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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fdf5e5c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51101 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51101) diff --git a/old/51101-8.txt b/old/51101-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5a625d5..0000000 --- a/old/51101-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1033 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Nice Girl With 5 Husbands, by Fritz Leiber - -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/license - - -Title: Nice Girl With 5 Husbands - -Author: Fritz Leiber - -Release Date: February 1, 2016 [EBook #51101] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NICE GIRL WITH 5 HUSBANDS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Nice Girl With 5 Husbands - - By FRITZ LEIBER - - Illustrated by PHIL BARD - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction April 1951. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - Adventure is relative to one's previous - experience. Sometimes, in fact, you can't - even be sure you're having or not having one! - - -To be given paid-up leisure and find yourself unable to create is -unpleasant for any artist. To be stranded in a cluster of desert -cabins with a dozen lonely people in the same predicament only makes -it worse. So Tom Dorset was understandably irked with himself and the -Tosker-Brown Vacation Fellowships as he climbed with the sun into the -valley of red stones. He accepted the chafing of his camera strap -against his shoulder as the nagging of conscience. He agreed with the -disparaging hisses of the grains of sand rutched by his sneakers, and -he wished that the occasional breezes, which faintly echoed the same -criticisms, could blow him into a friendlier, less jealous age. - -He had no way of knowing that just as there are winds that blow through -space, so there are winds that blow through time. Such winds may be -strong or weak. The strong ones are rare and seldom blow for short -distances, or more of us would know about them. What they pick up is -almost always whirled far into the future or past. - -This has happened to people. There was Ambrose Bierce, who walked -out of America and existence, and there are thousands of others who -have disappeared without a trace, though many of these may not have -been caught up by time tornadoes and I do not know if a time gale blew -across the deck of the _Marie Celeste_. - -Sometimes a time wind is playful, snatching up an object, sporting -with it for a season and then returning it unharmed to its original -place. Sometimes we may be blown about by whimsical time winds without -realizing it. Memory, for example, is a tiny time breeze, so weak that -it can ripple only the mind. - -A very few time winds are like the monsoon, blowing at fixed intervals, -first in one direction, then the other. Such a time wind blows near a -balancing rock in a valley of red stones in the American Southwest. -Every morning at ten o'clock, it blows a hundred years into the future; -every afternoon at two, it blows a hundred years into the past. - -Quite a number of people have unwittingly seen time winds in operation. -There are misty spots on the sea's horizon and wavery patches over -desert sands. There are mirages and will o' the wisps and ice blinks. -And there are dust devils, such as Tom Dorset walked into near the -balancing rock. - -It seemed to him no more than a spiteful upgust of sand, against which -he closed his eyes until the warm granules stopped peppering the lids. -He opened them to see the balancing rock had silently fallen and lay a -quarter buried--no, that couldn't be, he told himself instantly. He had -been preoccupied; he must have passed the balancing rock and held its -image in his mind. - - * * * * * - -Despite this rationalization he was quite shaken. The strap of his -camera slipped slowly down his arm without his feeling it. And -just then there stepped around the giant bobbin of the rock an -extraordinarily pretty girl with hair the same pinkish copper color. - -She was barefoot and wearing a pale blue playsuit rather like a Grecian -tunic. But most important, as she stood there toeing his rough shadow -in the sand, there was a complete naturalness about her, an absence of -sharp edges, as if her personality had weathered without aging, just -as the valley seemed to have taken another step toward eternity in the -space of an instant. - -She must have assumed something of the same gentleness in him, for -her faint surprise faded and she asked him, as easily as if he were a -friend of five years' standing, "Tell now, do you think a woman can -love just one man? All her life? And a man just one woman?" - -Tom Dorset made a dazed sound. - -His mind searched wildly. - -"I do," she said, looking at him as calmly as at a mountain. "I think -a man and woman can be each other's world, like Tristan and Isolde or -Frederic and Catherine. Those old authors were wise. I don't see why on -earth a girl has to spread her love around, no matter how enriching the -experiences may be." - -"You know, I agree with you," Tom said, thinking he'd caught her -idea--it was impossible not to catch her casualness. "I think there's -something cheap about the way everybody's supposed to run after sex -these days." - -"I don't mean that exactly. Tenderness is beautiful, but--" She pouted. -"A big family can be vastly crushing. I wanted to declare today a -holiday, but they outvoted me. Jock said it didn't chime with our mood -cycles. But I was angry with them, so I put on my clothes--" - -"Put on--?" - -"To make it a holiday," she explained bafflingly. "And I walked here -for a tantrum." She stepped out of Tom's shadow and hopped back. "Ow, -the sand's getting hot," she said, rubbing the grains from the pale and -uncramped toes. - -"You go barefoot a lot?" Tom guessed. - -"No, mostly digitals," she replied and took something shimmering from -a pocket at her hip and drew it on her foot. It was a high-ankled, -transparent moccasin with five separate toes. She zipped it shut with -the speed of a card trick, then similarly gloved the other foot. Again -the metal-edged slit down the front seemed to close itself. - -"I'm behind on the fashions," Tom said, curious. They were walking side -by side now, the way she'd come and he'd been going. "How does that -zipper work?" - -"Magnetic. They're on all my clothes. Very simple." She parted her -tunic to the waist, then let it zip together. - -"Clever," Tom remarked with a gulp. There seemed no limits to this -girl's naturalness. - -"I see you're a button man," she said. "You actually believe it's -possible for a man and woman to love just each other?" - - * * * * * - -His chuckle was bitter. He was thinking of Elinore Murphy at -Tosker-Brown and a bit about cold-faced Miss Tosker herself. "I -sometimes wonder if