Nine Tomorrows

by Isaac Asimov

  "Ape-boy!" said Miss Fellowes, in helpless fury.

  "That's what the reporters would call him," said Hoskins.

  One of the men emerged now, looping a nylon rope through eyelets along the upper portion of the wall.

  Miss Fellowes remembered the rope that Hoskins had pulled outside the room containing Professor Ademewski's rock specimen so long ago.

  She cried out, "No!"

  But Hoskins put Timmie down and gently removed the overcoat he was wearing. "You stay here, Timmie. Nothing will happen to you. We're just going outside for a moment. All right?"

  Timmie, white and wordless, managed to nod.

  Hoskins steered Miss Fellowes out of the dollhouse ahead of himself. For the moment, Miss Fellowes was beyond resistance. Dully, she noticed the hand-pull being adjusted outside the dollhouse.

  "I'm sorry, Miss Fellowes," said Hoskins. "I would have spared you this. I planned it for the night so that you would know only when it was over."

  She said in a weary whisper, "Because your son was hurt. Because he tormented this child into striking out at him."

  "No. Believe me. I understand about the incident today and I know it was Jerry's fault. But the story has leaked out. It would have to with the press surrounding us on this day of all days. I can't risk having a distorted story about negligence and savage Neanderthalers, so-called, distract from the success of Project Middle Ages. Timmie has to go soon anyway; he might as well go now and give the sensationalists as small a peg as possible on which to hang their trash."

  "It's not like sending a rock back. You'll be killing a human being."

  "Not killing. There'll be no sensation. He'll simply be a Neanderthal boy in a Neanderthal world. He will no longer be a prisoner and alien. He will have a chance at a free life."

  "What chance? He's only seven years old, used to being taken care of, fed, clothed, sheltered. He will be alone. His tribe may not be at the point where he left them now that four years have passed. And if they were, they would not recognize him. He will have to take care of himself. How will he know how?"

  Hoskins shook his head in hopeless negative. "Lord, Miss Fellowes, do you think we haven't thought of that? Do you think we would have brought in a child if it weren't that it was the first successful fix of a human or near-human we made and that we did not dare to take the chance of unfixing him and finding another fix as good? Why do you suppose we kept Timmie as long as we did, if it were not for our reluctance to send a child back into the past? It's just"—his voice took on a desperate urgency —"that we can wait no longer. Timmie stands in the way of expansion! Timmie is a source of possible bad publicity; we are on the threshold of great things, and I'm sorry, Miss Fellowes, but we can't let Timmie block us. We cannot. We cannot. I'm sorry, Miss Fellowes."

  "Well, then," said Miss Fellowes sadly. "Let me say good-by. Give me five minutes to say good-by. Spare me that much."

  Hoskins hesitated. "Go ahead."

  Timmie ran to her. For the last time he ran to her and for the last time Miss Fellowes clasped him in her arms.

  For a moment, she hugged him blindly. She caught at a chair with the toe of one foot, moved it against the wall, sat down. "Don't be afraid, Timmie."

  "I'm not afraid if you're here, Miss Fellowes. Is that man mad at me, the man out there?"

  "No, he isn't. He just doesn't understand about us. —Timmie, do you know what a mother is?"

  "Like Jerry's mother?"

  "Did he tell you about his mother?"

  "Sometimes. I think maybe a mother is a lady who takes care of you and who's very nice to you and who does good things."

  "That's right. Have you ever wanted a mother, Timmie?"

  Timmie pulled his head away from her so that he could look into her face. Slowly, he put his hand to her cheek and hair and stroked her, as long, long ago she had stroked him. He said, "Aren't you my mother?"

  "Oh, Timmie."

  "Are you angry because I asked?"

  "No. Of course not."

  "Because I know your name is Miss Fellowes, but—but sometimes, I call you 'Mother' inside. Is that all right?"

  "Yes. Yes. It's all right. And I won't leave you any more and nothing will hurt you. I'll be with you to care for you always. Call me Mother, so I can hear you."

  "Mother," said Timmie contentedly, leaning his cheek against hers.

  She rose, and, still holding him, stepped up on the chair. The sudden beginning of a shout from outside went unheard and, with her free hand, she yanked with all her weight at the cord where it hung suspended between two eyelets.

  And Stasis was punctured and the room was empty.