Orbit 13 - [Anthology]

by Edited by Damon Knight

  And I said I wouldn’t like it, cause he’d have to work hard all a time, cleaning the streets and the rapid, and would maybe have to go to China.

  But he said how most armytoms doesn’t got to go to China, cause they’s needed for all a jobbies here, what the robos can’t do. The brainsy folks beed able to make robos to do most jobbies, but not ones where they has to move around by theyselves, like cleaning up, or watching folks like the mommies and daddies.

  But Jonsy said how he thought it would be jolly-fine to walk around all day, doing something important, instead of staying in the stuffy old commune, with the commune-daddies telling him what to do.

  And I said I doedn’t like the commune-mommies, neither, but my queeny-pals was nice, and I sure hoped he doedn’t got to go to China.

  Then the rapid comed. And he taked my elbow to help me on. And I hystered to think I couldn’t wash my elbow, neither. And there was two seats, what were a surprise, so we sitted down, and couldn’t talk no more, cause of the singalong, what were playing “Riding on the Rapid,” and “Old Man Moses.” But Jonsy putted his arm around my shoulder, what maked me get all red and sweaty, cause I could feel his muscles, all hard and strong, and his hand all a-rubbing of my shoulder. And my cheek a-leaning against his warmsy chest. I could feel the scratchycloth of his shirt against my cheek, and could even smell the soap and sweat and shave cream and other tommy-do, all mixed up, and a special, sugarsweet smell what were just himself. And I were feeling like a movie-prog star, until the rapid-daddy noticed us and telled us to quit it, or he’d take our numbers for demerits.

  So we sitted up and gleamed through the singalong. And I figured I’d have to wash my cheek and shoulder, else I’d get all pimply like.

  At the ballsy park was more folks than I never seed before. The propers all a time tell us why we gots to eat food-a instead of real food is cause there’s so much folks. But I never believed there was so much till now. I couldn’t count them in a week.

  And they is all drinking beer-a and punch-a, and sitting on rows and rows and rows of benches, piled high like a mountain, and all going in a big circle, round a little park. And in the park is a bunch a tommies in white leggies, and they shoulders makedhuge, with maybe pillows in they tunics, which was red or white, and like potties on they heads. And they is throwing around a little bit of a ball and they is running and a-kicking and a-punching and a-hitting of each other, and Jonsy said how each side are trying to steal the ballsy for theyself, and them as manages gets lots of points, but them as don’t gets demerits. And that we was favoring the red tunics, but he didn’t say why.

  But then one of the white tunic tommies getted ahold of the ball, and started quicking along with it, up into the crowd, trying to get it out of the ballsy park. But some folks in they seats was trying to stop him and catch him and throw the ball back, while other folks was trying to stop them, and pretty soon there were a lot of fighting and yelling and folks was a-beating and a-stomping on each others.

  And I getted kind of scaredy, but Jonsy laughed and said this were the funsy part and no one never getted too hurt, and besides it were headhi and pretty soon he were a-beating on some folks sitting near us, and they was a-beating back on him and I were hystering and trying to hide under the bench. . Then someone managed to throw the ball back into the park, and the tommies was fighting by theyselves, somemore. And folks was watching and petting they sore places. And then, someone getted the ball again and folks was fighting somemore. And then, no one knowed where the ball were and so folks was running all around and into the park and a-grabbing and a-beating of each other and they was yelling and screaming and it doedn’t seem so funsy to me. And Jonsy were gone someplace, a-fighting with the rest. And some old daddy failed back and stumbled over my legs, which I couldn’t get all a way under the bench, and it were real cold and dirty under, so I started to hyster real loud and lots of other folks was hystering too.

  And then a loud buzzerbell ringed and a voice said, from the singalong, “The reds has taken the ballsy. I repeats, the reds has taken the ballsy. Go back to your benches, everyone. The reds has taken the ballsy. The game is over. Go back to your benches. The reds has taken the ballsy.”

