by Mark Clifton
if I talked tothe same one twice."
"They're much bigger than I thought," Miss Point said with a littledismay in her voice.
"Some of them are ten feet in diameter," Johnny said, I thought with abit of vindictiveness in his tone.
"Never mind," Aunt Mattie said. "We'll simply sew three lengths ofcloth together to get our square. I'm sure they won't mind a neatlydone seam."
She had a length of cloth in one arm of her space suit, and a pair ofscissors in the mechanical claw of the other hand. With her eye sheseemed to measure the diameter of the dome and, manipulating thescissors with the claw like an expert space mechanic, she cut asizable hole in the center of the cloth.
Entirely without fear or hesitation, she stepped into the trianglebetween two long black tentacles that lay on the salt and walked up tothe erect column at the center. Expertly, she flipped the cloth sothat the hole settled over the creature's head, or whatever it was.Fore and aft, the cloth rippled out to cover the tentacles. Thecreature did not move.
With an amazing speed, she took some bundles of cloth from the arms ofMrs. Waddle, and with even more amazing dexterity of the space claw,which showed she was no amateur, she basted a length of cloth oneither side of the first strip. Then with her scissors, careful not togouge his hide, she cut off the corners so that the eight tentaclesbarely peeped out from underneath the cloth.
Somehow, it reminded me of a huge red flower with a black pistillaying there on the white salt.
"There, sir," my aunt said with satisfaction to the monster. "Thiswill hide your nakedness, instill in you a sense of true modesty." Sheturned to Johnny. "They must not only know what," she instructed."They must also know why." She turned back and faced the monsteragain. "It is not your fault," she said to it, "That you have beenliving in a state of sin. On Earth, where I come from, we have a codewhich must be followed. Do unto others as you would have them do untoyou. I'm sure that if I lived in a state of ignorant sin, I wouldhumbly appreciate the kindness of someone letting me know. I'm surethat, in time, you will also come to appreciate it."
It was quite a noble speech, and her two companions bowed their spacesuit helmets in acknowledgement. Johnny's mouth and eyes were wide,and desperate. She stepped back then and we all stood there looking atthe monster.
The dome of its head began to tilt until the eye was fastened upon us.It swept over the three ladies, hesitated on Johnny as if recognizinghim, but came to rest upon me. It stared at me for a full minute. Istared back. In some strange way I felt as if my psychiatrist werestaring at me, as he often did.
Then the great eye slowly closed, and opened again. As slowly, andsomewhat to my amazement, I felt one of my eyes close and open. Iwinked at it.
"That's all for this evening," Aunt Mattie said crisply. "Let it haveits clothes, get used to them. I have the pattern in my mind. Tomorrowwe will get out our sewing machines, and really get busy, girls."
All the way back to the entrance of the bubble, I felt that huge eyeupon me, following me.
Why me?
* * * * *
The girls did not need to get busy the next morning.
I was awakened by a shout, there was the sound of running feet in thehall, and a pounding on my door. Sleepy eyed, for I had dreamed of themonster's eye all night long, I opened the door as soon as I had founda robe to cover my own nakedness. It was Johnny, of course.
"Most amazing thing," he rushed in and collapsed into a sittingposition on the side of my bed. "Absolutely amazing. You should seethem."
"What?" I asked.
The rumpus must have disturbed the ladies, too, for there came anotherknock on my door, and when I opened it all three of them stood therefully dressed. Apparently they had arisen at the crack of dawn to getbusy with their sewing. Miss Point and Mrs. Waddle averted their eyesmodestly from the V neck of my robe and my bare legs. Aunt Mattie wasused to my shameless ways.
"What is it?" Aunt Mattie asked crisply.
Johnny leaped to his feet again.
"Amazing," he said again. "I'll have to show you. You'll never believeit."
"Young man," Aunt Mattie said sharply. "No one has accused you ofuntruthfulness, and you are hardly a judge of what we are capable ofbelieving."
