But almost all who had been present had good feelings about that meeting, especially the part about the human beings being taken for creatures right out of mythology. And the ‘happiness motif’ was very strong in the encounter, strong beyond the ability of words to describe. The reunion with our kindred was just about the juiciest well of euphoria ever tapped.
But, next day, some of the colleagues gradually lost their power of seeing the invisible; and by noon that power was gone from them. Only two of them, besides McSlim, retained the rapport and the seeing. And yet that was the day when several million persons in the United States, substantial numbers in the Netherlands, and scatterings of folks in England, France, Germany, Turkey, Japan, and Australia began to see and to sense in the full way, to make contact with what they were already calling ‘the other nine-tenths of the world’, with the quasi-people and quasi-animals and quasi-spooks.
So the experience was valid in that it had been partaken of by several million people: and it looked as though it would soon be shared by hundreds and thousands of millions, by almost everybody. And yet the encounter itself could not be considered as fully verified until it was known how it happened, until it was known why it happened to some people only and not to all, and until it could be brought about at will.
So the hunt for an effector was on. If one computer with one carload of data couldn't find it, then perhaps a hundred computers with ten thousand carloads of data could find it.
Why had the new power come to only a few millions of people and not to the hundreds of millions and the billions? Were the people who received the power all of one type? And what were the characteristics of that type? What particular thing did the people of the ‘new seeing’ eat or smell or drink or stick in their ears? What thing, that the people lacking the power did not use?
The people who had managed the ‘Big See’, well, they had been rather kiddish people, and four-fifths of them were kids indeed. They were breezy and easy. They were un-intricate, even when they were rather intelligent. They were casual. They were at the same time rapid and relaxed.
Or (and this may be important) they were folks who had been in the company of such casual people when they first experienced the new powers: and they just may have shared some triggering, lifestyle item of the casual people.
No, one computer couldn't solve it, and one hundred couldn't. But two hundred and twelve computers were able to do it in a little less than two hours. They got it down to about two million possible items, and then everybody knew that the hunt was almost over with. And quickly the computers had it down to a single item, verified and certain.
The item, of course, was Sappig-Happig Chewing Gum, called Sappy-Happy by the children in the United States. And everybody said “Why didn't I guess that?” when the computers had worked out the answer. What else could it have been? It's name in Dutch meant ‘Juicy Keen’ or ‘Juicy Slurp’, and the gum was a product of the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company, their newest flavor of chewing gum which brought their total flavors to the number of sixty-six. Chewing gum was now one of the thousands of things made out of petroleum in the attempt to reduce the glut of all oil products. And the largest gum factories, including those of Royal Dutch Shell, were in the United States where the chewing gum habit was the largest.
So it was announced to the world that the enabling factor for the ‘big see’ was this new and exotic flavor of chewing gain. Then everybody began to chew Sappig-Happig gum; and another hundred million persons in the world enjoyed the larger vision and the acquaintance of their near cousins who had been till now invisible. A billion persons in the world would have enjoyed the larger vision that day except that the world supply of Sappig-Happig ran out without even reaching most of the world.
Never mind that; it would be produced and allocated quickly, tomorrow enough for a billion people, the next day enough for nine billion, so that each person could have at least one package to tide him over until full production could be achieved. And there was even the belief that the chewing gum with its enabling ingredient, whatever it was, was only the nose of a great many-faceted chemical advent for the fulfillment of mankind.
The ‘Reunion of the Peoples’ was a stupendous thing. The ‘Big See’ was an ‘event for ten thousand years’. “It's a world so much bigger than we thought it was,” was a frequent comment by people who had had the new sight. It couldn't all have been comprehended in a day or a week, and something less than a week has so far been allotted to it. In the context of the ‘Big See’ the laws of numbers and space became more lenient. For, considering how many of the new creatures there were, probably ten times as many as the old creatures, there wasn't much crowding. And there wasn't any strong feeling of inferiority in the humans over the new relationships, for the humans were at least halfway up the hierarchy of creatures.
