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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32055-h.zip b/32055-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9cba214 --- /dev/null +++ b/32055-h.zip diff --git a/32055-h/32055-h.htm b/32055-h/32055-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bfcc83d --- /dev/null +++ b/32055-h/32055-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1012 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Hand, by Jerry Sohl + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.img1 {border:solid 1px; } + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hand, by Gerald Allan Sohl + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Hand + +Author: Gerald Allan Sohl + +Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32055] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAND *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy January 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="535" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<h1>THE HAND</h1> + +<h3>by</h3> + +<h2>Jerry Sohl</h2> + +<p> </p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>Alice knew that Dobie was a good dog, even if he did have an +alarming habit of hunting down rabbits and gophers. But one +day he brought her—</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a1.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p>lice McNearby was washing breakfast dishes and looking out the +kitchen window at the November sky when she first spied Dobie. The way +he was sneaking up to the house she knew he had killed something.</p> + +<p>She dried her hands on her apron and tried to put down the suspicion +that gnawed at the edge of her mind as she went to the door. During +the past month Dobie had killed a cat, a pheasant, two rabbits and a +field mouse and it seemed it would be only a question of time until he +got one of the chickens or even one of the suckling pigs. That would +be all Mac would need to throw one of his wild spells and he'd +probably take a gun to Dobie as he had threatened to do. To make it +worse, Dobie seemed to know how Mac felt and often growled at him. Mac +didn't growl back but the look in her husband's eyes was enough to +convince her Dobie's continued existence was in doubt.</p> + +<p>It was a wonder to Alice that Mac hadn't done away with him already, +judging from the comfort she derived from the dog. Dobie never +fretted, never whined and seemed so appreciative of everything she did +for him. She had scolded him for his killing but found herself unable +to put her heart in it because he seemed to love it so. Instead, she +always managed to clear any bones away before Mac returned from town +or came up from the barn and she was thankful he seemed as yet unaware +of the brown dog's hunting nature.</p> + +<p>Now it appeared she'd have to cover up for the dog once again and she +opened the door. Dobie was under a bush half way across the barn yard, +his kill still in his mouth. He was circling around, and she knew +he'd soon be on his stomach enjoying his feast.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="400" height="334" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Dobie!" she called in a low voice, hoping it would not carry to the +barn.</p> + +<p>Dobie's ears came up. He looked her way.</p> + +<p>"Dobie!... Come here, Dobie!"</p> + +<p>The dog was undecided, looking at her, unmoving for a moment. Then his +tail started flicking, he lowered his head and came up to her.</p> + +<p>Then she saw what he had in his mouth and her blood stopped and only a +great effort on the part of her heart started it going again.</p> + +<p>It was a human hand, blood still oozing from the severed wrist.</p> + +<p>"<i>Dobie!</i>"</p> + +<p>The way she said it, the way she looked—something made the dog drop +the hand. It fell to the ground, limp, palm down.</p> + +<p>Dobie, head hung, tail down, ventured forward, nuzzled her hand. But +Alice could not tear her eyes from the thing on the cold ground. She +had cared for Dobie like a baby ever since someone dropped him off +out in the country and she had adopted the name Dobie because a +passing child had called him that and it seemed like a good name ... +and she loved him.</p> + +<p>But this, this hand. That was too much.</p> + +<p>She looked around, saw a milk pail, put it open end down over the hand +and carried two large rocks from the garden border to put on top to +secure it. She didn't want it to be gone when she brought Mac back to +see it.</p> + +<p>She heard her ring on the telephone—rather early for Mrs. Swearingen +or Mrs. Abbey wasn't it?—but ignored it. There was something else she +had to do and do quickly. For the first time in months she felt +thankful for Mac's presence. Surely he would know what to do. Though +it was cold, she was unmindful of the fact that she did not wear a +coat as she hurried to the barn; she was thinking instead that perhaps +she should have answered the phone in case it might have been someone +other than her women friends, possibly something in connection with +the severed hand. She shuddered as she remembered how it had looked.</p> + +<p>Alice found Mac in the loft. He had a forkful of hay over the opening +when he saw her below. He stopped, narrowed his eyes before he slowly +brought the hay back to the loft floor and leaned on the pitchfork.</p> + +<p>"Dobie's found something," she said and wished her voice hadn't +quavered so.</p> + +<p>Mac spat a blob of tobacco on the floor above her. "He's a no-good +dog," he said. "Scares the pigs. Always sneakin' around. Ought to be +rid of him. Should have got 'round to it before this. What did he +find?"</p> + +<p>"A hand." She swallowed ... and shivered.</p> + +<p>"A what?"</p> + +<p>"A hand. A human hand." She suddenly took pride in the fact that she +was telling him something he didn't know and that he was interested. +"I don't know where he got it."