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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..ad13100 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #60995 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60995) diff --git a/old/60995-h.zip b/old/60995-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 718dbf8..0000000 --- a/old/60995-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/60995-h/60995-h.htm b/old/60995-h/60995-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index c120fe0..0000000 --- a/old/60995-h/60995-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,915 +0,0 @@ -<!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=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of february Strawberries, by Jim Harmon. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of February Strawberries, by Jim Harmon - -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: February Strawberries - -Author: Jim Harmon - -Release Date: December 22, 2019 [EBook #60995] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FEBRUARY STRAWBERRIES *** - - - - -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="347" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1><i>FEBRUARY STRAWBERRIES</i></h1> - -<h2>By JIM HARMON</h2> - -<p class="ph1"><i>How much is the impossible worth?</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Linton lay down his steel fork beside the massively solid transparency -of the restaurant water glass.</p> - -<p>"Isn't that Rogers Snead at that table?" he heard himself say stupidly.</p> - -<p>Howell, the man across the table from him, looked embarrassed without -looking. "Not at all. Somebody who looks like him. Twin brother. You -know how it is. Snead's dead, don't you remember?"</p> - -<p>Linton remembered. Howell had to know that he would remember. What -were they trying to pull on him? "The man who isn't Snead is leaving," -Linton said, describing the scene over Howell's shoulder. "If that's -Snead's brother, I might catch him to pay my respects."</p> - -<p>"No," Howell said, "I wouldn't do that."</p> - -<p>"Snead came to Greta's funeral. It's the least I could do."</p> - -<p>"I wouldn't. Probably no relation to Snead at all. Somebody who looks -like him."</p> - -<p>"He's practically running," Linton said. "He almost ran out of the -restaurant."</p> - -<p>"Who? Oh, the man who looked like Snead, you mean."</p> - -<p>"Yes," Linton said.</p> - -<p>A thick-bodied man at the next table leaned his groaning chair back -intimately against Linton's own chair.</p> - -<p>"That fellow who just left looked like a friend of yours, huh?" the -thick man said.</p> - -<p>"Couldn't have been him, though," Linton answered automatically. "My -friend's dead."</p> - -<p>The thick man rocked forward and came down on all six feet. He threw -paper money on the table as if he were disgusted with it. He plodded -out of the place quickly.</p> - -<p>Howell breathed in deeply and sucked back Linton's attention. "Now -you've probably got old Snead into trouble."</p> - -<p>"Snead's dead," Linton said.</p> - -<p>"Oh, well, 'dead,'" Howell replied.</p> - -<p>"What do you say it like that for?" Linton demanded angrily. "The -man's dead. Plain dead. He's not Sherlock Holmes or the Frankenstein -Monster—there's no doubt or semantic leeway to the thing."</p> - -<p>"You know how it is," Howell said.</p> - -<p>Linton had thought he had known how death was. He had buried his wife, -or rather he had watched the two workmen scoop and shove dirt in on -the sawdust-fresh pine box that held the coffin. He had known what he -sincerely felt to be a genuine affection for Greta. Even after they had -let him out of the asylum as cured, he still secretly believed he had -known a genuine affection for her. But it didn't seem he knew about -death at all.</p> - -<p>Linton felt that his silence was asking Howell by this time.</p> - -<p>"I don't know, mind you," Howell said, puffing out tobacco smoke, "but -I suppose he might have been resurrected."</p> - -<p>"Who by?" Linton asked, thinking: <i>God?</i></p> - -<p>"The Mafia, I guess. Who knows who runs it?"</p> - -<p>"You mean, somebody has invented a way to bring dead people back to -life?" Linton said.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He knew, of course, that Howell did not mean that. Howell meant that -some people had a system of making it appear that a person had died -in order to gain some illegal advantage. But by saying something so -patently ridiculous, Linton hoped to bring the contradicting truth to -the surface immediately.</p> - -<p>"An invention? I guess that's how it is," Howell agreed. "I don't know -much about people like that. I'm an honest businessman."