-old. ish. Any more cracks out of you "I did not. I never even saw it," and I'll come up there and-" howled the 11-year-old. "You can't get away with it, "Yip-yip," yipped the dog. Blemish. Those cockroaches that "He's gonna bite me," whinnied keep coming up here from your the little girl. place-I drill them every night. The phone rang. And arm them. One move out of "This is Mrs. Blemish," whined you and I'll send them down there the voice from downstairs. "I wish close-order, column of threes, bay­ whatever it is you people up there onets fixed, hup-two-thr-" are doing you'd cut it out. I have "Listen, you-" a headache." John Jackson hung up. "Mrs. Blemish," said John Jack­ "Now listen everybody," he said. son, "If I am not mistaken you "I, John Jackson, will buy the NO PLACE LIKE WHERE 47 candy. Nobody goes with me but the elevators. Both the left one the little girl.'' and the right one were there, "Aw, that's not fair," whined waiting. John pointed to the left the 12-year-old. one. "Aw, but Mommy said-" "All aboard," he said. "Here's whined the 11-year-old. your dime. You don't want any "Yeah," said the 12-year-old, candy now.'' pointing to the little &irl, "she gets "Yes, I do too," said the little to go.'' girl. "You said . . ." "Tie them. Gag them. Hang "I had an idea," said John Jack­ them up by the thumbs if neces­ son. "I thought I misht call your sary," said John Jackson to his mother from the candy store. In­ wife. vite her to come join us. I don't He took the little girl by the know. I still wonder if it would hand and strode to the door. The have worked. What if she came electric light bulb remained above and we weren't there. Or what if his head, but nobody saw it. we were there but weren't we.'' He pushed the elevator button. The little girl looked bafHed The right one arrived, and the lit­ but all game. tle girl balked when John tried to "Or what," she said, "if Daddy steer her into it. saw you and Mommy. He's very "Mommy says always wait for jealous, my Daddy is.'' the other elevator. This one acts "Goodbye, little girl," said John goofy.'' Jackson, pushing her into her ele­ "Not with me it doesn't," said vator. She touched her button, the John. "It likes me. I'm magic.'' tloor closed behind her, and the She came with him, but her eyes floor-indicator ·showed that her were furtive. elevator was moving up. John They reached the first floor Jackson waited until it stopped at without encountering any of the 15, then stepped into the right fanged children who normally in­ hand elevator, almost tripping habited the elevator. Then John over an aggregation of about 1 7.4 walked over to the directory of fanged little monsters who looked tenaDts in the first floor lobbv. In up at him over their lollypops, the S column there was "Street, gum-bubbles and antennae. No George-15A.'' In the J column doubt they saw murder in his eyes there was "Jackson, J-15A.'' this time. They let him ride all the The light above John's head way to the top, non-stop. now bore the legend inspiration, He walked to his apartment instead of idea. smug in the knowledge that this He took the little girl back to was his 15th floor. 48 FANT:\SY AND SCIENCE FICTION He heard no tinkle of piano don't think I could stand it if it outside his door. He walked in and turned out to be plausible and sat down at the telephone table. pedestrian. But look, Slath, about "Where's the candy?" asked the the Blemishes . . . That couldn't 11-year-old. be plausible and pedestrian, could "Mmmmph." it? "But you said-" began the 11- "Wouldn't you like to know," year-old. said Slath. Thunder rumbled over "Let's watch the TV," said the the southern horizon. Slath hung 12-year-old, who was one year up. smarter. John opened the paper to the Mrs. Street answered her phone. classified section. In the background somebody was "Private houses have lawns that playing "Beautiful Ohio" on the have to be mowed," he muttered. piano. Lots of sustaining pedal. "And sidewalks that have to be Fat, squashy rolled chords. shoveled," said his wife. "Yes," she said, "Mary is home. "And oil burners that develop Don't try to explain. I'm sure I short circuits," said John. wouldn't understand. My husband "Or coal furnaces that have to refuses to talk about any of this." be stoked at 6 A.M.," said his wife. "Goodbye, Mrs. Street," said "And not enough room to put the John Jackson. It seemed so final. trash." The phone rang and it was "And undersized hot water heat­ Slath. ers that run out on you in the mid­ "Listen, Mr. Jackson," said the dle of a shower," said John. "Look. crackling silky voice. "About that Here's a house you can get for little mix-up-that Street business $14,000. It doesn't say what kind -maybe I can explain that." of a down payment." "Don't," said John Jackson. "I He went to the phone.

SF CONVENTION NOTE For science fiction fans in the Mid-west: the An­ nual Midwescon will be held in 1964 on the 26th, 27th and 28th of June at the North Plaza Motel, 7911 Reading Road, Cincinnati, Ohio. THE SCIENCE SPRINGBOARD -.. THE BUILDING OF A PROTEIN by Theodore L. Thomas

ALL YOU DO TO BUILD A PROTEIN kind of amino acid-after the molecule is hook together some amino acid has been activated by 500 or more amino acids in the a compound called adenosine right order, and amino acids are Triphosphate-and carries it to not very complicated compounds. the production site. A different For this reason chemists have kind of transfer RNA is needed readily taken on the job of protein for each of the 20-odd kinds of synthesis. amino acids that fit into the protein Things are coming along pretty molecule. And the production site well. Some new clues on how the itself is a particle named a ribo· living cell makes protein have some, or more properly, a group come to light at M. I. T. The of them called a polyribosome. So whole procedure seems to break the transfer RNA plasters the down to a chain of command amino acid into position in the reminiscent of the army. protein molecule guided by the Up at the top, controlling ev· polyribosome and the messenger erything, is the double-strand helix RNA. And pretty soon you have a called deoxyribonucleic acid, complete protein molecule. That DNA. The other compounds in the seems to be how it works. living cell take their structure Well, here we go again. When· from the pattern set by DNA. The ever somebody makes an advance next item in the procedure is mes· in protein synthesis, somebody else senger ribonuCleic acid, mes&en· begins talking about synthesizing ger RNA for wa:at of a better meat, food. The ·first such syn­ name. It picks up from the DNA thesis was carried out more than the pattern of the particular pro· 50 years ago by Emil Fischer, tein structure and carrios it to the probably the greatest organic site of the synthesis. chemist who ever lived. He hooked It is now time to get the mate­ up 18 amino acids to make a rials to the site. A single-strand polypeptide molecule. A polypep­ polymer called transfer takes care tide is a compound not big enough of this function. It picks up one or with the wrong properties to be 49 50 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTI0:-1 a protein. Fischer commented all the time. This may be the then that his compound wasn't breakthrough that shatters the quite ready for the dinner table. Malthusian doct-rine that tells us Chemists still talk that way. that men will propagate them­ But these modest disclaimers selves beyond the food supply. should not obscure the fact that This may be the way to feed the more and more knowledge of pro­ world in the future. At least for a tein synthesis is being turned up time.

INVASION

They knew what strange delights would make us mad And we were helpless to deny our lust For all their alien liquors, but they had A music which the mind could never trust The ear to flawlessly convey; a sound Which sprang from sound's beginning in the dark Vibrations of the stars and fell aroun~ Us, tangible as dust. There was no spark Of weak resistance in us as we heard Their lonely symphonies, nor could we raise Our voices madly in a final word Of banishment. And now we sit for elays Unmoving, while their music makes us sleep. \Ve have no cities now, nor armies, and we weep.

-CHRISTOPHER CollSON Through her stories, ranging from MINISTER WITHOUT PORT­ FOLIO (F& SF, Feb. 1952) to MEASURE MY LOVE (Oct. 1962), Mildred Clingerman has as much as any writer become particularly identified with The Magazine. Here in her latest for us she reminds us of the ancient words of the ancient Preacher in his Song, that love is as strong as death . . . that many waters cannot quench it . . . and that, concerning jealousy, he said it teas as cruel as the grave. . . .

A RED HEART AND BLUE ROSES

by Mildred Clingerman

I'm awake, I ARGUED WITH THE with a railway share-" Spectator who watched all my "My dear, are you very sick?" dreams and commented on them The warm, motherly Voice called with amusement or distaste. If I across the dark blue void I was were asleep how should I know peering into. what time it was? And I did know, "Oh no," I was cheerful about clearly. It was that reasonably it. "They charmed it with smiles quiet hour in the hospital after and soap." I opened my eyes, and the visitors have all straggled out, after a moment or two I woke up. when one's dinner is still only a In the next bed a large pink worn­ rattling premise far away down an had raised herself up te stare at the corridor. I was awake. But the me. Spectator only pointed sileDtly ''You were asleep again," she into a deep chasm wltere a large accused me in a playful tone. Hospital still hunted Lewis Car- "Off and on you've said some rol's Snark. queer things today, but I haven't "They sought it with thim- minded a bit. It's taken my mind bles", the Spectator urged, "They off my troubles. Did you know souglat it with care . • ." your husband was here, and you I obediently took up the re- slept right through the whole vis­ frain, ''Tb.ey pursued it with forks iting hour?" and hope; they threatened its liie I considered this fact, turning 0 1961 by Mildred Clingerman 51 52 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTIOK it around and around to look at morning, and the woman was it. "He wore the wrong tie with shrugging into a pink bedjacket. that striped shirt." I was trium­ "Why, my son's in the Navy, phant and positively awake. too!" I hauled myself up to lean "You were quite brutal about woozily against the pillow, and it," she agreed, "but he seemed stared at her as if the hairbrush awfully pleased." she was flourishing were a fairy I lay quietly for a while, as if wand. I were resting smugly after im­ "I know, dear, that's just what mense effort. I was saying. Your husband told "When did you come in?" I me. My son isn't in the Navy. He's struggled to stay awake long in the Army. They think that may enough to hear the answer, but be the source of half my trouble. her first words eluded me. The nightmares, you know. You "-days ago," the woman was see, my father and all my uncles saying, "but they only moved me were Navy. I married outside the in here with you this morning. Service, but I'd always supposed You were asleep. They had me in our son would choose to be Navy a private room, but they finally when the time came. Well, he decided what I needed least was didn't, at all." She sighed and to be alone. I keep having night­ picked stray hairs out of the brush. mares, you see, about a tattooed "He's been rather a disappoint­ " ment in some ways. His Math "-tapioca pudding, or you wasn't good enough for Annapolis could have Jello, if you'd rather." or West Point. Next year when he The nurse was being firm about finishes his tour of duty he wants something. Her arms were faintly to apprentice to a mortician. yellow and stringy with muscle. Now, really, what kind of ambi~ I sat up and ate the tapioca pud­ tion would you call that?" ding. "An eminently respectable The woman in the other bed one?" I hazarded. was eating heartily from a loaded She shook the hairbrush at me tray. She kept dipping her fork admonishingly. "My, we 11re feel­ into something dark brown and ing better, aren't we?" succulent looking, and I sudden­ We were. After I'd wolfed a ly felt quite pitiably betrayed meagre breakfast I was buoyed up and hungry. I drank a c:up of tea, enough to tell my room mate all well sugared. "I'D have the Jello, (and more) than she wanted to too," I said, but the nurse and the know about my son in the Navy. tray were both go:ne. "He's on one of the new Polaris ". • • son in the Navy." It was submarines," I bragged. "Born A RED HEART AND BLUE ROSES 53 and brought up on the desert, as he She looked at me in astonish­ was, that boy lived and breathed ment. "But you had your eyes Navy from babyhood, almost. And open, and you even made one or as for being underwater, we could two rather pungent comments. never make him swim on the sur­ Do you mean to tell me you were face, and then in high school he asleep all day?" joined a skindiving club, and "Oh, hardly asleep. What I they all sat around for hours on the was doing, I think, was concen­ bottom of a swimming pool." trating on holding now, without "Does he get home very often?" allowing the last now and the She was frowning down at her next now to get away. It was fingernails. very difficult. It took two hands "Not often," I said mournfully. to hold one now, and the other "And he's dreadful about writing two kept falling away. I'm really letters. But far too handy with the very sorry. And the funny thing long distance telephone. Collect, is I can actually juggle three of course." oranges . . ." I hesitated and de­ "Of course. Clay's exactly the cided to be honest. "Sometimes." same." We nodded at each other She snorted, but I knew I was solemnly, two middle-aged moth­ forgiven. "My dear, think nothing ers with equally enormous phone of it. It's entirely appropriate that bills. only a six-handed woman could "But tell me, does you.r boy hear and understand the truth ever bring any of his service bud­ about Damon Lucas. I think he dies home? To stay, I mean, in was some kind of fiend. My hus­ your house." band thinks he was a natural-hom "He hasn't so far," I said. "But sponger. Rhoda-that's my I wouldn't mind if he did." daughter, she's nineteen and ex­ "That's what you think", she tremely pretty-thinks he's one of said darkly. "You'll need to be those weirdies who preys on older very careful. I daresay there's women. Clay says simply-and I more than one orphan in the quote-'the guy's a kook.' You Navy. If that's what he was ..." see? Even the people he happened "Who?" to can't agree on what he was. "Surely I mentioned him yes­ Maybe, in different ways, we're terday? That boy-that man­ all biased.'' She paused to rub out that thing Clay brought home the frown between her eyes. "I with him Christmas before last." wouldn't care a bit if that could "I can remember Christmas be­ just be the end of it-a family fore ,last," I said, ''but yesterday mystery-with all of us sitting about now and then idly specu- 54 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION lating about him. Why, he might stand. then padded barefoot even, in time, have turned into a across the space between the beds. fanrily joke." "Do have some of these choco­ "Why hasn't he?" I was bitter­ lates. In fact, it would be a great ly regretting all those hours yester­ favor to me if you'd eat all of day devoted to that silly juggling them. I'm getting much too fat. game, when I might have been But hide them from the nurse, fitting together highly-colored won't you?" She leapt hurriedly bits of a jigsaw puzzle. back into bed, keeping a sharp "How could we possibly turn watch on the door. him into a joke when he keeps "I don't even know your name." turning up again? And each time I had eaten three chocolates be­ getting younger and younger?" fore she'd stopped sighing and I was getting desperate. "Will settling herself in bed. you be very kind," I said, "and "It's Pemberton. Katie Pember­ start all over again at the very ton, age over forty and hips to beginning and go along slowly, match. You'd think, wouldn't you, because I'm beginning to need that with a figure like mine I'd six hands again." he perfectly safe from strange "Of course I will. You poor young men for the rest of my darling, how thoughtless I've days? Well, I thought so, too, till been." Her face smoothed out and Damon Lucas started following she smiled at me as If I were me around like a lap dog. At first three years old with all my but­ sight we all thought he was hand­ tons buttoned into the wrong some, in a blond and bland kind holes. She looked so much like of way. Rhoda was prepared to be everybody's secret ideal of moth­ quite taken with him, I know, erhood I suddenly wanted to lay but after he'd been staying with my head on her full bosom and us a few hours it became pain­ cry away a heartful of tears. fully clear that he wasn't taken Moreover, I was starving in this with her. In fact, I don't believe horrible hospital and nobody he ever actually looked at her. cared. I blew my nose and blinked Now, you can't call that normal, my eyes clear and spoke coldly to not for an unattached young man the ceiling. of twenty-six, and certainly not "You realize, I hope, that they when the girl is as pretty as have forgotten to give us any Rhoda. Philip thought-he's my lunch." husband-well, Philip got to Well, dear, it's only nine worrying that maybe he was one o'clock." She got out of bed and of those you-know-whats, but aft­ fished in the drawer of her night- er questioning Clay very closely A RED HEART AND BLUE ROSES 55 and watching Damon when Clay "Clay thought he might get was around, he soon saw that Da­ home faster that way and began mon was, if possible, even less to look around for a ride going taken with Clay than he was with west. Finally, a fellow in civilian Rhoda. It began to look as if he clothes came up to Clay and said positively dislil

