by Andre Norton
He was pointing once more. Not at her this time but up into the open sky.
"Star light, star bright,
First star I've seen tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.”
Against her will, but because she somehow had to look where his finger pointed, Kristie once more raised her head to blink at the sky. It was darker now. There was a twinkle of light far, far above.
A star! A real star!
Her wonder fought her fear. She knew what a star was though no one in the city had ever seen one, not even the long-gone Olds. It had been years, and years, and years—so many even Lew could not hope to count them—since the dome had gone up to close out the sky and the rest of the world. But here was a star!
Somehow, staring at that distant wink of light, which was not as bright as the glitter of the Rhyming Man's clothing yet sharp in another way, Kristie became less and less afraid.
Reddy's head was soft and furry under her chin as she wavered up to her knees and then got to her feet.
“This is Outside.” She said the words almost as if she were asking the Rhyming Man a question.
"Outside, inside,
Front to back.
Starlight, Sunlight—
There is no lack.”
Slowly Kristie allowed her eyes to slip away from the star and move across that very frightening sweep of sky which was not a big, safe cover like the dome but only a big, big emptiness.
No! There was another star! And this one she had found for herself. Maybe it was hers to wish on. Or did only that first star count?
“You said—wish.” She looked now to the Rhyming Man.
He smiled again and nodded eagerly. But he stood quietly. Out here on the green grass, he no longer danced.
“I wish Lew were here!” Kristie had been encouraged by the Rhyming Man's smile. “He said—he said there was no Outside anymore. I want Lew!”
She did want him fiercely. Not just to prove that the Outside was alive and (as she was beginning to guess) a very wonderful place. No, she wanted Lew because he was the closest person she had ever known. He was her own Big.
The Rhyming Man no longer smiled. His eyes, Kristie thought with a small fear beginning to grow in her, were sad.
“Lew can come? He will come!” Her question turned to a demand.
Slowly the Rhyming Man shook his head.
"Little—Big-
Little go, Big no.
Always must it
Answer so.”
“Why?” demanded Kristie. Her fear was heating into anger. “Why can't a Big come here?”
“Some of us do—”
Kristie turned quickly at the sound of another voice. She had half forgotten those who had come Outside with her. Now she saw there were others with them, soothing the very small Littles who were sniffling and holding hands with the others. And right next to her stood a Big girl like Fanna.
The stranger smiled and held out her hand. “Some do, you see,” she repeated. “I did.”
“Who are you?” Kristie demanded bluntly.
“Lisa. And that,” she pointed to another Big who had picked up one of the Littles, “is Truda. Beyond there is Sally. We are from London Town. Come—”
Kristie eyed her warily. She glanced back to where the Rhyming Man had been. There was no longer anyone there.
“Where—” her surprise now sent her toward Lisa. “Where did he go?”
“Back Inside,” Lisa answered.
Her fingers curled about Kristie's in warm welcome.
“Come on, let's go to London Town.”
“But Lew said that's far off across the sea. How do we get there from here?” asked Kristie.
She did not pull back, however, as the Big girl drew her around some bushes and down a slope. The light in the sky was a lot dimmer, making it harder for them to see where they were going. There seemed to be no glow-lights Outside.
“Not this London. Not where we are to build the bridge,” Lisa answered.
“Lew!” Kristie halted and tried to jerk away from the gentle hold. But Lisa tightened her grip.
“If he can come—in time he will,” Lisa told her.
“I wish I knew what you meant,” Kristie said sadly.
“But you shall, you shall,” Lisa promised as they went on. The tall-standing live grass brushed softly against their legs and the stars came winking into life over their heads.
6
* * *
* * *
Believing Is Seeing
If she had been alone, Kristie might have grown uneasy and even frightened as the night darkened. She could hear queer noises. The loudest was made by the brook as it gurgled along just a little way off. She lay beside Lisa on the heap of grass which was her bed.
There were other sounds, too. Some buzzed and some called. Each time Kristie would stiffen to listen. Lisa seemed to sense her vague fears, though Kristie said nothing. Then the older girl would explain that such and such a noise was a harmless flying thing or a small animal they did not have to fear.
Kristie kept peering into the dark which she had never seen before. Though the stars hung overhead, they were too far away to give much light. However, something else was beginning to shine—a great orange-yellow ball was rising in the sky. The moon! It must be the moon!
Once people like her, and Lew, and the Crowd had flown up to the moon. Kristie remembered a tape Lew had run in which Olds, wearing queer thick clothing, walked with slow strides across the broken surface of the moon. The tape voice had spoken of a later moon station where people lived for a while.
But men had not stayed there long. Shortly after, the world had become so bad all the Olds went into their cities and sealed them up tight. Only—if the world had been so bad, how could Outside now be green and good again? Kristie drew a deep breath. The air Outside was different and full of strange smells, but not the bad ones you sometimes sniffed Inside. What had happened to the Outside? Why had the Olds said it was poisoned, bare, brown and dead?