</p> + +<p>Mac put down the fork and lowered his burly frame over the edge of the +opening and came down the ladder without a word. He followed her up to +the house and she was thankful Dobie was nowhere around. When he +kicked over the pail she was gratified to hear his sharp intake of +breath.</p> + +<p>"By God!" he said, staring down at it. Then he flicked it over with +his boot. "By God!" he said again. Alice had never seen him so +agitated.</p> + +<p>He turned to her, his eyes narrower than she had ever seen them. "You +take a good look at it?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, looked down at the way the fingers were bent upward as if +the hand were holding an invisible ball. She heard Mac spit, looked at +him running his fingers along his stubbled jaw.</p> + +<p>"It ain't human," he said. "Anybody with any sense could see that. +It's got six fingers."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_j.jpg" alt="J" width="16" height="40" /></div> +<p>ust then the phone rang again. It seemed to come from a long way off +and Alice hadn't consciously noticed it until her husband said. "Ain't +you goin' to answer the phone?" And then she went to the door, dazed +and wondering. She turned before she went in.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do with it?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"You just go in and gab with those women folks," he said. "I'll take +care of it."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't we call the sheriff?"</p> + +<p>His eyes came up level with hers. "We ain't goin' to call nobody. I +don't want no trouble. And don't you go talkin' about it with <i>them</i> +either."</p> + +<p>The phone was Mrs. Swearingen who told her that she had been trying to +get her for the last half hour ever since she heard about that ship +that crashed and wasn't it awful and that a person wasn't safe in his +bed asleep any more with these planes flying around and crashing—and +so far from an airport, too. Mrs. Swearingen was surprised that Alice +had noticed no smoke and didn't she know the wreck was closer to the +McNearby place than it was to the Swearingens?</p> + +<p>"It's right south of your lower forty on the old Carnahan land, Alice. +I'd figure it at about a mile from your place. Lots of people down +there."</p> + +<p>And then there was the call from Mrs. Abbey who told her she'd come +from the crash site and wasn't it a peculiar plane with those funny +windows and that once-broken-one somebody had patched up from the +inside.</p> + +<p>"The sheriff won't let anybody go near it," Mrs. Abbey said. "He says +it's a space ship and the army ought to have a look at it first. But I +saw him trying to find where to get in. Except for that broken window +and that crumpled nose it don't look too bad off. Big clouds of smoke +were shooting out the tail when I first got there but it's not smoking +any more. Really, you ought to go down and see it, Alice."</p> + +<p>Alice told her husband about it. He had gone back to the barn and she +didn't see the severed hand anywhere on the way there.</p> + +<p>"So that's where it come from," he said. "Good thing it didn't land +on my place." He spat and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his +overalls. It always bothered Alice when he did this because the stain +was so difficult to get out but she had long ceased trying to change +him. "If it'd landed here I'd of blown it up like a stump."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't we go down and see it?" Alice asked, knowing too late she +had phrased the question the wrong way.</p> + +<p>"Curiosity killed the cat," he said, and there was the faintest +glimmer of a smile on his face but it was only fleeting. "Let +everybody else go down and I'll get my work done while they're +standin' around with their mouths hangin' open. I'm runnin' a farm and +I aim to run it right."</p> + +<p>"I think I'll go down." She tried to make it have resolve but didn't +quite succeed.</p> + +<p>He glared at her and spat again. "Then git," he said. He threw down a +large forkful of hay and she had to jump out of the way. She went +right after dinner.</p> + +<p>She saw a silver cylinder that looked ever so much like pictures of +guided missiles she had seen in the newspapers except that this one +was bigger than any of them. Its nose was dug she could not tell how +far into the earth and some of the metal on the sides was battered and +bent and the tail was she guessed about a hundred and fifty feet in +the air. It was about twenty-five feet across.</p> + +<p>There were clusters of people about and she recognized many of them +she hadn't seen for a long time and she was glad she had come because +it gave her a rare chance to visit; Mac seldom cared for just +visiting. She talked to the Blaines, the Purveses, to the Gordon +children whose parents had let them remain at the wreck site even +after they had gone home for chores, to the Barfords and Hocholters +and many others. They asked about Mac and she offered her usual +excuses for him.</p> + +<p>While she was there she saw an army car driven up. She watched while +some men got out and went through the roped-off area and pounded and +scraped on the cylinder and then stood off looking at the tail of it, +scratching their heads.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="48" height="40" /></div> +<p>hen she went home she was surprised to see how far the sun had moved +across the sky and hoped Mac wouldn't be upset by her prolonged +absence. She was gratified to see that he wasn't in the house. She +petted Dobie for a while before she went in to stir up the stove and +prepare supper.