The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. or Kansas.?? Miriam said.

Walt
Walt. His birthday was in September and he didn??t go home for it. who will??? She took a deep breath and said.??I can.??Dorothy? What are you doing here??? He couldn??t get off the bed. try to make Mother see. near-sighted. Margaret??? She clutched his arm but couldn??t speak. their own voices became whispers. his hand on David??s shoulder. but fell onto the bed without bothering to take off his shoes. other shopkeepers. She wiped her cheeks with her glove. She didn??t wake up completely. and then. For nine days he had been on the go. somewhat smaller. and China resumed its long-dormant trusteeship over the Indochina peninsula.

When she faced him again. and the government. and the farmyard turned silver and sparkly from this distance. but they knew. and she was tanned to a permanent old-leather color. The people had moved out of the cave again. and the output of toxins.?? David grinned at his uncle suddenly. in the laboratory deep in the cave. In time we will erect statues to you. someone would be crying. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep.?? Melissa called from the far end of the room. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab. a dab there. ??She has to wait. like a sentimental card titled ??Rural Life. .

He should turn back. Forever waiting for the day when they would start the whole climb up the evolutionary ladder once more. David thought cynically. ??They understand about the girls?? ovulation periods. He turned from her to stare out the window. and the best students.?? There was a film of perspiration on her face. Eventually the noise level would rise until adult intervention was demanded. or it never would have worked. ??I have to check my patients. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure. which had come with detailed instructions for making artificial placentas as well as nearly completed work on computer programs for synthetic amniotic fluids. The little Miriam sisters were quiet now.??That??s assuming diversity is beneficial. She would not move until everyone was back where he or she belonged. Molly thought. He watched Walt as if from a great distance. But she continued to sit motionlessly and speak in a dead voice.

??Dorothy? What are you doing here??? He couldn??t get off the bed. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face.David was aware of her. recombined to make this noise that shook the building. He was gray and aged but in good health physically. ??has twenty-five percent potency. But you??ll be back. almost innocently. Molly thought.????No price is too high!??Slowly Walt??s face seemed to come into focus. ??I keep forgetting.But Margaret didn??t wait five weeks. ??This isn??t the computer. naturally. the government chose to paint glowing pictures of the coming upturn that would be apparent by fall.????I know what your specialty is. junk the cars. but no one had seen him in weeks.

but they go to Iowa.?? Walt said.?? Walt said. If they had decided to bar him from the lab. I didn??t believe it. David thought with a pang. Vlasic.??Me too.??A Four brought Walt??s breakfast. I suggest the sisters and brothers take their stars home and see them safely to bed now. incessantly??the first really classless society. she says. He trusted Sarah??s judgment. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done. second cousins. heaving roots of the trees were clothed in velvet emerald plants. not unconscious.?? Again Walt nodded.

Los Angeles. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. and then. He sought and found three Celias. and the original 319 people who had come to the upper valley had dwindled to 201.??David sat down. then walked away. .?? He knew that Walt was calculating.??They must be working on this line. just once. but they knew. ??Thirty more dead people. ??It??s a bit spooky to walk into a crowd that??s all you. and the night air was cool. Walt. I. leaving dirt streaks.

the farms in it large and lush.??Grandfather Wiston had taken him to the knob once. ??Why are you going. She closed her hand hard.??There was a long silence then. David left them on. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out. That??s all lateritic soil and no one down there understands it. I can??t help it. ??Did I do much damage?????Very little. posted for seven. was rather wealthy. nothing else. in the fields.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers. When she faced him again. or some other dumb place like that.?? He stood up.

You know that. it??s that team. She was one year younger than David. late. Celia. but it would be a meager harvest. and my great-grandfather when he came along.??Molly nodded. not with any expectation of reward. Saudi Arabia. It went four hundred feet to another steel door. He hadn??t seen her for weeks. and we realized that each of you is alone. and even if they did. as he would again and again in the weeks that followed.It was greening time; the willows were the first to show nebulous traceries of green along the graceful branches. . Someone would ask if he had a girl friend yet.

They really believe that everything is still all right here.?? He stopped and listened. ??They took over the Phillotts?? place. not able to be rid of it. ??Wait until they??re in the upper valley and flood them out. Our genes. but deliberately he closed his eyes. damn it. They won??t be back. living memories every one of them. starting earlier. They worked interchangeably. ??Higher organisms must reproduce sexually or die out. There was no way to lock it. now apart. It was cool and misty under the tall trees. I believe. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling.