“When the Olds left it,” Lisa's voice came as a soft whisper through the dark, “the world began to clean itself—”
Kristie's head jerked around so that she was no longer looking at the big ball of the moon but facing Lisa through the dark. The girl's face was only a thin sliver of white which Kristie could not truly see.
“You—I did not ask about that—not out loud.” Kristie shivered. She was sure she had not said a word. She had only thought. Yet Lisa answered what she was thinking about! How could that happen?
"'Believing” s seeing‘—” Lisa whispered. “Do you understand what that means, Kristie?”
“I—I guess not.” She told the truth. The Rhyming Man had said the same thing when she asked about Lew—but she could not understand.
Lew—where was he now? What was he doing? Hunting for her? She wanted Lew!
“If he can come, he will.” Again Lisa read Kristie's thoughts.
Holding Reddy tightly, as if he were the only real thing she had left, Kristie sat up on the grass bed. Again the feeling of being lost in a big open place where there were no safe walls closed in on her.
Lisa moved too. But when she tried to put her arm around Kristie, the younger girl shrank away.
“I want to go home—” she muttered. “Tell the Rhyming Man—I want to go back!”
“Listen, Kristie, there is no going back,” Lisa told her.
Panic flooded through Kristie. Then, before she could move away, Lisa held her in a tight hold. And—Kristie uttered a small cry, but she did not battle the arms around her.
She, Lisa, was talking to Kristie without words—in a queer way in her mind! There was nothing to be afraid of, Lisa was telling her. Kristie gulped. What was happening to her? Please, she cried out silently, oh, please tell me what is happening?
“We are not sure ourselves yet,” Lisa whispered. She was no longer inside Kristie's head, but spoke as people always
did. Somehow Kristie was no longer so scared.
“This has something to do with the way we came here,” Lisa continued. “The real Littles accept it without trouble. It's only when you are older that you wonder. We do not know why this happens to us. Neither does the Rhyming Man, or else he won't explain. But when we come out of the city we begin to learn that we can understand what others are thinking—if we wish to.
"'Believing” s seeing‘—” Lisa whispered, “Rhyming Man says. It means, Kristie, that we must not think that anything is true only because we see it in one way. We must be able to guess that things can happen which are very strange and different from everything we have known before.
“Those who follow the Rhyming Man seem able to do this. He cannot bring anyone out from the city who does not have this sort of mind. Some Bigs will never believe in what they cannot see. Those Bigs may never leave Inside. Most Littles are not yet so sure of what they are supposed to believe to say this or that may not be so. Do you understand?”
Kristie had listened closely. Yes, she could see a meaning in the words of the Rhyming Man now. It was like some of the Bigs who did not care to use the reading tapes. They argued that the reading tapes were all just made-up stories. Then there were others, such as Lew and Fanna, who hunted for knowledge. Since Kristie had so wanted to know what was Outside, her dreams could all come true.
“Like the reading tapes,” she said, “are not all made-up things after all. Some of them are real if you hunt for the right ones.”
“Yes. Most of us who came Outside have listened to the tapes and imagined what other ways of life would be like. So the Rhyming Man was able to make us listen and follow him. That is why we are here.”
“Why does the Rhyming Man want to bring us Outside?”
“Because it is time to build again. Remember London Bridge?” Lisa repeated some of the old song:
"Build it up with stone, my dears,
Then it shall last a thousand years!"
“But you aren't really building a bridge, are you?” Kristie asked.
“Not one you can see, no,” Lisa admitted. “But in a way we are the stones ourselves. And we are careful about what we build now. We want it to last at least a thousand years.”
“You mean a new way of living with—Outside?”
“Yes. But we must not make the same mistakes the Olds did. We dare not poison the world a second time.”
“So how do we learn not to make those mistakes?” Kristie asked.
“By thinking together—one mind to the next—in this new way. At least that is what we believe now.”
The light from the big yellow moon touched Lisa's face to show her smiling.
“Lew?” Kristie could not return that smile. “And Fanna? I want them to help build London Bridge. How can I make them come?”
Lisa's smile faded. “I don't know, Kristie. If they cannot accept ‘Believing's seeing‘—then they never will.”
“They must!” Kristie cried fiercely. “They must!”
She allowed Lisa to settle her back on the grass bed, Reddy tight in her arms. Lew had brought the fox to her. Maybe he was not alive, but she loved him.
Kristie closed her eyes to shut out the moonlight. She would make Lisa believe she had gone to sleep. Just as she had once planned to find the gate to Outside, so now she wanted to seek a way back Inside. Not to stay, but to let Lew and Fanna and all the rest know about London Bridge.
Lisa said no one could go back Inside. But Kristie would test that for herself. Lew! As she once had shouted his name in terror when the rats came out of the dead place to hunt her, now she tried to call him in her thoughts. Could thoughts reach Inside even if people could not go back?
Though she tried to make a picture of Lew in her mind as she had once pictured the map, it was very hard. She was tired and the picture kept getting blurry. She was—Kristie was asleep.