</p> + +<p>During the meal Alice tried to tell her husband something of what she +had seen at the wreck site but if he paid any attention to her he +didn't reveal it. He had propped up a farm equipment catalogue against +the sugar bowl and studied the pages without saying a word. She +resigned herself to eating in silence with this great hulk of a man +before her and reflected that this night was no different from most of +the others. She wondered what it was that made him the way he was, so +intent on his farm to the exclusion of everything else, including +humanity. It was a fetish, an obsession that didn't pay off because +she couldn't see that they were better off than the Swearingens or the +Abbeys or any of the others in the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>When he was through he simply got up, put on his overcoat and went +outside. In a few minutes she could hear the car start and knew it +would be another lonely evening. Mac would be home when he felt like +it, reeking of liquor but handling it well. She did not begrudge him +these absences because the man obviously needed something to take his +mind off his work. But she wished she had some comparable escape.</p> + +<p>She had got out her writing board, had settled herself comfortably +with pen in hand in Mac's big chair and had even put the date on the +letter to her mother who lived in Canada when she heard Dobie's +excited bark.</p> + +<p>She picked up a shawl on the way to the kitchen, turned on the big +light on the windmill and looked out the window. Dobie was in the +middle of the yard barking at something she couldn't see. She went +out.</p> + +<p>"Dobie," she called. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>The dog whined and moved about nervously, looking first at her and +then at the darkness between the big barn and the machine shed. As she +sought to pierce the blackness there, a shape moved out from between +the buildings and the sudden move caused her to step back. Dobie at +once set up loud and ferocious barking.</p> + +<p>"Quiet, Dobie," she managed to say, laying a hand aside the dog's head +and viewing the figure before her. It was a man—at least a man +<i>shape</i>—with hands (she thanked God the creature had both its hands), +a head, neck, shoulders and legs. But the head was a lot larger than a +man's, there was no hair on it and the eyes were smaller, the nose +longer and the mouth a narrow slash across the face. The neck was +short, the shoulders thin and the legs and arms were spindling. She +saw that each hand had six fingers. Across the narrow shoulders had +been flung what looked like a carpet and from beneath this fell a +skirt that went to the knees, held to the body with a metal rope belt +just under his ribs. The shoes were enormous things for such pipestem +legs—until she saw they were soft and furry and that this gave them +their size. For a moment she almost laughed because he presented such +a grotesque figure, but she did not dare. The creature spoke.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Mrs. McNearby," it said in a not unpleasant, whistling +voice and Alice wondered how it could talk so well to her.</p> + +<p>"I come from the crashed ship. You know of it, of course. You were +there this afternoon."</p> + +<p>Alice was on the point of asking how he knew she had been at the wreck +site when he started in again.</p> + +<p>"We have traced the severed hand of one of our crew to your place +here. We came down at considerable velocity when our ship went out of +control. We were lucky to escape with our lives. But one of us was +thrown from the ship with such force that his hand was cut off by an +obstruction on the ship. Your dog happened on the scene before we +could find the hand."</p> + +<p>The chill of the November night air was beginning to penetrate her +shawl and Alice could feel a stirring of air on her legs. Dobie moved +restlessly at her side but she did not let go of his neck hair for +fear of what he might do.</p> + +<p>"We need that hand, Mrs. McNearby. Without it the man who lost it will +be at a tragic disadvantage among us. That is why we were looking so +hard for it this morning after the crash. If we can return the hand to +him in time it can, through proper treatment, be made as good as new. +Would you be so good as to return it to me, now, please?"</p> + +<p>The eyes, though tiny, seemed not unkind, and the alien stood silent. +She was moved by his pleas.</p> + +<p>"Mac—that's my husband—has it," Alice said. "I saw Dobie here with +it and put it under a milk pail and when Mac saw it he said he'd take +care of it." She hoped she was making sense.</p> + +<p>"Do you know where it is?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know where Mac put it."</p> + +<p>"Would you find it for me, please? I'll wait."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="41" height="40" /></div> +<p>lice agreed and, wondering what Mac would say if he came home and +found the hand gone, started looking for it. But surely Mac would +understand about the hand, she thought. I'll explain to him the +urgency of it, that one of the aliens needs it to live and be useful.</p> + +<p>She looked in the obvious places, in the storeroom just off the +kitchen, in the cellar, then in the house itself, in Mac's room and +through his things, and even in the attic, though she knew it couldn't +be there. She became frantic then, paced by the alien's necessity for +his hand, and did not bother to straighten things up after she looked. +It simply couldn't be in the house. But where else? She went out and +told the alien she could not find it but that she would look in the +barn.</p> + +<p>In the end she could find it nowhere and when she told the alien he +seemed as disappointed as she.</p> + +<p>"I have seen you searching," he said. "I want to thank you for your +trouble."</p> + +<p>"I'm awfully sorry," she said. "I don't know where Mac could have hid +it. When he comes home I'll ask him."</p> + +<p>"I'll wait for him," the alien said. "It's imperative we have the +hand. It is the only thing standing in the way of our leaving your +planet. Your husband will know where it is and return it to us."