  And so on, while folks was sitting down again. And some was hystering happy, and some was unhappy cause they was all mangly or cause the reds winned all the points.

  And I were worrying about Jonsy finding me again, but then I seed his lovey-face and it were all grunchy and blubby, and his clothes was all mangly, but he were all upper cause his side winned. And he helped me out from under the bench and said, “Weren’t that jolly-fine?”

  And I said, “Headhi,” cause I were so glad to see him again.

  And he said, “Its jolly-fine you thinks so, cause lots queenies too scaredy of the ballsy.” And he gived my hand another squeeze.

  For sure hearing him say that maked me feel sugar-sweet, and I doedn’t even care, that my tunic and leggies was all torn and dirty and there were a grunchy on my ankle.

  On the way back to the rapid, Jonsy putted his arm around my shoulder again, real super-tight, and his lovey-body were even warmer now cause of all the fighting and sweating, and he were breathing hard.

  The rapid was super-crowded, cause of every going home from the ballsy. Folks was a-pushing and a-shoving, and lots was still hystering from behing hurt or cause they side had loosed. But the rapid-daddy said to quiet down, or we’d all get demerits. And there was no seats and we was packed standing, tight as could be, but we doedn’t mind, cause it gived Jonsy a chance to hug me hard.

  Then a weirdy thing happened. The singalong were playing “Old Man Moses,” and it getted to the place where it says, “He climbed up the mountain.” And the singalong getted stuck there, and it keeped singing, “He climbed up the mountain, he climbed up the mountain.”

  And for a while, no one gived it no juice, and we just keeped singing. “He climbed up the mountain, he climbed up the mountain.”

  And then some brainsy folks noticed and they starts to hyster and yell that the rapid weren’t going nowhere and were stuck in the tunnel, and that howcome the singalong were stuck.

  And other folks was hystering again, too, but the rapid-daddy yelled real loud that he would take our numbers for demerits, sure, if we doedn’t quit.

  So soonly all was back to singing, “He climbed up the mountain, he climbed up the mountain, he climbed up the mountain, he climbed up the mountain.”

  And we keeped on singing it for a super-long time, and most folks was kind of downer about it, but not me and Jonsy. We just gleamed and gleamed at each other, and no one noticed how he haved both his arms around me, real tight.

  And then, finally, the rapid gived a big jerk, and moved along again. And we getted to sing the next words of the song, “To chitter with Godsy, what gived him all the rules, so we wouldn’t get demerits.” And so on.

  And the rapid-daddy gived us all passes for being late. When we getted off at the Powell Street stop, there were a tommy proper from the Real Food League. He were reading a newsy-bill about how eating food-a makes folks dumdum and ruins they reflexes so they eyes don’t blink right, and they can’t make babies, and sometimes they forgets how to breathe! This were making me feel real downer, but then Jonsy start to chitter with him.

  “Howcome you knows this?” he asked the proper.

  “Cause I is a brainsy, and gets to hear about it in school, and I doesn’t like to see folks brains getting rotted.”

  “Well, what can we eat if we doesn’t eat food-a?”

  “We can eat real food, like in the oldy days.”

  “Where would we get the real food?”

  “We gots to grow it in the parks.”

  “But how would we get to the parks without tickets, and how would folks know how to do the growing?”

  “We gotta learn how again!”

  “But how we gonna do that? And what is we gonna eat in the meantime?”

  “I guess we’d eat food-a.”r />
  “Well, that what I’s doing right now, so howcome I should do all this bothering? I doesn’t think you is very brainsy at all!”

  And then the proper getted real mad, and telled Jonsy he were dumdum, and his brain were already rotted. And then Jonsy gived him a big grunchy in the face and said his brain were rotted, too. And then we runned away real fast, before someone seed us, and gotted us demerits for fighting. And I telled Jonsy he were the most brainsy tommy I never meeted.

  And he said, “Yeah, that’s howcome I wanna get in the army, cause I is too brainsy to sit around the commune all a time.”