</p> - -<p>"But it's wonderful," Linton said, thinking his immediate thoughts. -"Wonderful! Why should a thing like that be illegal? Why don't I know -about it?"</p> - -<p>"Sh-h," Howell said uneasily. "This is a public place."</p> - -<p>"I don't understand," Linton said helplessly.</p> - -<p>"Look, Frank, you can't legalize a thing like resurrection," Howell -said with feigned patience. "There are strong religious convictions to -consider. The undertakers have a lobby. I've heard they got spies right -in the White House, ready to assassinate if they have to. Death is -their whole life. You got to realize that."</p> - -<p>"That's not enough. Not nearly enough."</p> - -<p>"Think of all the problems it would cause. Insurance, for one thing. -Overpopulation. Birth control is a touchy subject. They'd have to take -it up if everybody got resurrected when they died, wouldn't they?"</p> - -<p>"But what do they do about it? Against it?"</p> - -<p>"There are a lot of fakes and quacks in the resurrection business. When -the cops find out about a place, they break in, smash all the equipment -and arrest everybody in sight. That's about all they can do. The -charges, if any, come under general vice classification."</p> - -<p>"I don't understand," Linton complained. "Why haven't I heard about it?"</p> - -<p>"They didn't talk much about white slavery in Victorian England. I read -an article in <i>Time</i> the other day that said 'death' was our dirty -word, not sex. You want to shock somebody, you tell him, 'You're going -to be dead someday,' not anything sexual. You know how it is. The -opposite of 'live' these days is 'video-taped.'"</p> - -<p>"I see," Linton said.</p> - -<p>He tried to assimilate it. Of course he had, he reminded himself, been -out of touch for some time. It might be true. Then again, they might be -trying to trick him. They used to do that to see if he was really well. -But the temptation was too strong.</p> - -<p>"Tell me, Howell, where could I find a resurrectionist?"</p> - -<p>Howell looked away. "Frank, I don't have anything to do with that kind -of people and if you're smart, you'll not either."</p> - -<p>Linton's fingers imprinted the linen. "Damn you, Howell, you tell me!"</p> - -<p>Howell climbed to his feet hurriedly. "I take you out to dinner to -console you over the loss of your wife a half a year ago, and to make -you feel welcome back to the society of your fellows after being in the -hospital for a nervous breakdown. I do all that, and for thanks, you -yell at me and curse me. You kooks are all alike!"</p> - -<p>Howell threw money on the table with the same kind of disinterest as -the thick-set man and stalked out.</p> - -<p>I've got to hurry too, Linton thought. It's Resurrection Day!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The doctor fluttered his hands and chirped about the office. "Well, -well, Mr. Linton, we understand you've been causing disturbances."</p> - -<p>"Not really," Linton said modestly.</p> - -<p>"Come, come," the doctor chided. "You started riots in two places, -attempted to bribe an officer. That's disturbing, Mr. Linton, very -disturbing."</p> - -<p>"I was only trying to find out something," Linton maintained. "They -could have told me. Everybody seems to know but me."</p> - -<p>The doctor clucked his tongue. "Let's not think any such thing. People -don't know more than you do."</p> - -<p>Linton rubbed his shoulder. "That cop knew more about Judo holds than I -did."</p> - -<p>"A few specific people know a few specific things you don't. But let me -ask you, Mr. Linton, could Einstein bake a pie?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know. Who the hell ever wasted Einstein's time asking him a -thing like that?"</p> - -<p>"People who want to know the answers to questions have to ask them. You -can find out anything by asking the right questions of the right person -at the right time."</p> - -<p>Linton stared suspiciously. "Do you know where I can find a -resurrectionist?"</p> - -<p>"I am a resurrectionist."</p> - -<p>"But the policeman brought me to you!"</p> - -<p>"Well, that's what you paid him to do, wasn't it? Did you think a -policeman would just steal your money? Cynics—all you young people are -cynics."</p> - -<p>Linton scooted forward on the insultingly cold metal chair and really -looked at the doctor for the first time.</p> - -<p>"Doctor, can you <i>really</i> resurrect the dead?"</p> - -<p>"Will you stop being cynical? Of course I can!"</p> - -<p>"Doctor, I'm beginning to believe in you," Linton said, "but tell me, -can you resurrect the <i>long</i> dead?"</p> - -<p>"Size has nothing to do with it."</p> - -<p>"No, my wife has been dead a long time. Months."