He fumbled in his desk and brought out his intricate small-animal trap. ‘All finished, Mrs Cummings. And my knife, it’s done, too.’ He showed her the razor-edged blade of his knife, glittering metal he had shaped from a discarded gasoline drum. She picked up the knife and ran her expert finger doubtfully along the blade.
‘Not strong enough,’ she stated. ‘You’ve oversharpened it. It’ll lose its edge the first time you use it. Go down to the main weapons-lab and examine the knives they’ve got there. Then hone it back some and get a thicker blade.’
‘Mrs Cummings,’ Mike Foster pleased, ‘could I fix it tomorrow? Could I leave right now, please?’
Everybody in the classroom was watching with interest. Mike Foster flushed; he hated to be singled out and made conspicuous, but he had to get away. He couldn’t stay in school one minute more.
Inexorable, Mrs Cummings rumbled, ‘Tomorrow is digging day. You won’t have time to work on your knife.’
‘I will’ he assured her quickly. ‘After the digging.’
‘No, you’re not too good at digging.’ The old woman was measuring the boy’s spindly arms and legs. ‘I think you better get your knife finished today. And spend all day tomorrow down at the field.’
‘What’s the use of digging?’ Mike Foster demanded, in despair.
‘Everybody has to know how to dig,’ Mrs Cummings answered patiently. Children were snickering on all sides; she shushed them with a hostile glare. ‘You all know the importance of digging. When the war begins the whole surface will be littered with debris and rubble. If we hope to survive we’ll have to dig down, won’t we? Have any of you ever watched a gopher digging around the roots of plants? The gopher knows he’ll find something valuable down there under the surface of the ground. We’re all going to be little brown gophers. We’ll all have to learn to dig down in the rubble and find the good things, because that’s where they’ll be.’
Mike Foster sat miserably plucking his knife, as Mrs Cummings moved away from his desk and up the aisle. A few children grinned contemptuously at him, but nothing penetrated his haze of wretchedness. Digging wouldn’t do him any good. When the bombs came he’d be killed instantly. All the vaccination shots up and down his arms, on his thighs and buttocks, would be of no use. He had wasted his allowance money: Mike Foster wouldn’t be alive to catch any of the bacterial plagues. Not unless—
He sprang up and followed Mrs Cummings to her desk. In an agony of desperation he blurted, ‘Please, I have to leave. I have to do something.’
Mrs Cummings’ tired lips twisted angrily. But the boy’s fearful eyes stopped her. ‘What’s wrong?’ she demanded. ‘Don’t you feel well?’
The boy stood frozen, unable to answer her. Pleased by the tableau, the class murmured and giggled until Mrs Cummings rapped angrily on her desk with a writer. ‘Be quiet,’ she snapped. Her voice softened a shade. ‘Michael, if you’re not functioning properly, go downstairs to the psyche clinic. There’s no point trying to work when your reactions are conflicted. Miss Groves will be glad to optimum you.’
‘No,’ Foster said.
‘Then what is it?’
The class stirred. Voices answered for Foster; his tongue was stuck with misery and humiliation. ‘His father’s an anti-P,’ the voices explained. ‘They don’t have a shelter and he isn’t registered in Civic Defense. His father hasn’t even contributed to the NATS. They haven’t done anything.’
Mrs Cummings gazed up in amazement at the mute boy. ‘You don’t have a shelter?’
He shook his head.
A strange feeling filled the woman. ‘But—’ She had started to say, But you’ll die up here. She changed it to ‘But where’ll you go?’
‘Nowhere,’ the mild voices answered for him. ‘Everybody else’ll be down in their shelters and he’ll be up here. He even doesn’t have a permit for the school shelter.’
Mrs Cummings was shocked. In her dull, scholastic way she had assumed every child in the school had a permit to the elaborate subsurface chambers under the building. But of course not. Only children whose parents were part of CD, who contributed to arming the community. And if Foster’s father was an anti-P . . .
‘He’s afraid to sit here,’ the voices chimed in calmly. ‘He’s afraid it’ll come while he’s sitting here, and everybody else will be safe down in the shelter.’
