The COMPLEAT Collected SFF Works 1911-1987

by C. L. Moore

  The boy entered without obvious embarrassment. He came forward and he faced his father, the boy-face calm and untroubled. He had poise, Locke saw, no doubt of that.

  "I overheard some of your conversation, Absalom," Locke said.

  "It's just as well," Absalom said coolly. "I'd have told you tonight anyway. I've got to go on with that entropic course."

  Locke ignored that. "Who were you vising?"

  "A boy I know. Malcolm Roberts, in the Denver quizkid Crèche."

  "Discussing entropic logic with him, eh? After what I'd told you?"

  "You'll remember that I didn't agree."

  Locke put his hands behind him and interlaced his fingers. "Then you'll also remember that I mentioned I had legal control over you."

  "Legal," Absalom said, "yes. Moral, no."

  "This has nothing to do with morals."

  "It has, though. And with ethics. Many of the youngsters—younger than I—at the quizkid crèches are studying entropic logic. It hasn't harmed them. I must go to a crèche, or to Baja California. I must."

  Locke bent his head thoughtfully.

  "Wait a minute," he said. "Sorry, son. I got emotionally tangled for a moment. Let's go back on the plane of pure logic."

  "All right," Absalom said, with a quiet, imperceptible withdrawal.

  "I'm convinced that that particular study might be dangerous for you. I don't want you to be hurt. I want you to have every possible opportunity, especially the ones I never had."

  "No," Absalom said, a curious note of maturity in his high voice. "It wasn't lack of opportunity. It was incapability."

  "What?" Locke said.

  "You could never allow yourself to be convinced I could safely study entropic logic. I've learned that. I've talked to other quizkids."

  "Of private matters?"

  "They're of my race," Absalom said. "You're not. And please don't talk about filial love. You broke that law yourself long ago."

  "Keep talking," Locke said quietly, his mouth tight. "But make sure it's logical."

  "It is. I didn't think I'd ever have to do this for a long time, but I've got to now. You're holding me back from what I've got to do."

  "The step mutation. Cumulative. I see."

  The fire was too hot. Locke took a step forward from the hearth. Absalom made a slight movement of withdrawal. Locke looked at him intently.

  "It is a mutation," the boy said. "Not the complete one, but Grandfather was one of the first steps. You, too—further along than he did. And I'm further than you. My children will be closer toward the ultimate mutation. The only psychonamic experts worth anything are the child geniuses of your generation."

  "Thanks."

  "You're afraid of me," Absalom said. "You're afraid of me and jealous of me."

  Locke started to laugh. "What about logic now?"

  The boy swallowed. "It is logic. Once you were convinced that the mutation was cumulative, you couldn't bear to think I'd displace you. It's a basic psychological warp in you. You had the same thing with Grandfather, in a different way. That's why you turned to psychonamics, where you were a small god, dragging out the secret minds of your students, molding their brains as Adam was molded. You're afraid that I'll outstrip you. And I will."

  "That's why I let you study anything you wanted, I suppose?" Locke asked. "With this exception?"

  "Yes, it is. A lot of child geniuses work so hard they burn themselves out and lose their mental capacities entirely. You wouldn't have talked so much about the danger if—under these circumstances—it hadn't been the one thing paramount in your mind. Sure you gave me my head. And, subconsciously, you were hoping I would burn myself out, so I wouldn't be a possible rival any more."

  "I see."

  "You let me study math, plane geometry, calculus, non-Euclidean, but you kept pace with me. If you didn't know the subject already, you were careful to bone up on it, to assure yourself that it was something you could grasp. You made sure I couldn't outstrip you, that I wouldn't get any knowledge you couldn't get. And that's why you wouldn't let me take entropic logic."

  There was no expression on Locke's face.

  "Why?" he asked coldly.

  "You couldn't understand it yourself," Absalom said. "You tried it, and it was beyond you. You're not flexible. Your logic isn't flexible. It's founded on the fact that a second-hand registers sixty seconds. You've lost the sense of wonder. You've translated too much from abstract to concrete. I can understand entropic logic. I can understand it!"