it's possible for anyone to love anyone." - -"You haven't met the right girls," she said. - -"Girl," he corrected. - -She grinned at him. "You'll make me think you really are a monogamist. -What group do you come from?" - -"Let's not talk about that," he requested. He was willing to forego -knowing how she'd guessed he was from an art group, if he could be -spared talking about the Vacation Fellowships and those nervous little -cabins. - -"My group's very nice on the whole," the girl said, "but at times they -can be nefandously exasperating. Jock's the worst, quietly guiding the -rest of us like an analyst. How I loathe that man! But Larry's almost -as bad, with his shame-faced bumptiousness, as if we'd all sneaked off -on a joyride to Venus. And there's Jokichi at the opposite extreme, -forever scared he won't distribute his affection equally, dividing it -up into mean little packets like candy for jealous children who would -scream if they got one chewy less. And then there's Sasha and Ernest--" - -"Who are you talking about?" Tom asked. - -"My husbands." She shook her head dolefully. "To find five more -difficult men would be positively Martian." - -Tom's mind backtracked frantically, searching all conversations at -Tosker-Brown for gossip about cultists in the neighborhood. It found -nothing and embarked on a wider search. There were the Mormons (was -that the word that had sounded like Martian?) but it wasn't the Mormon -husbands who were plural. And then there was Oneida (weren't husbands -and wives both plural there?) but that was 19th century New England. - -"Five husbands?" he repeated. She nodded. He went on, "Do you mean to -say five men have got you alone somewhere up here?" - -"To be sure not," she replied. "There are my kwives." - -"Kwives?" - -"Co-wives," she said more slowly. "They can be fascinerously -exasperating, too." - - * * * * * - -Tom's mind did some more searching. "And yet you believe in monogamy?" - -She smiled. "Only when I'm having tantrums. It was civilized of you to -agree with me." - -"But I actually do believe in monogamy," he protested. - -She gave his hand a little squeeze. "You are nice, but let's rush now. -I've finished my tantrum and I want you to meet my group. You can fresh -yourself with us." - -As they hurried across the heated sands, Tom Dorset felt for the first -time a twinge of uneasiness. There was something about this girl, more -than her strange clothes and the odd words she used now and then, -something almost--though ghosts don't wear digitals--spectral. - -They scrambled up a little rise, digging their footgear into the sand, -until they stood on a long flat. And there, serpentining around two -great clumps of rock, was a many-windowed adobe ranch house with a -roof like fresh soot. - -"Oh, they've put on their clothes," his companion exclaimed with -pleasure. "They've decided to make it a holiday after all." - -Tom spotted a beard in the group swarming out to meet them. Its cultish -look gave him a momentary feeling of superiority, followed by an -equally momentary apprehension--the five husbands were certainly husky. -Then both feelings were swallowed up in the swirl of introduction. - -He told his own name, found that his companion's was Lois Wolver, then -smiling faces began to bob toward his, his hands were shaken, his -cheeks were kissed, he was even spun around like blind man's bluff, so -that he lost track of the husbands and failed to attach Mary, Rachel, -Simone and Joyce to the right owners. - -He did notice that Jokichi was an Oriental with a skin as tight as -enameled china, and that Rachel was a tall slim Negro girl. Also -someone said, "Joyce isn't a Wolver, she's just visiting." - -He got a much clearer impression of the clothes than the names. They -were colorful, costly-looking, and mostly Egyptian and Cretan in -inspiration. Some of them would have been quite immodest, even compared -to Miss Tosker's famous playsuits, except that the wearers didn't seem -to feel so. - -"There goes the middle-morning rocket!" one of them eagerly cried. - -Tom looked up with the rest, but his eyes caught the dazzling sun. -However, he heard a faint roaring that quickly sank in volume and -pitch, and it reminded him that the Army had a rocket testing range in -this area. He had little interest in science, but he hadn't known they -were on a daily schedule. - -"Do you suppose it's off the track?" he asked anxiously. - -"Not a chance," someone told him--the beard, he thought. The assurance -of the tones gave him a possible solution. Scientists came from all -over the world these days and might have all sorts of advanced ideas. -This could be a group working at a nearby atomic project and leading -its peculiar private life on the side. - - * * * * * - -As they eddied toward the house he heard Lois remind someone, "But you -finally did declare it a holiday," and a husband who looked like a gay -pharaoh respond, "I had another see at the mood charts and I found a -subtle surge I'd missed." - -Meanwhile the beard (a black one) had taken Tom in charge. Tom wasn't -sure of his name, but he had a tan skin, a green sarong, and a fiercely -jovial expression. "The swimming pool's around there, the landing -spot's on the other side," he began, then noticed Tom gazing at the -sooty roof. "Sun power cells," he explained proudly. "They store all -the current we need." - -Tom felt his idea confirmed. "Wonder you don't use atomic power," he -observed lightly. - -The beard nodded. "We've been asked that. Matter of esthetics. Why -waste sunlight or use hard radiations needlessly? Of course, you might -feel differently. What's your group, did you say?" - -"Tosker-Brown," Tom told him, adding when the beard frowned, "the -Fellowship people, you know." - -"I don't," the beard confessed. "Where are you located?" - -Tom briefly described the ranch house and cabins at the other end of -the valley. - -"Comic, I can't place it." The beard shrugged. "Here come the children." - -A dozen naked youngsters raced around the ranch house, followed by a -woman in a vaguely African dress open down the sides. - -"Yours?" Tom asked. - -"Ours," the beard answered. - -"C'est un homme!" - -"Regardez des vêtements!" - -"No need to practice, kids; this is a holiday," the beard told them. -"Tom, Helen," he said, introducing the woman with the air-conditioned -garment. "Her turn today to companion die Kinder." - -One of the latter rapped on the beard's knee. "May we show the stranger -our things?" Instantly the others joined in pleading. The beard shot -an inquiring glance at Tom, who nodded. A moment later the small troupe -was hurrying him toward a spacious lean-to at the end of the ranch -house. It was chuckful of strange toys, rocks and plants, small animals -in cages and out, and the oddest model airplanes, or submarines. But -Tom was given no time to look at any one thing for long. - -"See my crystals? I