William Sleator by Singularity

Author:Singularity [Singularity]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2012-06-09T16:28:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The new arrival did come through that afternoon, just as Barry had predicted. It turned out to be a used tissue.

I hated the idea even more than the hair ball. I struggled to find another explanation for it, to believe that it was something else. But I couldn’t. My common sense forced me to succumb and accept the inevitable. It was a used alien tissue, and there was nothing I could do about it.

“But why a used tissue? What’s the point?”

Barry enjoyed my discomfort at the idea. “Maybe there’s some powerful germs on it that we have no immunities to,” he suggested. “Maybe it’ll turn into a plague and wipe out the human race.”

“Somebody already wrote that story,” I told him. “And anyway, if they were trying to wipe out the human race, they wouldn’t do it with an old used tissue.”

The clock was the only thing that had come through that wasn’t a disappointment, and I was obsessed with it—I was determined to figure out how to set it. Concentrating on it was also a good way to keep my mind occupied, so that I wouldn’t keep thinking about the way Barry could escape from me— and inadvertently pass the idea on to him. I tried to be aware of where he was at all times, to be sure he wouldn’t go into the playhouse without me. But I also wanted to keep away from his immediate vicinity, so I wouldn’t give anything away. The living room was a good place to keep out of his way. It was so dreary that neither of us wanted to go in there much. But I could also hear everything going on in the house and keep tabs on Barry’s whereabouts.

I sat on the uncomfortable couch for hours, not making much progress with the clock. Finally I got restless and began pacing around the room, looking at the neatly mounted skeletons.

And then I remembered. The six-legged cat. The bird-headed snake. Maybe they weren’t fakes after all.

So much had happened that we had forgotten all about them. Now I gulped and stared hard at the catlike skeleton. The more I examined it, the more convinced I was that Uncle Ambrose couldn’t have faked it. The middle pelvis fit perfectly into the spine, and the ribs around it curved just enough to leave space for it. The middle legs, furthermore, were shaped differently from the forelegs and hind legs, as though their function was slightly different. They couldn’t have been lifted from another animal; they belonged there.

I studied the other skeletons in the case now with a more suspicious eye. There was something that looked at first glance like a bird, except that there were three eye sockets in the skull, instead of just two—it wouldn’t have had to turn its head from side to side the way earth birds did. The bird-headed snake was just as anatomically flawless as the cat. And I found one we hadn’t noticed before, very much like a six-inch-tall monkey—only it had wings and a lizard’s long-jawed head.

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