The new animals, seen for the first time, were really more striking and more varied than the new ‘people’ (“It's like wildest Africa raised many powers,” somebody said about those new animals), but only a few of the ‘old animals’, some of the cattle, a few of the horses, as yet seemed to be aware of them. The ‘giggling cattle’ found here and there apparently found the ‘new visibilities’ friendly and risible, and they took delight in them.
And the new flora-now-become-visible were solid achievements. There were trees so much taller and stronger and better-done than the trees that had been visible before. There were bushes that were Bushes, there was grass that was Grass. And even the unliving landscapes were superior. The simultaneous rivers were much more rampant and distinguished than any known before, more ‘riverly’. The hills, the plains, the mountains, oh they were giantized, and yet they didn't deform or destroy the old landscape. It was just that about nine more aspects of the world were now known.
And when the other nine-tenths of the ‘old people’ should be able to see the other nine-tenths of the living world that had heretofore been invisible (and that shouldn't be later than the end of this week) then a new phase of humanity and of the world would be realized.
But the new batch of Sappig-Happig chewing gum was a bummer. Not only was it a little bit weak on chewability, but it was completely lacking in the ‘Big See’ qualities. So the people of the world suffered severe withdrawal symptoms, even that great majority who had not yet experienced that expansive opening. People went very sour then and they downplayed yesterday's exciting phenomena. They were told that the great thing would come again surely in a day or two, but they were skeptical about the whole business.
Critics claimed that the fact that the made-visible ‘cousins’ spoke in the observers' own language, whether English or Dutch or Japanese, proved that the whole syndrome of events was subjective and fictitious. And yet all the more discerning witnesses had said that the new folks had not exactly ‘spoken’ to them but only that they had ‘communicated’ with them as clearly and naturally as if they were speaking in words.
And others said that the whole complex was no more than a psychological quirk, a substitution. It was the case of inadequate persons having alienated themselves from human friends by their difficult personalities, and then imagining crowds of new friends who should be a little bit different than the objectionable humans, and much superior to them. These same critics pointed out that the chewing of gum is itself a psychological quirk and a substitution, an activity without content indulged in by persons who were themselves without content, a noisy gnawing on virtual nothingness.
And many said that the whole affair was only a soap-bubble, a day-fly, rather colorful and striking for a short moment; and now that moment was gone.
The entire complexity and recognition was denigrated as being messianic, millennial, chiliastic, soteriological, plerotic, and silly. Strong words, those! It was even called Orwellian and big-brotherish.
But thoughtful persons who had themselves experienced the ‘Big See’ knew that it had been a foot-in-the-door beyond which door the other nine-tenths of the world was really to be foun
d.
But dashed hope was huge and worldwide.
But new hopes were springing up like springtime flowers. There was a total investigation of the chewing gum affair. And the enabling or triggering element that had been in the introductory batch would be identified and reconstituted. Within one hour, the worldwide investigation converged on one man, one “Flavor-Master” at the largest gum factory. His name was John Mastic, and he had been a Flavor-Master for twenty-seven years.
“I am an artist,” John Mastic told the articled investigators. “When I mix the first batch of a new flavor, I am painting a dawn, I am composing a symphony, I am creating a folk drama, I am bringing up cool deep meanings from the cellar of the soul, I am setting the juice of life to flowing. Each first batch of a new flavor is blended in this one big vat here in the amount of about eighty thousand kilograms.
“Yes, I am careful to jot down everything that I put in. And then if the flavor catches on, it can be duplicated in any of the factories. Oh, there was the basic chickle first, there were a hundred kilos of essence of walnuts, there was lemon and citron, there were the four sorts of sugar, there was the coconut fibre. There was the powdered graphite to give it slippability. There was the mint and the wormwood. And there was our own patented Sialogogue Number Nine which no other chewing gum manufacturer is able to duplicate. And there were twenty thousand kilos of synthetic corn cobs, made from crude oil, to give it chewability. That's it.”