grew them." - -"Smell my mutated gardenias. Tell now, isn't there a difference?" There -didn't seem to be, but he nodded. - -"Look at my squabbits." This referred to some long-eared white -squirrels nibbling carrots and nuts. - -"Here's my newest model spaceship, a DS-57-B. Notice the detail." The -oldest boy shoved one of the submarine affairs in his face. - - * * * * * - -Tom felt like a figure that is being tugged about in a rococo painting -by wide pink ribbons in the chubby hands of naked cherubs. Except -that these cherubs were slim and tanned, fantastically energetic, and -apparently of depressingly high IQ. (What these scientists did to -children!) He missed Lois and was grateful for the single little girl -solemnly skipping rope in a corner and paying no attention to him. - -The odd lingo she repeated stuck in his mind: "Gik-lo, I-o, Rik-o, -Gis-so. Gik-lo, I-o...." - -Suddenly the air was filled with soft chimes. "Lunch," the children -shouted and ran away. - -Tom followed at a soberer pace along the wall of the ranch house. He -glanced in the huge windows, curious about the living and sleeping -arrangements of the Wolvers, but the panes were strangely darkened. -Then he entered the wide doorway through which the children had -scampered and his curiosity turned to wonder. - -A resilient green floor that wasn't flat, but sloped up toward the -white of the far wall like a breaking wave. Chairs like giants' hands -tenderly cupped. Little tables growing like mushrooms and broad-leafed -plants out of the green floor. A vast picture window showing the red -rocks. - -Yet it was the wood-paneled walls that electrified his artistic -interest. They blossomed with fruits and flowers, deep and poignantly -carved in several styles. He had never seen such work. - -He became aware of a silence and realized that his hosts and hostesses -were smiling at him from around a long table. Moved by a sudden -humility, he knelt and unlaced his sneakers and added them to the pile -of sandals and digitals by the door. As he rose, a soft and comic -piping started and he realized that beyond the table the children were -lined up, solemnly puffing at little wooden flutes and recorders. He -saw the empty chair at the table and went toward it, conscious for the -moment of nothing but his dusty feet. - -He was disappointed that Lois wasn't sitting next to him, but the food -reminded him that he was hungry. There was a charming little steak, -striped black and brown with perfection, and all sorts of vegetables -and fruits, one or two of which he didn't recognize. - -"Flown from Africa," someone explained to him. - -These sly scientists, he thought, living behind their security curtain -in the most improbable world! - -When they were sitting with coffee and wine, and the children had -finished their concert and were busy at another table, he asked, "How -do you manage all this?" - -Jock, the gay pharaoh, shrugged. "It's not difficult." - -Rachel, the slim Negro, chuckled in her throat. "We're just people, -Tom." - -He tried to phrase his question without mentioning money. "What do you -all do?" - -"Jock's a uranium miner," Larry (the beard) answered, briskly taking -over. "Rachel's an algae farmer. I'm a rocket pilot. Lois--" - - * * * * * - -Although pleased at this final confirmation of his guess, Tom couldn't -help feeling a surge of uneasiness. "Sure you should be telling me -these things?" - -Larry laughed. "Why not? Lois and Jokichi have been exchange-workers in -China the last six months." - -"Mostly digging ditches," Jokichi put in with a smile. - -"--and Sasha's in an assembly plant. Helen's a psychiatrist. Oh, we -just do ordinary things. Now we're on grand vacation." - -"Grand vacation?" - -"When all of us have a vacation together," Larry explained. "What do -you do?" - -"I'm an artist," Tom said, taking out a cigaret. - -"But what else?" Larry asked. - -Tom felt an angry embarrassment. "Just an artist," he mumbled, cigaret -in mouth, digging in his pockets for a match. - -"Hold on," said Joyce beside him and pointed a silver pencil at the tip -of the cigaret. He felt a faint thrill in his lips and then started -back, coughing. The cigaret was lighted. - -"Please mutate my poppy seeds, Mommy." A little girl had darted to -Joyce from the children's table. - -"You're a very dirty little girl," Joyce told her without reproof. -"Hold them out." She briefly directed the silver pencil at the clay -pellets on the grimy little palm. The little girl shivered delightedly. -"I love ultrasonics, they feel so funny." She scampered off. - -Tom cleared his throat. "I must say I'm tremendously impressed with the -wood carvings. I'd like to photograph them. Oh, Lord!" - -"What's the matter?" Rachel asked. - -"I lost my camera somewhere." - -"Camera?" Jokichi showed interest. "You mean one for stills?" - -"Yes." - -"What kind?" - -"A Leica," Tom told him. - -Jokichi seemed impressed. "That is interesting. I've never seen one of -those old ones." - -"Tom's a button man," Lois remarked by way of explanation, apparently. -"Was the camera in a brown case? You dropped it where we met. We can -get it later." - -"Good, I'd really like to take those pictures," Tom said. -"Incidentally, who did the carvings?" - -"We did," Jock said. "Together." - -Tom was grateful that the scamper of the children out of the room saved -him from having to reply. He couldn't think of anything but a grunt of -astonishment. - -The conversation split into a group of chats about something called a -psych machine, trips to Russia, the planet Mars, and several artists -Tom had never heard of. He wanted to talk to Lois, but she was one of -the group gabbling about Mars like children. He felt suddenly uneasy -and out of things, and neither Rachel's deprecating remarks about her -section of the wood carvings nor Joyce's interesting smiles helped -much. He was glad when they all began to get up. He wandered outside -and made his way to the children's lean-to, feeling very depressed. - - * * * * * - -Once again he was the center of a friendly naked cluster, except for -the same solemn-faced little girl skipping rope. A rather malicious but -not very hopeful whim prompted him to ask the youngest, "What's one and -one?" - -"Ten," the shaver answered glibly. Tom felt pleased. - -"It could also be two," the oldest boy remarked. - -"I'll say," Tom agreed. "What's the population of the world?" - -"About seven hundred million." - -Tom nodded noncommittally and, grabbing at the first long word that he -thought of, turned to the eldest girl. "What's poliomyelitis?" - -"Never heard of it," she said. - -The solemn little girl kept droning the same ridiculous chant: "Gik-lo, -I-o, Rik-o, Gis-so." - -His ego eased, Tom went outside and there was Lois. - -"What's the matter?" she asked. - -"Nothing," he said. - -She took his hand. "Have we pushed ourselves at you too much? Has our -jabbering