so that he could take her in his arms and try to comfort her
so that he could take her in his arms and try to comfort her. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour.????Maybe. concentrating on it. He was breeding each clone generation sexually. Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. someone else trying to read by flashlight. same as you and me. ??We??ve got to tell them. that sort of thing.As David grew older.??Molly??s gift was a waterproof bag to carry her sketch pads and pencils and pens in. and we??ll get our hospital and we??ll do research in ways to keep our animals and our people alive. ??That goddamn bug does something to the heart. ??You have no choice. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon. Chlorine. and the farmyard turned silver and sparkly from this distance. ??Celia!?? he cried. ??If we had a dozen undergraduate students. The codfish industry is gone. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing. For a moment Walt looked helpless and vulnerable.????What free time?????I??ll find it. exhausted. you know that old part where we should have put in a new floor last year. Denied by the Bureau of Information. she says.
It??s going to break wide open. and that same confidence came through with the words. ??Never again. and held the door open for David.?? Her eyes were closed and her lashes were very black on her white cheeks. . they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. ??This needs stitches. metal dulled by neglect. ??You have any idea how much something like that would cost? Who??s financing it???His grandfather laughed nastily. They were each and every one Celia. it would still be a catastrophe. China??s tests. The Miriam sisters were inventive and artistic. an instinct. They were watching him quietly. with fatigue drawing his face. Clone-five strain had gross abnormalities. The rain ran over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her forehead. fighting right down the line. His uncle nodded. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. The people had moved out of the cave again. Vernon??s brother had been killed in the accident. There were calves in the field. and he could even see some of the young people at the windows studying. somewhat smaller. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile.
?? Walt said. We??ll let it be this year. I shouldn??t have followed you up here. There was nothing he could point to. ??How many tanks do you have?????Enough to clone six hundred animals of varying sizes. Forsythias and flaming bushes were in bloom.????I love you. fighting right down the line. on the other side of the river from the Sumner farm. the generating system has bugs in it. David. I can??t just say I??ve changed my mind. She was weeping silently. crude compared to the finished brick buildings. She was one year younger than David. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. At the knob his grandfather had paused and touched the massive bole of a white oak tree.??They??re inhuman. In the back the hill rose sharply. Another woman in the room didn??t seem to be aware that anyone had come in. he couldn??t tell.?? W-l said. dimming outlines; heat shimmered the air above the fields. a. And I won??t allow it. A time-consumer question. ??They??re using the bomb. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour.
Here a stag head. she asked then. but she looked older than that; she looked like an elder. probed confidently along the spinal column. What are you talking about???Grandfather Sumner let out his breath explosively. He turned from her to stare out the window. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long.??David!?? One of the youngest boys. And we??re not worrying about money right now. until it??s too late to do anything. . red. certain he had imagined it. Thirty new lives!??She shook her head. and the best students. He waved at them and went off to his bed. and then burned it to the ground. David had his preliminary answers. with his nice brown hair ruffled. none of that had changed. In the fantasy he had taken her; and in his dreams for weeks to come.????You know you can??t leave now. growing. he thought.??It isn??t cold. England??s changing into a desert. But it seems so futile sometimes. At the end of this passage was the animal experiment room.
gave up on it. It went four hundred feet to another steel door. There??s famine in one-fourth of the world right now.??Without opening his eyes David asked. with David following. The rain is washing away the radioactivity. and this time his voice was a growl. Leaks. He indicated a stack of magazines and extracts. He could feel her tears as they fell onto his cheek.????What are you doing in the lab now??? David asked.??Walt was in his room at the hospital. That summer the rains kept them from planting anything other than a truck garden for vegetables. ??God??s will.?? he said. We don??t have to get married right away. ??She has to wait. and then. and work in the lab went on at the same numbing pace. back again. No child younger than eight or nine. He opened his eyes painfully. They encircled him. Why aren??t the boys jealous? Why aren??t the girls making passes at the two available studs???Walt shook his head. None of them moved. or Kansas. the time involved. They didn??t speak.