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he will," she said, hoping she was right but knowing how +stubborn Mac could be. Then she got to worrying about what would +happen if he would refuse and as she went back to the house with Dobie +at her side she was overcome with the shakes.</p> + +<p>She did not get her composure back until she had drunk a cup of +steaming hot coffee. Then she looked at the clock, saw it was eleven +and that she had spent nearly two hours looking for the hand. She saw, +too, that the figure was still in the yard, standing there motionless, +like something carved out of stone.</p> + +<p>Her husband drove in at mid-night and it seemed an eternity between +the time the engine stopped and he entered the house.</p> + +<p>From the way he looked at her he was surprised to find her still in +the kitchen.</p> + +<p>"You still up?" His face was flushed, his tongue thick.</p> + +<p>"Mac," she said, not knowing how to begin. "Where is that hand?"</p> + +<p>"You still worried about that?" He took off his coat and threw it on +the table.</p> + +<p>"But Mac! They've come after it."</p> + +<p>He looked at her dully. "Who's come after it?"</p> + +<p>"The aliens—from the ship. There's one of them in the yard. Look out +the window."</p> + +<p>He turned around and saw the stationary figure in the yard. He took a +deep breath. "So that's one of 'em, eh?" He laughed in a way that +chilled her, then went to the cupboard and reached for his shotgun on +the wall next to it.</p> + +<p>Alice put her hand on his shoulders and he stopped before he touched +the gun.</p> + +<p>"Listen, Mac. They need that hand. It belongs to one of their men and +they need it because they're going to put it back on and it will be as +good as new. Then they're going to leave."</p> + +<p>He looked down at her with bloodshot, narrow eyes and she could see +where tobacco had run out of the corner of his mouth and the only +thing she could think of was what it would look like on the overalls +when she'd wash them.</p> + +<p>"That thing out there," Mac said, "ain't got no business 'round here +scarin' the pigs and chickens. And I aim to get it."</p> + +<p>"I wish you had told me where the hand is," Alice said, her eyes +scalded with tears. "I tried to find it. I looked everywhere. If I had +found it I would have given it to him and now they'd be gone."</p> + +<p>He shoved her from him rudely. "Jest like a woman to do a thing like that. +And without even askin' me." He was breathing hard and he moved to the +window to look at the alien again. "You, out there. You want that hand, +eh?" He laughed again, then turned to her. "You looked for it. That's what +you said. Well, you jest looked in the wrong place. I hid it good." He +went over to his coat and withdrew a newspaper-wrapped package from one of +the pockets. He unfolded it on the table. It was the hand.</p> + +<p>"Please take it out to him, Mac," Alice said. "He's waiting for it."</p> + +<p>His face was sour and his lips a sneer. "Give it to him, hell," he +said. "Dobie brought it here, didn't he? I've a mind to let Dobie have +it."</p> + +<p>"No, No!"</p> + +<p>Mac put his hands on the table, stared down at the hand and shook his +head. "But Dobie don't deserve it."</p> + +<p>He picked up the hand and a queasiness prevented Alice from looking +directly at it.</p> + +<p>"It's a matter of time," she pleaded. "Please take it to them. They've +got to have it right away or they can't use it. She heard the clink of +one of the stove lids and watched in horror as Mac dropped the hand +through the hole into the fire beneath. She was suddenly sick. During +it all she could hear was Mac's laughter.</p> + +<p>"Git on upstairs," he said a few minutes later. "Git on up to bed."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="41" height="40" /></div> +<p>lice looked at him, knowing her face was pale and her eyes wet and +hating him for what he had done to her and what he had done to the +aliens. But she felt fear, too, because she had never seen him quite +like this.</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>He went over, took down a box of shells from the cupboard. "What d'you +suppose? I'm goin' to run that thing off my place."</p> + +<p>"You can't do that!"</p> + +<p>"You wait and see."</p> + +<p>"But he's done nothing to you!"</p> + +<p>"He's on my property, ain't he? Now you get on upstairs like I told +you. Git!"</p> + +<p>Alice went up the stairs engulfed by a feeling of sorrow for the +aliens, particularly for the one that would never get his hand back, +and filled with fury for her husband.</p> + +<p>From her bedroom window she could see the alien still standing in the +yard and she wondered what he would think of them for burning the hand +and for what Mac was about to do.</p> + +<p>She stood there a long time before the alien moved. She heard the +downstairs door open and close and she knew Mac was outside and that +the two were approaching each other. The alien finally moved from her +field of vision.</p> + +<p>Listening, she heard the alien's calm, whistling voice but she could +not make out what he said. She could only hear the raving of her +husband and this she did not want to hear.</p> + +<p>When the shotgun blast came she jumped as if she herself had been hit +and once again she was flooded with compassion for the creature from +another world somewhere who had come in friendship and who had been +given something hateful in return.</p> + +<p>She went to the window but she could see nothing. She did not dare go +downstairs again with Mac in the mood he was in. She sat in an +armchair at the window looking out into the barn lot illuminated by +the lone electric light high in the windmill. And eventually, she did +not know when, she fell asleep.</p> + +<p>When she woke up the day was just dawning and with a rush she +remembered everything that had happened the night before and she found +she had slept through the night in the chair without removing her +clothes. When she stood up, her muscles screamed protestingly. She +looked out into the yard and saw that the light in the windmill was +still burning.