bothered you? We're a loud-mouthed family and I didn't think -to ask if you were loning." - -"Loning?" - -"Solituding." - -"In a way," he said. They didn't speak for a moment. Then, "Are you -happy, Lois, in your life here?" he asked. - -Her smile was instant. "Of course. Don't you like my group?" - -He hesitated. "They make me feel rather no good," he said, and then -admitted, "but in a way I'm more attracted to them than any people I've -ever met." - -"You are?" Her grip on his hand tightened. "Then why don't you stay -with us for a while? I like you. It's too early to propose anything, -but I think you have a quality our group lacks. You could see how you -fit in. And there's Joyce. She's just visiting, too. You wouldn't have -to lone unless you wanted." - -Before he could think, there was a rhythmic rush of feet and the -Wolvers were around them. - -"We're swimming," Simone announced. - -Lois looked at Tom inquiringly. He smiled his willingness, started to -mention he didn't have trunks, then realized that wouldn't be news -here. He wondered whether he would blush. - -Jock fell in beside him as they rounded the ranch house. "Larry's been -telling me about your group at the other end of the valley. It's comic, -but I've whirled down the valley a dozen times and never spotted any -sort of place there. What's it like?" - -"A ranch house and several cabins." - - * * * * * - -Jock frowned. "Comic I never saw it." His face cleared. "How about -whirling over there? You could point it out to me." - -"It's really there," Tom said uneasily. "I'm not making it up." - -"Of course," Jock assured him. "It was just an idea." - -"We could pick up your camera on the way," Lois put in. - -The rest of the group had turned back from the huge oval pool and the -dark blue and flashing thing beyond it, and stood gay-colored against -the pool's pale blue shimmer. - -"How about it?" Jock asked them. "A whirl before we bathe?" - -Two or three said yes besides Lois, and Jock led the way toward the -helicopter that Tom now saw standing beyond the pool, its beetle body -as blue as a scarab, its vanes flashing silver. - -The others piled in. Tom followed as casually as he could, trying to -suppress the pounding of his heart. "Wonder you don't go by rocket," he -remarked lightly. - -Jock laughed. "For such a short trip?" - -The vanes began to thrum. Tom sat stiffly, gripping the sides of -the seat, then realized that the others had sunk back lazily in the -cushions. There was a moment of strain and they were falling ahead and -up. Looking out the side, Tom saw for a moment the sooty roof of the -ranch house and the blue of the pool and the pinkish umber of tanned -bodies. Then the helicopter lurched gently around. Without warning a -miserable uneasiness gripped him, a desire to cling mixed with an urge -to escape. He tried to convince himself it was fear of the height. - -He heard Lois tell Jock, "That's the place, down by that rock that -looks like a wrecked spaceship." - -The helicopter began to fall forward. Tom felt Lois' hand on his. - -"You haven't answered my question," she said. - -"What?" he asked dully. - -"Whether you'll stay with us. At least for a while." - -He looked at her. Her smile was a comfort. He said, "If I possibly can." - -"What could possibly stop you?" - -"I don't know," he answered abstractedly. - -"You're strange," Lois told him. "There's a weight of sadness in you. -As if you lived in a less happy age. As if it weren't 2050." - -"Twenty?" he repeated, awakening from his thoughts with a jerk. "What's -the time?" he asked anxiously. - -"Two," Jock said. The word sounded like a knell. - -"You need cheering," Lois announced firmly. - -Amid a whoosh of air rebounding from earth, they jounced gently down. -Lois vaulted out. "Come on," she said. - -Tom followed her. "Where?" he asked stupidly, looking around at the red -rocks through the settling sand cloud stirred by the vanes. - -"Your camera," she told him, laughing. "Over there. Come on, I'll race -you." - -He started to run with her and then his uneasiness got beyond his -control. He ran faster and faster. He saw Lois catch her foot on a -rock and go down sprawling, but he couldn't stop. He ran desperately -around the rock and into a gust of up-whirling sand that terrified him -with its suddenness. He tried to escape from the stinging, blinding -gust, but there was the nightmarish fright that his wild strides were -carrying him nowhere. - -Then the sand settled. He stopped running and looked around him. He was -standing by the balancing rock. He was gasping. At his feet the rusty -brown leather of the camera case peeped from the sand. Lois was nowhere -in sight. Neither was the helicopter. The valley seemed different, -rawer--one might almost have said younger. - -Hours after dark he trailed into Tosker-Brown. Curtained lights still -glowed from a few cabins. He was footsore, bewildered, frightened. All -afternoon and through the twilight and into the moonlit evening that -turned the red rocks black, he had searched the valley. Nowhere had he -been able to find the soot-roofed ranch house of the Wolvers. He hadn't -even been able to locate the rock like a giant bobbin where he'd met -Lois. - -During the next days he often returned to the valley. But he never -found anything. And he never happened to be near the balancing rock -when the time winds blew at ten and two, though once or twice he did -see dust devils. Then he went away and eventually forgot. - -In his casual reading he ran across popular science articles describing -the binary system of numbers used in electronic calculating machines, -where one and one make ten. He always skipped them. And more than once -he saw the four equations expressing Einstein's generalized theory of -gravitation: - -[Illustration: Einstein's equation.] - -He never connected them with the little girl's chant: "Gik-lo, I-o, -Rik-o, Gis-so." - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Nice Girl With 5 Husbands, by Fritz Leiber - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NICE GIRL WITH 5 HUSBANDS *** - -***** This file should be named 51101-8.txt or 51101-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/1/0/51101/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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/license - - -Title: Nice Girl With 5 Husbands - -Author: Fritz Leiber - -Release Date: February 1, 2016 [EBook #51101] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NICE GIRL WITH 5 HUSBANDS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="376" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>Nice Girl With 5 Husbands</h1> - -<p>By FRITZ LEIBER</p> - -<p>Illustrated by PHIL BARD</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction April 1951.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="338" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3">Adventure is relative to one's previous<br /> -experience. Sometimes, in fact, you can't<br /> -even be sure you're having or not having one!