THE POST READER 0F FANTASY AND frey Household's The Lost Conti­ scmNCE FICTION, the editors of The nent, tho111gh weD-writteu (it is, Saturday Evening Post, D8uble­ after all, by Geoffrey Household), day, $3.95. trails oif rather vaguely; and I fear that Philip Wylie's The An­ The cover describes this as "20 Stl'er merely engenders another exciting stories by Conrad Richter, question. Robert A. Heinlein, Stephen Vin­ There are other stories, too. cQllt Benet, Geoffrey Household, Robert Standish's T~JSt-Tube Ter­ rhtlip Wylie, and others ..."­ ror (surely Rot the auahor's title) I'tR afraid that I do not think most is a sort of prelude to No Blade of of us will be likely to find most of Grass (a SEP novel), and Wil­ them exciting. In some casei they liam Sambrot's Island of Fear is a have faded a bit by age, in others different treatment of the notion they are based on themes which behind The Eyes of Phorkos are old hat in our field, and in (F&SF, Nov. 1963). Although no other cases (these three claslles hunter, I much liketl Robert Mur­ somewhat overlap) they are . . . phy's The Phantom Setter-it well . . . just not exciting. Om­ gave me an idea for a story-alas, rad Richter is represented by two it turned out that Mr. Murphy's stories; 6ne is Nostalgia vs. The was the story his story had given Bomb, and the other is a surpris­ me the idea for. There is an intri­ ingly inept diatribe against social guing' fantasy about classic cars, security (the general philosoph­ by Fred McMorrow; Gerald Kersh ical concept, not the particular is his almost-never-failing richly agency of that name). Heinlein's ingenious and amusing self; Ward here with, not surprisingly, The Moore has a good one about Her Green Hills of Earth, which I Majesty's Dominion of Mars; and think must be considered a good the penultimate and antepenul­ story; Benet's The Place of the timate stories-by Will F. (Old Gods holds up rather well consid­ Faithful) Jenkins-alias Murray ering that it was a pre-Atomic Age Leinster-and William Roy Skel­ tale of post-Atomic Doem; Geof- ton are also intriguing, in very dif- 67 68 FANTASY A?-."D SCIENCE FICTION ferent ways. And there are others spiritualism in helping scepticism which you may like more than I diminish the old necromancy, and do. Only maybe not. others. The book might well be subtitled, in the author's words, PICTURE MUSEUM OF SORCERY, MAG­ An Iconography of Occultism. IC AND ALCHEMY, Emile Grillot de There is a painting by Goya, Givry, trans. by J. Courtenay Transformation of Sorcerers, re­ Locke, University Books, $17.50 produced, and I can do no better than agree with de Givry that it Seventeen and a half grump­ shows "a terrible realism [and] a kins is a whopping big price, but disturbing sincerity." Of the rear­ this is a whopping big book, with most figure, only the back of the three hundred and seventy-six il­ head is shown, and this is hideous­ lustrations, many of them not ly· convincing-neither human or available elsewhere. The late au­ bestial, but both. The reports are thor is said, like the Rev. Mon­ not without their ludicrous side, tague Summers (History and Ge­ though. We've all heard how dia­ ography of Witchcraft), to be a bolists kissed the devil's funda­ staunch Catholic and (should I ment, but I didn't know they add "also"?) to believe in the real­ claimed it was a second face that ity of much of the phenomena he he has under his tail!" or that he writes about. Unlike Summers, rewarded the kiss with the gift of however, he is never offensive­ a silver louse. Then, too, there and, frankly, I think he must be was poor haunted Monsieur pulling any numbers of sacerdotal A.V.C.B. de Terreneuve du Thym, legs; tliece are passages I simply whose 3-volume bio., The Goblins, cannot believe he wrote other than or, All The Demons Are Not Of ironically. At any rate, he covers The Other World, appeared in the scene both philosophically 1821. He illustrated it with his and physieally, from antinomy· to own lithographs and-if you can antimony (and I hope the print­ imagine it-the style of these ers get that right); if he has never drawings is like that of Hugh heard of or never mentions recent Lofting's Dr. Dolittle books! theories on the subject he still in­ There are copious sections on troduces some interesting ones of the Cabbalists, Jewish and Chris­ his own- For example, the role of tian; Astrology and the Macro­ art in making the diabolical both cosm and Microcosm, Metopos­ vivid and universally known, the copy, Physiognomy, Cheiromancy, role of the church in unwittingly Cartomancy and the Tarot, Divi­ FOIDoting diabolism by continu­ nation, the DiviaiBg-Rod, Talis­ ally harping upon it, the role of mans, and Alchemy. The writing is BOOKS 69 good, but the great wealth of curi­ one can accept his obsessive sub­ ous and beautiful pictures is the ject-matter. Frank Utpatel's wood­ book's chief treasure. cuts for jacket and interior illus­ trations are abolutely first-rate. COLLECI'ED POEMS, HP. Lovecraft, '\rkham House, $4.00 THE GREAT AUIC, Allan W. Eckert, Little, Brown, $4.75 Here is the traditional "slim little volume" of verse, but only a This is called "a novel" and I part of it is traditional in tone suppose it is, in a way, being a ... curiously, the only part fictional account of the life and which might surprise those who death of the last great auk. I think they know Lovecraft only as should have thought a factual ac­ a wordy mumbler of Nameless count of the species would be Horrors. He was more. And yet, in more interesting-and more suc­ Early Poems, he is less. Some of cessful, too. Mr. Eckert's style is as them are no worse than some of awkward as the staggering gait of Longfellow, Lowell, and Whit­ the bird itself, "with" -to employ tier; but they themselves could be his own infelicitous phrase-"with pretty bad at times. There's a line frequent flops"; but the subject in one of these early Lovecraft carries it along nonetheless. The poesies which sums him up rather gare-fowl, as it was also called, well: "The past is there-yet I looked somewhat like a penguin, stand on the shore/In the cold though its bill was much longer; lJresent, alien and alone." And his and in size was about as big as a disgusting contempt of poor for­ goose. It bred and summered (Mr. eigners-"swarthy ... freaks of Eckert deals only with the Western alien blood, . . . base foreign Hemisphere flocks) in Iceland, boors . . . law lives . . . monkeys Greenland, and Newfoundland; . • • 111retched aliens . . . A vi­ and wintered on the capes of cious crew, that mock the name of North Carolina-a migratory 'mall' . . ."But I'll not go on.The journey of 3,000 miles, made in title poem of the second section, 86 days and-since the great auk The Alien Track, is not bad; but could no more fly than the dodo­ most of the rest here are, at best, entirely by sea. On land it was al­ Poe and water ... Swineburne and most completely helpless; the sin­ water . . . Kipling and water­ gle, huge annual egg was "Creamy though Brick Row is nice. And the white in color . . . liberally last section, despite its ridiculous splotched with irregular streaks of title-Fungi From Yuggoth-is a deep burnt umber and cinna­ Lovecraft, as poet, at his best, if mon ..."; and these two circum- 70 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION stances perhaps contributed more THE DARK MAN AND OTIIERS, Robert than any others towards its exter· E. Howard, Arkham House, $5.00 mination. Like most creatures it had its natural enemies and was When I was thirteen years old I subject to disease and bad weather; read (I think in WEIRD TALES) like many, it was attacked by com· that Robert E. Howard, unable to mercia! hunters; unlike any other face his mother's impending death, I know of it, it probably decreased had fatally fired a shotgun into his also by the refusal of those birds stomach. That was the right age whose mates died ever to mate for reading him; I had read noth· again. ing by him since . . . until this. But, absolutely unlike any other He is perhaps chiefly known today creature to my knowledge, it owed for having created Conan the Bar­ its final end-its extinction-not barian, whose adventures with to Commerce, but to Science: sword and sorcery in a mythical ". . : the latest survivors of the past have been continued by L. species were caught and killed by Sprague de Camp. None of the expeditions expressly organized Conan tales are here included, with the view of supplying the de­ though there are several like them, mands of caterers to the various and Mr. August Derleth almost museums of Europe" (John Wol· disarms criticism with his intra· ley, quoted by Alfred Newton in ductory statement that the book's the lith Britannica). Mr. Eckert contents are, "on the whole, sec­ describes and pinpoints the ulti­ ondary . • ." Almost; but not mate dread deed., "On June 3, quite. 1844, on the island of Eldey ..• It is difficult to understand how off the southwestern coast of Ice· a modern and sophisticated reader land . . . the last two living who has read even fairly widely in [great auks] were killed by Jon this genre can really enjoy these Brandsson and Sigourour Isleffson stories. The themes are almost and the egg . . . was smashed by without exception cliches (Lost Ketil Ketilsson." Only a decade Cities and Beautiful Barbaric before, there had been half a mil· Babes in Africa, Haunted Houses, lion of them. Mr. Eckert closes Zombies, Elder Gods a Ia Love­ with a plea and a warning. Other craft, Suddenly-1-Found-Myself­ species are in immediate and simi· in-The-Body-of-An-Ancient-War· lar danger of extinction; regretful­ rior, Revengeful Spirit Snakes, ly, he does not say which. l'he Devil Claims His Own, etc.), and the writing, Heavens to Bet· sy! the writing! It ... well .•. I suppose ... I guess it has to BOOKS 71 be the writing. Even though the perched like a bird of evil on the Howard Hero quaffed his liquw crest of the hill, bulking black and hastily, he did find things that no stark against the stars. In the west white man has ever dreamed of­ pulsed a single dull red smear and what, exactly, did he dream where the young moen had just of? why-sky-towering minarets sunk from view behind the low ... long ranks of hawing, brawn­ black hills. The whole night seemed skinned worshippers . . . purple­ full of brooding evil, and the per­ canopied peacock thrones and sistant swishing of a bat's wings thundering golden chariots. sfJmewhere overhead caused my Thus, Howard, imitating Hag­ taut nerves to jerk and thrum. gard. He imitates Lovecraft, too: Well, actually, most of it isn't ". . . that great grim house that good. -AVRAM DAVIDSON

PUBLICATION NOTED: Anderson, Poul. Time And Stars. Doubleday. $3.95. Six novelets, one of which (No Truce With Kings) originally appeared her; the others are re­ prints from other magazines. Very good jacket design by Tom Chibbaro. Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Back to the Stone Age. Ace, 40¢ Chandler, A. Bertram. The Hamelin Plague. Monarch, 35¢ Gatland, K. W. Spaceflight Today. Aero Publishers, $7.50. illus. Heuscher, J. E. A Psychiatric Study of Fairy Tales. Thomas, $7.75. illus. Howard, Ivan, ed. Escape to Earth. Belmont, 50¢, 6 novelets. Knight, Damon. Beyond The Barrier. Dou'bleday. $3.50. A novel. The origi­ nal, shorter version appeared in this Magazine under the title of THE TREE OF TIME. Excellent jacket design by Tom Chibbaro. Lehman, Milton. This High Man: Robert H. Goddard. Farrar, Strauss, $6.50. Biography of "The Father of Space Travel" iftus. Lord, Russell. The Care of the Earth. New Amer. Library, 95¢ Husbandry, ecology, and conservation. McLaughlin, Chas. Space Age Dictionary. Van Nostrand, $7.95 Norton, Andre. Lord of Thunder. Ace, 40¢ Nourse, Alan E. The Counterfeit Man. David McKay. $3.50. Eleven stories, two of which (The Canvas Bag and The Expert Touch) originally appeared here; the others are reprints from other magazines. Mel Hunter's interesting jacket design is marred by a dull background. Shaw, Larry T. Great Science Fiction Aaventures (Edmond Hamilton, John Brunner, Harry Harrison, Robert Silverberg) Lancer, 50¢ Simak, Clifford D. They Walked Like Men. Macfadden, 50¢ Shepard, Francis P. The Earth Beneath The Sea. Atheneum, $1.65 illus. Oceanography No story which we have read recently so immediately and con­ sisrently conveyed an air of essential alienness . . . almost as if it had been written by its hyperhuman protagonist. Was the author, we enquired, of our own species? Indeed he was-and fs ...Origi­ nally I'm from Brooklyn," says Edward ]esby, whose first published SF story is here below; "Bay Ridge, which is a Scandinavian sec­ tion; 11nd my parents are both from Copenhagen. The 'alien tone' you comment on is the result of Lutheranism, the Social-Demo­ cratic state, and Nordic paranoia. I fkztter myself with the thought that this peculiar environmental set is the same as the one that caused a commentator (HeilbronerP) to say that Thorstein Veblen had a Martian's view of our society. I'm married, have two children, am thirty-one, and work as an electronic technician in the local Westem Electric Plant ... [at] North Andover, Mass." Mr. ]esby says that he has written, but hidden, other SF stories, is working on a "straight• novel, "attempting to refurbish an 85 year old house, and developing bursitis from painting textured tin ceilings." He concludes with the general and particular comment that "pathos in order to have an element of horror must merely be stated as pathos and then surrounded by general images that the sufficient horrors of imagination can operate upon." The sufficient horrors of imagination ... A good phrase, and, we think you'll agree, a good story.

