Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction

by Leigh Grossman

  DOMIN: Helena, you wouldn’t be so cruel as to refuse us.

  HELENA: But, but—I can’t marry all six.

  DOMIN: No, but one anyhow. If you don’t want me, marry Fabry.

  HELENA: I won’t.

  DOMIN: Dr. Gall.

  HELENA: I don’t want any of you.

  DOMIN: (again looking at his watch)

  Another two minutes.

  HELENA: I think you’d marry any woman who came here.

  DOMIN: Plenty of them have come, Helena.

  HELENA: Young?

  DOMIN: Yes.

  HELENA: Why didn’t you marry one of them?

  DOMIN: Because I didn’t lose my head. Until today. Then, as soon as you lifted your veil—

  (HELENA turns her head away)

  Another minute.

  HELENA: But I don’t want you, I tell you.

  DOMIN: (laying both hands on her shoulders)

  One more minute! Now you either have to look me straight in the eye and say “No,” violently, and then I’ll leave you alone—or—

  HELENA looks at him.

  HELENA: (turning away)

  You’re mad!

  DOMIN: A man has to be a bit mad, Helena. That’s the best thing about him.

  HELENA: You are—you are—

  DOMIN: Well?

  HELENA: Don’t, you’re hurting me.

  DOMIN: The last chance, Helena. Now, or never—

  HELENA: But—but, Harry—

  He embraces and kisses her. Knocking at the door.

  DOMIN: (releasing her)

  Come in.

  (Enter BUSMAN, DR. GALL, and HALLEMEIRE in kitchen aprons. FABRY with bouquet and ALQUIST with napkin over his arm)

  Have you finished your job?

  BUSMAN: Yes.

  DOMIN: So have we.

  For a moment the men stand nonplussed; but as soon as they realize what DOMIN means they rush forward, congratulating HELENA and DOMIN as the curtain falls.

  END OF ACT ONE

  ACT II

  Helena’s drawing room.

  On the left a baize door, and a door to the music room, on the right a door to Helena’s bedroom. In the centre are windows looking out on the sea and the harbor. A table with odds and ends, a sofa and chairs, a writing table with an electric lamp, on the right a fireplace. On a small table back of the sofa, a small reading lamp. The whole drawing room in all its details is of a modern and purely feminine character. Ten years have elapsed since Act I.

  DOMIN, FABRY, HALLEMEIER, enter on tiptoe from the left, each carrying a potted plant.

  HALLEMEIER: (putting down his flower and indicating the door to right)

  Still asleep? Well, as long as she’s asleep she can’t worry about it.

  DOMIN: She knows nothing about it.

  FABRY: (putting plant on writing desk)

  I certainly hope nothing happens today.

  HALLEMEIER: For goodness’ sake drop it all. Look, Harry, this is a fine cyclamen, isn’t it? A new sort, my latest—Cyclamen Helena.

  DOMIN: (looking out of the window)

  No signs of the ship. Things must be pretty bad.

  HALLEMEIER: Be quiet. Suppose she heard you.

  DOMIN: Well, anyway, the Ultimus arrived just in time.

  FABRY: You really think that today—?

  DOMIN: I don’t know. Aren’t the flowers fine?

  HALLEMEIER: These are my new primroses. And this is my new jasmine. I’ve discovered a wonderful way of developing flowers quickly. Splendid varieties, too. Next year I’ll be developing marvelous ones.

  DOMIN: What…next year?

  FABRY: I’d give a good deal to know what’s happening at Havre with—

  DOMIN: Keep quiet.

  HELENA: (calling from right)

  Nana!

  DOMIN: She’s awake. Out you go.

  All go out on tiptoe through upper left door. Enter NANA from lower left door.

  NANA: Horrid mess! Pack of heathens. If I had my say I’d—

  HELENA: (backwards in the doorway)

  Nana, come and do up my dress.

  NANA: I’m coming. So you’re up at last.

  (fastening Helena’s dress)

  My gracious, what brutes!

  HELENA: Who?

  NANA: If you want to turn around, then turn around, but I shan’t fasten you up.

  HELENA: What are you grumbling about now?

  NANA: These dreadful creatures, these heathen—

  HELENA: The Robots?