</p> - -<p>"Months?" The doctor snapped those weeks away with his fingers. "It -could be years. Centuries. It's all mathematics, my boy. I need only -one fragment of the body and my computers can compute what the rest -of it was like and recreate it. It's infallible. Naturally there is a -degree of risk involved."</p> - -<p>"Infallible risk, yes," Linton murmured. "Could you go to work right -away?"</p> - -<p>"First, I must follow an ancient medical practice. I must bleed you."</p> - -<p>Linton grasped the situation immediately. "You mean you want money. You -realize I've just got out of an institution...."</p> - -<p>"I've often been in institutions myself, for alcoholism, narcotics -addiction and more."</p> - -<p>"What a wonderful professional career," Linton said, when he couldn't -care less.</p> - -<p>"Oh, yes—yes, indeed. But I didn't come out broke."</p> - -<p>"Neither did I," Linton said hastily. "I invested in shifty stocks, -faltering bonds, and while I was away they sank to rock bottom."</p> - -<p>"Then—"</p> - -<p>"When they hit rock bottom, they bounced up. If I hadn't found you, I -would have been secure for the rest of my lonely, miserable life."</p> - -<p>"All that's ended now," the doctor assured him. "Now we must go dig up -the corpse. The female corpse, eh?"</p> - -<p>Resurrection Day!</p> - -<p>"Doctor," Linton whispered, "my mind is singing with battalions of -choirs. I hope that doesn't sound irreverent to you."</p> - -<p>The doctor stroked his oily palms together. "Oh, but it does. -Beautifully."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The certificate to allow reburial in Virginia hadn't been impossible -to obtain. The doctor had taken the body and Linton's fortune and fed -them both into the maw of his calculators, and by means of the secret, -smuggled formulae, Greta would be cybernetically reborn.</p> - -<p>Linton shook his head. It seemed impossible. But Greta opened the -olive-drab slab of metal of the door to the doctor's inner-inner -sanctum and walked out into the medicinal cold fluorescent lighting.</p> - -<p>It wasn't fair at all, Linton thought. He should have had some time to -prepare himself.</p> - -<p>Greta lifted her arms, stretching the white smock over the lines of her -body. "Darling!" she said.</p> - -<p>"Greta!" he said, feeling a slight revulsion but repressing it. No -doubt he would be able to adjust to her once having been dead the same -way he had learned to accept the, to him, distasteful duty of kissing -her ears the way she enjoyed.</p> - -<p>Greta swirled across the room and folded her arms across his shoulders. -She kissed his cheek. "It's so wonderful to be back. This calls for a -celebration. We must see Nancy, Oscar, Johnny, all our old friends."</p> - -<p>"Yes," he said, his heart lurching for her sad ignorance. "But tell -me—how was it being <i>away</i>?"</p> - -<p>The curves and angles of her flesh changed their positions against his -Ivy dacron. Her attitude altered.</p> - -<p>"I can't remember," she said. "I can't really remember anything. Not -really. My memories are ghosts...."</p> - -<p>"Now, now," Linton said, "we mustn't get excited. You've been through a -trial."</p> - -<p>She accepted the verdict. She pulled away and touched at her hair. It -was the same hair, black as evil, contrasting with her inner purity. Of -course it would be; it hadn't changed even in the grave. He remembered -the snaky tendrils of it growing out of the water-logged casket.</p> - -<p>"I must see all our old friends," Greta persisted. "Helen and -Johnny...."</p> - -<p>"My darling," he said gently, "about Johnny—"</p> - -<p>Her fine black brows made Gothic arches. "Yes? What about Johnny?"</p> - -<p>"It was a terrible accident right after—that is, about five months -ago. He was killed."</p> - -<p>"Killed?" Greta repeated blankly. "Johnny Gorman was killed?"</p> - -<p>"Traffic accident. Killed instantly."</p> - -<p>"But Johnny was your friend, your best friend. Why didn't you have him -resurrected the same way you did me?"</p> - -<p>"Darling, resurrection is a risky business and an expensive one. You -have to pay premium prices for strawberries in February. I no longer -have the money to pay for a resurrection of Johnny."</p> - -<p>Greta turned her back to him. "It's just as well. You shouldn't bring -back Johnny to this dream of life, give him a ghost of mind and the -photograph of a soul. It's monstrous. No one should do that. No one. -But you're <i>sure</i> you haven't the money to do it?"</p> - -<p>"No," Linton said. "I'm sold out. I've borrowed on my insurance to the -hilt. It won't pay any more until I'm buried, and then, of course, you -can resurrect me."</p> - -<p>"Of course," Greta said. She sighed. "Poor Johnny. He was such a good -friend of yours. You must miss him. I'm so sorry for you."