  "You've picked this up in the last week," Locke said.

  "No. You mean the rapports. A long time ago I learned to keep part of my mind blanked off under your probing."

  "That's impossible!" Locke said, startled.

  "It is for you. I'm a further step in the mutation. I have a lot of talents you don't know anything about. And I know this—I'm not far enough advanced for my age. The boys in the crèches are ahead of me. Their parents followed natural laws—it's the role of any parent to protect its young. Only the immature parents are out of step—like you."

  Locke was still quite impassive.

  "I'm immature? And I hate you? I'm jealous of you? You've quite settled on that?"

  "Is it true or not?"

  Locke didn't answer. "You're still inferior to me mentally," he said, "and you will be for some years to come. Let's say, if you want it that way, that your superiority lies in your—flexibility—and your homo superior talents. Whatever they are. Against that, balance the fact that I'm a physically mature adult and you weigh less than half of what I do. I'm legally your guardian. And I'm stronger than you are."

  Absalom swallowed again, but said nothing. Locke rose a little higher, looking down at the boy. His hand went to his middle, but found only a lightweight zipper.

  He walked to the door. He turned.

  "I'm going to prove to you that you're my inferior," he said coldly and quietly. "You're going to admit it to me."

  Absalom said nothing.

  Locke went upstairs. He touched the switch on his bureau, reached into the drawer, and withdrew an elastic lucite belt. He drew its cool, smooth length through his fingers once. Then he turned to the dropper again.

  His lips were white and bloodless by now.

  At the door of the living room he stopped, holding the belt. Absalom had not moved, but Abigail Schuler was standing beside the boy.

  "Get out, Sister Schuler," Locke said.

  "You're not going to whip him," Abigail said, her head held high, her lips purse-string tight.

  "Get out."

  "I won't. I heard every word. And it's true, all of it."

  "Get out, I tell you!" Locke screamed.

  He ran forward, the belt uncoiled in his hand. Absalom's nerve broke at last. He gasped with panic and dashed away, blindly seeking escape where there was none.

  Locke plunged after him.

  Abigail snatched up the little hearth broom and thrust it at Locke's legs. The man yelled something inarticulate as he lost his balance. He came down heavily, trying to brace himself against the fall with stiff arms.

  His head struck the edge of a chair seat. He lay motionless.

  Over his still body, Abigail and Absalom looked at each other. Suddenly the woman dropped to her knees and began sobbing.

  "I've killed him," she forced out painfully. "I've killed him—but I couldn't let him whip you, Absalom! I couldn't!"

  The boy caught his lower lip between his teeth. He came forward slowly to examine his father.

  "He's not dead."

  Abigail's breath came out in a long, shuddering sigh.

  "Go on upstairs, Abbie," Absalom said, frowning a little. "I'll give him first aid. I know how."

  "I can't let you—"

  "Please, Abbie," he coaxed. "You'll faint or something. Lie down for a bit. It's all right, really."

  At last she took the dropper upstairs. Absalom, with a thoughtful glance at his father, went to the televisor.

  He called
the Denver Crèche. Briefly he outlined the situation.

  "What had I better do, Malcolm?"

  "Wait a minute." There was a pause. Another young face showed on the screen. "Do this," an assured, high-pitched voice said, and there followed certain intricate instructions. "Got that straight, Absalom?"

  "I have it. It won't hurt him?"

  "He'll live. He's psychotically warped already. This will just give it a different twist, one that's safe for you. It's projection. He'll externalize all his wishes, feelings, and so forth. On you. He'll get his pleasure only out of what you do, but he won't be able to control you. You know the psychonamic key of his brain. Work with the frontal lobe chiefly. Be careful of Broca's area. We don't want aphasia. He must be made harmless to you, that's all. Any killing would be awkward to handle. Besides, I suppose you wouldn't want that."