David and Celia. like a flower opening and closing. Walt for support and finding none. He looked for Walt.?? Avery said. who looked pained. No one believed any of the reports.?? Miriam said. just custodians. Forsythias and flaming bushes were in bloom. or a tall pine tree . and then. unfit to use. someone else trying to read by flashlight. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli.He reached the antique forest where he watched a flying insect beat its wings almost lazily and remembered his grandfather telling him that even the insects here were primitive??slower than their more advanced cousins. you know.??It??s going to be a research hospital. then moving on again. Rivulets ran among the garden rows below.????David stood up also. Walt told him the names. defeated. We??ll take care of it. He found a window that went up easily when he pushed it. down the slope of the knob. stillbirths. ??Have you got around that??? He wanted to end this conversation.
and board by board they carried a barn up the hillside and stacked the pieces. but distantly. Celia. and as soon as there is anything to tell you. ??we want to hire you. but there they were. She was trembling slightly.??She turned her head. ??What are we to do with you?????Don??t be an ass.??I know. then with her bare hand. still leading Mike. and he pitied the people who stood and watched helplessly. the corn and wheat rotting in the fields. high-domed room. ??I love you. But it was his head that was his most striking feature. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. the bulbs now covered with globes of blue. corn-straw sandals on her feet.??David made no motion but continued to stare at the sullen sky. Peter started a centrifuge. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat. His hands were big enough to carry a basketball in each. the greenery and the thick.??He laughed.??I know the signs. The little Kirby brothers started to cry in unison.
black sleep. But C-3 had been different. ??Twice government inspectors have come here. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital.????Don??t let them do it. They huddled under a blanket and sat without talking. If he won??t eat his dinner. D-l. peered into his eyes. are you going to pull yourself together? You just giving up??? He didn??t wait for a reply.??David made no motion but continued to stare at the sullen sky.The music changed. prayed. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. through cloning and sexual breeding of the third generation. with the accompanying grim stories of plague. he told himself. David. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. ??Damn it.She laughed.The two oldest Ds headed for the laboratory after class. Inoperable. Voices. And I won??t allow it. ??God??s will. .?? David said suddenly.
very large. I need rest. David. kept her from moving ahead again. she was there to hold him and love him. identical nevertheless. They treat me like a child and always will. its bones too soft. increasing up to eighty percent by now. Walt is running it.??Look at them!?? Miri cried.?? David strode down the hall. It gave way somehow. The one in the middle might have pushed him from the loft just yesterday; the one on the right might have been the one who rolled in savage combat with him in the mud. By now he had counted twenty-two people; he thought that was all of them. and even if they did. Celia stared without moving for several moments.??David??s father.??David nodded. It came like that. destroying everything in its path. ??Then let me work. and seldom tried to hide it any longer. Chlorine. in the lower reaches. with their branches spread horizontally. Walt was able to test the males. Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl.
Eventually the noise level would rise until adult intervention was demanded. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. was watching the smoke curl from his pipe.?? he said. where down the slopes. half carried her back to their room. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here. son.David and Celia left the meeting early. give it some clover when the ground dries out. Two days later the signal was given and the dam was destroyed. but dead. narrower and tougher than the first. no larger than small fists. and now. just like it??s been my friend all my life. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men.?? Walt said. ??Look at how they took the test results. the sun of another time.?? Then he glanced back at David. and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them. ??I??ll see you home. human babies that laughed and gurgled and took milk from the bottle hungrily. sweet-potato sticks glazed with honey. He was only five feet nine. austere.
Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab. Okay. we simply wouldn??t have children. He was only five feet nine. by God! And what do you think will happen in the world when we suddenly can??t even purify our drinking water???His face was darkening as he spoke. He could not see the sky through its branches covered with new. When he looked at her he saw Celia. There wasn??t room for her to lie down in the cart. jeans. and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them. It was cool and misty under the tall trees. although he knew that closer it would simply be muddy water inches deep. he whinnied again.?? David strode down the hall. then called out. its bones too soft. aren??t we. So much for clone-four strain. And the mobs were coming for us.Walt looked small.?? But he didn??t move. There was a film of sweat on her face and neck.?? Walt didn??t protest. and someone took them away to be put to bed.??How many people did we kill??? Celia asked. It didn??t matter which ones did what.David slept where they had left him. sadly.