</p> - -<p>"I have you," he said with great simplicity.</p> - -<p>"Frank," she said, "you should see that place in there. There are -foaming acid baths, great whale-toothed disposals, barrels of chemicals -to quench death and smother decay. It's <i>perfect</i>."</p> - -<p>"It sounds carnal," he said uneasily.</p> - -<p>"No, dear, it's perfect for some things that have to be done."</p> - -<p>Her eyes flashed around the doctor's office and settled somewhere, on -something.</p> - -<p>Linton followed the direction of Greta's gaze and found only an ashtray -stand, looking vaguely like a fanatic's idol to a heathen religion on a -pedestal.</p> - -<p>Greta pounced on the stand, hefted it at the base and ran toward him -with it over her head.</p> - -<p>Linton leaped aside and Greta hit the edge of the desk instead of him.</p> - -<p>Brain damage, he concluded nervously. Cell deterioration.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Greta raised it again and he caught her wrists high over her head. She -writhed against him provocatively. "Frank, I'm sorry, dear, but I have -to have that insurance money. It's hell!"</p> - -<p>Linton understood immediately. He felt foolish, humiliated. All that -money! He had resurrected a gold ring that had turned his knuckles -green. No one must ever know.</p> - -<p>Linton twisted the stand away from his wife and watched her face -in some appalled form of satisfaction as it registered horror and -acceptance of the crumpled metal disk falling toward it.</p> - -<p>He split her head open and watched her float to the floor.</p> - -<p>Linton was surprised at the fine wire mesh just below the skin and -those shiny little tabs that looked like pictures of transistors in -institutional advertising.</p> - -<p>He knelt beside the body and poked into the bleeding, smoldering -wreckage.</p> - -<p>Yes, it seemed they had to automate and modify the bodies somewhat -in resurrection. They couldn't chemically revive the old corpse like -pouring water on a wilted geranium.</p> - -<p>Or—</p> - -<p>Did they use the old bodies at all? What were all those acid baths for -if the bodies were used? Didn't the resurrectionists just destroy the -old corpses and make androids, synthetic creatures, to take their place?</p> - -<p>But it didn't matter. Not a bit.</p> - -<p>She had thought she was his wife, sharing her viewpoint down to the -finest detail, and he had thought she was his wife.</p> - -<p>It was what you thought was real that made it so, not the other way -around.</p> - -<p>"I've killed my wife!" Linton called, rising from his knees, stretching -his hands out to something.</p> - -<p>The pain stung him to sleep—a pain in his neck like a needle that left -a hole big enough for a camel to pass through and big enough for him to -follow the camel in his turn.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He opened his eyes to the doctor's spotless, well-ordered office. The -doctor looked down at him consolingly. "You'll have to go back, Mr. -Linton. But they'll cure you. You'll be cured of ever thinking your -wife was brought back to life and that you killed her all over again."</p> - -<p>"Do you <i>really</i> think so, Doctor?" Linton asked hopefully.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of February Strawberries, by Jim Harmon - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FEBRUARY STRAWBERRIES *** - -***** This file should be named 60995-h.htm or 60995-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/9/9/60995/ - -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: February Strawberries - -Author: Jim Harmon - -Release Date: December 22, 2019 [EBook #60995] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FEBRUARY STRAWBERRIES *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - _FEBRUARY STRAWBERRIES_ - - By JIM HARMON - - _How much is the impossible worth?_ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -Linton lay down his steel fork beside the massively solid transparency -of the restaurant water glass. - -"Isn't that Rogers Snead at that table?" he heard himself say stupidly. - -Howell, the man across the table from him, looked embarrassed without -looking. "Not at all. Somebody who looks like him. Twin brother. You -know how it is. Snead's dead, don't you remember?" - -Linton remembered. Howell had to know that he would remember. What -were they trying to pull on him? "The man who isn't Snead is leaving," -Linton said, describing the scene over Howell's shoulder. "If that's -Snead's brother, I might catch him to pay my respects." - -"No," Howell said, "I wouldn't do that." - -"Snead came to Greta's funeral. It's the least I could do." - -"I wouldn't. Probably no relation to Snead at all. Somebody