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>To be given paid-up leisure and find yourself unable to create is -unpleasant for any artist. To be stranded in a cluster of desert -cabins with a dozen lonely people in the same predicament only makes -it worse. So Tom Dorset was understandably irked with himself and the -Tosker-Brown Vacation Fellowships as he climbed with the sun into the -valley of red stones. He accepted the chafing of his camera strap -against his shoulder as the nagging of conscience. He agreed with the -disparaging hisses of the grains of sand rutched by his sneakers, and -he wished that the occasional breezes, which faintly echoed the same -criticisms, could blow him into a friendlier, less jealous age.</p> - -<p>He had no way of knowing that just as there are winds that blow through -space, so there are winds that blow through time. Such winds may be -strong or weak. The strong ones are rare and seldom blow for short -distances, or more of us would know about them. What they pick up is -almost always whirled far into the future or past.</p> - -<p>This has happened to people. There was Ambrose Bierce, who walked -out of America and existence, and there are thousands of others who -have disappeared without a trace, though many of these may not have -been caught up by time tornadoes and I do not know if a time gale blew -across the deck of the <i>Marie Celeste</i>.</p> - -<p>Sometimes a time wind is playful, snatching up an object, sporting -with it for a season and then returning it unharmed to its original -place. Sometimes we may be blown about by whimsical time winds without -realizing it. Memory, for example, is a tiny time breeze, so weak that -it can ripple only the mind.</p> - -<p>A very few time winds are like the monsoon, blowing at fixed intervals, -first in one direction, then the other. Such a time wind blows near a -balancing rock in a valley of red stones in the American Southwest. -Every morning at ten o'clock, it blows a hundred years into the future; -every afternoon at two, it blows a hundred years into the past.</p> - -<p>Quite a number of people have unwittingly seen time winds in operation. -There are misty spots on the sea's horizon and wavery patches over -desert sands. There are mirages and will o' the wisps and ice blinks. -And there are dust devils, such as Tom Dorset walked into near the -balancing rock.</p> - -<p>It seemed to him no more than a spiteful upgust of sand, against which -he closed his eyes until the warm granules stopped peppering the lids. -He opened them to see the balancing rock had silently fallen and lay a -quarter buried—no, that couldn't be, he told himself instantly. He had -been preoccupied; he must have passed the balancing rock and held its -image in his mind.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Despite this rationalization he was quite shaken. The strap of his -camera slipped slowly down his arm without his feeling it. And -just then there stepped around the giant bobbin of the rock an -extraordinarily pretty girl with hair the same pinkish copper color.</p> - -<p>She was barefoot and wearing a pale blue playsuit rather like a Grecian -tunic. But most important, as she stood there toeing his rough shadow -in the sand, there was a complete naturalness about her, an absence of -sharp edges, as if her personality had weathered without aging, just -as the valley seemed to have taken another step toward eternity in the -space of an instant.</p> - -<p>She must have assumed something of the same gentleness in him, for -her faint surprise faded and she asked him, as easily as if he were a -friend of five years' standing, "Tell now, do you think a woman can -love just one man? All her life? And a man just one woman?"</p> - -<p>Tom Dorset made a dazed sound.</p> - -<p>His mind searched wildly.</p> - -<p>"I do," she said, looking at him as calmly as at a mountain. "I think -a man and woman can be each other's world, like Tristan and Isolde or -Frederic and Catherine. Those old authors were wise. I don't see why on -earth a girl has to spread her love around, no matter how enriching the -experiences may be."</p> - -<p>"You know, I agree with you," Tom said, thinking he'd caught her -idea—it was impossible not to catch her casualness. "I think there's -something cheap about the way everybody's supposed to run after sex -these days."</p> - -<p>"I don't mean that exactly. Tenderness is beautiful, but—" She pouted. -"A big family can be vastly crushing. I wanted to declare today a -holiday, but they outvoted me. Jock said it didn't chime with our mood -cycles. But I was angry with them, so I put on my clothes—"</p> - -<p>"Put on—?"</p> - -<p>"To make it a holiday," she explained bafflingly. "And I walked here -for a tantrum." She stepped out of Tom's shadow and hopped back. "Ow, -the sand's getting hot," she said, rubbing the grains from the pale and -uncramped toes.</p> - -<p>"You go barefoot a lot?" Tom guessed.</p> - -<p>"No, mostly digitals," she replied and took something shimmering from -a pocket at her hip and drew it on her foot. It was a high-ankled, -transparent moccasin with five separate toes. She zipped it shut with -the speed of a card trick, then similarly gloved the other foot. Again -the metal-edged slit down the front seemed to close itself.</p> - -<p>"I'm behind on the fashions," Tom said, curious. They were walking side -by side now, the way she'd come and he'd been going. "How does that -zipper work?"</p> - -<p>"Magnetic. They're on all my clothes. Very simple." She parted her -tunic to the waist, then let it zip together.</p> - -<p>"Clever," Tom remarked with a gulp. There seemed no limits to this -girl's naturalness.</p> - -<p>"I see you're a button man," she said. "You actually believe it's -possible for a man and woman to love just each other?"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>His chuckle was bitter. He was thinking of Elinore Murphy at -Tosker-Brown and a bit about cold-faced Miss Tosker herself. "I -sometimes wonder if it's possible for anyone to love anyone."</p> - -<p>"You haven't met the right girls," she said.</p> - -<p>"Girl," he corrected.</p> - -<p>She grinned at him. "You'll make me think you really are a monogamist. -What group do you come from?"</p> - -<p>"Let's not talk about that," he requested. He was willing to forego -knowing how she'd guessed he was from an art group, if he could be -spared talking about the Vacation Fellowships and those nervous little -cabins.