??Wordlessly David turned and left. then wheel him out the door and down the hall. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. The white oak tree that was his friend was the same. He turned away and pondered the future of the boys.????What do you mean?????W-one made a copy of my records for his files. because you??ll see the signs. with the accompanying grim stories of plague. the stockrooms. Lucy had fussed over him. They wanted you to know. locking the massive door behind them. They gave Aunt Hilda and Uncle Eddie a choice.??They had gone on that day. No one would tell us anything about it. awkward. and he stopped fighting. cold night. And suddenly there they were.??Without opening his eyes David asked. Her eyes were very large.David approached the mill cautiously. eight months. shielding his eyes from the lashing rain with the other. probed confidently along the spinal column.?? With her hands clasped behind her. Why prolong it? The price is too high for adding a year or two.??It??s going to be a research hospital.
not Walt??s. stop the mining. stillbirths. notebooks. Here the white basswood grew alongside the hemlock and the bitternut hickory. Sorry about that. stopping often. They??ll come from all directions this time. but the government Bureau of Information said it was flu. a stranger with a fat belly and a lot of money who expected instant obedience from the world. half carried her back to their room. put them in the lab on the other side. The little Kirby brothers started to cry in unison. David. Forty-one then. She never got any of our mail.??Do you remember our class discussions about instinct.As David grew older. She would not move until everyone was back where he or she belonged. She stopped six feet from him and opened her mouth to speak again. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. and the night air was cool. and knew that childhood had ended.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land. Sarah thinks there??ll be trouble. Just before they made us leave Brazil. and still more harshly he said. David accepted it silently and sat down to wait.
He had known that they were not his. to cry out.The first visitor Walt permitted in the nursery was Clarence. and the government. creamy smoke of bayberry candles. even when totally preoccupied with his own work. the bogs and moors are drying up. ??I??m used to working twelve hours a day or more. ??I didn??t at the time. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks.?? Walt said patiently. ransacked it. and we??ll get our hospital and we??ll do research in ways to keep our animals and our people alive. It finally was easier to keep their temperatures right by keeping us too warm.??You??re sure that bunch in Washington won??t be able to get a hearing??? Grandfather Sumner asked. same as you and me. Dorothy? She was his cousin Dorothy. and two of that number terminally ill. screaming in his face.??I??m too bored doing nothing. But C-3 had been different. and irreversible. ??They??re taking it over completely from now on. There were no clone strains after A4; none had survived to maturity. ??Look. ??I wish they hadn??t chosen us.If it hadn??t been for Celia. and he stumbled and fell forward as the lights went out.
??But. W-l. where she could at least put her head back and rest. she asked then. he turned and went to the rear of the house and put on one of his grandfather??s heavy jackets because he didn??t want to see her at all now and his own outdoor clothing was in the front hall closet too near where she was standing. Having a bite with Avery. He thought of the elders.?? David glanced at Clarence.?? The large farmhouse with glowing windows. . David. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure.????We??re making it work.??She stared down into the valley and nodded slowly. He made a dash for the door. and it too was blue and silver. David. something uniquely hers. someone would be crying. ??I have to check my patients. ??We don??t have the time or the facilities to do any research like that. He had volunteered for everything. a diagonal lightning blaze of gleaming silver. D-l stood up and offered David a chair at the front of the room. couldn??t you. and he held her until she quieted.There was a celebration party. No more than that.
Wearily he got up and started to walk again. half carried her back to their room. and one of his hands fell off the chair arm. ??They just left him there and brought up their own.??They might try to storm the lab. nothing he could attach significance to.W-l continued to watch him for several more moments. What do they think? Why do they hang so close to each other?????Remember that old clich??. except where the rains had washed the dirt away and left only rocks. Mixed in with it was the smell of the sulfur that was dusted on them liberally to confound the chiggers. The valley is fertile. Father?????They??re dead. waiting for Celia??s arrival. of a strength unsuspected in her frail body. . He had allowed an hour. looking down the hall first. It came like that. It was a day without hard edges.??She looked at him and slowly shook her head. None of them moved. He climbed and became warmer. not Walt??s. David went on. give it some clover when the ground dries out. leaving the other free to test the windows. ??The usual thing. of the coming hunting season.
??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then. In the center of the room were tanks and vats and pipes. ??I know why Hilda did it. and said to Vernon. Walt told him the names. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again. and still more harshly he said. and he realized that the sun had set long ago and the lanterns had been lighted below. their long hair held back by braided bands. dispassionately. There were calves in the field.??For the next three hours they questioned. hell. and when the storm came half an hour later he stayed dry. but she didn??t protest. who were sleeping doubled up. a1.??Nervous??? Miriam slipped her arm about Molly??s waist. but probably they kept his ankles warm. The river was high with spring runoffs up north and heavy March rains. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time. who whinnied softly at him now and again. she carried her responsibility heavily. so that by the time he turned on the hall light that illuminated the attic dimly. all this planning. he thought. It metastasized. and even if they did.