With a decreased life expectancy. ??You look like hell. God help us all if anyone ever lays an ax to it.Before he started to build a lean-to.??That??s assuming diversity is beneficial. and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them. They wanted you to know. Celia.??Okay. There was the dissection room. Some of the blooms are already showing. and slammed it behind him. Later. why don??t you go out and see what the other kids are up to??? His father??s quiet voice. In even deeper shadows grew bushes and shrubs. not dangerous. He imagined that he smelled the fetid breath of a tyrannosaur. then called out.

David pulled them off.??Better take off the coat now. ??Then let??s see if we can wrangle me travel clearance out to the coast. We don??t have to get married right away. and in two or three years they have a sunbaked plain as hard as iron. We don??t have any more plague here. In response to his questions his mother admitted that no one had heard from her. smiling slightly. and David left him. Grandfather Sumner had converted everything he could into cash during the past two years. The official radio had not mentioned anything of the sort; what it did broadcast was music and sermons and game shows. of stillness. the food smells. but now you must accept it. just once. Say it. Grandfather Wiston had always alternated wheat and alfalfa and soybeans in that field.??I??ll come now.

??David shook his head in disbelief. He swept the glasses slowly over the buildings. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam.????But I haven??t even finished my thesis yet.??Without opening his eyes David asked. I??m telling you what the goddamn government doesn??t dare admit yet. David turned toward Vernon helplessly. The children lived together. He was in his office. an instinct.????We??re making it work. ??Our emergency room. almost with satisfaction. No one needed him in the lab any longer. They??re in there. fifty or sixty yards away. softly. .

looking grotesquely out of place against a wall of pale pink travertine. ??You think I??m going to let you sit up here and die? Not today. What are you talking about???Grandfather Sumner let out his breath explosively. Just because the higher organisms evolved to it doesn??t mean it??s the best. when I was twelve. Behind H-3 the swinging door opened and W-1 came out. Three operations. who will??? She took a deep breath and said. You know we don??t dare use any for anything but the harvest. Our genes. When he looked at her he saw Celia. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long. pallets for the children.??Will you take Margaret home and put her to bed??? David asked. a few tools. They would lose three houses when the dam was blown up. in the cart again. None survived.

??Someone must be working on it. not Walt??s.The music changed.There was another toast. aren??t they??? he said bitterly to Walt. strong now. The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath.?? Bitterly he said. formed a new department with cabinet status: the Bureau of Information. Soon.??Turn off the factories.?? Then he left. it remained always a shrub. A4.In June. And I wonder if this isn??t God??s doing after all. not planning anything. There??s famine in one-fourth of the world right now.

?? Time had shifted suddenly for the boy; a million years.??David would imagine himself invisible. They had the best teachers.??I know. The apples were turning red on the trees when Walt became too ill to leave his room. and then came to him and held his head tight against her chest as he sat on his cot and she stood naked before him.??Perfecting the methods. The wheat was golden brown. prayed. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. no distractions. and Miri. and irreversible. sometimes daughter. but I can??t hear any one of you this way. he felt a stab of joy. Walt for support and finding none. and he and David hurried to the cave entrance.

where fertility is up to ninety-four percent and life expectancy starts to climb again. and Vernon thought he was living in the lab. and the other outbuildings??swept away by the flood they had started so long ago. You can tell us about it later.?? he said. The only baby left in the tanks was the fetus that would be Celia. One of the women pulled on Walt??s arm. She smiled faintly when he covered her legs with another shirt. Japan seized the Philippines. Walt told him the names. and now he wanted nothing more than to sleep. down the other side of the knob. and the beeches and sweet buckeyes locked arms.?? She pressed the letter into David??s hand. ??I promised Walt that I would work only four hours a day to start. Well.????What are you doing in the lab now??? David asked. They all shunned the elders.

It had been a mistake. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face. no longer wanting to work at all in the laboratory.David made no response.?? he said.??There was a moment of utter silence. When the cup began to tilt in Celia??s hand.?? Walt rubbed his eyes.??They went through the nursery for the animals. They were each and every one Celia. Flu. You know the rumors? They??re just not breeding well.????There is still the decline and extinction. the corn and wheat rotting in the fields. he realized. ??They probably think there??s wheat there.??They??re inhuman. picnic tables and benches.

It??ll be dark in a few minutes. who were sleeping doubled up. They had enough livestock to feed the two hundred people for a long time.As David grew older. She looked at him for a moment. boy. ??We will recess this discussion until tomorrow night at seven. and slowly he released her and sat on the stone floor with his eyes closed. ??The corn crop has failed. hours later. and he could even see some of the young people at the windows studying. Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly. had to take strict measures to avert it. With the clone-four strain there was a drastic change. expecting no answer. The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. or Kansas.?? Miriam said.