“We have the list”, the articled investigators said, “and, yes, it agrees with what you remember. But some element is missing, missing.”
“Can't think of what it could be,” John Mastic answered cheerfully. And the articled investigators left him with end-of-the-roadish expressions on their faces.
“I forgot to tell those fellows that I used four thousand kilos of Youngman's Royal Range Pellets in place of the same weight of synthetic corn cobs,” John Mastic told himself three minutes later. “The market is so mixed up lately that range pellets are actually cheaper than synthetic corn cobs (both of them largely made out of petroleum), and the chewability element is at least equal in the pellets. I can't see where it would make any difference though.”
“Why don't we have the Lord Protector of the United States in Washington get together with the Lord Protectors of all the other countries and declare a world crisis,” Mary Crisis McSlim asked her father Rusty McSlim. “That's the only thing to get something done, to make a world crisis out of it.”
“Now, I don't think we'll need a world crisis at all, Mary C,” Rusty said.
“Need it! New-creature hokey, we want it! There is nothing like a world crisis to get people stirred up. Why do you think we won't need it, papa?”
“Ah, I just heard cockroaches giggling in the pantry. When even cockroaches see the ‘Big See’, can people be far behind?”
“For a bunch of giggling cockroaches you'd throw away the opportunity for a world crisis? Oh, you shatter me,” Mary Crisis said.
In two days, they still haven't been able to reconstitute any Sappig-Happig chewing gum containing the ‘Big See’ qualities. Nevertheless, four or five hundred million persons in the world are already onto the expanded vision without it. It will succeed, with chemicals or without, with substitutes and surrogates, or by sudden combinations. The odds are too high (the acquisition of the missing nine-tenths of the world) to give up easily. The cows are still giggling their delight in Monaghan's meadow, and they are still munching those good Youngman's Royal Range Pellets. Those happy cattle are surely enjoying the ‘Big See’ yet.
And so are other things.
Gar-fish are giggling in the lakes. Honker geese are giggling in their skies and in their swamps. Earthworms are giggling in the ground, and squirrels are chortling in the hickory trees. And many of these species have neither eaten Youngman's Royal Range Pellets nor chewed Sappy-Happy gum. The Fish-and-Game Department guys are reporting happier species by the hour.
It is a many-fronted chemical advent, a worldwide movement. It has come to the gophers in their tunnels. It will come even to the lords of creation very soon, maybe even to the rest of them today. And when it comes, it will be a nine hundred percent gain in everything. May our eyes be big enough to take it all in! Don't let any of us be left out.
What's that funny noise in the front yard?
It's giggling moles tearing up the ground. But they are seeing the ‘Big See’ too.
Tongues Of The Matagorda
“I will tell you one of my early adventures,” said Esteban of Azamor, “the adventure that, more than any other, made me what I am today. It is an account that should be cut in crystal for the magnificence of it, but I can do no more than tell it in crystalline words.” “Make it that they are Quevenes words then,” said a surly Quevenes Indian called Glaukos. “You know what will happen if you continue to use Spanish words.”
“Oh certainly, you will cut another piece out of my tongue. But I've saved you the trouble. Here is a piece of my tongue that I cut off already. So if in my account I do use a Spanish word now and then, it is already paid for.”
“This is no piece of your tongue,” Gliukos said. “It is a piece of moon-crab meat. But I am starving so I will eat it.” The Quevenes did not like their slaves to talk in words they did not understand; and to compel them to speak Quevenes they had indeed cut notches and slivers from the tongues of Esteban and also his companions in slavery, Captain Dorantes and Captain Castillo.
“It was in the year of Restored Salvation 1481 and I was the son of the Emperor Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire when I decided that I would reach out my hand and obtain as big a share of the world and its glory as I was able to do,” Esteban began his tale. “Oh, even more than I was able to do, for I intended to go into the area of the impossible. My father the Emperor had given me five realms in Europe and two in Asia, but that was hardly enough to satisfy a shining young man like myself.”