who looks -like him." - -"He's practically running," Linton said. "He almost ran out of the -restaurant." - -"Who? Oh, the man who looked like Snead, you mean." - -"Yes," Linton said. - -A thick-bodied man at the next table leaned his groaning chair back -intimately against Linton's own chair. - -"That fellow who just left looked like a friend of yours, huh?" the -thick man said. - -"Couldn't have been him, though," Linton answered automatically. "My -friend's dead." - -The thick man rocked forward and came down on all six feet. He threw -paper money on the table as if he were disgusted with it. He plodded -out of the place quickly. - -Howell breathed in deeply and sucked back Linton's attention. "Now -you've probably got old Snead into trouble." - -"Snead's dead," Linton said. - -"Oh, well, 'dead,'" Howell replied. - -"What do you say it like that for?" Linton demanded angrily. "The -man's dead. Plain dead. He's not Sherlock Holmes or the Frankenstein -Monster--there's no doubt or semantic leeway to the thing." - -"You know how it is," Howell said. - -Linton had thought he had known how death was. He had buried his wife, -or rather he had watched the two workmen scoop and shove dirt in on -the sawdust-fresh pine box that held the coffin. He had known what he -sincerely felt to be a genuine affection for Greta. Even after they had -let him out of the asylum as cured, he still secretly believed he had -known a genuine affection for her. But it didn't seem he knew about -death at all. - -Linton felt that his silence was asking Howell by this time. - -"I don't know, mind you," Howell said, puffing out tobacco smoke, "but -I suppose he might have been resurrected." - -"Who by?" Linton asked, thinking: _God?_ - -"The Mafia, I guess. Who knows who runs it?" - -"You mean, somebody has invented a way to bring dead people back to -life?" Linton said. - - * * * * * - -He knew, of course, that Howell did not mean that. Howell meant that -some people had a system of making it appear that a person had died -in order to gain some illegal advantage. But by saying something so -patently ridiculous, Linton hoped to bring the contradicting truth to -the surface immediately. - -"An invention? I guess that's how it is," Howell agreed. "I don't know -much about people like that. I'm an honest businessman." - -"But it's wonderful," Linton said, thinking his immediate thoughts. -"Wonderful! Why should a thing like that be illegal? Why don't I know -about it?" - -"Sh-h," Howell said uneasily. "This is a public place." - -"I don't understand," Linton said helplessly. - -"Look, Frank, you can't legalize a thing like resurrection," Howell -said with feigned patience. "There are strong religious convictions to -consider. The undertakers have a lobby. I've heard they got spies right -in the White House, ready to assassinate if they have to. Death is -their whole life. You got to realize that." - -"That's not enough. Not nearly enough." - -"Think of all the problems it would cause. Insurance, for one thing. -Overpopulation. Birth control is a touchy subject. They'd have to take -it up if everybody got resurrected when they died, wouldn't they?" - -"But what do they do about it? Against it?" - -"There are a lot of fakes and quacks in the resurrection business. When -the cops find out about a place, they break in, smash all the equipment -and arrest everybody in sight. That's about all they can do. The -charges, if any, come under general vice classification." - -"I don't understand," Linton complained. "Why haven't I heard about it?" - -"They didn't talk much about white slavery in Victorian England. I read -an article in _Time_ the other day that said 'death' was our dirty -word, not sex. You want to shock somebody, you tell him, 'You're going -to be dead someday,' not anything sexual. You know how it is. The -opposite of 'live' these days is 'video-taped.'" - -"I see," Linton said. - -He tried to assimilate it. Of course he had, he reminded himself, been -out of touch for some time. It might be true. Then again, they might be -trying to trick him. They used to do that to see if he was really well. -But the temptation was too strong. - -"Tell me, Howell, where could I find a resurrectionist?" - -Howell looked away. "Frank, I don't have anything to do with that kind -of people and if you're smart, you'll not either." - -Linton's fingers imprinted the linen. "Damn you, Howell, you tell me!" - -Howell climbed to his feet hurriedly. "I take you out to dinner to -console you over the loss of your wife a half a year ago, and to make -you feel welcome back to the society of your fellows after being in the -hospital for a nervous breakdown. I do all that, and for thanks, you -yell at me and curse me. You