Inside the city Lew crouched on a balcony staring down into the great hall below. The blocks of the pavement were no longer as bright as they had been when Kristie and the others had hopped and marched back and forth with the Rhyming Man.
Kristie! Lew's hand tightened about the grip of his stunner. He had returned from the search only to discover that Kristie had gone. Then the distant sound of singing echoing through the streets had guided him here. But at the door to the hall, which had looked wide open, he had run hard into an invisible wall of force that had kept him from plunging on to snatch Kristie away from the others. The Littles had all been watching the dancing, glittering Old as if he were the only real thing in the whole wide world.
It had taken Lew far too long to find this upper way from which he could look down into the hall. But as he had crept to the edge of the balcony he had seen Kristie disappear. She disappeared right before his eyes as if she had never been there at all!
They were all gone now and the blocks were dull. Gone? Where and how?
Lew tried to think clearly. There were many strange machines in the city. A lot of them did not work anymore. The Bigs who were interested did not even know what some of these machines had done.
Lew could only guess that the whole floor was one such machine. Only—what was its purpose? And where was Kristie?
Those nonsense songs and dancing from square to square—what had they to do with any machine? Lew leaned back against the wall. There were scraps of things he remembered from the readers. Now he tried to sort them out in his mind, to think calmly and coolly. What he really wanted to do was run down and beat on the squares to see if they could be trapdoors. Was Kristie now stuck in some underground passage?
That Rhyming Man—who—what—? Lew shook his head. He must forget his raging wish to use his stunner on that Old! Kristie was the only important one. He must find her.
Machines. He had read about some in the city which would run if one spoke to them in just the right tone of voice or used the proper combination of words. Had the Rhyming Man worked some such machine here with his silly songs?
And the way the Littles under his command had changed squares. Did those changes from one color to another also start a machine working? What kind of a machine? Where had it taken Kristie and the rest’
At the end of the balcony was another stairway into the hall. Lew ran towards it, half expecting once more to meet the solid but invisible wall of force. But there was nothing to prevent his going into the hall.
He walked across the blocks, heading for those where he had last seen the Littles. Under his steps the colors also glowed bright and strong. He stooped and ran his hands over the surface of a red one. Light to be seen, but no heat to be felt.
Right about here was the place. Lew halted. Now—he must remember both the pattern in which the Littles had moved across the floor and the songs which matched their dancing. Could he do it? The boy closed his eyes and tried to re-create the scene, not as something real with Kristie a part of it, but rather as a picture on a reader screen.
When he looked about him again—
Lew swung the stunner up, ready to fire—the Rhyming Man was back. The Old pranced around, not singing this time but watching Lew with a measuring stare.
“Where's Kristie?” Lew demanded loudly, leveling the stunner. His voice echoed back at him—"Kristie?"—in a question which the Rhyming Man did not open his mouth to answer. Instead the jiggling figure chanted:
"Little—Big-
Little go, Big no,
Always must it
Answer so.”
“Talk sense,” Lew ordered. In spite of the way this crazy Old jumped around, Lew was sure he could beam him. But first he must make him tell how to find Kristie.
“ ’Little go, Big no!‘” the Rhyming Man repeated. Now he shook his head from side to side in an exaggerated sweep, as if the gesture would impress Lew with the fact nothing could be done.
Lew reined in his temper. He could beam this Old and knock him out. Only it would be a waste of time. There was another way. He was as tall as the Old.
And there was not another boy in the Crowd who could pin Lew down. This Old was really old. Lew saw how thin he was and looked at his white hair. Lew could take him easily.
With a forward rush Lew jumped at the Old.
He struck, not against the other's slight body, but against the floor with a force which made him grunt. His rush towards the Old had made him bump into the same kind of force wall as the one that had prevented his saving Kristie. The stunner flew from his hand, skidded across the smooth block, and landed at the Old one's feet.
Lew tensed, waiting for a return attack. All the Old had to do was reach down and pick up the stunner. Then he could give Lew a blast which would keep him quiet while the Old went off to collect more Littles.
However, the Rhyming Man made no effort to pick up the weapon. He did not even look at it. Instead he stared at Lew.
At first, Lew thought the Old seemed to be hunting for something in the boy's expression. Then the Rhyming Man gave a small shrug. His face changed and looked tired and old, as if he had just faced some disappointment.
Lew licked his lips. He had to know about Kristie. He had to!
“Kristie—where's Kristie?” he repeatedthequestion he had asked earlier, but this time in despair. The Old would never tell him and this was what he feared most.
“ For every evil under the sun,’” the Old was mouthing one of those fool rhymes again but Lew, always hoping, listened closely.
"There is a remedy, or there is none.
If there be one, seek till you find it.
If there be none, never mind it.”
’Seek till you find if? That was what he was trying to do. And never, never would Lew admit there was none and not mind it!
Suddenly the Rhyming Man's expression changed again. He gave a quick, sharp nod as if Lew had said something to which he agreed. And he gave one of his quick sidewise jumps as he proclaimed loudly:
"Seeing's believing—no, no, no!