SEA WHACK hy Edward .Jeshy

GRETA HIJUKAWA-RosEN SAT round platform, balancing it a few on the beach watching her escort inches above the spilling tops of maneuver a compression hover the wind-driven waves with small board above the waters of the Med- movements of his legs. The board iterranean. He stood on the small operated on the power sent to it 72 SEA WRACK 73 from the antennae above the cha­ wolowo ?" in a shout, but the head teau, but he operated on his own. was white, and not merely the "Viterrible," Greta thought, color of untanned skin, but a flat stretching to lift the underside of artificial white, like the marble her small breasts to the full heat of statues in the garden of the sum­ the sun. She giggled, wondering mer home. Now, to her further what her sisters would think of her horror, the rest of the apparition use of a conunercial word, and appeared out of the shallows. then shrugged and looked at ·her Above the blue sea, silhouetted own golden tan comparing it to against the paler sky, was a black her escort's dark color. Abuwolowo figure with a dead white head. It was humus brown. "Deep as leaf staggered through the chopping mold," she said speaking aloud, waves with efforts to lift its legs and stood up to watch him lift the free. When the creature succeeded thin platform to its maximum alti­ in lifting its feet clear she was r~­ tude of six or seven meters. His assured. It was wearing swim figure rapidly diminished in size fins, and she ran forward to help. as he sent it wobbling in gull-like After she had gotten her hand swoops out over the Mediterra­ onto the large soft arm she asked, nean. Ultimately it was boring, "Are you all right?" The man she decided, there was no real nodded and kindly leaned a bit of danger. He had a caller fitted into his weight onto her. She was his swim belt, and if he fell into thankful, the figure stood a foot the water the board he rode on above her six foot three inch would save him, diving into the height, and its shoulders were water and lifting him to safety. broader than Abuwolowo's Niger­ Now he was very far out, and all ian span. that was visible above the wave Firmly enscounced on the sand tops was the black bobbing ball of the man made a magician's pass his head. at his neck and lifted the covering "I suppose I should have a feel­ away from his face. He shot a ing Qf loss." There was contempt quick look at the sky with black in her voice, and it came from eyes that filled huge sockets and her knowledge that all she knew said, "Bright." He looked down at of loss was what she had read the sand, and after a few stertore­ about in a recent television semi­ ous breaths spoke. "Thank you," nar on great books, but she he paused reaching into his arm­ gasped, losing reality, when she pit, and continued, "Basker hit me saw the head in close to the beach. out there." Looking desperately for her bi­ Breathing more easily he was nocular lornette she asked, "Abu- easy to understand. The liquid 74 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION mumbling of his first words had the points of her body in spastic disappeared, and he looked di­ jerks until he rode his board up rectly at her. "Pretty," he said, onto the beach. "There's a man "Pretty deserves an explanation. A hurt here," she said, turning her basker drove me into the bottom. back to him until the sand blast­ Something scared it from in the ing up from the vehicle's air jets air and it dove." had subsided. "Basker?" she asked, wanting to "Man?" Abuwolowo questioned, hear the strange soft cadences of but he heaved at the collapsed the voice that issued from the figure. "He's as heavy as a whale. round head with its huge eyes. It's no use, I'll go up to the house "Basldng shark," he said, "lying and get help." He ran off in long on the surface and it dove. I had loping strides that brought him to no time to signal or to warn." He the elevator in the cliff with an fell forward, breathing easily, but instantaneous violation of distance she saw blood welling from a cut that was dreamlike. She stayed to on his back as he slumped onto watch her charge, fascinated by his knees. "Excuse," he mouthed, the long breaths he took. Easy in­ when she gave a small touched halations that moved down his cry. There was a long gash trav­ length in a wave from his chest to ersing his back from the left midriff in a series that seemed to shoulder blade to his waist at his never stop. One breath starting be­ right side, and the rubbery mate­ fore the other had finished. rial of his suit had rolled back She waited silently, forgoing and pulled the wound open. She her usual monkey chatter to her­ tried to lift him, but his weight self, eschewing fashion in the was too great, and all she suc­ presence of the impassive white ceeded in doing was to push him straw colored hair, whose only life over into the sand. She straddled showed in the delicate flutter of him and pulled at his long thick petal nostrils. Finally, after no arm, trying to turn him over, but time had passed for her, Abuwo­ that too was impossible. Flat as he lowo returned with four of the looked spread out on the sand, servants, strong squat men from with long thin legs and a midsec­ neighboring Aegean islands. Puff­ tion that had no depth, he was ing, their legs bowed under the still enormously heavy. She weight, they half carried, half jumped away from him and looked dragged the wounded man to the out into the sea. Abuwolowo was elevator and folded him into it coming in toward the shore and under Abuwolowo's direction. she frantically waved and shout­ Abuwolowo climbed over him,­ ed, throwing her long pigtail and and braced between the walls, SEA WRACK walked up the sides of the car un· know, and climbed off the otto­ til he was perched above the body. man. He ignored me and turned He held the up button down with around, and the cut was healed. a strong toe, the doors closed, and There was only a thin line to show the elevator whirred invisibly where it had been." away. Greta moved away, not waiting Greta had prepared for dinner, to hear the inevitable repetition dressing and making her face up and embellishments her brother­ with unusual care, and was com­ in-law would give to his reactions. ing down the great ramp that She passed through the archway swept into the entrance hall when that led to the casual room, undis­ she heard her brother-in-law talk­ turbed by the slight malfunction ing to some of the guests. She of the pressure curtain that al­ stopped, amused, he was not real­ lowed a current of air to lift the ly talking, but lecturin~ in a hem of her long skirt. voice that his Kirghiz accent The man from the sea was made even more didactic than he standing in front of the panoramic intended. glass watching the slow turning of "Amazing," he was saying, "the the sights from the islands per­ recuperative powers they have. imeter. A passing flow of scenery After we had gotten him off the that was magnified and dimin­ kitchen truck, and onto the largest ished by the tastes programmed reclining ottoman in the casual into the machine. Just at this mo­ room, he sat right up. He smiled at ment it was dwelling on the lights me. He stretched." Her brother-in· of the skyscrapers of Salonika. He law paused, either overcome with was engrossed, but her cousin amazement or staring down some­ Rolf was questioning him with his one who appeared to be about to usual inquisitiveness. Dwarfed by interrupt. "As I was saying," he the figure next to him he blurted went on in measured periods, "He questions in his fluting high Amer­ stretched." ican tones. Greta could not resist her The question she heard as she chance, she slipped down the approached was, "And you came ramp, and crossed to the speaker. all that way?" Rolfs voice did not "He stretched, and then what?" hold disbelief, it held pleasure, a Hauptman-Everetsky gave her childish love for a reaccountifig of the limited courtesy of his chill adventure. smile. "He stretched, and his wa­ "Surely," the huge man said, "I ter suit opened up and came off have said it. I came from outside like a banana skin. He checked Stavangafjiord. I was following under his arm, the gill slit, you an earth current. I hoped it might 76 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION teach me something about the hali­ "Dinner must be ready." She but's breeding. But I felt that was took the stranger's arm. 'Will you foolish, and so I hunted down the take me in?" With Rolf tagging coast until I came to here." He along behind, shaking his head, turned back to the glass to catch and bouncing every few steps to the artistic dwindling of the city see if he could bring himself to as the machine withdrew his view the sea giant's height, they en­ to a great height. "And," he said, tered the dining room. coming politely back to his inter­ The dining room was at the top rogator, "And the dolphins told of the chateau. It was open on all me, when they were racing off sides, and protected from the Normandy, that the waters here weather by polarised static fields were warm, and" he paused, no­ that were all but invisible and ticing Greta, "and the women brought the stars too plainly close. beautiful, with yellow hair, and "That fish," Hauptman-Everet­ brown limbs." sky had passed from awe to con­ Greta nodded. "You're very kind. descension, as he answered some­ But I do not have your name." one's question, "I could not throw "Gunnar Bjornstrom-Cousteau, him back like an undersized of the dome Walshavn." He bowed, trout." He gestured, "and it's about and she noticed how curious he time we had some amusement. We looked covered by evening clothes. are beginning to bore one anoth- The short open jacket that barely er. " reached the stretch tights exposed Greta felt her companion stiff­ the rectangular expanse of his en, and h~ld onto his arm tighte,r. chest, a smooth fall of flesh with­ He bent his head to her, and said, out muscle definition that made "Do not fear, I will not fall. It is her remember the tallowy layer of long since I have walked. I must fat his wound had exposed. She become accustomed to being un­ shuddered, and he asked, "Does supported by the friendly weight my face disturb you?" and for the of the water." She noticed that he first time she noticed that his skin stressed the word friendly, and re­ was peeling, and there were angry membered that one of the few red welts under his chin. "I was things she had heard about the un­ careless to take such a long trip derwater people was that they had without going under the lamps at brought back dueling. In the in­ home first. But then I did not in­ finite reaches of the sea the en­ tend to come into the air then. I forcement of organized law was am not used to the sunlight." difficult, encounters with the orca "Into the air?" Rolf was off and the shark common, and the again, but Greta stopped him. lessons they taught strong. SEA WRACK 77 Yet her companion was smiling dishonest as the day is long." Rolf at Everetsky and his circle of stopped. "But you my seaman friends, shaking hands with him friend, you don't understand anv firmly, and appraising the wom­ of this?" · en. "At least I will not be bored," "I," Biornstrom-Cousteau bur­ he said staring at her sister Mar­ bled laughter, "do not understand greta's painted chest. Greta took these problems, but we have our his arm again, relieved, and glad own with the government." He she had chosen to wear her blue seemed to like Rolf, but he spoke to gown that completely covered all his host. "They are difficult to ex­ of her except her hands and face. plain." "Are we going to sit down now, "I suppose so," Abuwolowo Carl?" she said to Everetsky, and spoke, "but tell us anyway." he led the way to the table, plac­ Gunnar shrugged, and the mas­ ing Gunnar at his right and her at sive table trembled slightly as he his left. shifted his knees. "They want us to The dinner went smoothly farm more, and hunt less." enough at first, the early conversa­ "Why not?" Abuwolowo chal­ tion centered around the futility lenged, "In the past my people ad­ of investing money in the moon justed to the changing times. mines, and the necessity of mol­ They learned to farm and to work lifying the government with sums in factories." small enough to be economic and "Yes." He was quiet for a mo­ yet larger than mere tokens. All of ment. "I suppose some day we the men from the rich steppes and must, but as Hagar the poet sang Russian mountain regions had rec­ " ommendations: lobbyists to rec­ "Poets." Abuwolowo dismissed ommend, purveyors of formuli to them. "We were talking of the gov­ complain about, and complaining ernment here." tales of corruption. While Rolf "Hagar said;" the sea guest went was concluding a story that cen­ on inevitable as the tides, pleasur­ tered on a bribed official who re­ ably quoting a beloved line, "The fused to honor his obligations sea change suffered by we; Cannot without further payments that make the airmen think free." He would have nullified the capital chanted on, squaring his shoulders payments he had agreed to save, he to expose more of his pale flesh, rediscovered Gunnar's spherical "For we have chosen deep being, face amid the contrasting ground not the e&se of their far seeing.'' of the tanned guests with their He stopped to stare out into the pointed chins. night with the depthless stare of "Nasty little fellow he was- his great dilated pupils. 78 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Rolf, always jolly, rubbed his cedar chip path between the walls hands together, sniffing at the next of greenery. ''You look very pretty course. "Ah, domestic venison,'' he this morning." said, changing the subject, cutting "And you looked like a child Abuwolowo's rejoinder short. "But when you were touching that our new guest doesn't seem to be plant, with your mouth open as if eating much, and mine host's cook you wanted to taste it." is excellent." "It does look edible," he gave "The food is cooked," Gunnar the leaf a last squeeze that pressed said, as if it explained everything. liquid out onto his hands. He It explained too much, and when licked the juice and made a face, he caught the expression on and she laughed happily to see the Hauptman-Everetsky's face he soft corrugations that wrinkled stood up and excused himself. "I around his head. "Well it is bit­ am still tired from healing my ter," he said defensively, and hurts. You will excuse me." The reaching out lifted her off her feet last was a statement, not a ques­ and into the tree. "Bite it and see." tion, and he left, moving with a Satisfied after she had clicked tired lagging stride. His powerful her teeth several times with mock body pushed down by the force of gusto he set her down again, and unrelieved gravity. she rubbed her sides. Seriously she looked up at him, appraising his Morning came, and the first bulk. "I was reading about you thing Greta did was to look for this morning," she said, looking Gunnar. She had left the dinner down with a strained intensity as party soon after him and started if performing the unfamiliar task for his room, but Abuwolowo had of following lines of print. overtaken her, and she had gone "So now I have become famous." with him. Now she searched the "Oh, no," she said, "In the en­ gardens, moving through the re­ cyclopedia. It says you are homo gions of climate. She found him in aquati-." the subtropical section standing "Homo aquaticus, one of the old in front of a red rubber plant words." He touched her bare grown to treelike proportions. He shoulder, ''Yes, and one of the was fingering a paddle sized leaf, better." pressing his finger tips deep into it "That's it," she said, dwelling as he regarded it with slightly on the pronounciation, "Homo parted lips. Aquaticus. And a long time ago a "Like meat," he said. "Whale man named Cousteau said that meat,'' he said smiling at the pic­ you were to be." ture she made coming down the "Cousteau." SEA WRACK 79 "Yes," she altered her pronolin­ "Because so many of our people dation, "Cousteau. A relative?" live here?" he went on without "He is dead, and my surname is needing to have an answer. "My said the way you pronounced it greatgrandfather felt the bottoms the first time." were becoming too crowded, that "No matter," she said, "I will the life would become too easy, show you the grounds now," and and so, we left." He swiveled his took his arm. She started out chat­ head to sniff at the sea offering her tering to him about the shrubbery, a view of the seal foldings of his but she soon discovered that it was neck. "And now we could not live another subject she knew very lit­ here at alJ. We have changed our tle about. He was naturally silent, bodies, and we have learned to and her thoughts turned to the love the hunt." things she had iound in the ency­ "But you come to the waters off clopedia. It had said that the first this island." colonies were set up in the Medi­ "I came only for a short hunt. I terranean. The warm water was would have returned very soon." perfect for man, and the sudden Further conversation was cut mistral born storms were no trou­ short by the interesting spectacle ble ten fathoms in the sea. The un­ of wide eyed gardeners dodging derwater colonies raised sea slugs, into the bushes to avoid their ad­ and clams, farmed algae and vance. The servants variously adapted fruits, and hunted the crossed themselves, or made the sma11er whales with hand wea­ sign of the horns, some of them pons. She had read very quickly, did both. They knew, if Greta did scanning down the page in s­ not, that there was a conflict be­ curves in her hurry to go and tween the sea peoples and the meet him, but womanlike, she did dwel1ers on the land. Servants lis­ remember some things about hu­ tened to political conversations, man births under the sea. The but eighteen year old girls of good children were born into the pres­ family were expert in oblivious at­ sures they would live under, fitted tention. The gardeners had heard with gill mechanisms that took from the house staff how the oxygen from the water, and sub­ world government in New Kiev, jected to chemotherapies that pre­ on the Baltic, was demanding pared them for their lives. more taxes in algae proteins from "But why do you live in the cold the independent sea states. Some seas in the north?" she asked. The of the servants relatives had served question was an outgrowth of her in the fleets of smalJ boats thoughts, yet he seemed to know equipped with grapple buckets what she meant. that were sent in punitive expedi- 80 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTIO:'\ tions against the algae beds and made many movements with her the sea slug pens. The duty was hips and torso, but he attached no dangerous, the seamen darted to significance to her wriggling. the surface in spurting pushes Greta became silent and swayed from shallows to rocks and over· away from him. She had worked turned boats, they cut the grapple the individual muscles her gov­ cables, and tied derisive messages ernesses had trained her to use. to their severed ends. What the Trained in long gymnasium ses­ raiders did capture was diseased, sions when she was young for the or of thin stock that had gone to pleasurable obligations of adult­ seed. hood, she accepted her expertness, The servants did not hate the and was piqued by his callous in­ seamen, they feared them as they difference. She almost believed feared the storms, and rages of na· that the sea wome.n were more ex­ ture. They did not respect them as pert, but, on second thought, she they did their masters: the seamen disregarded that. Her instructors, were unnatural facts of nature. and Abuwolowo, had assured her Not to be dealt with except that she was perfectly trained in through the practice of the magics the amatory arts. that had come back in the few Hadji Abuwolowo Smyth short years of barbarism after the watched them from a free standing Two Months War. balcony that projected, fingerlike, Gunnar had some idea of what out over the gardens. "The girl is the men who had run away were infatuated with the Fish," he thinking, but that part of the prob­ thought. "It is nothing more than lem did not concern him. After his difference." Abuwolowo re­ all, his dome did not farm enough membered the long hours of danc­ to be involved in the commercial ing that had trained him. The disputes. He looked at Greta. She great factories that his parents was still caught up in the unique· managed, and Greta's brother-in· ness of the servants' scuttling dis· law's desire for new markets for appearance. his heavy machinery, and con­ "It has been a long time since cluded that he had nothing to we went into the sea," he said, worry about. He went irito the touching her on the shoulder house to have a suppling rubdown again, knowing that physical con· to prepare him for the prelunch tacts reassured her, "and they do wrestling. not remember us. We are stran· Every day all the young men but gers." She leaned her weight Rolf wrestled for the amusement against his side, as soon as he had of the other guests. They fought in touched her, he noticed, and she a combination of styles, jui-jitsu SEA WRACK 81 coupled with the less dangerous "I am not a worthy opponent," holds of Greco-Roman wrestling. Abuwolowo chose to misunder­ They were full of energy, had little stand him. "Or perhaps you are to do, and they passed the time afraid?" waiting for the day when they Gunnar felt Greta's small hand would assume the managerial of­ in his back and walked forward fices their parents held in the onto the sanded turf looming more automatic factories. and more over Abuwolowo as he Gunnar and Greta emerged went. The Nigerian regreted his from the tree lined walk as the impetuousness for a split second, matches were about to start. Gun­ but compensated with a bound nar blinked, and rocked his head that was intended to carry him to as the forenoon heat bit into his the seaman's head. The leap was sunburn. Halting he made an ef­ successful, but his ear-grab hold fort; Greta felt oil under her hand, was not. There was nothing to and saw his skin flex and knead. grip. Gunnar's ears were tiny, and His pores opened and a smooth set deep into his skull. Their pavi­ layer of clear oil covered his body. lions were vestigal, the auditory He took several more of his curi­ canals covered by membranes, and ously peristaltic breaths, and with the skin oil slippery .. Abuwolowo's each one squeezed more protec­ planned knee drive spun him over tive fluid onto his skin. on his back, and he lay spraddled "Now," he said, as she let go of with his ludicrous failure driving him, 'We can go on, but first tell his anger. Rolling backward he me what is happening here." bounced up once and came down "They are wrestling," Greta to jump flat through the air with said shortly, either still angry at his legs doubled. Just as he his unresponsiveness, or caught up straightened to strike his adversary in the combat. with the full force of his Bight, They watched Hadji Abuwo­ and kicking legs, Gunnar dropped lowo win the first fight easily. under the trajectory, folding with Throwing his opponent with a hip the flexibility of an eel. Abuwo­ toss and pinning him with a leap. lowo skidded along the ground, The Nigerian nodded to Greta and rolled oYer to rub sand into with a victory grin on his face. his hands. He looked up, and "And you Fish," he said, "Do you found himself looking at Gunnar's wrestle?'' back, certain that the man had not "Not with you," Gunnar said moved his feet. It was too much politely, intending to imply that for him, but his urge to kill made Smyth was too practiced a hand him calculating. He stood up and for his small skill. ran, with short hunter's steps, si- M2 FANTASY AND SCIEXCE FICTIOX lently to Gunnar's back, and un­ certainty of knowledge. "He will leashed an axe-like swing at the be all right. His back was hurt, neck using lhe full strength of his bot I have fi"ed it." These last wide shoulders. The edge of his words were the ones that broke hand struck and rebounded, but Everetsky's code of hospitaJity. he was gratified to note that he They were too much like a repair had staggered Gmmar. man speaking about a robot toy. "You forget your title, Hdji," He stammered. peering out of Gunnar said in deeper tones than slitted eyes that accentuated his he had used before. Abuwolowo Mongol blood, but Gunnar could moved forward a shuffiing half only commend his conuol. His step and was thrown four or five first thought was to stop the feet backwards by an open handed guards. slap he did not see start. When he "Back, quiet now," Everetsky's recovered himself, Gunnar was diction was irregular, but his standing stock still waiting. It pitch was properly adjusted to the was too late to go back, and he command tone of the mastiffs. charged hopeles!ly. He felt the The dogs, with the metallic cr&wns loag Bexible arms, as thick at the of their augmented skulls glitter­ wrist as the shoulder, reach out to ing, turned back and sat in their .Pick him up, but he could do places under the chateau wall, nething about it, even though once more becoming statues. Now they appeared to be moving very that his first duty was accom­ slowly. For a minute Gunnar held plished, he could come back to him in a strangely compassionate the business of Gunnar. embrace, but then threw him into "Sir," he said, and now his the air straight up. He felt himself voice was under control, "You rise, and he floated for a long in­ have injured one of my guests. larval, but when he fell he could That would be permissible, but it r._ember no more. is certain to happen again. There Hauptman-Everetsky leaped to is enmity between you and him, his feet and ran forward, but Gun­ and," he paused, to collect him­ nar was there before him. He knelt self, "I must be truthful, I do not by Abuwolowo's side and twisted like your kind myself. I ask you to hbn in his hands. leave. If you feeJ yourself insulted "Guards," Everdsky screamed, I offer you satisfaction." and fearlessly rushed toward the "You are a brave man," Gunnar seaman. said, and with a sudden baring of "Stop," Gunnar's words were his teeth, "Well fleshed too, so the commanding, either out of their spolls might be worth the fight, awesome depth, or because of the but your way is not ours. I cannot SEA WRACK 83 ask you to sport with me." He d9wn at his feet, at a distance showed Everetsky his teeth, open­ they thousht out of the radius of ing his lips back to his neck, and his arms. They backed oft! and dropping 'he hinges of his jaw. "I squatted on their heels to wait for would have to ask you into the wa­ the others to come np, remaining, ter so that we could play, and," he guardedly watching him, until the asked with icy rhetoric humor, woman aRd her companions that amused no one but him, reached them. "what chance would you take?" "Greetings to you," Gunnar said "Thank you," Everetsky said, when the woman bad come to a not holding his contempt, "But I halt, spreading her legs to balJmce must nevertheless ask you when the weight of a waist thickened },y you wiH htave my house." years of carrying full water jars up "I ask your indulgence to wait steps cut from island rock. until tonight when the tide is "Greetings," she said, in a good." Everetsky nodded, and the Greek dialect as bastardized as the seaman turned and walked to­ letters that appeared on ancient ward the beach path as if be re­ Scythian coins. She alone ob­ membered using it before. served him with equanimity. Down on the beach Gunnar "Speak," he said, viawiDg a full studied the water, watching for the half circle of the beach and hori­ signs of the incoming tide: sea­ zon, moving his eyes independ­ wrack would soon be tossed up ently. He knew what was coming, onto the shore, pieces of the sea's t:luee times now he had performed jetsam, thrown there to waste this rite. away on the cleansing shore. The She waddled up to him point­ dead seaweeds, fish and bubbles ing the forefinger of her left hand would soon push ahead of the at his face. When it touched his growing combers to outline the closed mouth a rapturous look demarcation between his domain transformed her thickened fea­ and Everetsky's. "Lubber," he said, tures and the Attic awe encom­ "you do not understand," and passed her functioning. Obedient­ stopped, putting his hand, palm ly he opened his lips, and, with a down, flat on the sand. He felt the sharp snap, clipped the end of her vibrations of approaching feet. finger off. The nauseating taste of Two servants appeared carry­ warm blood, and dirty fingernail, ing his water suit, signaling their filled his mouth, but he swallowed trepidation with stiff backs and quickly and spoke again. firm jaws. Behind them came two "I have accepted. Speak." more servingmen, and a kitchen The woman could not resist maid. The bearers put his suit looking back at her entourage with 84 FANTASY AJii'D SCIENCE FICTION triumph, and Gunnar thought, "When the appointed time is "Poor fellows, now she is a full come I will return." He watched fledged witch, ugly and to be them go, the woman leading, and obeyed in all things." She would the men with their heads inclined have the ultimate power over her to the woman. fellows. Commands were to be her Gunnar was ashamed of him­ normal mode of speech. The mere self, not for his threats to his host pointing of her maimed hand, a and their outcome. He had gesture of pollarded horns, could planned that series of happenings, call a man to her bed, or a maid to and, had in fact, played this role his; but, more important, it would many times before. His people fuse the serfs into a unit. They could not hope to fight the land would be a group that would re­ dwellers if the war was to be spond to the messages of Gunnar's fought on the basis of numbers people when the time came. He and equipment. The sea cities knew that the inheritors and own­ were very vunerable, the simplest ers of the earth understood their sort of guided torpedo could de­ world very well from its blue­ stroy the domes, and economic prints; but they could not find the sanctions would quickly disrupt switches and valves and all the the lives of the ocean bed fanners simple tools to work them. and their cities. He was not "Did you speak your true ashamed of his tactics, but of the thoughts when you promised to unmanly squeamishness which eat the master, Great Fish?" had overtaken him. To feel his Gunnar made the obligatory stomach tum at the mere taste of answer. "You have prayed to us." human kind. It was true that the "Demon of Poisidon, my people heavy starch diet of the airbreath­ would be saved." She too was fa­ ers and the dark cooked meats miliar with the ritual. they are gave their flesh an un­ "I am no demon, but a servant," pleasant, alien taste, but it was not he rose to his feet, and gave the so different from the savor of en­ toothy yawn that had impressed emies he had killed in the days Everetsky. "Poisidon wants more long hunting duels in his home­ servants who love the sea." ground. "We will accept." He stopped his train of thought, Gunnar bit a piece of blubber and studied the sea with height­ from his forearm and spit it into ened awareness. Wondering what the cup of her waiting hands. Im­ disturbed him would do no good. mediately she kissed it ritually and He knew it would be better to r.e­ squirreled it into the dirty fold of lax, but the strange dislocation of her blouse. his abilities was still with him. He SF..\ \VRACK 85 breathed deeply, sucking great about Greta were correct. He hit mouthfuls of air, and held them near the bottom of a wave and let until his chest and diaphram the undertow carry him toward puffed out in a rotund bladder. the sudden deep just beyond the Slowly he let the air escape breakers. Turning in a free somer­ through his nostrils, a silent Row sault he pushed for the boulder of aspiration, until any observer filled bottom and found a current would have noticed the change in that carried him between the his posture. Everything about his rocks. As he estimated his speed he body was lax, his legs lay sepa­ slowed himself by pressing his rately on the sand, and his head heels into the sand, touching at lolled, but the eyes were alive. chosen points much like a profes­ They turned in their sockets inde­ sional polo player guides his pony pendently scanning the surface of with touches of his spurs. When the sea. It was a look born in the he saw the bathysphere that Ever­ middle twentieth century studies etsky had ordered sunk, he mo­ of frogs' nervous systems. There mentarily regreted not wearing his were circuits spliced into the op­ swim fins, but he did not dwell on tical nerves that bypassed the the thought. It could hold no brain and fed the sorted visual more than three men, he thought, stimuli back to the eye muscles. and swam toward its hatch. Only the significant motions on The three guards saw him as the surface of the sea were al­ soon as he came into the bathy­ lowed to reach the brain. sphere's circle of light. They started After a few seconds of this ac­ out the open hatch. Gunnar caught tivity Gunnar's legs twitched, his the first man by the scruff of his eyelids drooped, and the eyes neck as he came out, but they had themselves seemed to withdraw expected to use the vanguard as a back into the skull. He brought his delay to allow others to come up knees up, and hugged them, sit­ on him. What they had not al­ ting in this childlil•e posture with lowed for was the simplicity of a broad grin on his face. Gunnar's tactics. He held the man "Hauptman-Everetsky was fool­ like a kitten and plucked the ish," he thought as he changed his mouthpiece of his oxygen recircu­ position to stand, moving in a ser­ lator out of his face, pointed him pentine Row that ended in a run toward the bottom, and, with a toward the surf. His last thoughts wide hand spread across his but­ before he hit the water in a Oat tocks, pushed him under tram­ dive were of his hunger, and a pling feet. The second man tried mental note to come back to the to divert him with a shot from his beach to see if his calculations speargun. Gunnar, feeling foolish- 86 FANTASY Al\'D SCIENCE FICTION ly inept for his slowness, ducked flicker of his tongue picking at and caught it just over his shoul­ the crevices in his teeth. der, and drove the blunt staff into "Hello," she said, not finding the marksman's solar plexus. He anything else to say for the mo­ hauled this opponent out by a ment, and wrapped her long cloak Bopping arm, without time to tighter around her. watch his agonized contortions. "Hello," he said, noticing her The third member of Everetsky's shivers. "Come, you are not used murder party refused to join the to the night air without screens to combat. Gunnar showed his grin­ protect you." He led the way to the ning face at an illuminated port, shelter of the cliff, and continued. and disappeared to the top of the "What are you doing here?'' sphere. He took the cable ring in Greta did not know, except his hands and threshing his legs that she was attracted to him, and swam the bathysphere over onto that he was the first man she could its side. With a little adjustment remember feeling anything but fa­ the hatch fitted neatly into the miliarity for, but she said, "Well, bottom and Gunnar surveyed his you beat Abuwolowo so easily." handiwork before he swam to the "In the jousts of love," Gunnar man curled on the bottom with his said declaritively, having thought legs doubled up over his stomach. better of finishing his statement No matter how he struggled, the questioningly. man felt himself being drawn Greta gave him her best arch straight out. A round face, sus­ smile. "But I could talk my broth­ pended inches from his mask, gen­ er-in-law into letting you stay. He tly studied his last reactions. owes something to me." Gunnar would have told her The beach was deserted when about the affair he had just ended Greta finally escaped from the in the sea, but the strange repug­ chateau to look for the seaman. nance overtook him again. "He She kicked a puff of sand into the would not really want me," he said, night breeze in exasperation and but even he, not given to nuances would have left, but she saw of this sort, noticed the hesitant something break out of the water tone in his own voice. amid the froth of incoming waves. "But his concern is always for A second later she could see Gun­ the amusement of his guests," nar's figure wading ashore. He Greta said, and giggled fetchingly bent and reached under the water, at some private joke, "and they are and taking a handful of sand getting bored. Very bored," she wiped it across his mouth. As he said masterfully. drew closer she could see the "And I would soon be boring SEA WRACK 87 too, Little Greta." He rumpled her arms around his waist, and leaned hair with a touch of rough power, her head on his sternum. "Thank and she stepped closer to him. you," she said, appreciating a com­ "You couldn't bore me. Ever." pliment with cocquettery. She turned her face up and Gun­ "You are very welcome," Gun­ nar saw the plumb line of her nar said, and managed to keep his throat. Thin, but adolesently laughter out of his voice. "But you rounded with a touching surplus can do me a favor." Before he of young fat. The stringest rules of spoke he studied the water. Now his dialectic told him that he he must leave, he decided, and should destroy her as an incipient turned back to her. "It is very sim­ breeder. ple." He said, "Remember to tell "No," he said, "I can do better." your brother-in-law this: war will He explained himself to the elders be fought in places he has not yet in the dome under the sea. thought of." Greta was tired of waiting for "Yes?" Greta said, bewildered. an embrace that never came. She "No more." Gunnar patted her changed her posture, and spoke head kindly, and sat down, with irritation. "What was that?" smoothed his suit onto his body, "Nothing." Plausibly, he said, and put his fins on his feet. When "I must go back to my family. I he had his mask in place he could have been gone very long." no longer speak and he walked si­ "Your wife you mean." lently into the breakers to vanish. "I am too young to swim in the Later that same night he talked breeding tides." with the porpoises, chased a school The metaphor's meaning es­ of silvery fish out into the moon­ caped Greta, but the surface of the light and then dove to flirt in statement could be turned into swirls in a whirlpool current that the small victory of a compliment. spun him out in the direction of "You will come back when you home .. are ready?" Greta gave Hauptman-Everet­ Gunnar found the source of his sky her cryptic message; he took weakness. Somehow she had little notice of it, and she remem­ taught him to find the meaning bered less and less of Gunnar with behind simple words. He smiled. the passing years. When she did "Of course. Where else would recall, it was too late, the figures there be for me to go now?" coming out of the surf, to be Greta had forgotten all her greeted by the servants, were not careful training: the sophistica­ Gunnar, but triumphant victors. tions that her governesses had The island was without power, taught her. She beamed, threw her the servants in revolt, and nostal- 88 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION gia was not a shield. and bells and voices, however The war had been fought; nei­ loud, brought no servants back ther she nor her brother-in-law from their welcoming songs. The had known it. In the subterranean always obedient chattels only tunnels the ripped ends of power watched, with blank dark eyes, as cables spluttered hopeless sparks, the fish came to play their game water poured from tom mains, with Greta.