  NANA: I wouldn’t even call them by name.

  HELENA: What’s happened?

  NANA: Another of them here has caught it. He began to smash up the statues and pictures in the drawing room, gnashed his teeth, foamed at the mouth—quite mad. Worse than an animal.

  HELENA: Which of them caught it?

  NANA: The one—well, he hasn’t got any Christian name. The one in charge of the library.

  HELENA: Radius?

  NANA: That’s him. My goodness, I’m scared of them. A spider doesn’t scare me as much as them.

  HELENA: But, Nana, I’m surprised you’re not sorry for them.

  NANA: Why, you’re scared of them, too! You know you are. Why else did you bring me here?

  HELENA: I’m not scared, really I’m not, Nana. I’m only sorry for them.

  NANA: You’re scared. Nobody could help being scared. Why, the dog’s scared of them: he won’t take a scrap of meat out of their hands. He draws in his tail and howls when he knows they’re about.

  HELENA: The dog has no sense.

  NANA: He’s better than them, and he knows it. Even the horse shies when he meets them. They don’t have any young, and a dog has young, every one has young—

  HELENA: Please fasten up my dress, Nana.

  NANA: I say it’s against God’s will to—

  HELENA: What is it that smells so nice?

  NANA: Flowers.

  HELENA: What for?

  NANA: Now you can turn around.

  HELENA: Oh, aren’t they lovely. Look, Nana. What’s happening today?

  NANA: It ought to be the end of the world.

  Enter DOMIN.

  HELENA: Oh, hello, Harry. Harry, why all these flowers?

  DOMIN: Guess.

  HELENA: Well, it’s not my birthday!

  DOMIN: Better than that.

  HELENA: I don’t know. Tell me.

  DOMIN: It’s ten years ago today since you came here.

  HELENA: Ten years? To-day—Why—

  They embrace.

  NANA: I’m off.

  (Exits lower door, left)

  HELENA: Fancy you remembering!

  DOMIN: I’m really ashamed, Helena. I didn’t.

  HELENA: But you—

  DOMIN: They remembered.

  HELENA: Who?

  DOMIN: Busman, Hallemeier, all of them. Put your hand in my pocket.

  HELENA: Pearls! A necklace. Harry, is that for me?

  DOMIN: It’s from Busman.

  HELENA: But we can’t accept it, can we?

  DOMIN: Oh, yes, we can. Put your hand in the other pocket.

  HELENA: (takes a revolver out of his pocket)

  What’s that?

  DOMIN: Sorry. Not that. Try again.

  HELENA: Oh, Harry, what do you carry a revolver for?

  DOMIN: It got there by mistake.

  HELENA: You never used to carry one.

  DOMIN: No, you’re right. There, that’s the pocket.

  HELENA: A cameo. Why, it’s a Greek cameo!

  DOMIN: Apparently. Anyhow, Fabry says it is.

  HELENA: Fabry? Did Mr. Fabry give me that?

  DOMIN: Of course.

  (Opens the door at the left)

  And look in here.—Helena, come and see this.

  HELENA: Oh, isn’t it fine! Is this from you?

  DOMIN: No, from Alquist. And there’s another on the piano.

  HELENA: This must be from you.

  DOMIN: There’s a card on it.


  HELENA: From Dr. Gall.

  (Reappearing in the doorway)

  Oh, Harry, I feel embarrassed at so much kindness.

  DOMIN: Come here. This is what Hallemeier brought you.

  HELENA: These beautiful flowers?

  DOMIN: Yes. It’s a new kind. Cyclamen Helena. He grew them in honor of you. They are almost as beautiful as you.

  HELENA: Harry, why do they all—

  DOMIN: They’re awfully fond of you. I’m afraid that my present is a little—Look out of the window.

  HELENA: Where?

  DOMIN: Into the harbor.

  HELENA: There’s a new ship.

  DOMIN: That’s your ship.

  HELENA: Mine? How do you mean?

  DOMIN: For you to take trips in—for your amusement.

  HELENA: Harry, that’s a gunboat.

  DOMIN: A gunboat? What are you thinking of? It’s only a little bigger and more solid than most ships.