He wandered slowly along, hands deep in his pockets, kicking at dark stones on the sidewalk. The sun was setting. Snubnosed commute rockets were unloading tired people, glad to be home from the factory strip a hundred miles to the west. On the distant hills something flashed: a radar tower revolving silently in the evening gloom. The circling NATS had increased in number. The twilight hours were the most dangerous; visual observers couldn’t spot high-speed missiles coming in close to the ground. Assuming the missiles came.
A mechanical news-machine shouted at him excitedly as he passed. War, death, amazing new weapons developed at home and abroad. He hunched his shoulders and continued on, past the little concrete shells that served as houses, each exactly alike, sturdy reinforced pillboxes. Ahead of him bright neon signs glowed in the settling gloom: the business district, alive with traffic and milling people.
Half a block from the bright cluster of neons he halted. To his right was a public shelter, a dark tunnel-like entrance with a mechanical turnstile glowing dully. Fifty cents admission. If he was here, on the street, and he had fifty cents, he’d be all right. He had pushed down into public shelters many times, during the practice raids. But other times, hideous, nightmare times that never left his mind, he hadn’t had the fifty cents. He had stood mute and terrified, while people pushed excitedly past him; and the shrill shrieks of the sirens thundered everywhere.
He continued slowly, until he came to the brightest blotch of light, the great, gleaming showrooms of General Electronics, two blocks long, illuminated on all sides, a vast square of pure color and radiation. He halted and examined for the millionth time the fascinating shapes, the display that always drew him to a hypnotized stop whenever he passed.
In the center of the vast room was a single object. An elaborate pulsing blob of machinery and support struts, beams and walls and sealed locks. All spotlights were turned on it; huge signs announced its hundred and one advantages—as if there could be any doubt.
THE NEW 1972 BOMBPROOF RADIATION-SEALED SUBSURFACE SHELTER IS HERE! CHECK THESE STAR-STUDDED FEATURES:
* automatic descent-lift—jam-proof, self-powered, e-z locking
* triple-layer hull guaranteed to withstand 5g pressure without buckling
* A-powered heating and refrigeration system—self-servicing air-purification network
* three decontamination stages for food and water
* four hygienic stages for pre-burn exposure
* complete antibiotic processing
* e-z payment plan
He gazed at the shelter a long time. It was mostly a big tank, with a neck at one end that was the descent tube, and an emergency escape hatch at the other. It was completely self-contained: a miniature world that supplied its own light, heat, air, water, medicines, and almost inexhaustible food. When fully stocked there were visual and audio tapes, entertainment, beds, chairs, vidscreen, everything that made up the above-surface home. It was, actually, a home below the ground. Nothing was missing that might be needed or enjoyed. A family would be safe, even comfortable, during the most severe H-bomb and bacterial-spray attack.
It cost twenty thousand dollars.
While he was gazing silently at the massive display, one of the salesmen stepped out onto the dark sidewalk, on his way to the cafeteria. ‘Hi, sonny,’ he said automatically, as he passed Mike Foster. ‘Not bad, is it?’
‘Can I go inside?’ Foster asked quickly. ‘Can I go down in it?’
The salesman stopped, as he recognized the boy. ‘You’re that kid,’ he said slowly, ‘that damn kid who’s always pestering us.’
‘I’d like to go down in it. Just for a
couple minutes. I won’t bust anything—I promise. I won’t even touch anything.’
The salesman was young and blond, a good-looking man in his early twenties. He hesitated, his reactions divided. The kid was a pest. But he had a family, and that meant a reasonable prospect. Business was bad; it was late September and the seasonal slump was still on. There was no profit in telling the boy to go peddle his newstapes; but on the other hand it was bad business encouraging small fry to crawl around the merchandise. They wasted time; they broke things; they pilfered small stuff when nobody was looking.
‘No dice,’ the salesman said. ‘Look, send your old man down here. Has he seen what we’ve got?’
‘Yes,’ Mike Foster said tightly.
‘What’s holding him back?’ The salesman waved expansively up at the great gleaming display. ‘We’ll give him a good trade-in on his old one, allowing for depreciation and obsolescence. What model has he got?’
‘We don’t have any,’ Mike Foster said.