He stood looking at her with his mouth open.
"Now ladies," I said, and started closing the door. "If you'll excuseme for two minutes I'll dress and we'll go see what Mr. McCabe wantsto show us."
The door clicked on my last words, and I hastily doffed the robe andslid into pants and a shirt. Oddly enough, I knew what he was going toshow us. I just knew. I slipped on some shoes without bothering aboutsocks.
"All right," I said. "I'm ready."
They had started down the hall, and we quickly overtook them. Johnnywent ahead, led us out of the hotel, around its side, and when we camearound the corner of the outbuilding which obscured the view, therebefore us, through the bubble wall, we saw what I had expected.
As far as the eye could see, dotted here and there like poppies onsnow, the natives lay in the early sun, each dressed in flaring clothlike that Aunt Mattie had designed the night before.
"You see?" Johnny cried out. "It's the same as with the lighter. Oneliked it, so they all have it!"
By now we were up against the plastic barrier. The two subordinateswere gasping such words as "Fantastic, amazing, astounding,incredible, wondrous, weird".
Aunt Mattie took it all in, and her face lit into a beatific smile.
"You see, young man," she said to Johnny. "They needed only to beshown right from wrong. Let this be a lesson to you."
"But how did they do it?" Mrs. Waddle gasped.
"Give them some credit for diligence and ingenuity," Aunt Mattiealmost snapped at her assistant. "I always say we underrate theintelligence and ingenuity of the lesser orders, and that it sapstheir strengths if we are overprotective. I admire self-reliance, andthese have shown they have it. So we will not have to do the sewingafter all. Come girls, we must pack and be on our way back to Earth.Our mission here is accomplished."
The two ladies obeyed their leader without question. The three ofthem, in their sturdy walking shoes and their tweed suits, crunchedoff across the salt back to their rooms to start packing.
Johnny and I walked along more slowly behind.
"The incredible Matthewa H. Tombs!" he breathed. "She's a legend, youknow, Hap. But I never believed it before." Then, in a complete andsudden change of mood he snickered. Or, at least, it was the nearestthing to a small boy snicker I'd heard since prep school. The snickerturned into a roar of laughter, a grown man's laughter. "If they onlyknew!" he shouted, apparently feeling secure because they'd turned thecorner and gone out of sight.
"Knew what?" I asked.
"Why," he said, and doubled up with laughter again. "They've coveredup all the innocent parts and left the reprehensible part, which isright behind the eye, fully exposed."
"Johnny, my boy," I said with a chuckle. "Do you really believe thereare innocent parts and reprehensible parts of any creature in theuniverse?"
He stood stock still and stared at me.
"It takes a nasty, salacious mind to make that kind of separation," Isaid.
"But your aun ... the Daughters of...."
"I know my aunt and the Daughters of Terra," I said. "I've lived withthem for years. I know their kind of mind. Who would know it better?"
"But you...."
"The human race," I said, "is very young. It's only in the last fewthousand years that it has discovered sex as a concept. So like littlekids in kindergarten it goes around being embarrassed and snickering.But we'll grow up. Give us time."
"But you...." he said again. "But they.... That's the kind oforganization that keeps us from growing up, Hap. Don't you see that?They've kept us mentally retarded for generations, centuries. How canwe make progress when...."
"What's the hurry, Johnny? We've got millions of years, billions,eternity."
He looked at me again, s
harply, shrewdly.
"I've underestimated you, Hap," he said. "I'm afraid I always did. Ihad no idea you...."
I shrugged and passed it off. I'd had no idea either, not until thismorning, last night, yesterday evening when that eye had turned onme--and I'd winked back.
I didn't know how to tell him, or any reason why I should, that therecouldn't be anything right or wrong, good or bad; that nothing couldhappen, nothing at all, excepting through the working of the law ofnature. Could one say that water running down hill is good, and waterbeing pumped up hill is