  And I said how I were sure he could pass the test. We seed somemore propers, from the Mother Mary commune, but we was too dozy to chitter with them. And we seed lots of freakies, laying around in the street, sleeping. I never beed out so late to see it before, even though the commune-mommy all a time tell us how we’s so lucky our parents getted enough points to have us in a commune when we growed up, and how there aren’t room for lots of folks what gots to sleep in the streets, and gots to stand in long linies for tiny bits of food-a with no flavor at all!

  Some of them freakies waked up and tried to grab us, asking if we haved any food-a to give them, or any grass. But we telled them “No,” and they goed away, cause they knowed it were true. But a couple of tommy freaks tried to pooch me, in a nasty way, and I were glad Jonsy were there, cause he gived them a kick, and they goed away.

  It were after lights-out when we getted back to the commune, and we haved to bang super-loud at the door. While we was waiting to get letted in, Jonsy putted his both arms round me and pulled me super-close to him and kissed my curlies and said, “You is a sugarsweet queeny.”

  I thinked my head would buzz to bits with happy. When the commune-mommy comed to the door, she started to sharp, but I doedn’t give her no juice. I just showed her the late pass from the rapid-daddy, and goed up to bed. But even though I were super-tired from the headhi day, I keeped clicking back to Jonsy, and I couldn’t drowsy, the whole night through.

  The next day, I were drowsing at smart-time, and missed most of the cable-prog on how Eskimos lived in the oldy days. The smarts-mommy said if I doedn’t quit, she’d send me to the nurse-mommy for a shot. That maked me hyster, unhappily. Folks mostly doesn’t get sick now, like they doed in the oldy days, cause of all the vitas and trancs and antibods whats in the food-a. But sometimes the nurse-mommy gots to take care of folks grunchies, and also to give them a shot if they won’t behave. So I tried harder to stay wakesy.

  Anyhow, the next few weeks was mostly usual. Smart-time bruncheon, play-time, supper, game-time and pooching and chittering with my queeny-pals. The only thing that weren’t usual were me, cause of all the time clicking into Jonsy. And fun-night, the best night of the week, and the only time I could see his lovey-face.

  But it were hard how to give juice to the singalong, or the folksy, or the movie-prog, or the cake-a and punch-a, and all the other fun-night-do. Mostly we was busy trying to sit in a sneaky way, to hold hands without the aud-mommy seeing, or pretending to bump into each other, so he could give me a hug, or even a little kissy on the curlies, or to chitter together for a couple of minutes.

  My queeny-pals noticed, and pooched me a lot, but I knowed they wouldn’t tell. Not even Mimi, whats so brainsy they is letting her take the test to be a commune-mommy. Nor even Judy, what were going to the Mother Mary lovelies a lot lately. And were ail the time telling us to leave off smoking grass, and watching movie-progs and thinking of tommies, and learn to get upper from loving Jesus.

  Judy were even thinking to put her name on the waity-list to live at the Mother Mary commune, what would be weirdy for us, cause we’d have someone new in our room. Maybe a youngling, fresh from her parents room, what would be all sobby, or, worse yet, a freaky from the street, what would be all smelly and dumdum and steal our pretties.

  But anyhow, me and Jonsy was wishing and wishing how we could just be by ourselves, to chitter and touch and hug and kiss and, well, you know, queeny and tommy things, like in the movie-progs. And I were wondering if Jonsy were wishing the same thing. And I were meaning and chrising alot about how we never gets to do what we wants, and my queeny-pals was saying how freakies gets to do whateverthey wants, with no mommies watching them, and I should be proper grateful. But I knowed they was just jealous.

  Also, I were getting lots of demerits, from not giving enough attention, and I knowed I wouldn’t have enough points for no new pretties this year, what maked me glumph even more.

  Then, one Friday night, the most sugarsweet thing in the whole world happened. Jonsy corned for fun-night, like regular. But I could tell, right away, he were headhi about something. First I thinked he maybe haved too much grass, or tickets for a outing. But it were even upper than that.

  Minute he could, he whispered in my ear, “I passed the test for the army!”