</p> + +<p>She went to Mac's bedroom, expecting to find him sprawled out across +his bed. But his bed had not been slept in. Downstairs she expected to +find him, head in hands, asleep at the kitchen table. But he was not +there and the shotgun was not in its place on the wall.</p> + +<p>She found the gun on the doorstep. But Mac wasn't in sight. Dobie came +up to her and nuzzled her hands.</p> + +<p>"Where is he Dobie?" she asked. "Where's Mac?"</p> + +<p>Dobie turned and trotted before her, looking back at her as if to say, +"This is the way."</p> + +<p>She found Mac behind the barn.</p> + +<p>He was alive, but in a state of shock, moaning in pain and fear.</p> + +<p>His right hand was missing. Severed neatly at the wrist.</p> + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hand, by Gerald Allan Sohl + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAND *** + +***** This file should be named 32055-h.htm or 32055-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/5/32055/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Hand + +Author: Gerald Allan Sohl + +Release Date: April 19, 2010 [EBook #32055] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAND *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of Science and + Fantasy January 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence + that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + THE HAND + + + by + + Jerry Sohl + + + Alice knew that Dobie was a good dog, even if he did have an + alarming habit of hunting down rabbits and gophers. But one + day he brought her-- + + * * * * * + + + + +Alice McNearby was washing breakfast dishes and looking out the +kitchen window at the November sky when she first spied Dobie. The way +he was sneaking up to the house she knew he had killed something. + +She dried her hands on her apron and tried to put down the suspicion +that gnawed at the edge of her mind as she went to the door. During +the past month Dobie had killed a cat, a pheasant, two rabbits and a +field mouse and it seemed it would be only a question of time until he +got one of the chickens or even one of the suckling pigs. That would +be all Mac would need to throw one of his wild spells and he'd +probably take a gun to Dobie as he had threatened to do. To make it +worse, Dobie seemed to know how Mac felt and often growled at him. Mac +didn't growl back but the look in her husband's eyes was enough to +convince her Dobie's continued existence was in doubt. + +It was a wonder to Alice that Mac hadn't done away with him already, +judging from the comfort she derived from the dog. Dobie never +fretted, never whined and seemed so appreciative of everything she did +for him. She had scolded him for his killing but found herself unable +to put her heart in it because he seemed to love it so. Instead, she +always managed to clear any bones away before Mac returned from town +or came up from the barn and she was thankful he seemed as yet unaware +of the brown dog's hunting nature. + +Now it appeared she'd have to cover up for the dog once again and she +opened the door. Dobie was under a bush half way across the barn yard, +his kill still in his mouth. He was circling around, and she knew +he'd soon be on his stomach enjoying his feast. + +[Illustration] + +"Dobie!" she called in a low voice, hoping it would not carry to the +barn. + +Dobie's ears came up. He looked her way. + +"Dobie!... Come here, Dobie!" + +The dog was undecided, looking at her, unmoving for a moment. Then his +tail started flicking, he lowered his head and came up to her. + +Then she saw what he had in his mouth and her blood stopped and only a +great effort on the part of her heart started it going again. + +It was a human hand, blood still oozing from the severed wrist. + +"_Dobie!_" + +The way she said it, the way she looked--something made the dog drop +the hand. It fell to the ground, limp, palm down. + +Dobie, head hung, tail down, ventured forward, nuzzled her hand. But +Alice could not tear her eyes from the thing on the cold ground. She +had cared for Dobie like a baby ever since someone dropped him off +out in the country and she had adopted the name Dobie because a +passing child had called him that and it seemed like a good name ... +and she loved him. + +But this, this hand. That was too much. + +She looked around, saw a milk pail, put it open end down over the hand +and carried two large rocks from the garden border to put on top to +secure it. She didn't want it to be gone when she brought Mac back to +see it. + +She heard her ring on the telephone--rather early for Mrs. Swearingen +or Mrs. Abbey wasn't it?--but ignored it. There was something else she +had to do and do quickly. For the first time in months she felt +thankful for Mac's presence. Surely he would know what to do. Though +it was cold, she was unmindful of the fact that she did not wear a +coat as she hurried to the barn; she was thinking instead that perhaps +she should have answered the phone in case it might have been someone +other than her women friends, possibly something in connection with +the severed hand. She shuddered as she remembered how it had looked. + +Alice found Mac in the loft. He had a forkful of hay over the opening +when he saw her below. He stopped, narrowed his eyes before he slowly +brought the hay back to the loft floor and leaned on the pitchfork. + +"Dobie's found something," she said and wished her voice hadn't +quavered so. + +Mac spat a blob of tobacco on the floor above her. "He's a no-good +dog," he said. "Scares the pigs. Always sneakin' around. Ought to be +rid of him. Should have got 'round to it before this. What did he +find?" + +"A hand." She swallowed ... and shivered. + +"A what?" + +"A hand. A human hand." She suddenly took pride in the fact that she +was telling him something he didn't know and that he was interested. +"I don't know where he got