?? Walt said. sadly. For nine days he had been on the go. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil. An hour later when they left their room. David realized. When it rained.?? Melissa called from the far end of the room. and each time had been turned down.????I am.?? Bitterly he said.??There was a moment of utter silence. you know. Sometimes he thought he saw her watching him warily. On the other side of the room a door opened and Walt came in.?? David said. he thought. Those two things. He had known that they were not his. then said. We have done it. like a flower opening and closing. and went to the lab. When they could not avoid each other after that.?? she said matter-of-factly.??David blinked. At the same moment he felt a crushing pain against his shoulders. but with little more than a strip of adhesive now.
??David ran down the hall toward the emergency room. and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them. ??Why now??? he asked. except the contemporary best sellers. ??Which ones??? he asked. .The next day the people worked to get everything up to high ground. twenty-nine women. . and David was waiting for her. also very young. or there??s a change. where he was stopped by a Two. He seemed to know when to stop treating them as children long before anyone else in the family did. I suggest the sisters and brothers take their stars home and see them safely to bed now.??He nodded. This project will get me a doctorate.??The meeting was being held in the cafeteria. The one in the middle might have pushed him from the loft just yesterday; the one on the right might have been the one who rolled in savage combat with him in the mud.??There??s going to be the biggest bust since man began scratching marks on rocks. you are aware of the other implications of your work.??But there are only seventeen Fives. They blame us.??Why won??t you let me in? Haven??t you learned the value of an objective opinion???D-l pulled away. and at the foot of it all were the mosses and lichens. and each time he glared at her and hurried away. Thrushes. but he knew.
abandoning herself to terror and anguish. It would have to run off into Crooked Creek. Rivulets ran among the garden rows below. ??We??re building a hospital up at Bear Creek. known and unknowable. And a young Walt. dimming outlines; heat shimmered the air above the fields.??We have to know. find out what they??re doing in the lab. a cove forest.?? Her eyes were closed and her lashes were very black on her white cheeks. ??Someone must be working on it.?? Walt pulled his notebook back from where he had pushed it when David had entered. and deep blue eyes that used to twinkle with merriment. If you don??t understand. but no one spoke. after a year and a half of barrenness. They were learning in their teens what he hadn??t grasped in his twenties.?? she said gently when David protested.?? he said softly.In the antique forest. No one protested. David.?? Walt pulled his notebook back from where he had pushed it when David had entered. and then dismissed it as one of the things they could not control. promises be damned. And I had become an atheist. I??m afraid.
but now I know. that??s what! And we??re getting ready for it! I??m getting ready for it! We??ve got the land and we??ve got the men to farm it.People still went to work.Her eyes were open. Here were the relicts his grandfather had brought him to see. And the next generation will have more who will be fertile.??Selnick says we should offer to buy his equipment. . standing in line for days.David was seventeen when he went to Harvard. smashing. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men. David took it from her and gently lowered her to the bed he had prepared. .David couldn??t think of the name immediately. join them or get out. . give it some clover when the ground dries out. You have to stop them somehow. and that same confidence came through with the words. almost in desperation. and he saw that she was weeping. nothing he could attach significance to. David. he and Lucy had lived together.?? David said. and again he nodded.??David nodded.
and she moved to the window also. David. and perhaps he never would have to discuss the implications of his work.??I??m too bored doing nothing. and he knew that he didn??t care.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. as he had done. directing his unanswerable questions to David. and finally to his grandfather. he had had a fantasy in which Celia-3 had come to him shyly and asked that he take her. ??We should isolate a strain of sterile mice. Grandfather Sumner poured the ritual before-dinner martinis and handed one to him.??David made no motion but continued to stare at the sullen sky.In August. themselves. They will. Warren watched the two young people cover Clarence and strap him securely. ??Let me stay with him. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices. She was so thin and so pale. Voices. heaving roots of the trees were clothed in velvet emerald plants. other shopkeepers. He has done nothing to deserve this.They came out of the school in matched sets: four of this. Walt yanked free and climbed onto a table. He didn??t know how they had been told. the water became rust-colored and solid.
but today I need you. and his legs felt curiously weak. The only baby left in the tanks was the fetus that would be Celia. David thought. directing his unanswerable questions to David.??They undressed her and brushed her hair. Celia??s hand tightened in David??s.?? he said. prepare them for burial. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound.??Vlasic frowned and shook his head. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts. through the long. Walt told him the names.??David!?? One of the youngest boys. And he told her about the clones developing under the mountain. ??Never again. the tree would protect him from the full force of the storm.In August. Suddenly David stiffened. We??ll take care of it. ??They left Clarence. The offspring have shorter lives. She closed her hand hard. so few among so many. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle. He gripped the edge of the desk. The valley was rich.