  “Oh, Jonsy,” I hystered. The aud-mommy sharped me with her eyes. “You’ll be able to get more tickets for outings,” I said.

  “Yeah, but there moren that,” he said, “soonly, I’ll go to the army school, and learn how to clean the streets real good. Then I’ll be ducted. And then, I can get me on the waity-list for a semipriv room at the army commune, or, Silvy, I can get me on the waity-list for a room at the army family-commune. We could getmarried, and jingle together every night, and dhitter and hug and . . . and all kinds of jolly-fine things, just like the movie-progs. We could have a wedding in the aud, and maybe even a honey-trip, and stay headhi all the time!”

  “Oh, Jonsy,” I said, and I hystered so hard I couldn’t stop, even when the singalong played “Old Man Moses,” so I getted five demerits, but who cared, cause I were the upperest queeny in the aud.

  The next week, at fun-night, the aud-mommy readed us a newsy-bill about how they isn’t so much babies, nomore, cause of stricter controls, and so they will be less freakies sleeping in the streets in twenty years or so. And also how the white folks army were almost to Shanghai. And while all was gleaming and cheering, Jonsy whispered to me how there would maybe be a room in the army family commune in maybe seven or eight months. And how we could get tickets for a two-day honey-trip in Yosemite Park, what are further away than any of us never been. And how a armytom can have punch-a and cake-a at they wedding, and they parents and pals can come and see. And lucky, all was cheering so loud from the newsy-bill, they doedn’t hear me hyster.

  Seven or eight months! It feeled like seven or eight years. I thinked I were dying from waiting for that sugar-sweet day when me and Jonsy would be married folks and could do whatever we wanted.

  In the meantime, every were usual. Smart-time, bruncheon, play-time, supper, game-time, lights-out. Just like always;

  Only a couple differy things happened in that time. Like Mimi failed the test to be a commune-mommy, and were very sobby for awhile.

  Another thing what happened, were one time, all the food-a in this whole part of the city doedn’t get sent to they communes. And we sitted two whole days, in the aud, without nothing to eat. And they keeped telling us how it were OK, and the food-a would be here soonly, and they keeped the singalong and movie-progs on real loud. But we getted real starvy, and started to hyster, and finally we was all hystering so loud, you couldn’t hardly hear “Old Man Moses” going. Finally the mommies telled us they didn’t know howcome and we was all to do linies, cause we was going outside, to the depot where the freakies gets they food-a.

  And we walked a long way. Longer than I never walked before. And we seed lots of broken-up buildings, and lots of other communes. And they folks was also marching out to the depot. And soonly they was a super-big crowd of folks, all over the street, and they was pushing and shoving, what aren’t usual allowed, and I wondered howcome folks wasn’t getting demerits. But then I seed how the mommies and daddies was also pushing and shoving cause they was starvy, too.

  And soonly, they was so much folks on the street, that you couldn’t keep no more linies, a
nd I couldn’t find my own queenies nomore, and I were in a super crowd of strange folks, all pushing real hard to try and get to depot, but none knowed where it was, and so some was pushing one way, and some was pushing another.

  And then one old mommy getted pushed down, and no folks would let her get up and she were yelling and screaming, and other folks was being pushed on top of her. And pretty soon, she were getting all grunchy and mangly. And this were happening to other folks, too. And all was hystering super-loud, cause of being starvy and scaredy, and not knowing the way to the depot.

  And then some big privautos was coming along the streets with singalong speakers, and super-daddies was yelling,“Go back to your communes. Food-a will be sent to your communes. Go back to your communes. Food-a will be sent to your communes. Go back to your communes. Food-a will be sent to your communes.”

  So then, folks started trying to find the way back to they communes. But I doedn’t know the way back and were hystering, super-loud. And then, a smelly freaky queen grabbed my arm, and said if I were loosed she would help me find my commune, but I haved to give her something. So I gived her my ear julies. She taken them, and runned away into the crowd. And I hystered even louder.