“Baxter.”
“I’ve got a better name than that. My name is Henry. We have a cave but you can’t go in it until you’ve been here longer. We have a mountain but you can’t climb it yet. And if I told you what was going to happen to me today you wouldn’t believe it. I get to go away where nobody else ever went before. You’re only a new boy and things like that can’t happen to you.”
“A new boy!”
The world crashed to pieces. It clattered like tin cans on cement when it collapsed. For Baxter was a newer boy than Henry, and he would get to be killed instead of Henry. The greatest of all disasters had come as simply and quietly as that.
Baxter was a new boy moved to town. Baxter would get killed instead of Henry. And now Henry’s chances were gone forever.
* * * *
Henry howled and turned and ran away. Baxter’s mother came out.
“What did you do to that little boy to make him cry?” she asked.
“I didn’t do anything to him. I don’t know why he started to cry.”
“You must have done something to make him cry. You have to be good and try to get along with the other boys. We’re in a new town now.”
* * * *
Henry ran in black horror—(Baxter instead of him)—out to the edge of town—(it would be Baxter’s eyes and not his eyes)—past the cave with the other cave under it—(Baxter would get to see the Islands and Whales, Henry wouldn’t get to see anything)—sobbing up to the top of Doolen’s Mountain. He flung himself down and wept bitterly over his lost hopes.
The R a Lafferty Fantastic Megapack Page 23