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$15.00) Please print Name Address------­ City------State----Zip--- (Requests for specific covers will be filled when possible; otherwi8e, we will send our selection) Doe& anyone besides your centenarian Editor remember Irwin S. Cobb? He was a Kentuckian, a humorist of the old-or pre-pre­ sick-school; and once told the story of a man, who being unwise enough to go out in the woods wearing khakis during Deer Season, was immediately wounded by a zealous hunter who "thought he was a deer." The unlucky man recovered, had a suit made for him out of green-and-white striped awning material; and, thus pro­ tectively colored, went out in the woods again during the follow­ ing Deer Season. He was at once shot again: this time, fatally. "No one believes you did it on purpose," the coroner said to the unhappy kiUer. "But how in blazes could you have thought he was a deer?" "I didn't," was the answer • • • "I thought he was a zebra . ..."

MAR-TI-AN

by Robert Lory

In the office of the Superintendent "It's-not exactly that, sir. I of Prisons, the warden saluted understand your reasoning, and I smartly. "Engas has gone, sir. The agree that a mass murderer like escape went off as planned," he Engas deserves death, even though reported. our new laws prohibit capital pun­ The white-haired man seated at ishment. But suppose-" the desk nodded. "He found the "Suppose we're wrong and En­ ship?" gas isn't killed-is that it?" "Yes sir." ''I'm bothered first by Engas's "The fuel level. Was it-" para-genius intelligence, coupled "Yes sir, just enough to reach with his megalomania and com­ Earth. He's sure to realize that." plete lack of conscience. Secondly, The older man looked thought­ Earthmen have long suspected life fully at the warden for a moment. on other planets. They might well "You don't approve of this, do now be hospitable to a non-Terran you?" visitor. Is it fair to them-" 89 90 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION The superintendent smiled, "I don't understand the term bleakly. "Reflect a moment on revenooer. It wasn't taught to us in your reading of Terran history and English classes," Engas said. anthropology. We have_ little to Lafe cocked the shotgun. "He's worry about them. Engas and the lyin, Paw. Ever'body knows about Earth deserve one another." revenooers." "Hold on, boy-where you "Hey, Paw-look whut I got ye, from, mister?" all tied up like a weddin pres­ Engas's mind was calculating. ent." Lafe slammed the door, He'd known from the moment the causing Paw's chair to slide down boy picked him up that he was in the wall. trouble. Stupidity always meant a Paw woke abruptly with the certain amount of trouble. The subsequent crash. "Boy, how many boy was bad enough, but the father times do I-whut's that there?" had, in the mensuration of En­ "Found him up by the still." gas's world, an Intelligence Quo­ "That's some kind of uniform tient of about 3. A creature this • • . By the still? He a revenooer, low on the scale would have to be maybe?" impressed by something he didn't Lafe shrugged. "He come down understand, something beyond his in one of them airyoplanes." experience. A little truth might be Paw's eyebrows lifted. "A airyo­ justified . . . at first. plane?" "I've come from Mars," he said. ''Yup, but this one didn't have "'Mars'," Paw repeated, no wings. That's probably why it thoughtfully. "Where-Lafe! You came down in such a big heap. set that jug right back on the table. Wings fell off." You're too young for corn." "I have heard of revenooers fly­ "Aw, Paw-I'll be twenty-nine ing in airyoplanes before," Paw next plantin season." said, slowly. "Lookin for smoke." "Too young. Your Maw never "Should we shoot him?" would've allowed it. You know Paw uncorked a jug. "Not just where this Mars place is at, boy?" yit. Put him square in your shot­ "Dunno. Over in Clebo County, gun sights, though, and take that mavbe?" kerchief out'n his mouth." The synapses in Engas's brain Lafe pushed his bound captive shuddered, but they jumped back against the shack's wall with the on the offensive. Impress them. nose of his shotgun. He yanked the Impressive, but not too unusual. dirty red bandana free. Play up urgency. 3 l.Q., dammitl Paw took a swig of moon. ''You Fear-start with known, expand a revenooer, stranger?" to unknown. 91 "No, you don't understand. I'm ernment-and through it, aD this from the planet Mars. I'm a Mar­ planet's governments-of a dead­ tian." ly menace. Out in space right now "A what, you say?" asked Paw. and coming toward Earth is a gi­ "Martian. Martian." gantic cloud, carrying a gas that "A Mar-ti-an?" Paw repeated. will kill all life here. I can show En gas said violently, "Yes, and your engineers how to build de­ I've got to get to Washington im­ fenses against it, but they must be mediately. I was heading there warned quickly." when-" "He's :fihbin, Paw. Clouds "Washinton, Paw! He's talk­ don't tote gas, they tote water. I ing about Washinton City­ learned that up at the schoolhouse. where the revenooers come from." And I never heard nothin about "Look, I know nothing about them engineer things, neither." your revenooers, but I simply must Paw thought a bit. "It's true, get to Washington!" boy, that you've got the only fourth Paw looked hard at Lafe, who grade schoolin in the family, but I backed away from the jug on the figure you better run up to Gran'­ table. Then he returned his gaze pap's and ask him what to do. He to the stranger. "If you're no reve­ knows a lot of things, bein long­ nooer, how come· you's in such a lived and havin gone twice to the hurry to get to Washinton City?" county seat. Ask him what we Because, unspeakable fool, should do with this Mar-ti-an." that's where I was headed when "Heck, Paw-Gran'pap's is an the fuel ran out-because that's awful long walk from here. Can't where I'll be welcomed and where we just _shoot the crittur now?'' I'll start my take-over. First, this "Git movin, boyl" Paw said, country; next, the planet, and fi­ taking the shotgun and the jug of nally the whole solar system. corn from Lafe. "Swig?" he asked "Because," he said urgently, Engas. There was no point in "I've been sent to warn your gov- cruelty • , •

