Spaceling

by Piserchia, Doris

  “Is this Earth?” Lamana said to me in a whisper, ignoring Gorwyn. “Are we in D-i?”

  He wouldn’t have been Gorwyn if he hadn’t had a lab and eventually he led us into it. The place was big enough to put the cubbyhole at Mutat to shame, and not only that, it had more equipment than I had ever seen in one room before.

  “Let’s make a break for it,” Lamana said out of the side of her mouth.

  Wondering what her problem was, I walked past machines, pulled open cabinets, noted a few odd items here and there. The things supposedly sold at auction from the old lab at the school sat on a shelf above a computer, even the crown of wires, except that it had been remodeled and looked more complicated.

  “Of course I’ve seen Tedwar,” Gorwyn said to my question. “He isn’t actually my son, you know. Not by blood. His mother was my second wife. She died when he was small.”

  “Where are we?” said Lamana. “Which state?”

  “Nevada. It’s quite unexpected that you landed in my back yard.” Gorwyn looked at me. “I’m through with Mutat. It was only a temporary assignment, anyhow. These days I pick and choose what I do and right now I’m deep into experimenting. Want to help me?”

  I thought of Tedwar and for some unaccountable reason I shivered. So Lamana and I had landed here on Gorwyn’s property, and it was surprising but coincidences always were, weren’t they? There wasn’t much difference between landing in California from a ring and landing in Nevada. Both were in the same general vicinity, especially when one thought in terms of infinity.

  There was a servant named Lavac and that constituted the complement of the household. For two people it seemed a huge place but it was a pleasure for me to take a tour of it in spite of the fact that Lavac sneered when he spoke and muttered under his breath when he was supposed to be silent. He carried a brown bottle the tip of which stuck out of his jacket pocket In the basement was a swimming pool which I planned to use later, but what was really interesting was the fine construction of the rooms upstairs, the genuine wood paneling, two-centimeters- thick doors, heavy staircases, high ceilings and marbled or wooden floors. There were great fireplaces in almost every room with ornate hearths and solid mantels. On the walls were the busts of bears, deer and tigers while stuffed birds sat on perches with enough reality to them to make me give them wide berth.

  As I walked through that magnificent house I thought of my farm in Jersey which had been made of heavy cardboard and then sprayed with a tough mixture of mortar and plastic. Not only my house but everybody’s was made like a crackerbox the walls of which wouldn’t support a framed picture. Here on the walls of Gorwyn’s mansion were thick tapestries seven meters long and as wide, large portraits with frames made of solid maple and huge hooks that held up voluminous drapes.

  Other marvels were electric lights, electrically powered freezers, washers, dryers, food and drink dispensers. Gorwyn explained that he had his own generators.

  He had an armory too, full of modem heat guns, old six-shooters, ancient tridents, even a small cannon.

  “As a matter of fact I have a kit that makes tiny instant atom bombs,” he said, as I held up an out-of-date twenty-two and pretended to shoot Lavac in the brown bottle. “The disadvantage of owning weapons is that they’re pointless. There are no enemies to be brought down anymore. The world is civilized.”

  For lunch we had steak that I hated to chew because it was so beautiful. Lamana had no such compunction, stuffed her face and kept her eyes on our host. She never glanced at Lavac who served us, just watched Gorwyn and never let him out of her sight. For the first time since I had met her she was behaving like an outlander and I hoped Gorwyn wasn’t embarrassed by her rude attentiveness.

  He was in fact neither embarrassed, amused nor even concerned, seemingly, but talked about politics, doom and the tawdry items in the department stores in town. Lamana broke her silence to ask where town was.

  “A few miles west,” he said.

  Thinking what a marvelous place the mansion would be to live in, I excused myself and went into the hallway to look for a bathroom. Lamana started to follow but Gorwyn took her by the arm and led her to a clover-shaped aquarium inhabited by goldfish. He was speaking to her in low tones while she was casually pulling away.