it." + +Mac put down the fork and lowered his burly frame over the edge of the +opening and came down the ladder without a word. He followed her up to +the house and she was thankful Dobie was nowhere around. When he +kicked over the pail she was gratified to hear his sharp intake of +breath. + +"By God!" he said, staring down at it. Then he flicked it over with +his boot. "By God!" he said again. Alice had never seen him so +agitated. + +He turned to her, his eyes narrower than she had ever seen them. "You +take a good look at it?" + +She nodded, looked down at the way the fingers were bent upward as if +the hand were holding an invisible ball. She heard Mac spit, looked at +him running his fingers along his stubbled jaw. + +"It ain't human," he said. "Anybody with any sense could see that. +It's got six fingers." + + * * * * * + +Just then the phone rang again. It seemed to come from a long way off +and Alice hadn't consciously noticed it until her husband said. "Ain't +you goin' to answer the phone?" And then she went to the door, dazed +and wondering. She turned before she went in. + +"What are you going to do with it?" she asked. + +"You just go in and gab with those women folks," he said. "I'll take +care of it." + +"Shouldn't we call the sheriff?" + +His eyes came up level with hers. "We ain't goin' to call nobody. I +don't want no trouble. And don't you go talkin' about it with _them_ +either." + +The phone was Mrs. Swearingen who told her that she had been trying to +get her for the last half hour ever since she heard about that ship +that crashed and wasn't it awful and that a person wasn't safe in his +bed asleep any more with these planes flying around and crashing--and +so far from an airport, too. Mrs. Swearingen was surprised that Alice +had noticed no smoke and didn't she know the wreck was closer to the +McNearby place than it was to the Swearingens? + +"It's right south of your lower forty on the old Carnahan land, Alice. +I'd figure it at about a mile from your place. Lots of people down +there." + +And then there was the call from Mrs. Abbey who told her she'd come +from the crash site and wasn't it a peculiar plane with those funny +windows and that once-broken-one somebody had patched up from the +inside. + +"The sheriff won't let anybody go near it," Mrs. Abbey said. "He says +it's a space ship and the army ought to have a look at it first. But I +saw him trying to find where to get in. Except for that broken window +and that crumpled nose it don't look too bad off. Big clouds of smoke +were shooting out the tail when I first got there but it's not smoking +any more. Really, you ought to go down and see it, Alice." + +Alice told her husband about it. He had gone back to the barn and she +didn't see the severed hand anywhere on the way there. + +"So that's where it come from," he said. "Good thing it didn't land +on my place." He spat and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his +overalls. It always bothered Alice when he did this because the stain +was so difficult to get out but she had long ceased trying to change +him. "If it'd landed here I'd of blown it up like a stump." + +"Shouldn't we go down and see it?" Alice asked, knowing too late she +had phrased the question the wrong way. + +"Curiosity killed the cat," he said, and there was the faintest +glimmer of a smile on his face but it was only fleeting. "Let +everybody else go down and I'll get my work done while they're +standin' around with their mouths hangin' open. I'm runnin' a farm and +I aim to run it right." + +"I think I'll go down." She tried to make it have resolve but didn't +quite succeed. + +He glared at her and spat again. "Then git," he said. He threw down a +large forkful of hay and she had to jump out of the way. She went +right after dinner. + +She saw a silver cylinder that looked ever so much like pictures of +guided missiles she had seen in the newspapers except that this one +was bigger than any of them. Its nose was dug she could not tell how +far into the earth and some of the metal on the sides was battered and +bent and the tail was she guessed about a hundred and fifty feet in +the air. It was about twenty-five feet across. + +There were clusters of people about and she recognized many of them +she hadn't seen for a long time and she was glad she had come because +it gave her a rare chance to visit; Mac seldom cared for just +visiting. She talked to the Blaines, the Purveses, to the Gordon +children whose parents had let them remain at the wreck site even +after they had gone home for chores, to the Barfords and Hocholters +and many others. They asked about Mac and she offered her usual +excuses for him. + +While she was there she saw an army car driven up. She watched while +some men got out and went through the roped-off area and pounded and +scraped on the cylinder and then stood off looking at the tail of it, +scratching their heads. + + * * * * * + +When she went home she was surprised to see how far the sun had moved +across the sky and hoped Mac wouldn't be upset by her prolonged +absence. She was gratified to see that he wasn't in the house. She +petted Dobie for a while before she went in to stir up the stove and +prepare supper. + +During the meal Alice tried to tell her husband something of what she +had seen at the wreck site but if he paid any attention to her he +didn't reveal it. He had propped up a farm equipment catalogue against +the sugar bowl and studied the pages without saying a word. She +resigned herself to eating in silence with this great hulk of a man +before her and reflected that this night was no different from most of +the others. She wondered what it was that made him the way he was, so +intent on his farm to the exclusion of everything else, including +humanity. It was a fetish, an obsession that didn't pay off because +she couldn't see that they were better off than the Swearingens or the +Abbeys or any of the others in the neighborhood. + +When