kooks are all alike!" - -Howell threw money on the table with the same kind of disinterest as -the thick-set man and stalked out. - -I've got to hurry too, Linton thought. It's Resurrection Day! - - * * * * * - -The doctor fluttered his hands and chirped about the office. "Well, -well, Mr. Linton, we understand you've been causing disturbances." - -"Not really," Linton said modestly. - -"Come, come," the doctor chided. "You started riots in two places, -attempted to bribe an officer. That's disturbing, Mr. Linton, very -disturbing." - -"I was only trying to find out something," Linton maintained. "They -could have told me. Everybody seems to know but me." - -The doctor clucked his tongue. "Let's not think any such thing. People -don't know more than you do." - -Linton rubbed his shoulder. "That cop knew more about Judo holds than I -did." - -"A few specific people know a few specific things you don't. But let me -ask you, Mr. Linton, could Einstein bake a pie?" - -"I don't know. Who the hell ever wasted Einstein's time asking him a -thing like that?" - -"People who want to know the answers to questions have to ask them. You -can find out anything by asking the right questions of the right person -at the right time." - -Linton stared suspiciously. "Do you know where I can find a -resurrectionist?" - -"I am a resurrectionist." - -"But the policeman brought me to you!" - -"Well, that's what you paid him to do, wasn't it? Did you think a -policeman would just steal your money? Cynics--all you young people are -cynics." - -Linton scooted forward on the insultingly cold metal chair and really -looked at the doctor for the first time. - -"Doctor, can you _really_ resurrect the dead?" - -"Will you stop being cynical? Of course I can!" - -"Doctor, I'm beginning to believe in you," Linton said, "but tell me, -can you resurrect the _long_ dead?" - -"Size has nothing to do with it." - -"No, my wife has been dead a long time. Months." - -"Months?" The doctor snapped those weeks away with his fingers. "It -could be years. Centuries. It's all mathematics, my boy. I need only -one fragment of the body and my computers can compute what the rest -of it was like and recreate it. It's infallible. Naturally there is a -degree of risk involved." - -"Infallible risk, yes," Linton murmured. "Could you go to work right -away?" - -"First, I must follow an ancient medical practice. I must bleed you." - -Linton grasped the situation immediately. "You mean you want money. You -realize I've just got out of an institution...." - -"I've often been in institutions myself, for alcoholism, narcotics -addiction and more." - -"What a wonderful professional career," Linton said, when he couldn't -care less. - -"Oh, yes--yes, indeed. But I didn't come out broke." - -"Neither did I," Linton said hastily. "I invested in shifty stocks, -faltering bonds, and while I was away they sank to rock bottom." - -"Then--" - -"When they hit rock bottom, they bounced up. If I hadn't found you, I -would have been secure for the rest of my lonely, miserable life." - -"All that's ended now," the doctor assured him. "Now we must go dig up -the corpse. The female corpse, eh?" - -Resurrection Day! - -"Doctor," Linton whispered, "my mind is singing with battalions of -choirs. I hope that doesn't sound irreverent to you." - -The doctor stroked his oily palms together. "Oh, but it does. -Beautifully." - - * * * * * - -The certificate to allow reburial in Virginia hadn't been impossible -to obtain. The doctor had taken the body and Linton's fortune and fed -them both into the maw of his calculators, and by means of the secret, -smuggled formulae, Greta would be cybernetically reborn. - -Linton shook his head. It seemed impossible. But Greta opened the -olive-drab slab of metal of the door to the doctor's inner-inner -sanctum and walked out into the medicinal cold fluorescent lighting. - -It wasn't fair at all, Linton thought. He should have had some time to -prepare himself. - -Greta lifted her arms, stretching the white smock over the lines of her -body. "Darling!" she said. - -"Greta!" he said, feeling a slight revulsion but repressing it. No -doubt he would be able to adjust to her once having been dead the same -way he had learned to accept the, to him, distasteful duty of kissing -her ears the way she enjoyed. - -Greta swirled across the room and folded her arms across his shoulders. -She kissed his cheek. "It's so wonderful to be back. This calls for a -celebration. We must see Nancy, Oscar, Johnny, all our old friends." - -"Yes," he said, his heart lurching for her sad ignorance. "But tell -me--how was it being _away_?" - -The curves and angles of her flesh changed their positions against his -Ivy dacron. Her attitude altered. - -"I