  The bathroom was more like a lounge, wall-to-wall mirrors that showed me a scroungy, dirty person with a tired face, decorated wall paneling, elaborate cornices, thick carpet. I was somewhat disappointed to discover the utilities were no different from those to which I was accustomed.

  “How did you get that old crown of wires and the other stuff back?” I said to Gorwyn when I returned. “Some woman took your place at the school and had everything auctioned off.”

  “There aren’t many people interested in that kind of equipment. I heard about it and managed to retrieve it”

  We sat in the living room like three members of a happy family. Lavac disappeared into the upper regions and I didn’t see him again. Since it was August we didn’t need artificial heat but I imagined the enormous fireplace was loaded with burning wood.

  “I’m working on a new phase of the ring business,” said Gorwyn. “Why do muters who come back into Dimension One land with their clothes on?”

  “Why do they?” said Lamana.

  There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with her tone yet I sensed a keen frigidity. Inwardly I sighed. One day she would have to leam that not every harmless or productive person was ordinary or even sane.

  “All the openings are like one opening,” he said. “All the doors are like the same door.”

  “That makes a lot of sense,” I said. Lamana gave me a glance only I would have been able to interpret as scornful.

  Gorwyn sat back in an upholstered, blue velvet monstrosity of a chair, crossed his legs and beamed at us as if we were a pair of little children or idiots. “Imagine a corridor with many doors opening onto it from both sides. The space of Dimension One or Earth moves along the corridor. It’s not only the dimension, it’s also a single opening or doorway into which all the others exit. No matter which one you come through, you end up coming through the same one.”

  “We don’t exit in the same time period, though,” said Lamana. “We’re talking about space, not time ”

  “Is that why the dead revive when they’re brought back?”

  “No, of course not. Resurrection has to do with the rings themselves. They return you to your natural condition. They’re survival mechanisms, remember. You were once a living human and that’s what you are when you emerge from other dimensions.”

  “It sounds as if it has a whole lot to do with time,” she said. “What about dead drees?” I said. “I’ve brought them back but sometimes they’re still dead.”

  “A creature has to be of a certain size and state of intellect or it won’t always revive. The smallest I’ve been able to work with and have complete success is a forty-ldlo dog. Cats, rodents and the like just don’t make it every time. In fact they don’t more often than otherwise.”

  Lamana stood up. “Thanks for your hospitality but we’d better be going.”

  Open-mouthed I stared at her.

  “Daryl and I are old acquaintances,” said Gorwyn. “I’ve found her to be a very satisfactory assistant. I’d hate for her to walk out now. However, if you yourself are in a hurry…”

  It was like water off a duck’s back. “We have so many pressing items on our schedule,” said Lamana. “For instance, her horse is sick and in need of treatment. He thinks he’s an eagle.”

  “Well, I guess my work can wait. Go if you must.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I try that swimming pool downstairs,” I said. “Is it all right with you?”

  “Certainly.”

  A few minutes later I was yelling at Lamana. “You’re acting like a rude idiot! You’d think he was Bluebeard!”

  We were alone in the pool, or at least I assumed Lavac wasn’t skulking behind the pillars holding up the ceiling.<
br />
  She put her hands over her ears. “Don’t shout.”

  “I won’t even talk to you. I’m going to do what I came to do.” I dived into the warm, clean water and swam. It was pleasant and even enjoyable but I couldn’t help comparing it to Waterworld.

  “Be reasonable,” Lamana said when I hauled myself up onto the tiled walk to rest. ‘This bird is too strange to be true. Think how coincidental it was that we landed right outside his house.”

  “Do you have another explanation for how we got here?”

  “No, but I still don’t like it. I don’t like him or his rummy servant or his lab or this whole place. Where did he get those generators and all those machines? How did he get permission to own them and all that computer junk? You know the government doesn’t allow people to waste energy.”

  “He does ring research. He’s an eccentric and he’s rich.”