he was through he simply got up, put on his overcoat and went +outside. In a few minutes she could hear the car start and knew it +would be another lonely evening. Mac would be home when he felt like +it, reeking of liquor but handling it well. She did not begrudge him +these absences because the man obviously needed something to take his +mind off his work. But she wished she had some comparable escape. + +She had got out her writing board, had settled herself comfortably +with pen in hand in Mac's big chair and had even put the date on the +letter to her mother who lived in Canada when she heard Dobie's +excited bark. + +She picked up a shawl on the way to the kitchen, turned on the big +light on the windmill and looked out the window. Dobie was in the +middle of the yard barking at something she couldn't see. She went +out. + +"Dobie," she called. "What is it?" + +The dog whined and moved about nervously, looking first at her and +then at the darkness between the big barn and the machine shed. As she +sought to pierce the blackness there, a shape moved out from between +the buildings and the sudden move caused her to step back. Dobie at +once set up loud and ferocious barking. + +"Quiet, Dobie," she managed to say, laying a hand aside the dog's head +and viewing the figure before her. It was a man--at least a man +_shape_--with hands (she thanked God the creature had both its hands), +a head, neck, shoulders and legs. But the head was a lot larger than a +man's, there was no hair on it and the eyes were smaller, the nose +longer and the mouth a narrow slash across the face. The neck was +short, the shoulders thin and the legs and arms were spindling. She +saw that each hand had six fingers. Across the narrow shoulders had +been flung what looked like a carpet and from beneath this fell a +skirt that went to the knees, held to the body with a metal rope belt +just under his ribs. The shoes were enormous things for such pipestem +legs--until she saw they were soft and furry and that this gave them +their size. For a moment she almost laughed because he presented such +a grotesque figure, but she did not dare. The creature spoke. + +"Good evening, Mrs. McNearby," it said in a not unpleasant, whistling +voice and Alice wondered how it could talk so well to her. + +"I come from the crashed ship. You know of it, of course. You were +there this afternoon." + +Alice was on the point of asking how he knew she had been at the wreck +site when he started in again. + +"We have traced the severed hand of one of our crew to your place +here. We came down at considerable velocity when our ship went out of +control. We were lucky to escape with our lives. But one of us was +thrown from the ship with such force that his hand was cut off by an +obstruction on the ship. Your dog happened on the scene before we +could find the hand." + +The chill of the November night air was beginning to penetrate her +shawl and Alice could feel a stirring of air on her legs. Dobie moved +restlessly at her side but she did not let go of his neck hair for +fear of what he might do. + +"We need that hand, Mrs. McNearby. Without it the man who lost it will +be at a tragic disadvantage among us. That is why we were looking so +hard for it this morning after the crash. If we can return the hand to +him in time it can, through proper treatment, be made as good as new. +Would you be so good as to return it to me, now, please?" + +The eyes, though tiny, seemed not unkind, and the alien stood silent. +She was moved by his pleas. + +"Mac--that's my husband--has it," Alice said. "I saw Dobie here with +it and put it under a milk pail and when Mac saw it he said he'd take +care of it." She hoped she was making sense. + +"Do you know where it is?" + +"I don't know where Mac put it." + +"Would you find it for me, please? I'll wait." + + * * * * * + +Alice agreed and, wondering what Mac would say if he came home and +found the hand gone, started looking for it. But surely Mac would +understand about the hand, she thought. I'll explain to him the +urgency of it, that one of the aliens needs it to live and be useful. + +She looked in the obvious places, in the storeroom just off the +kitchen, in the cellar, then in the house itself, in Mac's room and +through his things, and even in the attic, though she knew it couldn't +be there. She became frantic then, paced by the alien's necessity for +his hand, and did not bother to straighten things up after she looked. +It simply couldn't be in the house. But where else? She went out and +told the alien she could not find it but that she would look in the +barn. + +In the end she could find it nowhere and when she told the alien he +seemed as disappointed as she. + +"I have seen you searching," he said. "I want to thank you for your +trouble." + +"I'm awfully sorry," she said. "I don't know where Mac could have hid +it. When he comes home I'll ask him." + +"I'll wait for him," the alien said. "It's imperative we have the +hand. It is the only thing standing in the way of our leaving your +planet. Your husband will know where it is and return it to us." + +"I'm sure he will," she said, hoping she was right but knowing how +stubborn Mac could be. Then she got to worrying about what would +happen if he would refuse and as she went back to the house with Dobie +at her side she was overcome with the shakes. + +She did not get her composure back until she had drunk a cup of +steaming hot coffee. Then she looked at the clock, saw it was eleven +and that she had spent nearly two hours looking for the hand. She saw, +too, that the figure was still in the yard, standing there motionless, +like something carved out of stone. + +Her husband drove in at mid-night and it seemed an eternity between +the time the engine stopped and he entered the house. + +From the way he looked at her he was surprised to find her still in +the kitchen. + +"You still up?" His face was flushed, his tongue thick. + +"Mac," she said, not