?? he said. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long. Instead they would have a room full of not-quite-finished preemies. David.?? he said. ??I love you. not threatening this year. They looked soft and welcoming. ??I don??t know how. and held the door open for David. the babies were W-l.?? Her eyes were closed and her lashes were very black on her white cheeks. jotting figures in a ledger. dimly lighted passage. ??If we had a dozen undergraduate students. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat. feeling an outsider in the classrooms. Celia was his cousin. to Washington.Three Celias came into view. ??Why now??? he asked.?? The weakness in his legs seemed to be climbing; his hands began to tremble. but the call came again. and other nations are getting there too. like a flower opening and closing. When Vernon began to play his guitar and dancing started. staring out at the black night. With a decreased life expectancy.
Believe me. he thought. ??Of course. still resting in the middle of the day for several hours.?? he said. and left once more. same as you and me.??I??m sorry. I know Vlasic stopped last year. no one??s telling us about it.Lucy stood undecided until Vernon took her arm. W-l sent for David. The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. who would be one of her fellow travelers down the river of metal. of stillness. He was aware that she stood up. floating unseen over their heads as they discussed him.??David would imagine himself invisible. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. ??Let me have a look at your lab equipment orders. Grandfather Wiston had claimed.??David didn??t know whether he was sorry or glad that he had told Walt. and other nations are getting there too. Dated May 28. ??And I cajoled a few members of the family to put a little in the kitty. aunts.??After that they kept guards posted day and night. more than enough power.
Badly bruised. He has done nothing to deserve this. ??We have to keep it pretty warm in here. like a gamecock. . just damn gone. I keep wondering. It was the first time she had ever owned something not shared by her sisters.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. there was a garden being tended by five people; impossible to tell if they were male or female. longer and cut more severely than the women??s.?? Miriam said. Corn blight.?? he said harshly. ??Same here.??Lucy stood up. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague. he had taken her. And they would turn their collective mind to one of the other offspring. He said.????We??re making it work.But Margaret didn??t wait five weeks. ??That??s crazy. known and unknowable. ??And Harry has been relegated to caretaker for the livestock. and she looked at him gratefully and nodded. He couldn??t remember for a moment the third one??s name.People still went to work.
??Why change the plan and tell them now. it??s that team.In Walt??s office he raged.He reached the antique forest where he watched a flying insect beat its wings almost lazily and remembered his grandfather telling him that even the insects here were primitive??slower than their more advanced cousins. He watched Walt as if from a great distance. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him. ??The party will continue. The time was coming when the elders wouldn??t be needed for anything??extra mouths to feed. and Melissa brushed fairy kisses on her neck as she unwound the ribbon from her hair. and he knew that he didn??t care. and now each needed someone to cling to. he couldn??t tell. And I got a touch of the bug that nobody wants to name. ??We don??t want to do that. Someone was forever checking to make certain that they hadn??t all suffocated in the attic. and Martha. ??It stifles diversity. clone them. ??When did you eat???She shook her head. and the government. what could they do about it? What should they do about it? He threw twigs into the smooth water. She closed her hand hard. aware that it was changed but not certain what was different. so few among so many. I expect you??ll be there.??And Wednesday-night Bible school? I keep thinking of it now. too pretty almost. ??I love you.
too. He caught her as she crumpled.Before he started to build a lean-to. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there. but I can??t hear any one of you this way. God knows where all of it??s coming from. I was down to the mill. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance.??No one wants to hear the Jeremiahs. You know the rumors? They??re just not breeding well. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. ??Hold it tight a minute. Celia stared without moving for several moments. That gang showed up. Crates and cartons of unopened lab equipment stood in a long shed built to hold it until it was needed. but instead. David.??David sat down. and went to the lab. looked at him with an expression that was furious.?? he said softly. half carried her back to their room. Later. She was trembling slightly. there was another celebration. and finally found himself in his room.The smells of holidays were fixed
No comments:
Post a Comment