can't remember," she said. "I can't really remember anything. Not -really. My memories are ghosts...." - -"Now, now," Linton said, "we mustn't get excited. You've been through a -trial." - -She accepted the verdict. She pulled away and touched at her hair. It -was the same hair, black as evil, contrasting with her inner purity. Of -course it would be; it hadn't changed even in the grave. He remembered -the snaky tendrils of it growing out of the water-logged casket. - -"I must see all our old friends," Greta persisted. "Helen and -Johnny...." - -"My darling," he said gently, "about Johnny--" - -Her fine black brows made Gothic arches. "Yes? What about Johnny?" - -"It was a terrible accident right after--that is, about five months -ago. He was killed." - -"Killed?" Greta repeated blankly. "Johnny Gorman was killed?" - -"Traffic accident. Killed instantly." - -"But Johnny was your friend, your best friend. Why didn't you have him -resurrected the same way you did me?" - -"Darling, resurrection is a risky business and an expensive one. You -have to pay premium prices for strawberries in February. I no longer -have the money to pay for a resurrection of Johnny." - -Greta turned her back to him. "It's just as well. You shouldn't bring -back Johnny to this dream of life, give him a ghost of mind and the -photograph of a soul. It's monstrous. No one should do that. No one. -But you're _sure_ you haven't the money to do it?" - -"No," Linton said. "I'm sold out. I've borrowed on my insurance to the -hilt. It won't pay any more until I'm buried, and then, of course, you -can resurrect me." - -"Of course," Greta said. She sighed. "Poor Johnny. He was such a good -friend of yours. You must miss him. I'm so sorry for you." - -"I have you," he said with great simplicity. - -"Frank," she said, "you should see that place in there. There are -foaming acid baths, great whale-toothed disposals, barrels of chemicals -to quench death and smother decay. It's _perfect_." - -"It sounds carnal," he said uneasily. - -"No, dear, it's perfect for some things that have to be done." - -Her eyes flashed around the doctor's office and settled somewhere, on -something. - -Linton followed the direction of Greta's gaze and found only an ashtray -stand, looking vaguely like a fanatic's idol to a heathen religion on a -pedestal. - -Greta pounced on the stand, hefted it at the base and ran toward him -with it over her head. - -Linton leaped aside and Greta hit the edge of the desk instead of him. - -Brain damage, he concluded nervously. Cell deterioration. - - * * * * * - -Greta raised it again and he caught her wrists high over her head. She -writhed against him provocatively. "Frank, I'm sorry, dear, but I have -to have that insurance money. It's hell!" - -Linton understood immediately. He felt foolish, humiliated. All that -money! He had resurrected a gold ring that had turned his knuckles -green. No one must ever know. - -Linton twisted the stand away from his wife and watched her face -in some appalled form of satisfaction as it registered horror and -acceptance of the crumpled metal disk falling toward it. - -He split her head open and watched her float to the floor. - -Linton was surprised at the fine wire mesh just below the skin and -those shiny little tabs that looked like pictures of transistors in -institutional advertising. - -He knelt beside the body and poked into the bleeding, smoldering -wreckage. - -Yes, it seemed they had to automate and modify the bodies somewhat -in resurrection. They couldn't chemically revive the old corpse like -pouring water on a wilted geranium. - -Or-- - -Did they use the old bodies at all? What were all those acid baths for -if the bodies were used? Didn't the resurrectionists just destroy the -old corpses and make androids, synthetic creatures, to take their place? - -But it didn't matter. Not a bit. - -She had thought she was his wife, sharing her viewpoint down to the -finest detail, and he had thought she was his wife. - -It was what you thought was real that made it so, not the other way -around. - -"I've killed my wife!" Linton called, rising from his knees, stretching -his hands out to something. - -The pain stung him to sleep--a pain in his neck like a needle that left -a hole big enough for a camel to pass through and big enough for him to -follow the camel in his turn. - - * * * * * - -He opened his eyes to the doctor's spotless, well-ordered office. The -doctor looked down at him consolingly. "You'll have to go back, Mr. -Linton. But they'll cure you. You'll be cured of ever thinking your -wife was brought back to life and that you killed her all over again." - -"Do you _really_ think so, Doctor?" 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