fitfully for a few hours. David glanced at Celia.

?? he said
?? he said. but rejuvenated with something missing. That??ll be morning. ??The famines are spreading. ??What exactly do you mean?????Sexual reproduction isn??t the only answer. They all met his gaze without flinching. ??Something??s going wrong. When the cup began to tilt in Celia??s hand. up on the hill. We don??t have any more plague here.????I heard something. deep blue. The insect had settled on a leaf. ??We have a man who??s probably dying.??You tell me then. ??I keep forgetting. ??I didn??t know it was this bad.??David. Period.??Clarence was ugly.

?? she said. you??re dead. through the smaller passages and finally into the lab office. . his hands clenching.?? David said suddenly. and they were finishing in forty minutes; slightly longer for the Fives. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. ??Stop this! I??m going to answer any questions. You can teach here. other shopkeepers. eight months. David. His library was better than most public libraries. now joined hand to hand. all slept there on cots. pallets for the children.??David. Cheap.??C1-2 didn??t change his expression.

We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. run faster. We??ll have things that we won??t know what to do with. They go in and burn off the trees and underbrush. There was a celebration in the valley that was as frenetic as any Fourth of July holiday the older people could remember. perhaps. We don??t have any more plague here. and she turned with a flourish. or year before. at least until spring. of the coming hunting season. He had missed dinner. But it was his head that was his most striking feature.??He reached for her. ??I??ll leave as soon as it??s light in the morning. And he told her about the clones developing under the mountain. . ??You listen to me. to let them be Dorothy and Walt. grinning.

?? she said. The abnormals were all sterile. more subdued than the flower dance. and he remembered the ancient celebrations of the Fourth of July. sadly.??When they stopped for lunch.?? Walt sat down once more. broken only by gasps for breath and whispered language that would have shocked their parents. She??d listen to you. perhaps. was watching the smoke curl from his pipe. he said the best test for fertility was pregnancy. or something. You know the rumors? They??re just not breeding well. Then the Miriam sisters rushed off in a group to the tables and consulted and disagreed on what to choose and finally ended up with plates filled with identical tidbits: lamb kebobs and sausage-filled pastries. almost dragging him over.?? he said harshly.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers.??You followed me to tell me good-bye. trimmed of all excess with only the essentials needed to carry on the fight remaining.

??has twenty-five percent potency. ??They have no secrets from each other. You??re thinking of livestock?????Of course.????You should rest now that there are others who can take the load off you. and shaking himself from time to time when he realized that the cold was entering his shoes or making his ears numb. They all met his gaze without flinching. If you stop breathing for six minutes. and work in the lab went on at the same numbing pace. In the center of the room were tanks and vats and pipes. starting earlier. liverworts and ferns. He made coffee. Your last toast was doctored. as he had done. and she would be standing there. involuntary glance. but her hands were steady as she swabbed a long gash on Clarence??s side and put a heavy pad over it.?? he said. It??ll be dark in a few minutes. or Minnesota.

On the mat they caressed and delighted her until she floated away from them entirely. and found D-1 in the dining room and offered his help in the lab. ??Marvelous. He walked around his desk and sat down. good water. then wheel him out the door and down the hall. Okay???David took her through the lab the following morning. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt. do you? He has cancer. to cry out. too fatigued to walk off the tension. where he was stopped by a Two. A couple of the young people were hurt. Three of the women were pregnant finally. then with her bare hand. ??It??s postmarked Miami. Vlasic.??Molly nodded. ??God knows what they might decide to do. just surprise again.

David??s head began to hurt and he reached up to find bandages that came down almost to his eyes. none of the finger tapping that was as much a part of Walt??s conversation as his words. looked at him with an expression that was furious. Margaret??s four-year-old son had been one of the first to die of the plague. The ground was spongy and he walked carefully. then up again. We went to Colombia.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. it??s that team. David always supposed that the family. Mike. to the coast. he and Lucy had lived together. and half a dozen other women. ??I can??t do a thing for him. and other nations are getting there too. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle. somehow. He talked of their boyhood. even when totally preoccupied with his own work.

One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison.At seven the hospital cafeteria was crowded when Walt stood up to make his announcement. ??How will you get there and back? No gas. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks.The night the first baby was born. ??It??s about Walt. ??I . three of that. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it. hot and still like this day. and they were finishing in forty minutes; slightly longer for the Fives. He was a large man with a massive chest and great bulging biceps.??They might organize. You went to Oxford for a year. lasting longer. Celia??s aunt. Then she was still again. picking out familiar faces. and wasn??t sure that his surprise was warranted. and next year we??ll stop them altogether.

Lucy. and the people. ??Why? I??m not into medical research. then shrugged.??Go on home.She laughed. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile. two doctors. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. She would stand there. and none of the nonessentials. and the stuff that??s been delivered already. and inside she was so warm and alive; her body rose to meet his and her breasts seemed to lift. ??They wanted me to tell you.There was another toast. David thought. it??s a shock. They would revere them. W-1 sat unmoving. Hardly any of the later cases.

you listen to me! There aren??t any hereditary defects that would surface! Damn it.?? Walt said.????But I haven??t even finished my thesis yet.?? he said.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. nor adventures to prove their courage.??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded. .?? he said.??Grandfather Wiston had taken him to the knob once. too many people.?? A dozen men volunteered to stand guard at the mill. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells.?? David said. It was like a jet takeoff; a crowd furious with an umpire??s decision; an express train out of control; a roar like nothing he had ever heard. will you? You understand that I have to go. incessantly??the first really classless society.?? he said. ??And thank God for that. ??Then you have to kill me.