</p> - -<p>"My group's very nice on the whole," the girl said, "but at times they -can be nefandously exasperating. Jock's the worst, quietly guiding the -rest of us like an analyst. How I loathe that man! But Larry's almost -as bad, with his shame-faced bumptiousness, as if we'd all sneaked off -on a joyride to Venus. And there's Jokichi at the opposite extreme, -forever scared he won't distribute his affection equally, dividing it -up into mean little packets like candy for jealous children who would -scream if they got one chewy less. And then there's Sasha and Ernest—"</p> - -<p>"Who are you talking about?" Tom asked.</p> - -<p>"My husbands." She shook her head dolefully. "To find five more -difficult men would be positively Martian."</p> - -<p>Tom's mind backtracked frantically, searching all conversations at -Tosker-Brown for gossip about cultists in the neighborhood. It found -nothing and embarked on a wider search. There were the Mormons (was -that the word that had sounded like Martian?) but it wasn't the Mormon -husbands who were plural. And then there was Oneida (weren't husbands -and wives both plural there?) but that was 19th century New England.</p> - -<p>"Five husbands?" he repeated. She nodded. He went on, "Do you mean to -say five men have got you alone somewhere up here?"</p> - -<p>"To be sure not," she replied. "There are my kwives."</p> - -<p>"Kwives?"</p> - -<p>"Co-wives," she said more slowly. "They can be fascinerously -exasperating, too."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Tom's mind did some more searching. "And yet you believe in monogamy?"</p> - -<p>She smiled. "Only when I'm having tantrums. It was civilized of you to -agree with me."</p> - -<p>"But I actually do believe in monogamy," he protested.</p> - -<p>She gave his hand a little squeeze. "You are nice, but let's rush now. -I've finished my tantrum and I want you to meet my group. You can fresh -yourself with us."</p> - -<p>As they hurried across the heated sands, Tom Dorset felt for the first -time a twinge of uneasiness. There was something about this girl, more -than her strange clothes and the odd words she used now and then, -something almost—though ghosts don't wear digitals—spectral.</p> - -<p>They scrambled up a little rise, digging their footgear into the sand, -until they stood on a long flat. And there, serpentining around two -great clumps of rock, was a many-windowed adobe ranch house with a -roof like fresh soot.</p> - -<p>"Oh, they've put on their clothes," his companion exclaimed with -pleasure. "They've decided to make it a holiday after all."</p> - -<p>Tom spotted a beard in the group swarming out to meet them. Its cultish -look gave him a momentary feeling of superiority, followed by an -equally momentary apprehension—the five husbands were certainly husky. -Then both feelings were swallowed up in the swirl of introduction.</p> - -<p>He told his own name, found that his companion's was Lois Wolver, then -smiling faces began to bob toward his, his hands were shaken, his -cheeks were kissed, he was even spun around like blind man's bluff, so -that he lost track of the husbands and failed to attach Mary, Rachel, -Simone and Joyce to the right owners.</p> - -<p>He did notice that Jokichi was an Oriental with a skin as tight as -enameled china, and that Rachel was a tall slim Negro girl. Also -someone said, "Joyce isn't a Wolver, she's just visiting."</p> - -<p>He got a much clearer impression of the clothes than the names. They -were colorful, costly-looking, and mostly Egyptian and Cretan in -inspiration. Some of them would have been quite immodest, even compared -to Miss Tosker's famous playsuits, except that the wearers didn't seem -to feel so.</p> - -<p>"There goes the middle-morning rocket!" one of them eagerly cried.</p> - -<p>Tom looked up with the rest, but his eyes caught the dazzling sun. -However, he heard a faint roaring that quickly sank in volume and -pitch, and it reminded him that the Army had a rocket testing range in -this area. He had little interest in science, but he hadn't known they -were on a daily schedule.</p> - -<p>"Do you suppose it's off the track?" he asked anxiously.</p> - -<p>"Not a chance," someone told him—the beard, he thought. The assurance -of the tones gave him a possible solution. Scientists came from all -over the world these days and might have all sorts of advanced ideas. -This could be a group working at a nearby atomic project and leading -its peculiar private life on the side.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>As they eddied toward the house he heard Lois remind someone, "But you -finally did declare it a holiday," and a husband who looked like a gay -pharaoh respond, "I had another see at the mood charts and I found a -subtle surge I'd missed."</p> - -<p>Meanwhile the beard (a black one) had taken Tom in charge. Tom wasn't -sure of his name, but he had a tan skin, a green sarong, and a fiercely -jovial expression. "The swimming pool's around there, the landing -spot's on the other side," he began, then noticed Tom gazing at the -sooty roof. "Sun power cells," he explained proudly. "They store all -the current we need."</p> - -<p>Tom felt his idea confirmed. "Wonder you don't use atomic power," he -observed lightly.</p> - -<p>The beard nodded. "We've been asked that. Matter of esthetics. Why -waste sunlight or use hard radiations needlessly? Of course, you might -feel differently. What's your group, did you say?"</p> - -<p>"Tosker-Brown," Tom told him, adding when the beard frowned, "the -Fellowship people, you know."</p> - -<p>"I don't," the beard confessed. "Where are you located?"</p> - -<p>Tom briefly described the ranch house and cabins at the other end of -the valley.</p> - -<p>"Comic, I can't place it." The beard shrugged. "Here come the children."</p> - -<p>A dozen naked youngsters raced around the ranch house, followed by a -woman in a vaguely African dress open down the sides.</p> - -<p>"Yours?" Tom asked.</p> - -<p>"Ours," the beard answered.</p> - -<p>"C'est un homme!"</p> - -<p>"Regardez des vêtements!"</p> - -<p>"No need to practice, kids; this is a holiday," the beard told them. -"Tom, Helen," he said, introducing the woman with the air-conditioned -garment. "Her turn today to companion die Kinder."</p> - - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="600" height="414" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p>One of the latter rapped on the beard's knee. "May we show the stranger -our things?" Instantly the others joined in pleading. The beard shot -an inquiring glance at Tom, who nodded. A moment later the small troupe -was hurrying him toward a spacious lean-to at the end of the ranch -house. It was chuckful of strange toys, rocks and plants, small animals -in cages and out, and the oddest model airplanes, or submarines. But -Tom was given no time to look at any one thing for long.</p> - -<p>"See my crystals? I grew them."</p> - -<p>"Smell my mutated gardenias. Tell now, isn't there a difference?" There -didn't seem to be, but he nodded.</p> - -<p>"Look at my squabbits." This referred to some long-eared white -squirrels nibbling carrots and nuts.