IT'S CORRECT TO CLIP! Filling in the coupon on the next page offen the following advantages: 1. Guaranteed monthly delivery to your door of the beet in aeieuce fic­ tion and fantasy reading. 2. Reduced rate-it's cheaper to subscribe than to boy 70nr copies at the newsstand. · 3, An essentially unmarred copy of this issue-the coupon is baeked up with this box, and its removal does not affect the text of the surrounding material. 92 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION "From where?" The old man opened a cup­ "Mars, Gran'pap. Figger, over board door and began rummaging round Clebo County, maybe." through pots and pans, dried "Well, I don't know about all herbs, broken dishes, old almanacs this here cloud business. Clouds and shotgun shells. A slurping are up in the air-can't hurt no­ noise made him wheel around. body down here. What's the name "Boy, set that jug back down. of this tale-teller?" You're too young for corn. Now·git "Calls himself a • • . Mar-ti­ yourself home and give that feller an." both barrels. Can't let him git The old man kicked over his ta­ away, or there'll be no tellin whut ble in jumping up. "A what?" he'll be up to-no good, that's for "Mar-ti-an. That's what he says, sure. Now, gitl" anyway." Lafe had been gone twenty min­ 'What in tarnation's the matter utes when the old man found a with you and your Paw? Why piece of black slate with markings ain't you blasted him to kingdom on it. In another ten minutes he come?" had located a small piece of dirty "I wanted to, but Paw said-" chalk. About the same time as Lafe "Never mind. I sure didn't fig­ and Paw were marveling over En­ ure there'd be none of 'em left. It gas's green blood, Gran'pap was was when I was your age, boy. A mumbling with pleasure at the real war, we had us. Thought we'd score the slate now recorded: got 'em all. They was right good fighters, but we finally had 'em MARTINS COYS licked. Lost one more man than XXX XX xxxxx they did, if I remember rightly. I XXX XX XXX XX still got a score-talley round here "Took a long time," he cackled, someplace." "but we's finally even!" ------Mercury Press, Inc., 347 East 53 Street, New York, N.Y. 10022 F-5 Send me The Magazine of FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION. I enclose D $4.50 for one year D $11.00 for three years. Name .....•...... • • · · · · • · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · • · • · • • Please print

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GHOST LINES IN THE SKY

by Isaac Asimov

MY soN IS BEARING, WITH strained patience, the quasi-humorous changes being rung upon his last name by his grade-school classmates. My explanation to him that the name "Asimov," properly pronounced, has a noble resonance like the distant clash of sword on shield in the age of chivalry, leaves him unmoved. The hostile look in his eyes tells me quite plainly that he considers it my duty as a father to change my name to "Smith" forthwith. Of course, I sympathize with him, for in my time, I, too, have been victimized in this fashion. The ordinary mis-spellings of the uninformed I lay .to one side. The odd quirk of mind that causes Lester del Rey (a science fiction writer of whom you may possibly have once heard) to greet me as "Asenion" upon every meeting and then fall into convulsions of laughter, I forgive. However, there was one time- It was when I was in the army and working out my stint in basic training. One of the courses to which we were exposed was map-reading, which had the great advantage of being better than drilling and hiking. And then, like a bolt of lightning, the sergeant in charge pronounced the fatal word "azimuth" and all faces turned toward me. I stared back at those stalwart soldier-boys in horror, for I realized that behind every pair of beady little eyes, a small brain had suddenly discovered a source of infinite fun. You're right. For what seemed months, I was Isaac Azimuth to every comic on the post, and every soldier on the post considered himself a comic. But, as I told myself (paraphrasing a great American poet), "This is the army, Mr. Azimuth." Somehow, I st•rvived. And, as fitting revenge, what better than to tell all you inoffensive Gentle Readers, in full and leisurely detail, exactly what azimuth is? 93 94 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION It all starts with direction. The first, most primitive and most useful way of indicating direction is to point. "They went that-a-way." Or, you can make use of some landmark known to one and all, "Let's head them off at the gulch." This is all right if you are concerned with a small section of the earth's surface; one with which you and your friends are intimately fa­ miliar. Once the horizons widen, however, there is a search for methods of giving directions that do not depend in any way on local terrain, but are the same everywhere on the earth. An obvious method is to make use of the direction of the rising sun and that of the setting sun. (These directions change from day to day, but you can take the average over the period of a year.) These are op­ posite directi(lns, of course, which we call "east" and "west." Another pair of opposites can be set up perpendicular to these and be called "north" and "south." If, at any place, north, east, south and west are determined (and this could be done accurately enough, even in pl'ehistoric times by care­ ful observations of the sun) there is nothing, in principle, to prevent still finer directions from being established. We can have northeast, northnortheast, northeast by north and so on. With a compass, you can accept directions of this sort, follow them for specified distances, or via specified landmarks, and go wherever you are told to go. Furthermore, if you want to map the earth, you can start at some point, travel a known distance in a known direction to another point, and locate that point (to scale) on the map. You can then do the same for a third point, and a fourth, and a fifth, and so on. In principal, the entire surface of the planet can be laid out in this manner, as accu­ rately as you wish, upon a globe. However, the fact that a thing can be done "in principal" is cold com­ fort if it is unbearably tedious and would take a million men a million years. Besides, the compass was unknown to western man till the 13th Century and the Greek geographers, in trying to map the world, had to try other dodges. One method was to note the position of the sun at midday; that is at the moment just half-way between sunrise and sunset. On any particular day, there will be some spots on earth where the sun will be directly overhead at midday. The ancient Greeks knew this to be true of southern Egypt in late June, for instance. In Europe, however, the sun at mid­ day always fell short of the overhead point. This could easily be explained once it was realized that the earth was a sphere. It could furthermore be shown without difficulty that all points GHOST LINES IN THE SKY on earth at which the sun, on some particular day, fell equally short of the overhead point at midday, were on a single east-west line. Such a line could be drawn on the map and used as a reference for the location of other points. The first to do so was a Greek geographer named Di­ caearchus, who lived from about 355 to 258 B.C. and was one of Aristotle's pupils. Such a line is called a line of "latitude" from a Latin word meaning broad or wide, for when making use of the usual convention of putting north at the top of a map, the east-west lines run in the direction of its width. Naturally, a number of different lines of latitude can be determined. All run east-west and all circle the sphere of the earth at constant dif­ ferences from each other, and so are parallel. They are therefore re­ ferred to as "parallels of latitude." The nearer the parallels of latitude to either pole, the smaller the circles they make. (If you l,ave a globe, look at it and see.) The longest parallel is equidistant from the poles and makes the largest circle, taking in the maximum girth of the earth. Since it divides the earth intO two equal halves, north and south, it is called the "equator" (from a Latin word meaning "equalizer"). If the earth were cut through at the equator, the section would pass through the center of the earth. That makes the equator a "great circle." Every sphere has an infinite number of great circles, but the equator is the only parallel of latitude that is one of them. It early became customary to measure off the parallels of latitude in degrees. There are 360 degrees, by convention, into which the full cir­ cumference of a sphere can be divided. If one travels from the equator to the north pole, one covers a quarter of the earth's circumference and therefore passes over go degrees. Consequently, the parallels range from 0° at the equator to goo at the north pole, (the small 0 representing "degrees"). If one continues to move around the earth past the north pole so as to travel toward the equator again, one must pass the parallels of lati­ tude (each of which encircles the earth east-west) in reverse order, traveling from goo back to 0° at the equator (but at a point directly opposite that of the equatorial beginning). Past the equator, one moves across a second set of parallels circling the southern half of the globe, up to 90° at the south pole and then back to 0°, finally at the starting point on the equator. To differentiate the 0° to 90° stretch from equator to north pole and the similar stretch from equator to south pole, one speaks of "north 96 FANTASY AND SCJEI'CE FICTION latitude" and "south latitude." Thus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is on the 40° north latitude parallel, while Valdivia, Chile, is on the 40° south latitude parallel.

Parallels of latitude, though excellent as references about which to build a map, cannot, by themselves, be used to locate points on the earth's surface. To say that Quito, Ecuador, is on the equator merely tells you that it is somewhere along a circle 25,000 miles in circumfer­ ence. For accurate location, one needs a gridwork of lines; a set of north­ south lines as well as east-west ones. These north-south lines, running up and down the convention_ally oriented map (long-ways) would natu­ rally be called "longitude." Whenever it is midday upon some spot of the earth, it is midday at all spots on the same north-south line, as one can easily show if the earth is considered to be a rotating sphere. The north-south line is there­ fore a "meridian" (a corruption of a Latin word for "midday") and we speak of "meridians of longitude." Each meridian extends due north and south, reaching the north pole at one extreme and the south pole at the other. All the meridians there­ fore converge at both poles and are spaced most widely apart at the equator, for all the world like the boundary lines of the segments of a tangerine. If one imagines the earth sliced in two along any meridian, the slice always cuts through the earth's center, so that all meridians are great circles, and each stretches around the world for a distance of approximately 25,000 miles.

By 200 B.C., maps being prepared by Greeks were marked off with both longitude and latitude. However, making the gridwork accurate was another thing. Latitude was all right. That merely required the determination of the average height of the midday sun or, better yet, the average height of the north star. Such determinations could not be made as accurately in ancient Greek times as in modern times, but they could be made accurately enough to produce reasonable results. Longitude was another matter. For that one needed time of day. One had to be able to compare the time at which the sun (or better still, a star) was directly above the local meridian, as compared with the time it was directly above another meridian. If a star passed over the meridian of Athens in Greece at a certain time, and over the meridian of Messina in Sicily, 32 minutes later, then Messina was 8 degrees of longitude west of Athens. To determine such matters, accurate timepieces were GHOST LINES IN THE SKY 97 necessary; timepieces that could be relied on to IDaintain synchroniza... tion to within fractions of a minute over long periods while separated by long distance; and to remain in synchronization with the earth's rota­ tion, too. In ancient times, such timepietes simply did not exist and therefore even the best of the ancient geographers managed to get their meridians tangled up. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who flourished at Alexandria in 200 B.C., thought that the meridian that passed through Alexandria, also passed through Byzantium (the modem city of Istanbul, Turkey). That meridian actually passes about 70 miles east of Istanlrul. Such dis­ crepancies tended to increase in areas further removed from home-base. Of course, once the circumference of the earth is known (and Eratosthenes himself calculated it; see THE SHAPE OF THINGS, F & SF, September 1962), it is possible to calculate the east-west distance between degrees of longitude. For instance, at the equator, one degree of longitude is equal to about 69.5 miles, while at a latitude of 40° (either north or south of the equator), it is only about 53.2 miles and so on. However, accurate measurements of distance over mountainous territory, or, worse yet, over stretches of open ocean are quite difficult. In early modem times, when European nations first began to make long ocean voyages, this became a horrible problem. Sea-captains never knew certainly where they were, and making port was a matter of pray­ ing as well as sailing. In 1598, Spain which, at the time, was the major sea-going nation, offered a reward for anyone who would devise a time­ piece that could be used on board ship, but the reward went begging. In 1656, the Dutch astronomer, Christian Huygens, invented the pendulum clock; the first accurate time-piece. It could be used only on land, however. The pitching, rolling and yawing of a ship put the pendu­ lum off its feed at once. Great Britain succeeded Spain as the majOI' maritime nation after 1600, aDd in 1675, Charles II founded the observatory in Greenwich (then a London suburb, now part of the city) for the express purpose of carrying through the necessary astronomical observations that would make the accurate determination of longitude possible. But a good timepiece was still needed and in I 714, tbe British gov­ ernment offered a large fortune (in those days) of 20,000 pounds for anyone who could devise a good clock that would work on shipboard. The problem was tackled by John Harrison, a Yorkshire mechanic, self-trained and gifted with mechanical genius. Beginning in 1728, he built a series of five docks, each better than the one befOI'e. Each was so mounted that it couhl take the sway of a ship without being affected. 98 FANTASY AND SCIE:\CE FICTIOX Each was more accurate at sea than other clocks of the time were on land. One of them was o6I by less than a minute after five months at sea. Harrison's first clocks were perhaps too large and heavy to be completely practical, but the fifth was no bigger than a large watch. The British Parliament put 011 aD extraordinary display of meanness in thts connection for they wore Harrison out in their continual delays in paying him the moneoy he had earned and in demanding more and ever more models and telits. (Possibly, this was because Harrison was a provincial mechanic and not a gentleman scientist of the Royal Socftty.) However, King George III himself took a pe.sonal i11terest in the case aad backed Harrison, who finaUy received his money in 1765, by whh:h time he was over 70 years old. It is only in the last two hundred years, then, that the latitude­ longitude gridwork on the earth became really accurate. Even after precise longitude deterRlinations became possible, a prob­ lem remained. There is no natural reference-base for longitude; nothing lilce the equator in case of latitude. Different nations therefore used different systems, 115ll8lly basing "zero longitude" on the mwidian pass­ ing through the local capital. The use of different systems was coofusing and the risk was run of rescue operations at sea being hampered, to say nothini of war maneuvers among allies being stymied. To settle matters, the important maritime nations of the world gath­ ered in Washington, D.C. in 1884 and held the 'Washington Meridian Conference." The lopcal decision was reached to let the Greenwich ob­ senatory serve as base since Great Britain was at the very height of its maritime power. The meridian passing through Greenwich is, therefore, the "Prime Meridian" and has a longitude of 0°. The degrees of longitude are then marked off to the west and east as "west longitude" and "east longitude." The two meet again at the op­ posite side of the world from the Prime Meridian. There we have the 180° Meridian which runs down the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Every degree of latitude (or longitude) is broken up into 60 min­ utes ('), every minute into 60 seconds ("), while the seconds can be broken up into tenths, hundreds and so on. Every point on the earth caR be located uniquely by means of latitude and longitude. For in­ stance, New York City (referring to some municipally agreed upon central point) is at 40° 45' 06" north latitude and 73° 59' 39" west longitude; while Los Angeles is at 34° 03' 15" north latitude and I 18° 14' 28" west longitude. The north. pole and south pole have no longitude, for all the meridi­ ans converge there. However, the north pole is defined by latitude GHOST LINES IN THE SKY 99 alone, for goo north latitude represents one single point-the north pole. Similarly, goo south latitude represents the single point of the south pole. It is possible to locate longitude in terms of time rather than in terms of degrees. The complete day of 24 hours is spread around the 360° of longitude. This means that if two places differ by 15 ° in longi­ tude, they also differ by 1 hour in local time. If it is exactly noon on the Prime Meridian, it is 1 P.M. at 15 ° east longitude and 11 A.M. at 15 ° west longitude. If we decide to call Prime Meridian 0: 00: 00 we can assign west longitude positive time readings and east longitude negative time read­ ings. All points on 1 5° west longitude become + 1 : 00: 00 and all points on 15° east longitude become -1:00:00. Since New York City is at 73° 59' 39" west longitude it is 4 hours 55 minutes 59 seconds earlier than London and can therefore be lo­ cated at +4:55:5g, Similarly, Los Angeles, still farther west is at +8:04:48. In short, every point on earth, except for the poles, can be located by a latitude and a time. The north and south poles have latitude only and have no local times, since they have no meridian. This does not mean, of course, that there is no time at the poles; only that the system for measuring local times, which works elsewhere on earth, breaks down at the poles. Other systems can be used there; one pole might be as­ signed Greenwich time, for instance, while the other is assigned the time of the 180° meridian. In the ordinary mapping of the globe, both latitude and longitude are given in ordinary degrees. However, the time system for longitude is used to establish local time zones over the face of the earth, and the 180° meridian becomes the "International Date Line" (slightly bent for geographical convenience). All sorts of interesting paradoxes become possible, but-that is for another article another day.