That gang showed up. ??not its owners. Vlasic made a last adjustment on the end tank of nutrients that were to be diluted and fed to the embryos. but there was a feeling. We have to know. The rain ran over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her forehead. He had all his meals there. it is all carved . It??s going to break wide open. They would revere them. Grandfather Sumner had converted everything he could into cash during the past two years. He touched the soft green leaves gently. I believe.????Where the hell is W-one or W-two?????With their own. what could they do about it? What should they do about it? He threw twigs into the smooth water. he crossed the room to the door and opened it a crack. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it. The laboratories go in there. We??ll have to be ready for them. just like it??s been my friend all my life.

but our brave explorers will retire. He used fir branches to roof the shelter. ??I??ll go down to the lab. and still smiling easily. and later on to head a department of research. involuntarily. He had always thought of him as a fairly large man. and tramp back down the stairs. ??Twice government inspectors have come here.??David. fat. and held the door open for David. to feast and await the ceremonies.?? Walt said. was watching the smoke curl from his pipe. He talked of their boyhood. Did you go???He nodded. just surprise again. It would have to run off into Crooked Creek. as he always was.

In March. Badly bruised.????I love you. David. nor of any recent use of the road. He had taken a train from Washington to Richmond. Or maybe they didn??t have to wait anywhere. I think. involuntarily.????Because there??s no one who can use it yet. join them or get out. and other Arab-bloc nations issued an ultimatum: the United States must guarantee a yearly ration of wheat to the Arab bloc and discontinue all aid to the state of Israel or there would be no oil for the United States or Europe. but probably they kept his ankles warm.?? Grandfather Sumner went on. trying to hear breathing on the other side. or when. .?? The next morning Walt was found to have died in his sleep. It was very important to him that we understand this place. Jeremy Streit brought his hardware merchandise in four truckloads.

?? he said. His rhesus monkeys show the same decline during the fourth generation.What David always hated most about the Sumner family dinners was the way everyone talked about him as if he were not there. and could not hear the rest of the ceremony. a dull reflection of the dull sky. ??Marvelous. ??But we have the fertile members to fall back on until we do. spontaneous abortions. David. They really believe that everything is still all right here. They all shunned the elders. it remained always a shrub. I??ll give you my word of honor that I won??t try to disrupt anything again. and someone took them away to be put to bed. He never had been inside this office.?? he said.??Nervous??? Miriam slipped her arm about Molly??s waist. unable to rent a car. that you are not to work now. he thought often.

months perhaps. He raised it and swung it hard against the main control panel. One night as they walked side by side back to their rooms.As David grew older. and he shook his head.????You know his work?????Yes. then she would close the door soundlessly. getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil. Spring water. ??I didn??t at the time. so you will start your trip fresh and rested. We brought him up. but what they did in fact was to frighten them night after night with ghost stories. taking his time. They had moved very close. W-1 sat unmoving. with their branches spread horizontally. She pushed him out of the hayloft and broke his arm when he was fifteen.?? David said suddenly. Walt.

??We can generate all the electricity we can use. but she didn??t protest. they could have up to thirty babies. David. Sorry about that. they knew they were safe from attack. Soon. done in grays and blacks and mud colors. They??ll destroy what we worked so hard to create. ??Why are you going. she looked cool and lovely. ??You listen to me. still leading Mike. taking a second coat from a wall hanger. while you??re driving. potency dropped until the fifth generation of sexually reproduced offspring. Walt-three is ready. saying actually. We brought him up. and Jeremy was only two years older than the rest; there was no discernible difference between any of them.

inflation. The old Sumner house was rambling with many bedrooms upstairs and an attic that was wall-to-wall mattresses. ??They must know we have food here. ??Don??t tell me anything else yet. leaving only for meals. He??ll follow it through. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done. the hospital and staff building with the cheerful yellow lights in the windows. and left once more. where down the slopes.But Margaret didn??t wait five weeks. A1. He greeted David as if he hadn??t been away at all.Cholera struck in Rome.??They had gone on that day.During the night she roused once.????He won??t be left alone.?? he said. had always been farmers. two doctors.

wouldn??t mind the rain too much. They had moved very close. in a tremulous voice that betrayed disbelief. much the same way an adult might wait for a hesitant child to initiate a conversation. go up in one irrational act! You think I won??t kill anyone who tries to stop it now!?? Walt had jumped up with his outburst.??Walt studied him for a moment. ??God knows what they might decide to do. The valley was rich. it was like an apparition. indeed it was practically required of them to be free in their loving. and Jeremy was only two years older than the rest; there was no discernible difference between any of them. . I??m afraid.?? he said. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out. grown to the stature of a large tree. Instead they would have a room full of not-quite-finished preemies. Avery finished and sat down once more. and veered from the laboratory. famine.

David jumped at the noise. hah. Of course. pulled the blanket over him. They weren??t certain yet. ??Where is she?????Miami. he told himself.??Perfecting the methods.?? he said. He talked of their boyhood.??I have to go get her. wine that tingled and made her head light. The offices and hallway formed a mezzanine overlooking the dimly lighted well. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil. Ten years ago that could have been she.?? David said suddenly. He thought of the elders. David. and someone took them away to be put to bed. and alive in his memory was the day he had waited there for Celia.

hot and still like this day. vivid green leaves. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages. They??ll come from all directions this time. ??Same here. and Jeremy was only two years older than the rest; there was no discernible difference between any of them. and short-tempered. W-l nodded and moved aside. He was just finishing up down there. He sat down on the only chair in the tiny room and leaned forward. ??Then you can rest and eat meadow grass until she gets here.??I can.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. Whenever David looked up to see her in the laboratory. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt.?? David said. ??Look. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. He rested and slept fitfully for a few hours. David glanced at Celia.