Excalibur & the Atom by Theodore Sturgeon

Author:Theodore Sturgeon
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: &WORKING, Fiction - Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Published: 2011-01-08T06:00:00+00:00

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Gradually there was a leaf-torn sky again, the dim presence of tree trunks. Somewhere a mouse squeaked. Overhead he heard the tiny, unlubricated sound of a bat. A breath of wind passed, and the forest seemed to exhale quietly.

“Lynn…”

“Yes, I’m here.”

“Is he—”

“He’s gone.” He heard her feet as she left the mossy carpet and crossed dead leaves. She was climbing toward him. He put out his hand. It touched her body; soft, warm, unafraid. His throat was dry and burning and his flesh was cold and clammy. He found her hand and said again, “Are you all right?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Where is he?” he whispered. “He must be standing down there.”

“He isn’t,” she said positively. “He’s gone.”

He peered down into the blackness, and abruptly there was a sort of flow, a warm radiation of comfort and relaxation. There was proportion and reality in the world again. “Yes,” he said, surprising himself. “He’s gone.”

Hand in hand they followed the glow, the mechanical hum of the hospital, which was now visible. “Lynn, what happened?”

“I saw the light,” she said quietly. “I went to see. I think I was afraid at first. I thought if I knew what the light was I wouldn’t be afraid any more, so I went to look. He was…”

She fell behind as they passed between close-set trees, then caught up and took his hand again. “He was—waiting for me. It was as if I knew him, knew what to do…You saw, didn’t you?”

“Yes. Lynn, what was it for? Who is he?”

She was silent as they worked their way through the blackness. She was quiet for so long that he squeezed her hand and said, “Well?”

She said, “If you’re around somebody a whole lot—your brother or someone you go to school with or something—do you suddenly stop and say ‘What’s your name?’ It was sort of like that. No, I never saw him before. I never did those things before. But it didn’t occur to me to ask any questions.”

He said, because he wanted to know, “He didn’t touch you?”

“Oh, no!”

“I believe,” said Guinn, “that two things and two things get you four things. I believe that every effect has a cause, and every reaction is there because of some action.” He paused, and then said almost plaintively, “I’ve got to believe that, Lynn!”

She chuckled. She was certainly not laughing at him. She reached her other hand over and patted his wrist. “Hard guy,” she said.

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