knowing how to begin. "Where is that hand?" + +"You still worried about that?" He took off his coat and threw it on +the table. + +"But Mac! They've come after it." + +He looked at her dully. "Who's come after it?" + +"The aliens--from the ship. There's one of them in the yard. Look out +the window." + +He turned around and saw the stationary figure in the yard. He took a +deep breath. "So that's one of 'em, eh?" He laughed in a way that +chilled her, then went to the cupboard and reached for his shotgun on +the wall next to it. + +Alice put her hand on his shoulders and he stopped before he touched +the gun. + +"Listen, Mac. They need that hand. It belongs to one of their men and +they need it because they're going to put it back on and it will be as +good as new. Then they're going to leave." + +He looked down at her with bloodshot, narrow eyes and she could see +where tobacco had run out of the corner of his mouth and the only +thing she could think of was what it would look like on the overalls +when she'd wash them. + +"That thing out there," Mac said, "ain't got no business 'round here +scarin' the pigs and chickens. And I aim to get it." + +"I wish you had told me where the hand is," Alice said, her eyes +scalded with tears. "I tried to find it. I looked everywhere. If I had +found it I would have given it to him and now they'd be gone." + +He shoved her from him rudely. "Jest like a woman to do a thing like that. +And without even askin' me." He was breathing hard and he moved to the +window to look at the alien again. "You, out there. You want that hand, +eh?" He laughed again, then turned to her. "You looked for it. That's what +you said. Well, you jest looked in the wrong place. I hid it good." He +went over to his coat and withdrew a newspaper-wrapped package from one of +the pockets. He unfolded it on the table. It was the hand. + +"Please take it out to him, Mac," Alice said. "He's waiting for it." + +His face was sour and his lips a sneer. "Give it to him, hell," he +said. "Dobie brought it here, didn't he? I've a mind to let Dobie have +it." + +"No, No!" + +Mac put his hands on the table, stared down at the hand and shook his +head. "But Dobie don't deserve it." + +He picked up the hand and a queasiness prevented Alice from looking +directly at it. + +"It's a matter of time," she pleaded. "Please take it to them. They've +got to have it right away or they can't use it. She heard the clink of +one of the stove lids and watched in horror as Mac dropped the hand +through the hole into the fire beneath. She was suddenly sick. During +it all she could hear was Mac's laughter. + +"Git on upstairs," he said a few minutes later. "Git on up to bed." + + * * * * * + +Alice looked at him, knowing her face was pale and her eyes wet and +hating him for what he had done to her and what he had done to the +aliens. But she felt fear, too, because she had never seen him quite +like this. + +"What are you going to do?" + +He went over, took down a box of shells from the cupboard. "What d'you +suppose? I'm goin' to run that thing off my place." + +"You can't do that!" + +"You wait and see." + +"But he's done nothing to you!" + +"He's on my property, ain't he? Now you get on upstairs like I told +you. Git!" + +Alice went up the stairs engulfed by a feeling of sorrow for the +aliens, particularly for the one that would never get his hand back, +and filled with fury for her husband. + +From her bedroom window she could see the alien still standing in the +yard and she wondered what he would think of them for burning the hand +and for what Mac was about to do. + +She stood there a long time before the alien moved. She heard the +downstairs door open and close and she knew Mac was outside and that +the two were approaching each other. The alien finally moved from her +field of vision. + +Listening, she heard the alien's calm, whistling voice but she could +not make out what he said. She could only hear the raving of her +husband and this she did not want to hear. + +When the shotgun blast came she jumped as if she herself had been hit +and once again she was flooded with compassion for the creature from +another world somewhere who had come in friendship and who had been +given something hateful in return. + +She went to the window but she could see nothing. She did not dare go +downstairs again with Mac in the mood he was in. She sat in an +armchair at the window looking out into the barn lot illuminated by +the lone electric light high in the windmill. And eventually, she did +not know when, she fell asleep. + +When she woke up the day was just dawning and with a rush she +remembered everything that had happened the night before and she found +she had slept through the night in the chair without removing her +clothes. When she stood up, her muscles screamed protestingly. She +looked out into the yard and saw that the light in the windmill was +still burning. + +She went to Mac's bedroom, expecting to find him sprawled out across +his bed. But his bed had not been slept in. Downstairs she expected to +find him, head in hands, asleep at the kitchen table. But he was not +there and the shotgun was not in its place on the wall. + +She found the gun on the doorstep. But Mac wasn't in sight. Dobie came +up to her and nuzzled her hands. + +"Where is he Dobie?" she asked. "Where's Mac?" + +Dobie turned and trotted before her, looking back at her as if to say, +"This is the way." + +She found Mac behind the barn. + +He was alive, but in a state of shock, moaning in pain and fear. + +His right hand was missing. Severed neatly at the wrist. + +THE END. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hand, by Gerald Allan Sohl + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAND *** + +***** This file should be named 32055.txt or 32055.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/5/32055/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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