And what about mapping the sky? This concerned astronomers even before the problem of the mapping of the earth, really, for whereas only small portions of the earth are visible to any one man at any one time, the entire expanse of half a sphere is visible overhead. The "celestial sphere" is most easily mapped as an extension of the earth sphere. If the axis of the earth is imagined extended through space until it cuts the celestial sphere, the jntersection would come at the "north celestial pole" and the "south celestial pole." ("Celestial" by the way is from a Latin word for "sky.") 100 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION The celestial sphere seems to rotate east to west about the earth's axis as a reflection of the actual rotation of the earth west to east about that axis. Therefore, the north celestial pole and the south celestial pole are fixed points that do not partake in the celestial rotation, just as the north pole and the south pole do not partake in the earthly rotation. The near neighborhood of the north celestial pole is marked by a bright star, Polaris, also called the "pole star" and the "north star", which is only a degree or so from it and makes a small circle about it each day. The circle is so small that the star seems fixed in position day after day, year after year, and can be used as a reference point to de­ termine north, and therefore all other directions. Its importance to travel in the days before the compass was incalculable. The imaginary reference lines on the earth can all be transferred by projection to the sky; so that the sky, like the earth, can be covered with a gridwork of ghost-lines. There would be the "celestial equator" making up a great circle equidistant from the celestial poles; and "ce­ lestial latitude" and "celestial longitude" also. The celestial latitude is called "declination" and is measured in degrees. The northern half of the celestial sphere ("north celestial lati­ tude") has its declination given as a positive value; the southern half ("south celestial latitude") as a negative value. Thus, Polaris has a dec­ lination of roughly +89°; Pollux one of about +30°; Sirius one of about -15°; and Acrux (the brightest star of the Southern Cross) a declination of about -60°. The celestial longitude is called "right ascension" and the sky has a prime meridian of its own that is less arbitrary than the one on earth, one which could therefore be set and agreed upon quite early in the game. The plane of the earth's orbit about the sun cuts the celestial sphere in a great circle called the "ecliptic." (The reason for the name and some of the interesting matters concerning the ecliptic I will leave­ reluctantly-for another article.) The sun seems to move exactly along the line of the ecliptic, in other words. Because the earth's axis is tipped to the plane of earth's orbit by 2 3. 5°, the two great circles of the ecliptic and the celestial equator are angled to one another by that same 2 3. 5°. The ecliptic crosses the celestial equator at two points. \Vhen the sun is at either point, the day and night are equal in length (twelve hours each) all over the earth. Those points are therefore the "equi­ noxes," from Latin words meaning "equal nights." At one of these points, the sun is moving from negative to positive GHOST LINES IN THE SKY 101 declination and that is the "vernal equinox" because it occurs on March 20 and marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere. where most of mankind lives. At the other point, the sun is moving from positive to negative declination and that is the autumnal equinox, falling on September 23, the beginning of the northern autumn. The point of the vernal equinox falls on a celestial meridian which is assigned a value of 0° right ascension. The celestial longitude is then measured eastward only (either in degrees or in hours) all the way round, until it returns to itself as 360° right ascension. By locating a star through declination and right ascension one does precisely the same thing as locating a point on earth through latitude and longitude. An odd difference is this, though. The earth's Prime Meridian is fixed through time, so that a point on the earth's surface does not change its longitude from day to day. However, the earth's axis makes a slow revolution once in 25,800 years and because of this the celestial equator slowly shifts, and the points at which it crosses the ecliptic moves slowly westward. The vernal equinox moves westward, then, circling the sky every 25,800 years, so that each year, the moment in time of the vernal equi­ nox comes just a trifle sooner than it would otherwise come. The mo­ ment precedes the theoretical time and the phenomenon is· therefore called "the precession of the equinoxes." As the vernal equinox moves westward, every point on the celestial sphere has its right ascension (measured from that vernal equinox) in­ crease. It moves up about 1/7 of a second of arc each day, if my calcula­ tions are correct.

This system of locating points in the sky is called the "Equatorial System" because it is based on the location of the celestial equator and the celestial poles. A second system may be established based on the observer himself. Instead of a "celestial north pole" based on a rotating earth, we can establish a point directly overhead; each person on earth having his own overhead point, although for people over a restricted area, say that of New York City, the different overhead points are practically identical. The overhead point is the "zenith" which is a medieval misspelling of part of an Arabic phrase meaning "overhead." The point directly oppo­ site in that part of the celestial sphere which lies under the earth is the "nadir", a medieval misspelling of an Arabic word meaning "opposite." 102 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION The great circle that runs around the celestial sphere, equidistant from the zenith and nadir is the "horizon" from a Greek word mean­ ing "boundary," because to us it seems the boundary between sky and earth (if the earth were perfectly level, as it is at sea.) This system of locating points in the sky is therefore called the "Horizon System." The north-south great circle traveling from horizon to horizon through the zenith is the meridian. The east-west great circle traveling from horizon to horizon through the zenith, and making a right angle with the meridian, is the "prime vertical." A point in the sky can then be said to be so many degrees (positive) above the horizon or so many degrees (negative) below the horizon, this being the "altitude". Once that is determined, the exact point in the sky can be located by measuring on that altitude the number of de­ grees westward from the southern half of the meridian. At least astrono­ mers do that. Navigators and surveyors measure the number of degrees eastward from the north end of the meridian. (In both cases, the direc­ tion of measure is clockwise.) The number of degrees west of the southern edge of the meridian (or east of the northern edge, depending on the system used) is the azimuth (AHA-A-A-A-A-A). The word is a less corrupt form of the Arabic expression from which "zenith" also comes. If you set north as having an azimuth of 0°, then east has an azimuth of 90°, south an azimuth of 180°, and west an azimuth of 270°. In­ stead of boxing the compass with outlandish names you can plot direc­ tion by degrees. And as for myself? Why, I have an azimuth of isaac. Naturally.

CHANGING YOUR ADl>R·ESS? 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 add the ZIP number. (If convenient, send the address label from the wrapper of the next copy of F&SF you receive.) Subscription Service MERCURY PUBLICATIONS 34 7 East 53 Street New York, N. Y. 10022 touchstone (tuch ston), n. 1. Mineral. A black, siliceous stone allied to flint;-used to test the purity of gold and silver by the streak left on the stone when rubbed by the metal. 2. Any test or criterion by which to try a thing's qualities.

Touchnones have a long, complex, aiul fascinating history-most of which is unknown to Your Editor-and, after some period of desuetude, have begun to reclaim a mot:(icum of popular attention under the name of feeling-pieces. John Anthony wrote a justly­ praised story about one for us THE HYPNOGLYPH; now Terry Carr (BROWN ROBERT, July 1962; HOP-FRIEND, Nov.1962) divulges the properties, both hidden and revealed, of yet mwther. The scene is Greenwich Village, whose ancient and beautiful character seems doomed to fall victim to the insensate greed of the speculator. Yet a few sections of this antic faubourg remain still unchanged since the days when poor Poe dwelt there, and in shops both dim and curious-such as Mr. Carr describes-things both curious and dim may still be found. And now let us follow his protagonist-but not, we suggest, too closely • • •

TOUCHSTONE

by Terry Carr

fOR THIRTY-TWO YEARS, dur­ Saturday morning in early March ing which he watched with grow­ when the clouds had disappeared ing perplexity and horror the and the sun came forth pale in the ways of the world and the dull sky he found what he had been gropings of men reaching for love looking for. · and security, Randolph Helgar The snow. had been gone from had told himself that there was a the streets of Greenwich Village simple answer to all of it-some­ for over a week, leaving behind how it was possible to get a hand­ only the crispness on the side­ hold on life, to hold it close and walks. Everyone still walked with chetish it without fear. And on a a tentative step, like sailors on 103 104 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTIOS shore leave. Randolph Helgar shouldered man with thick black was out of his apartment by ten, hair and prominent veins in the heading west. His straight, sandy backs of his hands was setting out hair was ruffied by an easterly the bargain table in the front of wind, giving him the superficial the store. Randolph glanced at the appearance of hurrying, but his table, filled with the sun-faded quick grey eyes and the faint spines of anonymous pocketbooks, smile that so often came to his and nodded at the man. He went mouth dispelled that. Randolph inside. was busier looking around than The books were piled high walking. around the walls; here and there The best thing about the Vil­ were handlettered signs saying lage, as far as he was concerned, MUSIC, HISTORY, PSYCHOL­ was that you could never chart all OGY, but they must have been of it. As soon as you thought you put there years ago, because the knew every street, every sandal books in those sections bore no shop, every hot dog or pizza stand, relation to the signs. Near the one day you'd look up and there'd front was an old cupboard, mot­ be something new there, where tled with the light which came you'd never looked before. A pe­ through the dirty window; a sign culiar blindness comes over peo­ on one of its shelves said $10. ple who walk through the streets Next to it was a small round table of the Village; they see only which revolved on its base, but where they're going. there was no price on this. The day before, on the bus The owner had come back into coming home from work at the the store now, and he stood just travel agency on West 4th, he had inside the door looking at Ran­ looked out the window and seen dolph. After a moment he said, a bookstore whose dirty windows "You want anything special?" calmly testified to the length of Randolph shook his head, dis­ time it had been there. So of lodging the shock of hair which course this morning he was look­ fell over his eyes. He ran his fin­ ing for that bookstore. He had gers through it, combing it back, written down the address, but and turned to one of the piles of there was no need now for him to books. take the slip of paper from his "I think maybe you'd be inter­ wallet to look at it; the act of ested in this section," said the writing it had fixed it in his mem­ owner, walking heavily over the ory. bending floorboards to stand be­ The store was just opening side Randolph. He raised a large when he got there. A large, heavy- hand and ran it along one shelf. TOUCHSTONE. 105 A sign said MAGIC, WITCH· "Perhaps you should read some CRAFT. of the books first," the man said, Randolph glanced at it. "No," watching him beneath his eye­ he said. brows. "None of those books are for "Do you sell • , • love ~ sale," the man said. "That section tions? Dried bat's blood? Snake's is strictly lending-library." entrails?" Randolph raised his eyes to "No," said the man. "I'm afraid meet those of the older man. The you'd have to search the tobauco­ man gazed back calmly, waiting. nist's shops for such things as "Not for sale?" Randolph said. that. I sell only imperishables." "No, they're part of my own "Magic charms?" Randolph collection," the man said. "But I said. lend them out at 10¢ a day, if "Yes," the man said slowly. anybody wants to read them, "Some are real, some are not." or ..." "And I suppose the real ones "Who takes them out?" are more expensive." The heavy man shrugged, with "They are all roughly the same the faint touch of a smile about price. It's up to you to decide his thick lips. "People. People which ones are real." come in, they see the books and The man ·had stooped to reach think they might like to read into a drawer of his desk, and them. They always bring them now he brought out a box from back." which he lifted the lid. He set the Randolph glanced at the books open box on the top of his desk on the shelves. The spines were and reached up to turn on a naked crisp and hard, the lettering on lightbulb which hung from the them like new. "Do you think shadowed ceiling. they read them?" he asked. The box contained an assort­ "Of course. So many of them ment of amulets, stones, dried in­ come back and buy other things." sects encased in glass, carved "Other books?" pieces of wood, and other things. The man shrugged again, and They were all tumbled into the turned away. He walked slowly box haphazardly. Randolph to the back of the store. "I sell stirred the contents with two fin­ other things. It's impossible to gers. make a living selling books in this "I don't believe in magic," he day and age." said. Randolph followed him into The heavy man smiled faintly the darkness in back. "What other "I don't suppose I do either. But things do you sell?" some of these things are quite in- 106 FANTASY AND SCIE~CE FICTIO:\ teresting. Some are of authentic palm comfortably, like a cat go­ South American workmanship, ing to sleep. "All right," he said. and others are from Europe and He took a bill from his wallet, the East. They're worth money, all and noticed the paper on which right." he'd written the store's address the "What's this?" Randolph asked, day before. "If I come back here picking up a black stone which a week from now," he said, "will just fit into the palm of his hand. this store still be here? Or will it The configurations of the stone have disappeared, like magic twisted around and in upon them­ shops are supposed to do?'' selves, like a lump of baker's The man didn't smile. "This dough. isn't that kind of store. I'd go out "That's a touchstone. Run your of business if I kept moYing my fingers over it." location." "It's perfectly · smooth," Ran­ "Well then," Randolph said, dolph said. looking at the black stone in his "It's supposed to have magical hand. "When I was young I used powers to make people feel con­ to pick up stones at the beach and tented. Hold it in your hand." carry them around for weeks, just Randolph closed his fingers because I loved them. I suppose around the stone. Perhaps it was this stone has some of that sort of the power of suggestion, but the magic, anyway." stone did feel very good. So "If you decide you don't want smooth, like skin ... it, bring it back," said the man. "The man who gave it to me said it was an ancient Indian When he got back to the apart­ piece. It embodies Yin and Yang, ment Margo was just getting up. the opposites that complement Bobby, seven years old, was ap­ and give harmony to the world. parently up and out already. Ran­ You can see a little of the symbol dolph put yesterday's pot of coffee in the way the stone looks." He on the burner to heat and sat at smiled slowly. "It's also supposed the kitchen table to wait for it. to encase a human soul, like an He took the touchstone out of his egg." pocket and ran his fingers o\'er it. "More likely a fossil," Ran­ Strange . . . It was just a dolph said. He wondered what black rock, worn smooth probably kind of stone it was. by water and then maybe by the "It will cost five dollars," the rubbing of fingers over centuries. man said. Despite what the man at the store Randolph hefted the stone in had said about an Indian symbol, his hand. It settled back into his it had no particular shape. TOUCHSTOJ'\E 107 Yet it did have a peculiar calm­ "I don't think I'll do it today," ing effect on him. Maybe, he he said. thought, it's just that people have Margo didn't say anything. She to have something to do with their picked up a book from the chair hands while they think. It's the beside her and found her place in hands, the opposable thumb, that it. has made men what they are, or Randolph fingered the touch· so the anthropologists say. The stone and thought about the beach hands give men the ability · to when he had been a boy. work with things around them, to make, to do. And we all have a There was a party that night at feeling that we've got to be using Gene Blake's apartment on the our hands all the time or some­ floor below, but for once Randolph how we're not living up to our didn't feel like going down. Blake birthright. was four years younger than him, That's why so many people and suddenly today the difference smoke. That's why they fidget and seemed insuperable; Blake told rub their chins and drum their off-center jokes about integration fingers on tables. But the touch­ in the South, talked about writers stone relaxes the hands. Randolph knew only by. the re­ A simple form of magic. views in the Sunday Times, and Margo came into the kitchen, was given to drinking Scotch and combing her long hair back over milk. No, not tonight, he told her shoulders. She hadn't put on Margo. any makeup, and her full mouth After dinner Randolph settled seemed as pale as clouds. She set in front of the television set and, out coffee cups and poured, then as the washing of dishes sounded sat down across the table. from the kitchen and Bobby read "Did you get the paint?" a comic book in the comer, "Paint?" watched a rerun of the top come­ "You were going to paint the dy show of three seasons past. kitchen today. The old paint is When the second commercial cracking and falling off." came on he dug the touchstone Randolph looked up at the from his pocket and rubbed it idly walls, rubbing the stone in his with his thumb. All it takes, he fingers. They didn't look bad, he told himself, is to ignore the com­ decided. They could go for anoth­ mercials. er six months without being re­ "Have you ever seen a frog?" done. After all, it was no calamity Bobby asked him. He looked up if the plaster showed through and saw the boy standing next to above the stove. his chair, breathing quickly as 108 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION boys do when they have some­ the horse and was trying to push thing to say. him up the stairs. "Sure," he said. "Don't you like him?" Bobby "Did you ever see a black one? asked. A dead one?" Randolph looked blankly at Randolph thought a minute. him. He didn't suppose he had. "No," "My frog," Bobby said. he said. Randolph thought about it for "Wait a minute!" Bobby said, a moment. "I think you'd better and bounded out of the room. throw him away," he said. "He's Randolph turned back to the tele­ going to stink." vision screen, and saw that the Bobby's face fell. "Can I ask wife had a horse in the living­ Mom?" room and was trying to coax it to Randolph didn't answer, and go upstairs before the husband he supposed Bobby went away. came home. The horse seemed There was another commercial bored. on now, and he was toying idly "Here!" said Bobby, and with the thought of a commercial dropped the dead frog in his lap. for touchstones. "For two thou­ Randolph looked at it for two sand years mankind has searched seconds before he realized what for the answer to underarm odor, it was. One leg and part of the halitosis, regularity. Now at frog's side had been crushed, prob­ last ..." ably by a car's wheel, and the "Bobby!" said his wife in the wide mouth was open. It was kitchen. Randolph looked up, sur­ grey, not black. prised. "Take that out in the hall Randolph shook it off him onto and put it in the garbage right the floor. "You'd better throw it nawl Not another word!" away," he said. "It's going to In a moment Bobby came smell bad." trudging through the room, his "But I paid sixty marbles for chin on his chest. But tiny eyes him!" Bobby said. "And I only looked at Randolph with a trace had twenty-five. and you got to of hope. get me some more." - "She's gonna make me throw Randolph sighed, and shifted him away." the touchstone from one hand to Randolph shrugged. "It would the other. "All right," he said. smell up the place," he said. "Monday. Keep him in your "Well, I thought you'd like it room." anyway," Bobby said. "You al­ He turned back to the screen, ways keep telling me how you where everyone had got behind were a boy, and she wasn't." He TOUCHSTONE 109 stopped for a moment, waiting and turned it over in his hand a for Randolph to answer, and few times. It was really a very when he didn't the boy abruptly plain kind of stone. Black, ran out with the grey, crushed smooth, softly curving . . . frog in his hand. What was it about the rock that Margo came into the living· could make everything seem so room, drying her hands on a tow­ unimportant, so commonplace? el. "Ran, why didn't you put your Well, of course a rock is one foot down in the first place?" of the most common things in the "\Vhat?" world, he thought. You find them ''You know things like that everywhere-even in the streets make me sick. I won't be able to of the city, where everything is eat for two days.' man-made, you'll find rocks. "I was watching the program," They're part of the ground under· he said. neath the payment, part of the "You've seen that one twice be­ world we live on. They're part of fore. What's the matter with home. you?" He held the touchstone in one "Take some aspirin if you're hand while he read. upset," he said. He squeezed the Margo had been up for several stone in the palm of his hand un· hours when he finished the book. til she shook her head and went When he set it down she came in away. and stood in the doorway, watch· A few minutes later a news ing him silently. program came on with a report After a few minutes she asked, on some people who had picketed "Do you love me?" a military base, protesting bombs He looked up, faintly sur- and fallout. A university profes· prised. "Yes, of course.'' sor's face came on the screen and "I wasn't sure.'' gravely he pointed to a chart. "Why not? Is anything wrong?" "The Atomic Energy Commission She came over and sat on the admits-" bed next to him in her terry-doth Randolph sighed and shut the robe. "It's just that you've hardly set off. spoken to me since yesterday. I thought maybe you were angry He went to bed early that about something.'' night. When he woke up the next Randolph smiled. "No. Why day he went and got a book and should I be angry?" brought it back to bed with him. "I don't know. It just seemed He picked up the touchstone that .. .'' She shrugged. from the chair next to the bed He reached out and touched 110 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION her face with his free hand. thinking about he drew a blank. "Don't worry about it." Around five-thirty his friend She lay down beside him, rest­ Blake appeared at the door. Ran­ ing her head on his arm. "And dolph heard him say something you do love me? Everything's all to Margo, and then he came into right?'' the bedroom. He turned the stone over in his "Hey, are you all right? You right hand. "Of course every­ weren't at the party last night." thing's all right," he said softly. Randolph shrugged. "Sure. I She pressed against him. "I just felt like lounging around this want to kiss you." weekend." "All right." He turned to her Blake's weathered face cleared. and brushed his lips across her "Well, that's good. Listen, I've forehead and nose. Then she held got a problem." him tightly while she kissed his "A problem," Randolph said. mouth. He settled down in the bed, look­ When she had finished he lay ing idly at the stone in his hand. back against the pillow and Blake paused. "You sure every­ looked up at the ceiling. "Is it thing's all right? Nothing wrong sunny out today?" he asked. "It's with Margo? She didn't look too been tlark in here all day." good when I came in." "I want to kiss you some more," "We're both fine." she said. "If that's all right with "Well, okay. Look, Ran, you you." know you're the only close friend Randolph was noticing the I've got, don't you? I mean, warmth of the touchstone in his there's a lot of people in the hand. Rocks aren't warm, he world, but you're the only one I thought; it's only my hand that can really count on when the gives it warmth. Strange. chips are down. Some people I "Of course it's all right," he joke with, but with you I can talk. said, and turned to let her kiss You listen. You know?" him again. Randolph nodded. He sup­ posed Blake was right. Bobby stayed in his room most "Well . . . I guess you heard of the day; Randolph supposed he the commotion last night. A cou­ was doing something. Margo, aft­ ple guys drank too much, and er that one time, didn't try to talk there was a fight." to him. Randolph stayed in bed "I went to bed early." fingering the touchstone and "I'm surprised you slept thinking, though whenever he through it. It developed into quite tried to remember what he'd been a brawl there for awhile; the cops TOUCHSTONE 111 came later on. They broke three took his checkbook from the windows and somebody pushed dresser. "How do you spell your over the - refrigrator. Smashed first name?" everything all to hell. One of the "G-E-N-E." Blake stood nerv­ doors is off the hinges." ously, indecisive. "You're sure it's "No, I didn't hear it." no trouble? I don't want to pres­ "Wow. Well, look, Ran .•• sure you." the super is on my neck. He's "No." Randolph signed the going to sue me, he's going to check, tore it out and handed it kick me out. You know that guy. to him. I've got to get ahold of some mon­ "You're a friend," Blake said. ey fast, to fix things up." "A real one.". Randolph didn't say anything. Randolph shrugged. "What the He had found a place on the hell." stone where his right thumb fit Blake stood for a few seconds perfectly, as though the stone had m