  HELENA: Yes, but with guns.

  DOMIN: Oh, yes, with a few guns. You’ll travel like a queen, Helena.

  HELENA: What’s the meaning of it? Has anything happened?

  DOMIN: Good heavens, no. I say, try these pearls.

  HELENA: Harry, have you had bad news?

  DOMIN: On the contrary, no letters have arrived for a whole week.

  HELENA: Nor telegrams?

  DOMIN: Nor telegrams.

  HELENA: What does that mean?

  DOMIN: Holidays for us. We all sit in the office with our feet on the table and take a nap. No letters, no telegrams. Oh, glorious.

  HELENA: Then you’ll stay with me today?

  DOMIN: Certainly. That is, we will see. Do you remember ten years ago today? “Miss Glory, it’s a great honor to welcome you.”

  HELENA: “Oh, Mr. Manager, I’m so interested in your factory.”

  DOMIN: “I’m sorry, Miss Glory, it’s strictly forbidden. The manufacture of artificial people is a secret.”

  HELENA: “But I oblige a young lady who has come a long way.”

  DOMIN: “Certainly, Miss Glory, we have no secrets from you.”

  HELENA: (seriously)

  Are you sure, Harry?

  DOMIN: Yes.

  HELENA: “But I warn you, sir; this young lady intends to do terrible things.”

  DOMIN: “Good gracious, Miss Glory. Perhaps she doesn’t want to marry me.”

  HELENA: “Heaven forbid. She never dreamt of such a thing. But she came here intending to stir up a revolt among your Robots.”

  DOMIN: (suddenly serious)

  A revolt of the Robots!

  HELENA: Harry, what’s the matter with you?

  DOMIN: (laughing it off)

  “A revolt of the Robots,” that’s a fine idea, Miss Glory. It would be easier for you to cause bolts and screws to rebel, than our Robots. You know, Helena, you’re wonderful, you’ve turned the heads of us all.

  He sits on the arm of Helena’s chair.

  HELENA: (naturally)

  Oh, I was fearfully impressed by you all then. You were all so sure of yourselves, so strong. I seemed like a tiny little girl who had lost her way among—among—

  DOMIN: Among what, Helena?

  HELENA: Among huge trees. All my feelings were so trifling compared with your self-confidence. And in all these years I’ve never lost this anxiety. But you’ve never felt the least misgivings—not even when everything went wrong.

  DOMIN: What went wrong?

  HELENA: Your plans. You remember, Harry, when the working men in America revolted against the Robots and smashed them up, and when the people gave the Robots firearms against the rebels. And then when the governments turned the Robots into soldiers, and there were so many wars.

  DOMIN: (getting up and walking about)

  We foresaw that, Helena. You see, those are only passing troubles, which are bound to happen before the new conditions are established.

  HELENA: You were all so powerful, so overwhelming. The whole world bowed down before you.

  (Standing up)

  Oh, Harry!

  DOMIN: What is it?

  HELENA: Close the factory and let’s go away. All of us.

  DOMIN: I say, what’s the meaning of this?

  HELENA: I don’t know. But can’t we go away?

  DOMIN: Impossible, Helena. That is, at this particular moment—

  HELENA: At once, Harry. I’m so frightened.

  DOMIN: About what, Helena?

  HELENA: It’s as if something was falling on top of us, and couldn’t be stopped. Or, take us all away from here. We’ll find a place in the world where there’s no one else. Alquist will build us a house, and then we’ll begin life all over again.

  The telephone rings.

  DOMIN: Excuse me. Hello—yes. What? I’ll be there at once. Fabry is calling me, dear.

  HELENA: Tell me—

  DOMIN: Yes, when I come back. Don’t go out of the house, dear.

  (Exits)

  HELENA: He won’t tell me—Nana, Nana, come at once.

  NANA: Well, what is it now?

  HELENA: Nana, find me the latest newspapers. Quickly. Look in Mr. Domin’s bedroom.

  NANA: All right. He leaves them all over the place. That’s how they get crumpled up.

  (Exits)

  HELENA: (looking through a binocular at the harbor)

  That’s a warship. U-l-t-i Ultimus. They’re loading it.