  “And noncommunicative, like a glot. Your perception is so cloudy I can’t believe it.”

  I went back into the water to put distance between myself and her one-track logic. She was getting possessive as if she had taken upon herself the task of being my overseer or older sister. I had no family and didn’t plan to adopt anybody at this late date. At dinner she angered me by announcing that she couldn’t stay because of pressing business. She would leave when the meal was over and she was grateful to Gorwyn for his hospitality. I had been enjoying the beef roast as if it were a delicacy that had gone out of style long ago, which it was. I also gained comfort from looking at the glittering dinnerware, the low-hanging chandeliers, the stained glass on an entire wall, the lace tablecloth and the fat legs of the table. The richness and beauty of my surroundings faded in exact proportion to the pace at which Lamana explained her need to be off and away. No doubt she expected me to accompany her when she left. She was in for a disappointment.

  She didn’t behave as if she expected anything from me or anyone, waved farewell, smiled, dutifully walked to the front door and let herself out.

  “She didn’t like me,” said Gorwyn. “Probably it’s just as well she’s gone. We won’t miss her too much, will we, when we’re doing all those fascinating experiments? Who is she, by the way? Where did you pick her up?”

  “She’s a friend.” Watching out a small window beside the door, I said, “She’s fallen down.”

  “She has bad feelings for me. I definitely picked up gray vibrations in her vicinity.”

  “You think she fell on purpose?”

  “The thought occurs to me,” he said.

  “She’s holding her ankle. She’s trying to get up.”

  “No doubt the pain is more than she can bear.”

  “She’s honest. I’ve never known her to play tricks.”

  “It looks as if I still have two house guests.”

  I ran to the gate, swung it open and went on through. The sky was gray, beginning to fog over, ominous looking and without real color except for a couple of rings bobbing eastward. Her face twisted in agony, Lamana held a hand out to me.

  “What a swell time for you to get clumsy,” I said, starting to take hold of her.

  “Look out behind you!” she cried.

  I whirled just in time to see a green ring dart from behind a stone statue and, before I could react, Lamana raised her feet and did what she must have been longing to do all along. She gave me a swift kick in the seat of the pants and sent me out of the world.

  Enraged at what she had done, I swam in Waterworld until I found a ring the same shade as the one we used to exit from the planet of the glots. To my surprise I landed in the middle of Yellowstone, not in Gorwyn’s yard. I tried again and again but each time I took the bright yellow ring I ended up in the park.

  Something was out of kilter. Where colors were concerned, my memory was infallible. The ring Lamana and I used to get away from the alien planet should have led me right back to Gorwyn. Somehow Lamana had known it wouldn’t or she suspected it, otherwise she wouldn’t have bothered booting me in the rear and sending me elsewhere.

  Since I couldn’t solve that particular puzzle while wandering among the redwoods, I sneaked home to consult maps of Nevada. I didn’t expect Gorwyn’s house to be marked on them but they carried descriptions of items of interest and might possibly mention that remarkable structure. They didn’t, not that I had much of a chance to find out. Olger had barricaded herself in the farmhouse and refused to come out because Bandit had brought a friend back from one of his vacation spots.

  The creature was as big as he but there the resemblance ended. It looked like a Komodo dragon replete with leathery hide, enormous tail, reptilian head and wicked face. Lumbering around in the paddock in the wake of my steed, it seemed content and not at all discommoded at finding itself in an unfamiliar dimension in an unfamiliar form. All it wanted to do was tag after Bandit, drink astonishing quantities of water and eat hay a bale at a time.

  “That horse has been in the paddock and through rings and that’s about all,” Olger said to me. “Every time I behave as if I’m going to put him in the stable, he gallops off to another planet. Now he’s brought that monster to keep him company so I can’t even go out of the house. It jumps over fences like a frog, eats everything in my flower gardens, has even started on the small trees.”

  A passerby had already called the police who came the next day, took one look at Komo and ran for their nets and ropes. It did them no good. As soon as they showed they were in earnest about capturing the outlander, Bandit trotted toward a fat blue ring and led his friend into parts unknown.