</p> - -<p>"Here's my newest model spaceship, a DS-57-B. Notice the detail." The -oldest boy shoved one of the submarine affairs in his face.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Tom felt like a figure that is being tugged about in a rococo painting -by wide pink ribbons in the chubby hands of naked cherubs. Except -that these cherubs were slim and tanned, fantastically energetic, and -apparently of depressingly high IQ. (What these scientists did to -children!) He missed Lois and was grateful for the single little girl -solemnly skipping rope in a corner and paying no attention to him.</p> - -<p>The odd lingo she repeated stuck in his mind: "Gik-lo, I-o, Rik-o, -Gis-so. Gik-lo, I-o...."</p> - -<p>Suddenly the air was filled with soft chimes. "Lunch," the children -shouted and ran away.</p> - -<p>Tom followed at a soberer pace along the wall of the ranch house. He -glanced in the huge windows, curious about the living and sleeping -arrangements of the Wolvers, but the panes were strangely darkened. -Then he entered the wide doorway through which the children had -scampered and his curiosity turned to wonder.</p> - -<p>A resilient green floor that wasn't flat, but sloped up toward the -white of the far wall like a breaking wave. Chairs like giants' hands -tenderly cupped. Little tables growing like mushrooms and broad-leafed -plants out of the green floor. A vast picture window showing the red -rocks.</p> - -<p>Yet it was the wood-paneled walls that electrified his artistic -interest. They blossomed with fruits and flowers, deep and poignantly -carved in several styles. He had never seen such work.</p> - -<p>He became aware of a silence and realized that his hosts and hostesses -were smiling at him from around a long table. Moved by a sudden -humility, he knelt and unlaced his sneakers and added them to the pile -of sandals and digitals by the door. As he rose, a soft and comic -piping started and he realized that beyond the table the children were -lined up, solemnly puffing at little wooden flutes and recorders. He -saw the empty chair at the table and went toward it, conscious for the -moment of nothing but his dusty feet.</p> - -<p>He was disappointed that Lois wasn't sitting next to him, but the food -reminded him that he was hungry. There was a charming little steak, -striped black and brown with perfection, and all sorts of vegetables -and fruits, one or two of which he didn't recognize.</p> - -<p>"Flown from Africa," someone explained to him.</p> - -<p>These sly scientists, he thought, living behind their security curtain -in the most improbable world!</p> - -<p>When they were sitting with coffee and wine, and the children had -finished their concert and were busy at another table, he asked, "How -do you manage all this?"</p> - -<p>Jock, the gay pharaoh, shrugged. "It's not difficult."</p> - -<p>Rachel, the slim Negro, chuckled in her throat. "We're just people, -Tom."</p> - -<p>He tried to phrase his question without mentioning money. "What do you -all do?"</p> - -<p>"Jock's a uranium miner," Larry (the beard) answered, briskly taking -over. "Rachel's an algae farmer. I'm a rocket pilot. Lois—"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Although pleased at this final confirmation of his guess, Tom couldn't -help feeling a surge of uneasiness. "Sure you should be telling me -these things?"</p> - -<p>Larry laughed. "Why not? Lois and Jokichi have been exchange-workers in -China the last six months."</p> - -<p>"Mostly digging ditches," Jokichi put in with a smile.</p> - -<p>"—and Sasha's in an assembly plant. Helen's a psychiatrist. Oh, we -just do ordinary things. Now we're on grand vacation."</p> - -<p>"Grand vacation?"</p> - -<p>"When all of us have a vacation together," Larry explained. "What do -you do?"</p> - -<p>"I'm an artist," Tom said, taking out a cigaret.</p> - -<p>"But what else?" Larry asked.</p> - -<p>Tom felt an angry embarrassment. "Just an artist," he mumbled, cigaret -in mouth, digging in his pockets for a match.</p> - -<p>"Hold on," said Joyce beside him and pointed a silver pencil at the tip -of the cigaret. He felt a faint thrill in his lips and then started -back, coughing. The cigaret was lighted.</p> - -<p>"Please mutate my poppy seeds, Mommy." A little girl had darted to -Joyce from the children's table.</p> - -<p>"You're a very dirty little girl," Joyce told her without reproof. -"Hold them out." She briefly directed the silver pencil at the clay -pellets on the grimy little palm. The little girl shivered delightedly. -"I love ultrasonics, they feel so funny." She scampered off.</p> - -<p>Tom cleared his throat. "I must say I'm tremendously impressed with the -wood carvings. I'd like to photograph them. Oh, Lord!"</p> - -<p>"What's the matter?" Rachel asked.</p> - -<p>"I lost my camera somewhere."</p> - -<p>"Camera?" Jokichi showed interest. "You mean one for stills?"</p> - -<p>"Yes."</p> - -<p>"What kind?"</p> - -<p>"A Leica," Tom told him.</p> - -<p>Jokichi seemed impressed. "That is interesting. I've never seen one of -those old ones."</p> - -<p>"Tom's a button man," Lois remarked by way of explanation, apparently. -"Was the camera in a brown case? You dropped it where we met. We can -get it later."</p> - -<p>"Good, I'd really like to take those pictures," Tom said. -"Incidentally, who did the carvings?"</p> - -<p>"We did," Jock said. "Together."</p> - -<p>Tom was grateful that the scamper of the children out of the room saved -him from having to reply. He couldn't think of anything but a grunt of -astonishment.</p> - -<p>The conversation split into a group of chats about something called a -psych machine, trips to Russia, the planet Mars, and several artists -Tom had never heard of. He wanted to talk to Lois, but she was one of -the group gabbling about Mars like children. He felt suddenly uneasy -and out of things, and neither Rachel's deprecating remarks about her -section of the wood carvings nor Joyce's interesting smiles helped -much. He was glad when they all began to get up. He wandered outside -and made his way to the children's lean-to, feeling very depressed.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Once again he was the center of a friendly naked cluster, except for -the same solemn-faced little girl skipping rope. A rather malicious but -not very hopeful whim prompted him to ask the youngest, "What's one and -one?"</p> - -<p>"Ten," the shaver answered glibly. Tom felt pleased.</p> - -<p>"It could also be two," the oldest boy remarked.</p> - -<p>"I'll say," Tom agreed. "What's the population of the world?"</p> - -<p>"About seven hundred million."</p> - -<p>Tom nodded noncommittally and, grabbing at the first long word that he -thought of, turned to the eldest girl. "What's poliomyelitis?"</p> - -<p>"Never heard of it," she said.</p> - -<p>The solemn little girl kept droning the same ridiculous chant: "Gik-lo, -I-o, Rik-o, Gis-so."</p> - -<p>His ego eased, Tom went outside and there was Lois.