“I have never heard of the Emperor Maximilian having a black son,” Captain Castillo objected in that sunny voice of his.
“Did I say that I was a black person then?” Esteban asked. “No. I was fair of hair and skin. I was tawny as a lion, and as fierce. It was in the course of this heroic adventure that I became a black person. Pay attention and do not interrupt. There is a rite and ceremony which is enacted on the day when the son of an Emperor decides to reach out his hand. Certain Jinns (Christians pretend not to know about the Jinns, but the Moslems understand that God created three intelligent species, Angels, Jinns and Humans) come to the son of even a Christian Emperor and pledge themselves to do favors for him and to stand by him in both success and adversary. They do this because every Jinn is himself the son of an Emperor somewhere. One of them promised me money unfailing; one of them promised me love unfailing; one of them promised me adequate might at arms against opponents of ordinary flesh. And so the promises were made by seven of them. But the eighth of them made me an odd and crabbed promise: ‘If you are ever in an encounter where you are overmatched,’ he said, ‘you will have the choice of changing places with your opponent in all ways.’ ‘It's a favor of which I will have no use,’ I said. ‘By whom would I be overmatched?’”
“With nine hundred and ninety-nine followers, all of them like young lions in their hearts, I conquered three more realms in Europe, three more in Asia, and three in Africa where I had been unrealmed before. Then I came to the central realm of Africa, the Kingdom of Sonrai. We had come over five hundred land leagues of desert to the wonderful City of Timbucktoo the capital of Sonrai which is like a paradise in the middle of the desert. There we met a force ten times our numbering that was captained by the tall and muscular son of King Askia of Sonrai. This son, who was named Esteban, was a great captain of combat. To each of my lion-spirited men he assigned ten of his strong and swift warriors. Each of my men killed the ten men sent against him, but each of my men lost his own life in slaying them. And finally there was nobody left except myself and Esteban the son of King
Askia. ‘Well, find nine more men somewhere and I will battle you,’ I said. ‘It is time that I put a finish to this.’ ‘It is myself and thyself,’ the big Esteban told me. ‘I do not need nine other men. Perhaps you need them, but they will not be provided to you.’ We began to fight with swords, and suddenly I was afraid. This Esteban was stronger and quicker than myself.
“His sword was longer and heavier and his shield was taller and more massive. He began to kill me with sure and careful blows, and I caught the frightening scent of my own dead body as it would be by sundown of that day. So, in my mind, I called on the Jinns for help. The first seven of them said ‘We have already given you all that we promised to you, money and love and adequate might at arms against opponents of ordinary flesh. It is no fault of ours that this Esteban is of extraordinary and spectacular flesh.’
“ ‘Oh, eighth Jinn, I am overmatched,’ I cried then. ‘For what it's worth, let me change places with this strong opponent in all ways.’ At once I felt myself to be taller and stronger and faster of hand and arm and body. At once I was handling more easily a longer and heavier sword and taller and more massive shield. And my opponent was no longer a black African man, but a tawny lion man the color of desert sand, and his face was the face that had always been mine. And I saw that I myself now had black hands and arms and legs. So I killed the sand-colored man who had been myself, and cut off his head, and cut his body into four quarters. And by this I myself became Esteban of the spectacular flesh. ‘Oh my son!’ King Askia of Sonrai cried, and he came and put his arms around me. ‘There has never been such a warrior as you since myself in my youth.’ So I became Esteban the son of King Askia of Sonrai, and I have been that person ever since. I still have memories of the years when I was the son of Maximilian of the Holy Roman Empire, but that old body of mine has long since turned to dust. I don't know what the original Esteban has memories of or where his essence is now. I guess I am living in that essence. That is my heroic adventure.”
The Man Who Talled Tales: Collected Short Stories of R.A. Lafferty Page 272