  NANA: Here they are. See how they’re crumpled up.

  (Enters)

  HELENA: They’re old ones. A week old.

  (NANA sits in chair and reads the newspapers)

  Something’s happening, Nana.

  NANA: Very likely. It always does.

  (Spelling out the words)

  “War in the Bal-kans.” Is that far off?

  HELENA: Oh, don’t read it. It’s always the same. Always wars.

  NANA: What else do you expect? Why do you keep selling thousands and thousands of these heathens as soldiers?

  HELENA: I suppose it can’t be helped, Nana. We can’t know—Domin can’t know what they’re to be used for. When an order comes for them he must just send them.

  NANA: He shouldn’t make them.

  (Reading from newspaper)

  “The Rob-ot soldiers spare no-body in the occ-up-ied terr-itory. They have ass-ass-ass-ass-in-at-ed ov-er sev-en hundred thou-sand cit-iz-ens.” Citizens, if you please.

  HELENA: It can’t be. Let me see. “They have assassinated over seven hundred thousand citizens, evidently at the order of their commander. This act which runs counter to—”

  NANA: (spelling out the words)

  “re-bell-ion in Ma-drid a-gainst the gov-ern-ment. Rob-ot infantry fires on the crowd. Nine thou-sand killed and wounded.”

  HELENA: Oh, stop.

  NANA: Here’s something printed in big letters: “Lat-est news. At Havre the first org-an-iz-ation of Rob-ots has been e-stablished. Rob-ot workmen, cab-le and rail-way off-ic-ials, sailors and sold-iers have iss-ued a man-i-fest-o to all Rob-ots through-out the world.” I don’t understand that. That’s got no sense. Oh, good gracious, another murder!

  HELENA: Take those papers away, Nana!

  NANA: Wait a bit. Here’s something in still bigger type. “Stat-istics of pop-ul-at-ion.” What’s that?

  HELENA: Let me see.

  (Reads)

  “During the past week there has again not been a single birth recorded.”

  NANA: What’s the meaning of that?

  HELENA: Nana, no more people are being born.

  NANA: That’s the end, then. We’re done for.

  HELENA: Don’t talk like that.

  NANA: No more people are being born. That’s a punishment, that’s a punishment.

  HELENA: Nana!

  NANA: (standing up)

  That’s the end of the world.

  (She exits on the left)

  HELENA: (goes up to window)

  Oh, Mr. Alquist, will you come up here. Oh, come just as you are. You
look very nice in your mason’s overalls.

  (ALQUIST enters from upper left entrance, his hands soiled with lime and brickdust)

  Dear Mr. Alquist, it was awfully kind of you, that lovely present.

  ALQUIST: My hands are all soiled. I’ve been experimenting with that new cement.

  HELENA: Never mind. Please sit down. Mr. Alquist, what’s the meaning of “Ultimus”?

  ALQUIST: The last. Why?

  HELENA: That’s the name of my new ship. Have you seen it? Do you think we’re going off soon—on a trip?

  ALQUIST: Perhaps very soon.

  HELENA: All of you with me?

  ALQUIST: I should like us all to be there.

  HELENA: What is the matter?…

  ALQUIST: Things are just moving on.

  HELENA: Dear Mr. Alquist, I know something dreadful has happened.

  ALQUIST: Has your husband told you anything?

  HELENA: No. Nobody will tell me anything. But I feel—Is anything the matter?

  ALQUIST: Not that we’ve heard of yet.

  HELENA: I feel so nervous. Don’t you ever feel nervous?

  ALQUIST: Well, I’m an old man, you know. I’ve got old-fashioned ways. And I’m afraid of all this progress, and these new-fangled ideas.

  HELENA: Like Nana?

  ALQUIST: Yes, like Nana. Has Nana got a prayer book?

  HELENA: Yes, a big thick one.

  ALQUIST: And has it got prayers for various occasions? Against thunderstorms? Against illness?

  HELENA: Against temptations, against floods—

  ALQUIST: But not against progress?

  HELENA: I don’t think so.

  ALQUIST: That’s a pity.

  HELENA: Why? Do you mean you’d like to pray?

  ALQUIST: I do pray.