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Each Volume File will keep 12 copies of FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION clean, orderly, and readily accessible. Sturdily built, the files are covered with a rich black and red washable leatherette, and the lettering is in 16-carat gold leaf. Reasonably priced at $2.50 each, 3 for $7.00, or 6 for $13.00, they are shipped fully prepaid on a money back basis if not satisfactory. Order direct froin: JESSE JONES BOX CORPORATION . Dept. F&-SF •• ~ P.O. Box 5120 ~ Philadelphia 41, Pa Stephen Becker is possibly our only contributor to have studied at Y enching University near Peiping-in the days, of course, before Chairman Mao set up his yurt in the Imperial City. He is the trans­ lator of Andre Schwarz-Bart's THE LAST OF THE JUST. Mr. Becker hails from our own home town of Yonkers. New York (and although we are a Man of the World, we won't stand for anybody knocking its water-works) and now lives in W estchestet's Bedford Village with his wife and children.lf he wiU write more "entries"­ and we think he will-we will publish them for your (and our.) instruction and amusement.

THE NEW ENCYCLOPAEDIST

Entries for the Great Book of History, First Edition, 2100 A.D.

by Stephen Becker

Gill, Robert (1930-2022). Lead­ be authoritarian. During the Great er of the "Irreconcilables" and one Alert of 1973 some 30,000 Ir­ •of the founders of our present reconcilables remained above civilization. The Irreconcilables ground. When, because all poten­ ;refused, on the grounds of good tial enemies were also under­ taste and "freedom of association," ground, nothing happened during to join their fellow citizens in the obligatory sixty-day period, the vast, complex network of un­ and populations sheepishly re­ derground shelters constructed gained the surface, Gill delivere~ by "Civil Defense" authorities his famous Report: "The West (~Opera Buffa) between 1965 Side Highway was clear; there and 1970 at the cost of all the were no school-children in the prosperity, liberties, and amenities Metropolitan Museum of Art; and that free men everywhere were there was no television. We all struggling for. "Gill's Bull" pre­ caught up on our. eorrespondence." dicted accurately that under­ As a consequence, during the ground society would necessarily Second Great Alert in 19 7 7 the 115 116 FANT.o\SY AND SCIEKCE FICTION populations refused to go under­ their counterparts in other na­ ground; the Irreconcilables there­ tions, though many buildings, ve­ fore did, and enjoyed sixty days of hicles, power plants, etc., were luxurious solitude, gounnandise, perfectly usable. From these groups and meditation, making free use sprang our present highly literate, of the libraries, cinemas, gal­ healthy, and peaceable world leries, monorails, and restaurants population of 12,000,000, includ­ planned for a sub-civilization of ing only three psychiatrists and no 200,000,000 people. Emerging soldiers. (~Quantum Jump; also after two months, they found a Darwin, Charles and "Survival of world barren of life except for the Fittest.")

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City . • • • • • . • ...... State ..•••••••••.. Zip # ..... "Cantabile," the author tells us, means, "In the manner of a song.• It is a very curious song which he sings here in this first appearance anywhere-vivid, though in an essentially minor key; different. We do not know very much about the author, though the words used above to describe his song might apply in a certain measure to himself. When not absorbed in writing he is, we know, ab­ sorbed in music; and his past avocations have included the ob­ servation of plant life in the marshes of the eastern seaboard. Mr. DeCles is now working on other stories which we hope to print here, stories each in its own way as different, as distinctive, as is this one of theWoman, the Garden in the City, and the Beast Who Wept.

CANTABILE by Jon DeCies

A CONJECTURE: IT CAME FROM tied upon was the stony, inhos­ the past. Or: it came from the fu­ pitable one of the City; and in sec­ ture. A supposition: It was a bolt onds most of them were dead for shot by a talent great even in dearth of hosting. One only sur­ chains, shot at a venture because vived. By a chance perhaps mathe­ it dared not be shot at a target. As matically calculable, but nonethe­ to the nature of the chains, or even less remote, this one found its way the talent-? At all times and in through an opening-smaller than e~ery place, genius lives upon the the diameter of a pin-in the sufferance of idiots. foundation of a quartz glass dome In shape it was undescribable, which crowned the skyscraper and may for that reason perhaps demesne of a Baron of the City, have escaped notice. Eye may re­ and drifted into a pond chemical­ fuse to report to brain sights for ly and otherwise balanced to sus­ which no concepts exist. Almost tain life among its contents: immediately after its appearance plants, algae, and tiny fish. At it ceased to be. Its contents were noon, in the random nurture of scattered, too small to vex the eye this de facto womb, The Beast with challenge, and drifted slowly Who Wept was born. Alone of a earthward. The surface they set- mother, or a father, or siblings. 117 118 FANTASY AXD SCIENCE FICTION The Beast Who Wept was small only the things of the Garden to when he was born. In fact, at the compare them with, the flowers moment of his creation, he was and fish, the dwarf fruit trees, and only one quarter inch tall. For a the gaily colored birds that flut­ short time before that he had been tered everywhere; and those were a random grouping of protoplas­ not what the murals depicted. mic cells, propelled from one side One day, sitting in the lily pool of the fish pond to the other by and chewing on lotus seeds, the sun-currents. The hot of the sum­ Beast made a discovery. Reaching mer sun, lingering late into Au­ out, he seized a goldfish. It tumn, brought him forth. He was squirmed and wriggled, and made one quarter inch tall, but this soon horrible sounds when he bit into it. changed. With the voracious ca­ Sitting calmly as he was, he was pacity that life had built in him, able to make the observation that he soon found and devoured what living things do not like to be food the garden offered. In a eaten while they are still alive. His week's time he had reached the memory reminded him of the size of a small dog. piercing screams of the birds he A goodly portion of the time al­ had eaten, and how difficult it was lotted the Beast in that week was to pull away the choking downi­ spent in observation. By City ness of the feathers. standards the Garden was not Considering, he decided not to small. To all four points of the cat any more things that were compass it reached, going for fifty alive. As the days passed he found feet in each direction. There it was it was a good decision. The ani­ cut off by the rigid confines of ma­ mals ceased to fear him, and they sonry walls. Across the top of the afforded him much amusement. Garden stretched the sectional ex­ The Beast still required protein, panse of a quartz glass dome, but this he solved by awaiting the thrust up into the sky to sample deaths of his fellow creatures, and the rarity of the cold upper air. in this way, that which was his Here, high atop the Baronial sky­ natural need was provided. The scraper, the Garden was isolated, rest of his diet was on the trees, and like a child, sucked and stored and in the blossoms of the flowers. warmth from the glowing breast of When he was four feet tall he the Solar furnace. There were mu­ learned to walk on his hind legs, rals on the walls of the Garden, and he discovered the door. Not of quasi-mosaic pictures in warm his own agency was this discovery, earth colors, too soft and blending but part of a change in his environ­ for the Beast's undeveloped percep­ ment. The -door opened and the tions. But then, the Beast had Woman came through. CANTABILE 119 By now the Beast could see the voice had been sharp that time, murals, and he recognized her in­ and it hurt him inside. He turned stantly as one of the things de­ his back to her. He wept, as he picted in mosaic, all brown in the had at the screech of a dying bird, throbbing warm of the un-filtered but again he did not know why. sunlight. She did not see him at "What's the matter? Can't you first. He still sat in the cool water talk?" she asked. of the pond, still chewed his lotus The Beast turned back to her seeds. The woman tossed off the and looked into her deep blue eyes. gold robe she wore and stretched They were moist, like his, but not out on the hot, clean sand, putting from pain. The Beast had never black cloth shields over her eyes. seen pity. The Beast stood slowly and ''You poor thing," the Woman stepped with care from the blue said. She stood, blushed, wrapped painted bottom of the pool to the her robe about herself, and came flagstone walk~ He walked quietly toward him. She made motions, to where she lay, and stood looking indicating the door. at her with an agonizing scrutiny, "You can't go out like that," she feeling as if he should act. Yet he said. "Where are your clothes?" stood without moving and gazed She made more motions, trying to over her body, with a longing for indicate her curiosity as to the lo­ something that he was not old cation of his garments, using her enough to understand. robe as an example. After a while the Woman sensed The Beast stood blank, not un­ his presence, and took the shields derstanding. from her eyes. When she saw him "Oh, all right. I'll look for them." she sat up and clutched for her As she searched, the Woman robe. She even gave a little scream talked. Idle chatter mostly, to re­ to the still air. lieve her nervousness at his pres­ "How did you get here?" she ence. A flash, a dark thunder­ said. "What are you doing here?" noise, and a rocket passed across The Beast looked at her differ­ the sky, attracted to space like ently for a moment. Her voice was iron to a magnate. The \Voman not shrill and sweet, like the birds, laughed. nor soft and gutteral, like the gold­ "You know, we are like mush­ fish. She did not chirp the way the rooms," she said, looking under a insects did. gardenia bush. "Those rockets, "Well, answer mel" she de­ those space ships. I venture that manded. you, that most of the workers, The Beast made a sound in his have no concept of what they are. throat; he pawed at himself. Her Humans, Mortals, we live at the 120 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION base of the tree, trodden by the eat up here quite often, so no one passing bulls, the events of life. Up will think it strange." there, in the branches of the Oak, The Beast stood looking for a the space ships carve out an em­ long while at the place where she pire, with no thought for us. No had lain in the sand. Then, not thought for people. having understood what she said "Only the makers of Laws think about food, he went about the Gar­ of people. They make the laws den gathering his own. that keep the empire builders from dropping the fire of the Sun on us, The Beast did not understand from subjugating us or killing us. Night. He was born of the gentle They make the laws that limit a rays and hard radiations of the man to the use of personal com­ Sun, and when the Sun disap­ bat, or the hiring of mercenaries. peared behind the concrete con­ They give us a social sanity that fines of the Garden, he curled up limits a man's grasp to his reach." in a bed of ornamental hemlocks She went over every foot of the and went to sleep. Times had garden. She looked under shrubs been when noises from below and bushes, even in the pool. jarred him out of his euphoria, and When she finished, she was puz­ in those times he had seen the zled. stars and the moon. The stars were "I can't imagine how you got in cold, and the moon made him feel here without clothes. For that mat­ sick, and pale with an emotion he ter, I can't really imagine how you had no reason to know was Grief. got in here at all. Its a good thing He was asleep when the \Voman that no one else found you, or came again. She waved her hand you'd be in trouble. You wait here, in front of a glowing metal panel, and I'll go downstairs and see if I and the Garden burst, like a fresh can get some of my younger blown iris, into an enigma of arti­ brother's things for you. Then we'll ficial lighting. The light was not so see if I can get you out of the strong as sunrise, but illumined building. Without anyone seeing the room as brightly. As the lights \'OU." gave no heat, the \Voman found • She looked at him again, turn­ the Beast sleeping, curled tightly. ing her head from left to right, At her touch he was awake, look­ and finally letting it come to rest, ing up at her. tilted at an angle, on her golden She was pale gold now. The shoulder. moon washed her with milk. Her "I might not be able to get you hair was moon-blued, not black, out tonight, so I will bring you yet she was of a kin with the black some food after dinner. I used to soil beneath him. Under the still CANTABILE 121 of the moon and the stars, he wor­ She looked at him with that shiped her. pity again. "Come," she said. "Put these on. 'Well, you look presentable at I think my brother is larger than least, and you shall have a new you are, but they will fit." suit of clothes when you go home. The Beast stood bewildered. He I imagine that must be among the tried to follow her motions, but to workers. Well, never mind, you no avail. won't have to go back tonight. I "Don't you know how to put couldn't smuggle you beneath the them on?" hundredth floor if my life depend­ He was silent. The Woman ed on it. I brought you some food." sensed then that there was some­ · She led him across the Garden thing in him she had not encoun­ and handed him a basket of food. tered before. For a moment the He looked dumbly at her, so she Woman was afraid of him. opened a flask of beer, spread a "Oh. You don't understand me, cloth on the ground and put pieces do you? Not at all?" of cooked fowl, bread and melon The Woman helped him to put upon it. He still did not eat until the clothes on, though at his touch, she put a piece in his hand. Then she was embarrassed. His eyes fol­ he knew it was food. lowed her, and from her he The Woman sat on the flag­ breathed in the scent of pepper­ stones and watched him eat with mint, a scent he knew from the his fingers. After a few moments bed of aromatics near the bird's she had the urge to reach out and fountain. pet him, or scratch his head, he re­ ''You're a nice little boy," she minded her so much of her lost said as she dressed him. "I feel puppy. strange near you. Almost as if I ''You know, if I had this room were your mother, but not mother­ all to myself, I should keep you ly." She laughed. "The way I felt here in secret, as a pet. My fa­ about my dolls when I was your ther forbids me another dog. He age, or the way I feel about the says that someone would use it as a birds here in the garden. I had a weapon against me. I don't have little dog with black spots when I any friends. No one that I can was very young. My father wasn't talk with, and naturally, I can't go a Baron then. We lived in a Bar­ out of the building. I'm only eight­ on's tower, but my father was only een, and the Lottery hasn't chosen learning his craft. I was allowed to me a husband, so I've never been play with the other children, and I in the company of a young man. knew lots of boys like you. Only, Oh, how I look forward to that of course, they could talk." day! Someone tall and strong like 122 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FlCTIO~ a warrior, and bronzed as if from traordinary rate of growth. During working in the fields. He'll be so the night, the Beast matured. wonderful and mannerly. He'll The Sun rose over the concrete take me in his arms, and like a walls and began its daily progres­ dance, we'll live!" sion from one quartz panel to an­ The Woman's eyes glittered and other, like some obscure piece in a she saw past the Beast, beyond ruleless game of chess. The Beast him, and into the future. The luxuriated in its ,warmth. He Beast looked into her eyes, past the stretched his golden limbs, and veils of happy tears, and his own with their first contraction, the eyes glittered in response. muscles firmed and rounded. With When he had finished the food his first breath of evergreen and the Beast made another decision. morning oxygen, his lungs gained He reached out his hand, shiny capacity and his chest expanded. with cooking oil, and touched the When he stood, it was with a lim­ sleeve of her dress. It was a white itless ease, and he perceived that dress, with puffy sleeves that bil­ he now possessed a complement of lowed when she walked. The place body hair. And, there were other where his hand met the softness of things, things within him, that her garment was stained hopeless­ were different. ly, but the Woman smiled. On im­ The clothes that the Woman pulse she bent and kissed his fore­ had given him were torn, burst by head, tenderly, as is right to kiss a his expansions in the night, and child. they fell from him. He was di­ "You are sweet," she said, and vested of their shabbiness by his left with the basket and the white very nature. The Beast was now tablecloth. On her way she turned an adolescent, or rather, in the out the lights. The Beast scam­ last stages of his adolescence. pered back into his hemlock grove, All morning the Sun moved in and was soon asleep. its prescribed path, and with the passing of the day the Beast sta­ The families of the Barons were tioned himself before the door. well fed. If the Baron requested a When the quartz glass was stained meal that was less than nutritious with sunset colours, the door in itself, the food was carefully opened. The \\1oman was all in processed with the necessary vita­ yellow, wispy nylon, like jonquils, mins, minerals, and proteins. Thus sunflowers, the high clear notes of the Beast had eaten his first com­ a trumpet. She looked at the Beast. plete and balanced meal. He was, Nothing perceptible passed be­ for the first time in his short life, tween them. The Beast stood still. properly fed to stimulate his ex- He did not weep now. The Worn- C.\!';TJ\BILE 123 an stood still. She did not seek in Is how I kissed him a.s he sat her mind for an explanation, nei­ On a Log. The Frog who was ther did she consider that one was a Prince necessary. Retrieved my Golden Ball." "You are the same," she said. She left him before the morning "You are the same little boy, and I came. Her black hair glistened can tell it. But you are different, from the stroke of many caresses. not the same, for you are now a The Beast ate the food she had left Man." for him and went to sleep. The The Beast looked at her and his hemlocks were a prickly bower for eyes were not damp nor unfocused. him, and the lotuses were no long­ He was strong now, and different. er sacred.