The salesman blinked. ‘Come again?’
‘My father says it’s a waste of money. He says they’re trying to scare people into buying things they don’t need. He says—’
‘Your father’s an anti-P?’
‘Yes,’ Mike Foster answered unhappily.
The salesman let out his breath. ‘Okay, kid. Sorry we can’t do business. It’s not your fault.’ He lingered. ‘What the hell’s wrong with him? Does he put on the NATS?’
‘No.’
The salesman swore under his breath. A coaster, sliding along, safe because the rest of the community was putting up thirty per cent of its income to keep a constant-defense system going. There were always a few of them, in every town. ‘How’s your mother feel?’ the salesman demanded. ‘She go along with him?’
‘She says—’ Mike Foster broke off. ‘Couldn’t I go down in it for a little while? I won’t bust anything. Just once.’
‘How’d we ever sell it if we let kids run through it? We’re not marking it down as a demonstration model—we’ve got roped into that too often.’ The salesman’s curiosity was aroused. ‘How’s a guy get to be anti-P? He always feel this way, or did he get stung with something?’
‘He says they sold people as many cars and washing machines and television sets as they could use. He says NATS and bomb shelters aren’t good for anything, so people never get all they can use. He says factories can keep turning out guns and gas masks forever, and as long as people are afraid they’ll keep paying for them because they think if they don’t they might get killed, and maybe a man gets tired of paying for a new car every year and stops, but he’s never going to stop buying shelters to protect his children.’
‘You believe that?’ the salesman asked.
‘I wish we had that shelter,’ Mike Foster answered. ‘If we had a shelter like that I’d go down and sleep in it every night. It’d be there when we needed it.’
‘Maybe there won’t be a war,’ the salesman said. He sensed the boy’s misery and fear, and he grinned good-naturedly down at him. ‘Don’t worry all the time. You probably watch too many vidtapes—get out and play, for a change.’
‘Nobody’s safe on the surface,’ Mike Foster said. ‘We have to be down below. And there’s no place I can go.’
‘Send your old man around,’ the salesman muttered uneasily. ‘Maybe we can talk him into it. We’ve got a lot of time-payment plans. Tell him to ask for Bill O’Neill. Okay?’
Mike Foster wandered away, down the black evening street. He knew he was supposed to be home, but his feet dragged and his body was heavy and dull. His fatigue made him remember what the athletic coach had said the day before, during exercises. They were practicing breath suspension, holding a lungful of air and running. He hadn’t done well; the others were still red-faced and racing when he halted, expelled his air, and stood gasping frantically for breath.
‘Foster,’ the coach said angrily, ‘you’re dead. You know that? If this had been a gas attack—’ He shook his head wearily. ‘Go over there and practice by yourself. You’ve got to do better, if you expect to survive.’
But he didn’t expect to survive.
When he stepped up onto the porch of his home, he found the living room lights already on. He could hear his father’s voice, and more faintly his mother’s, from the kitchen. He closed the door after him and began unpeeling his coat.
‘Is that you?’ his father demanded. Bob Foster sat sprawled out in his chair, his lap full of tapes and report sheets from his retail furniture store. ‘Where have you been? Dinner’s been ready half an hour.’ He had taken off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. His arms were pale and thin, but muscular. He was tired; his eyes were large and dark, his hair thinning. Restlessly, he moved the tapes around, from one stack to another.
‘I’m sorry,’ Mike Foster said.
His father examined his pocket watch; he was surely the only man who still carried a watch. ‘Go wash our hands. What have you been doing?’ He scrutinized his son. ‘You look odd. Do you feel all right?’
‘I was downtown,’ Mike Foster said.
‘What were you doing?’
‘Looking at the shelters.’
Wordless, his father grabbed up a handful of reports and stuffed them into a folder. His thin lips set; hard lines wrinkled his forehead. He snorted furiously as tapes spilled everywhere; he bent stiffly to pick them up. Mike Foster made no move to help him. He crossed to the closet and gave his coat to the hanger. When he turned away his mother was directing the table of food into the dining room.
They ate without speaking, intent on their food and not looking at each other. Finally his father said, ‘What’d you see? Same old dogs, I suppose.’