  The days passed and Lamana didn’t show up. Neither did Erma or anyone else I knew. I went to see Tedwar. The place where they kept him was neat and clean and surprisingly modern. The energy shortage precluded the use of fans to combat the late August heat but the building wasn’t a highrise and had an extraordinary number of windows. Brooks and shade trees dotted the landscape while a shield on the roof of the building prevented the sun from baking the insides.

  “What are you doing here?” he said, much subdued from the last time I had seen him. “I don’t mean anything to you.”

  ‘I’m the reason you’re in here, aren’t I?”

  “As usual you’re being stupid. I’ve always been this way. The older I get the more difficult it is for me to control my condition.”

  “You look good,” I said, and it was true. He was the picture of health. When he talked, though, or made a quick movement, he gave me the impression that he was concentrating, deliberately cautioning himself. He was too much in command. There was no such thing as a relaxed moment for him. He was a spring held coiled and tight.

  “What kind of medicine do they give you?” I said when he remained silent.

  “What do I care as long as it keeps me going so that I don’t have to be wrapped in wet sheets or locked in a rubber room? Don’t ask me if I’m ever going to be normal again. I’ve never been normal in my life. I’ll stay here until they’re sure I understand how to treat myself with the medication and then they’ll transfer me someplace where they can keep an eye on me. Probably an orphanage.”

  I couldn’t ask him if he had any family other than Gorwyn. The words wouldn’t pass my lips.

  His eyes glittered with what seemed like amusement as he said, “My father won’t come to see me. You know why, don’t you?”

  I managed to mutter a negative answer.

  “You’re an idiot,” he said. “Really sickening.” •

  “Is your real father alive? Maybe I can get in touch with him.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Gorwyn is my real father. He put me in that ring because I made you decide to leave Mutat.” The agony on his face was too much and I glanced away. The room was small and full of two-way mirrors. We sat at a table where we could easily be seen by whoever monitored our conversation. I looked back at Tedwar and decided he didn’t really look unusual except for his eyes. Was that shiny flickering the result of the new paint on the walls that glowed like yellow
light or was it caused by the workings of a mad mind? I remembered him trying to bowl me over in the gymnasium, laboring overtime to do me some kind of damage.

  “Why me?” I said without thinking, but he seemed to be reading my mind and grinned as of old, with malice and ill will.

  “You’re so easy to detest, always so helpful and so full of conscience. The world isn’t really what you think it is. It’s rotten and the sooner everything stops the better.”

  “Is there something you’d like me to bring you, some candy, soda, anything at all?”

  “The key to the front door.”

  “You shouldn’t be so down.”

  He showed his teeth in a distorted smile. “You sound like the stuffed shirt who came to see you at the school. He said practically the same thing to me when I told him Mutat was a house of freaks.”

  “When was that?”

  “A few weeks ago.”

  “He had gray hair, light eyes and an educated air but there was a bit of a tramp about him?”

  “That’s him.”

  “What did he want?” I said.

  “You. I told him to try the North Pole.”

  “He didn’t say why he wanted to see me?”

  “No. Stop asking me questions.”

  He didn’t want to talk about anything anymore so I left him and went outside to see if the rings in the sky were as prolific as when I came in. I didn’t intend to be caught unprepared when or if Erma, Solvo or anybody else came after me. These days it seemed I was being pursued by everyone. I thought of Croff coming to the school to see me. Whatever it was he had wanted to tell me, he must have thought it was important.

  Thinking and strolling across the grounds in front of the building, I passed some benches beside a stream. A muscled orderly sat under a shade tree and I stopped beside him.

  “Do you know Tedwar?” I said.

  “You a relative?”

  “A friend.”

  “I’m surprised he has one. Yes, I know him. He’s the closest thing to a monster I’ve ever seen. His brain is literally corroded. Half the time he cant remember he’s human.”