When the Sun was down and The next week passed. The the stars glowed faintly in a pow­ Beast had a beard of light brown der-blue sky, the Juno lilies and there were traces of lines bloomed. They lifted their great around the edges of his eyes. His white blossoms slightly above the shoulder-length hair was coarser; water and strained toward the his skin was not so soft, his lips place where the moon would be. were darker and harder than be­ The Beast reached down and fore. tugged at one until its rubbery The Woman was not so differ­ stem snapped. Droplets of pool ent, but she had changed. water came cascading up at them. "I wish this could last forever, The Woman held it to her breast My Prince," she said one day when and inhaled its perfume. the Sun was especially hot. "But She sighed, and from her dark, you will not last forever, nor will I. damp lungs came a returned frag­ I have seen, in you, a wonder and rance of hot summer nights and a miracle: But miracles must pass, willow trees. The Beast kissed her, as must all things, good or bad, the way she had taught him to kiss and I fear that the good must often her. pass sooner than the evil. You have She hummed a low, rhythmic grown quickly-from a child to a air, leaning back on the grass, then man within a month. I think that began to sing. soon, My Prince, you will die. "My Prince grew from a Frog," When you have died, I shall be she sang, and the crickets stopped left alone." their chirping to listen. It was the Woman's tum to "My Prince grew from a Frog, weep, and the Beast could not com­ Who lived. in a Silver Well, fort her in these tears because he And the Story that I tell, did not understand her speech, 124 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION and had he, he would not have gether constantly, and when they been capable of dealing with the were together, neither was alone. concepts of which she spoke. In "These have been days that were the days of the Woman, the Beast of worth," she said. "I value these knew only ecstasy. days as I will none that come after. "You have come here," she said, \Vhen a man is chosen for me, I composing herself and blinking shall be a wife to him, but the Lot­ back the tears, "from some place tery will have failed. Any who is beyond my world, and you have my husband will be sadly put to become a world for me. I am glad hold my affections hence." you came. You have given me When she was in a somber something to measure the worth of mood she told him: "My father is my life, a standard. . . . I think, in difficulty with the other Barons. perhaps, it is good that you will His bill has been rejected in the grow old and die very quickly. If congress, and he faces expulsion. my father discovered you here he If that happens, I will be sent would have you put to death. I do away to spend my life as a worker. not mind so much that you should Father will stay and fight, as is the die. I cannot ask favours of Death. custom, and everyone in the Tow­ But I would not be cheated by er will eventually be beaten into murder." the ground. If Father goes to war, you will be discovered. This gar­ The Beast was like a man who den is atop the gun turrets, and the is middle aged. He was heavier, floor is underlaid with weapons. though, by a mercy of his creation, Oh, if he is expelled-!" he did not develop a paunch, nor any of the less pleasant accidents The time came shortly when the of matter that tend to make a man Beast was old. He could not smell lose some of his physical pride dur­ the hemlocks in the night, or the ing that time of life. Had the pink pearl lilies. His long, straight Beast developed any of these im­ hair was white, as was his beard. perfections, he would not have His eyes were deep now, and concerned himself with them. His rheumy. He was bent, and he slept life was too short to allow the much more than had been his learning of social conscience. wont. They were not so passionate The Woman had not come to now, the Beast and the Woman. him for three days. The sky out­ They had settled, in two short side was cold and grey. From time weeks, to the kind of relationship to time tiny, sharp flakes of snow that many, even after years of mar­ would jet against the quartz glass riage, never achieve. They were to- and make a rasping noise. The CANTABILE 125

Beast made a decision based on o~ ing noises but not words. It servation, and waved his hand in was beyond his ability, and his front of the glowing metal panel. lifetime had been too short for the The lights came on, but, blending learning. with the murky daylight, did not Like a star, appearing between cheer him. The red roses on a small furtive clouds, an aeroplane came trellis, roses that had throbbed into existence beyond the win­ with life, roses that had surged up dows. It was an antique thing, so with brilliance to meet the living out of place in this world, with Sun, were now faded and washed propellers, and a little glassed-in with despondence, purple like the cockpit with a gun. The pilot lips of a painted whore. pulled the trigger and a tight line When the Woman came, it was of bullets shot across the glass. quickly. She hurried through the Then the plane was gone and the door into the dark, humid Garden. windows were shattered. It was the first time the Beast had seen outdoor garments, and he was In his arms the Woman hung curious about them. The Woman limp. She had jumped away from wore a black cloak and hood, and him at the approach of the aero­ carried a satchel. plane, then fallen back into his The Woman ran and pressed embrace. herself to the Beast. She wet his The Beast worked his gnarled cheeks with tears. fingers to undo the shiny blacl< "Goodbye!" she sobbed. "Good­ buttons of her coat. With great and bye, My Prince. This is the last tender care he opened her blouse. time I shall see you. My Father is He tore away the constricting un­ expelled, and he is sending me der clothes and bared her chest 0 away through the tunnels. There is Between her breasts he found a no way I can save you. My Father hole. It was bruised, and blood and his retainers will all be dead trickled out, and it betrayed no before the morning, and you with pulse. The Woman was Dead. them. Will vou not now speak to He wondered what action he me one word, one goodbye? Say to should take. When the animals of me once, only once!" the Garden died, he ate them. He

The Beast held her gently to wondered if he should do this now 0 him. Outside, a drone like the Absently, he leaned his old head sound of bees. Snow stung the down, old in a few weeks, and quartz glass and melted. licked the blood from her flesh 0 The Beast sensed what she The sweet salt taste in his mouth, wanted. He made sounds in his he closed his eyes, and when he throat, rough, harsh sounds, croak- opened them again, he wept. The 126 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION Beast wept. He stooc";, bent with parakeets fluttered up, among the exhaustion, and wept. saffron and scarlet petals, to fly Her body was clean and white. away and die in the coming Win­ Through the broken windows a ter. A peacock blazed into distant fierce wind swept down and stirred oblivion, ever falling. her glossy black hair. A little curl The snow was driven into the fell to her forehead. warm little pools and came to rest on the leaves of the lotuses, turn­ High, at the top of the sky, at ing the pond into a bed of seeming the summit of the Baron's tower, giant mushrooms. The orchids the Garden was gutted. The wind blackened at cold's touch. The grew wilder and swept into the palms, and the bougainvillas, di­ shell of life, breaking out the re­ vested of their blossoms, shook at maining glass. The wind tore the the storm's frenzied eddying. petals from the roses and pulled Alone in the heavens, the Beast them in a whirlpool, out into the Who Wept withered. The Sun was open air, scattering them through veiled in snow, the flowers all were the sky. The birds we~e freed. dying, and only the hemlocks did Chartreuse and blue and white not seem to mind.

Coming next month ...

• . . the story of Colin Hall and Ed West, whose Animals-To­ Order business gets a most unusual order from Mrs. Harrison Bul­ litt (who Knew What She Wanted-and got it). Don't miss THE TRIUMPH OF PEGASUS by F. A. JAVOR.

And soon ... • . . PIDLIP K. DICK's new short novel (scheduled for our July issue). Also along soon will be a novelet by ROGER ZE­ LAZNY, whose A ROSE FOR ECCLESIASTES (Nov. 1963) was so well received. lETTERS

People who have kept up with the Your magazine no longer pleases Mercury launchings, and junior me. I don't know whether I'm get­ high school science students, will ting old and completely out of the spot immediately the numerous tech­ swing of things or not, but I do nical errors in Robert F. Young's know that the current trend to "non­ The Eternal Lovers [Dec. '63]. I books" - "non-paintings" - "non­ will make no attempt here to list the stories" has made a non-subscriber errors since they occur in almost out of me . . . even at the cost of every paragraph. The plot is impos­ not knowing what happened to sible; the dialog is inconceivable, es­ Heinlein's Hero in Never-Never pecially when the spaceships are air­ Land.-Mrs. THoMAS G. RoBLES, borne and the 19th century poetry Chimbote, Peru quotations start flying back and forth.-]AMES V. HARWOOD, USAS I have just read What Strange AMERICAN MARINER, Patrick Stars and Skies [Dec. 1963] and AFB, Florida hasten to send you the enclosed snazzy certificate. I suppose that, in Alz, you spacemen are all alike.­ the above-mentioned opus, you may Ed. have been kidding the pants off Lovecraft and his imitators, or pos­ I haven't even read the Nov. issue sibly certain Victorian novelists, or yet! I just gaze at that cover! I both. Or perhaps you may have, out grabbed it the minute I saw it, and­ of a clear sky, decided to see if you it wasn't till I got home that I dis­ could write a story consisting entire­ covered the cover continues on the ly of description, with no action at back! Has anybody any idea how all. Whatever the reason, I'm glad good Bok really is? I sometimes think you did it. F&SF has been perking that even those of us who go mad up nicely lately. . . . If you have­ over his work, even those of us who n't read Mark Twain's Letters From can stare for years into the depths of The Earth, lose no time in doing so, those liquid eyes, move in vision for I'm sure you'll love it. It's Mark along those sky-soft curves of lines, at his very best, or most of it is.­ I sometimes think even we are only BILL DANNER, Kennerdell, Pa. looking at the surface, at the super­ ficial trappings, and missing so much The "snazzy certificate" is a hand­ that it would detonate our minds if some little affair which certifies that, we for once saw everything he puts "after careful deliberation," your in painted canvas. . . . I guess my editor has "been judged fully de­ sense of wonder is returning. Don't servitJg of the NUTTY AS A listen to those finks from Chicago. FRUITCAKE Award freely given to We like all those esoteric comments. deserving individuals by Stefantasy, -DoN FREDERICK, New York the illustrated magazine that is up 127 128 FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION to 81.67% milder, in the sincere I feel in Zenna Henderson'& hope that they may long continue in stories of The People the way that their various ways to relieve the un­ human beings bend in their loneli­ pleasant and mind-rotting monotony ness and fear towards one another. of this crazy, mixed-up world." The yearnings of men and women Thank you, Bill. I try.-Ed. and children-to protect, to warm, to be protected, to love and be loved. May I congratulate you on such The People are saved by their abil­ new and interesting stories as De­ ity, at the end, to penetrate to the luge, by Zenna Henderson [Oct. depths of one another and take com­ '63], Mama, by Philip Winsor fort. We real people-if we have [Nov.] (a truly delightful story!), more reality than they-have no A Rose For Ecclesiastes [Nov.] by such talent. But what they feel, and Roger Zelazny, and the wonderful the essential spirit of love at the idea by Damon Knight in The Tree heart of it, we feel. And we try, in of Time [Dec.-Jan.] of the machine our best moments, to lean toward to multiply a professor-I wish I one another.-CONRAD SQUIRES, had one right here at Thiel for my Brooklyn, N.Y. sectional classes. And-thank Heav­ cn!-you slowly get away from the PLEASE! NO MORE PEOPLE boring interstellar wars and from STORIES! Take the latest one, for heros fighting alien beasties-of instance-! Deluge! Gathering Day, course, it is understood that he will Happy Day, The Presence, The always win! In one word: you seem Name, The Power, A Calling, Teens, to have "tuned-in" on the psychologi­ Seeing, Gifts, Befores, The Peace, cal trend of our times.-Prof. PAuL Home, The Quiet Place, Crossing voN ToAL, Thiel College, Green­ Day, Groups, Being Called, A Glory \'ille, Pa. . . . Oh, Brother! What is Zenna Henderson, anyway~a Capitalist I keep a sharp eye on your book (and this goes for you, too)? On the reviews of late. You note things on other hand ... more Asimov, the fringes that are of interest to me. please. More De Camp. And espe­ How can you keep up on all this off­ cially more Calvin W. Demmon, no beat out-put on your own? Some are matter who he turns out to be, SO out of the way to begin with please. [What if he turns out to be ... that's why I appreciate your re­ Zenna Henderson?-Ed.] I disap­ porting on same . . . I'd never run prove of your entire policy, that of across them otherwise.-BETTY writing with love. It'd work better if KuJAWA, South Bend, Ind. you tried a typewriter.-RoBERT Our spies are everywhere.-Ed. OLSEN, Orange, Calif. i***************••••••**i i MARKET PLACE l ; .************************* BOOKS-MAGAZINES LEARN WHILE ASLEEP, Hypnotize with your recorder, phonograph. Astonishing details, sen• satianal catalog free. Sleep-learning Research Why buy books? Send 10¢ for information & Association, Box 24-FS, Olympia, Washington. catalog to: Science Fiction Circulating Library, P. 0. Box 1308, So. San Gabriel, California. Books Seven for $1.00 all subjects: catalog 10¢. PATENTS AND INVENTIONS Gerald Brooks; P. 0. Box 321, lineville, Alabama. PATENT SEARCHERS, $6.001 Free "Invention Rec­ BOOKS-The QueerI Uncanny! Macabre! Deca­ ord". Information. Miss Hayward, 1029 Ver• dent! Bizarrel-lists available. Summerfare, As­ mont, Washington 5, D.C. sociated, Box 37, Vista, California. INVENTIONS wanted. Patented, unpatented. Ex· locate any book. 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