</p> - -<p>"What's the matter?" she asked.</p> - -<p>"Nothing," he said.</p> - -<p>She took his hand. "Have we pushed ourselves at you too much? Has our -jabbering bothered you? We're a loud-mouthed family and I didn't think -to ask if you were loning."</p> - -<p>"Loning?"</p> - -<p>"Solituding."</p> - -<p>"In a way," he said. They didn't speak for a moment. Then, "Are you -happy, Lois, in your life here?" he asked.</p> - -<p>Her smile was instant. "Of course. Don't you like my group?"</p> - -<p>He hesitated. "They make me feel rather no good," he said, and then -admitted, "but in a way I'm more attracted to them than any people I've -ever met."</p> - -<p>"You are?" Her grip on his hand tightened. "Then why don't you stay -with us for a while? I like you. It's too early to propose anything, -but I think you have a quality our group lacks. You could see how you -fit in. And there's Joyce. She's just visiting, too. You wouldn't have -to lone unless you wanted."</p> - -<p>Before he could think, there was a rhythmic rush of feet and the -Wolvers were around them.</p> - -<p>"We're swimming," Simone announced.</p> - -<p>Lois looked at Tom inquiringly. He smiled his willingness, started to -mention he didn't have trunks, then realized that wouldn't be news -here. He wondered whether he would blush.</p> - -<p>Jock fell in beside him as they rounded the ranch house. "Larry's been -telling me about your group at the other end of the valley. It's comic, -but I've whirled down the valley a dozen times and never spotted any -sort of place there. What's it like?"</p> - -<p>"A ranch house and several cabins."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jock frowned. "Comic I never saw it." His face cleared. "How about -whirling over there? You could point it out to me."</p> - -<p>"It's really there," Tom said uneasily. "I'm not making it up."</p> - -<p>"Of course," Jock assured him. "It was just an idea."</p> - -<p>"We could pick up your camera on the way," Lois put in.</p> - -<p>The rest of the group had turned back from the huge oval pool and the -dark blue and flashing thing beyond it, and stood gay-colored against -the pool's pale blue shimmer.</p> - -<p>"How about it?" Jock asked them. "A whirl before we bathe?"</p> - -<p>Two or three said yes besides Lois, and Jock led the way toward the -helicopter that Tom now saw standing beyond the pool, its beetle body -as blue as a scarab, its vanes flashing silver.</p> - -<p>The others piled in. Tom followed as casually as he could, trying to -suppress the pounding of his heart. "Wonder you don't go by rocket," he -remarked lightly.</p> - -<p>Jock laughed. "For such a short trip?"</p> - -<p>The vanes began to thrum. Tom sat stiffly, gripping the sides of -the seat, then realized that the others had sunk back lazily in the -cushions. There was a moment of strain and they were falling ahead and -up. Looking out the side, Tom saw for a moment the sooty roof of the -ranch house and the blue of the pool and the pinkish umber of tanned -bodies. Then the helicopter lurched gently around. Without warning a -miserable uneasiness gripped him, a desire to cling mixed with an urge -to escape. He tried to convince himself it was fear of the height.</p> - -<p>He heard Lois tell Jock, "That's the place, down by that rock that -looks like a wrecked spaceship."</p> - -<p>The helicopter began to fall forward. Tom felt Lois' hand on his.</p> - -<p>"You haven't answered my question," she said.</p> - -<p>"What?" he asked dully.</p> - -<p>"Whether you'll stay with us. At least for a while."</p> - -<p>He looked at her. Her smile was a comfort. He said, "If I possibly can."</p> - -<p>"What could possibly stop you?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know," he answered abstractedly.</p> - -<p>"You're strange," Lois told him. "There's a weight of sadness in you. -As if you lived in a less happy age. As if it weren't 2050."</p> - -<p>"Twenty?" he repeated, awakening from his thoughts with a jerk. "What's -the time?" he asked anxiously.</p> - -<p>"Two," Jock said. The word sounded like a knell.</p> - -<p>"You need cheering," Lois announced firmly.</p> - -<p>Amid a whoosh of air rebounding from earth, they jounced gently down. -Lois vaulted out. "Come on," she said.</p> - -<p>Tom followed her. "Where?" he asked stupidly, looking around at the red -rocks through the settling sand cloud stirred by the vanes.</p> - -<p>"Your camera," she told him, laughing. "Over there. Come on, I'll race -you."</p> - -<p>He started to run with her and then his uneasiness got beyond his -control. He ran faster and faster. He saw Lois catch her foot on a -rock and go down sprawling, but he couldn't stop. He ran desperately -around the rock and into a gust of up-whirling sand that terrified him -with its suddenness. He tried to escape from the stinging, blinding -gust, but there was the nightmarish fright that his wild strides were -carrying him nowhere.</p> - -<p>Then the sand settled. He stopped running and looked around him. He was -standing by the balancing rock. He was gasping. At his feet the rusty -brown leather of the camera case peeped from the sand. Lois was nowhere -in sight. Neither was the helicopter. The valley seemed different, -rawer—one might almost have said younger.</p> - -<p>Hours after dark he trailed into Tosker-Brown. Curtained lights still -glowed from a few cabins. He was footsore, bewildered, frightened. All -afternoon and through the twilight and into the moonlit evening that -turned the red rocks black, he had searched the valley. Nowhere had he -been able to find the soot-roofed ranch house of the Wolvers. He hadn't -even been able to locate the rock like a giant bobbin where he'd met -Lois.</p> - -<p>During the next days he often returned to the valley. But he never -found anything. And he never happened to be near the balancing rock -when the time winds blew at ten and two, though once or twice he did -see dust devils. Then he went away and eventually forgot.</p> - -<p>In his casual reading he ran across popular science articles describing -the binary system of numbers used in electronic calculating machines, -where one and one make ten. He always skipped them. And more than once -he saw the four equations expressing Einstein's generalized theory of -gravitation:</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="600" height="134" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>He never connected them with the little girl's chant: "Gik-lo, I-o, -Rik-o, Gis-so."</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Nice Girl With 5 Husbands, by Fritz Leiber - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NICE GIRL WITH 5 HUSBANDS *** - -***** This file should be named 51101-h.htm or 51101-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/1/0/51101/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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