  "No," Absalom said. "H-he's my father."

  "All right," the young voice said. "Leave the screen on. I'll watch and help."

  Absalom turned toward the unconscious figure on the floor.

  -

  For a long time the world had been shadowy now. Locke was used to it. He could still fulfill his ordinary functions, so he was not insane, in any sense of the word.

  Nor could he tell the truth to anyone. They had created a psychic block. Day after day he went to the university and taught psychonamics and came home and ate and waited in hopes that Absalom would call him on the televisor.

  And when Absalom called, he might condescend to tell something of what he was doing in Baja California. What he had accomplished. What he had achieved. For those things mattered now. They were the only things that mattered. The projection was complete.

  Absalom was seldom forgetful. He was a good son. He called daily, though sometimes, when work was pressing, he had to make the call short. But Joel Locke could always work at his immense scrapbooks, filled with clippings and photographs about Absalom. He was writing Absalom's biography, too.

  He walked otherwise through a shadow world, existing in flesh and blood, in realized happiness, only when Absalom's face appeared on the televisor screen. But he had not forgotten anything. He hated Absalom, and hated the horrible, unbreakable bond that would forever chain him to his own flesh—the flesh that was not quite his own, but one step further up the ladder of the new mutation.

  Sitting there in the twilight of unreality, his scrapbooks spread before him, the televisor set never used except when Absalom called, but standing ready before his chair, Joel Locke nursed his hatred and a quiet, secret satisfaction that had come to him.

  Some day Absalom would have a son. Some day. Some day.

  The End

  THE LITTLE THINGS

  Thrilling Wonder Stories – Fall 1946

  with Henry Kuttner

  (as by Henry Kuttner)

  Dave Tenning, a born rebel, felt that he did not really belong in this Futureworld which was tired of rebellion!

  -

  THE first thing he did when he felt free from pursuit was to head for a newsstand. He wanted to know the date. He didn't know how long he'd been in the Chateau D'If, because after the first year or so there wasn't much point in keeping track.

  There simply wasn't any way of escaping. Edmond Dantes had got out of the original D'If, but such a trick wouldn't work twice. When the—guests—died in this particular guest house there was a quick cremation in the basement somewhere.

  That was one of the distressing sparse scraps of information he had managed to pick up during his period of imprisonment. Not once, in that long time, had he left the windowless single room with its nearly luxurious furnishings and completely luxurious Siamese cat, Shan, who had kept him from utter loneliness.

  It had been a wrench to leave Shan, but her devotion was given to things, not people, and it had been no imprisonment for her. The miracle that had enabled him to escape was not one that could be extended indefinitely. He took the chance when it came, and got out while the after-rumblings of the explosion were still sounding from below.

  He didn't know what it was but the science of the big boys who ran the place was slightly super.

  He got out in a sack that was piled with a dozen others on an elevator platform, and after that, for a while, he depended on his senses of touch and hearing for orientation. He didn't learn much. But he had an idea that the sacks were dealt with by automatic machinery.

  The helicopter had automatic controls, anyway—as he discovered after getting out of the sack. He had a bad moment or two mastering the enormously simplified gadgets. Copters had been mighty complicated in 1945, and he was inclined to make too difficult a job of it.

  The panel exploded into lights and yelps before he grounded. So that must have been the tip-off. They'd be after him now, the big boys who'd kept him in D'If for years. Oh, very comfortably. He was in perfect physical condition. Special lamps and treatments took care of him physically and mentally. A televisor gave him education and entertainment. There were books.

  But he never saw or read anything released later than June, 1945. Maybe that was why worry hadn't eaten into his brain and nerves. He didn't feel quite so much left out of things. He knew, of course, that the world was moving on, but he didn't see it move. That helped.

  The copter grounded in a ploughed field. It was night, but there was a full moon. Silhouettes against a dim glow told him that there was a. city not too far away. The airship shot up and went away. It had no lights, and was swiftly lost as it kept going up, apparently heading for the stratosphere.