‘There’s the new ’72 models,’ Mike Foster answered.
‘They’re the same as the ’71 models.’ His father threw down his fork savagely; the table caught and absorbed it. ‘A few new gadgets, some more chrome. That’s all.’ Suddenly he was facing his son defiantly. ‘Right?’
Mike Foster toyed wretchedly with his creamed chicken. ‘The new ones have a jam-proof descent lift. You can’t get stuck halfway down. All you have to do is get in it, and it does the rest.’
‘There’ll be one next year that’ll pick you up and carry you down. This one’ll be obsolete as soon as people buy it. That’s what they want—they want you to keep buying. They keep putting out new ones as fast as they can. This isn’t 1972, it’s still 1971. What’s that thing doing out already? Can’t they wait?’
Mike Foster didn’t answer. He had heard it all before, many times. There was never anything new, only chrome and gadgets; yet the old ones became obsolete, anyhow. His father’s argument was loud, impassioned, almost frenzied, but it made no sense. ‘Let’s get an old one, then,’ he blurted out. ‘I don’t care, any one’ll do. Even a secondhand one.’
‘No, you want the new one. Shiny and glittery to impress the neighbors. Lots of dials and knobs and machinery. How much do they want for it?’
‘Twenty thousand dollars.’
His father let his breath out. ‘Just like that.’
‘They’ve easy time-payment plans.’
‘Sure. You pay for it the rest of your life. Interest, carrying charges, and how long is it guaranteed for?’
‘Three months.’
‘What happens when it breaks down? It’ll stop purifying and decontaminating. It’ll fall apart as soon as the three months are over.’
Mike Foster shook his head. ‘No. It’s big and sturdy.’
His father flushed. He was a small man, slender and light, brittle-boned. He thought suddenly of his lifetime of lost battles, struggling up the hard way, carefully collecting and holding on to something, a job, money, his retail store, bookkeeper to manager, finally owner. ‘They’re scaring us to keep the wheels going,’ he yelled desperately at his wife and son. ‘They don’t want another depression.’
‘Bob,’ his wife said, slowly and quietly, ‘you have to stop this. I can’t stand
any more.’
Bob Foster blinked. ‘What’re you talking about?’ he muttered. ‘I’m tired. These goddamn taxes. It isn’t possible for a little store to keep open, not with the big chains. There ought to be a law.’ His voice trailed off. ‘I guess I’m through eating.’ He pushed away from the table and got to his feet. ‘I’m going to lie down on the couch and take a nap.’
His wife’s thin face blazed. ‘You have to get one! I can’t stand the way they talk about us. All the neighbors and the merchants, everybody who knows. I can’t go anywhere or do anything without hearing about it. Ever since that day they put up the flag. Anti-P. The last in the whole town. Those things circling around up there, and everybody paying for them but us.’
‘No,’ Bob Foster said. ‘I can’t get one.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because,’ he answered simply, ‘I can’t afford it.’
There was silence.
‘You’ve put everything in that store,’ Ruth said finally. ‘And it’s failing anyhow. You’re just like a pack-rat, hoarding everything down at that ratty little hole-in-the-wall. Nobody wants wood furniture anymore. You’re a relic—a curiosity.’ She slammed at the table and it leaped wildly to gather the empty dishes, like a startled animal. It dashed furiously from the room and back into the kitchen, the dishes churning in its washtank as it raced.
Bob Foster sighed wearily. ‘Let’s not fight. I’ll be in the living room. Let me take a nap for an hour or so. Maybe we can talk about it later.’
‘Always later,’ Ruth said bitterly.
Her husband disappeared into the living room, a small, hunched-over figure, hair scraggly and gray, shoulder blades like broken wings.
Mike got to his feet. ‘I’ll go study my homework,’ he said. He followed after his father, a strange look on his face.
The living room was quiet; the vidset was off and the lamp was down low. Ruth was in the kitchen setting the controls on the stove for the next month’s meals. Bob Foster lay stretched out on the couch, his shoes off, his head on a pillow. His face was gray with fatigue. Mike hesitated for a moment and then said, ‘Can I ask you something?’
Electric Dreams Page 13