  He took several deep breaths. Then he felt nonexistent eyes on him; the skin of his back contracted—and he knew that he was fugitive.

  It was different, but it wasn't so different. The basics were still there. There were people, and the styles in clothing hadn't changed too much. He wore a duplicate of the same suit he'd had on in 1945, that June day when they'd come for him, the big boys. The big boys who'd sat outside and waited, their faces hidden, while their strong-arm men—appropriated—Tenning.

  'I am Dave Terming,' he thought, and there was a little shock of novelty. He had got out of the habit of thinking of himself in any personal sense. In fact, the calm, confident realization of personal identity had gradually vanished during the term of his imprisonment Like a baby, he had become almost unconscious of ego. There had been no need for its assertion.

  'I am Dave Terming, but there is another Dave Tenning.'

  That was where reality left off and the terror began. It had never seemed quite real till now, the knowledge that an alter ego was walking in the outside world. Because there hadn't been any outside world, really, after a while—it moved away from him in time, and the people in it, even those he had known intimately, were less real than the sensuous detachment of Siamese Shan.

  -

  HIS clothes were all right. Nobody stared at him. He hadn't any money, of course, and that was a handicap, but not an insurmountable one. The boys at the Star would stake him. But he must be careful not to encounter the pseudo Dave Tenning, until he was ready. Maybe he'd need a gun. These doppelgangers could be killed. They always died when their originals did.

  That was why the originals were kept alive, and in good physical and mental shape. There was some vital bond, something psychic, a dynamo of life-force in the Original that kept the Carbon Copy going by induction. He'd theorized in that direction, anyhow, and it checked pretty well.

  But he felt funny, because this wasn't his world any more. He kept thinking that the men and women who passed him would stop and glance and then there'd be an outcry— just what he didn't know, except that he didn't belong here. In 1945 he'd belonged, all right.

  He knew why they'd snatched him, too. A gossip columnist has potentialities of power. They wanted men—doppelgangers—in key places. They had a lot of them, undoubtedly. 1945 had been a crucial year. It was one of the few times when Pandora's box had been opened, when too much was available to a wide-eyed civilization.

  Germany was on her kne
es, Japan going down, and the post-war world had been a bogey. Not because there was so much to do, but because there were so very many ways of doing it. It wasn't Pandora's box—it was a grab-bag.

  The social problems were far tougher than technological ones, because the human basics remained unaltered, and people don't change as fast as things. You could have planned on a dehydrated chicken in every pot, but the change-over, the conversion of the social setup was another matter.

  It didn't look as though much had changed —not really.

  He even recognized places. There were some new buildings, though not many. The automobiles had a different design, without streamlining, were more pleasing to the eye. Buses without drivers moved close to the curb and stopped at intervals. The lampposts gave a different sort of light. Shop-windows showed clothes, sporting goods, liquors, toys, nothing radically different.

  But it was the small changes that made the city alien to Tenning. He didn't belong. Also, he knew that somewhere was another Dave Tenning, who had supplanted him, and that realization partially erased his consciousness of ego.

  He had a momentary, unlikely sense of guilt—as though he had interfered with the Tightness of the plan by escaping from D'If. You're a stranger, the people said as they went by without looking at him. You're a stranger.

  'Stranger, hardly. I lived eight years in this town. I came here from a New York rag, and people read my column. So it wasn't Winchell or Pyle or Dan Walker. I never pretended to be anything more than a second-string columnist. I was read at breakfast, over the coffee, and people got a bang out of the muck I raked.

  'I'm Dave Tenning, and for years or centuries I've been locked up in a comfortable little prison with a Shangri-La library and a cat named Shan who didn't give a hoot about anything except a cat named Shan. The ghost walks. Just where he's bound I don't know, but he's looking for some threads to pick up. The date, for example.'

  The newsstand had regular papers and it also had small, thick disks of plastic or glazed cardboard. Tenning stopped to stare. The date—

  Fish decem 7. And so what?