Latest / 3 Weird Science Fiction Stories by Fritz Leiber / Pipe Dream

Transcript

Pipe Dream · 3 Weird Science Fiction Stories by Fritz Leiber

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Story one of three science fiction stories by Fritzliber. This
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information nor to volunteer, please visit
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Three SF stories by Fritz Liber Story
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: one pipe Dream. This story was first published in Worlds
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of IF Science Fiction February nineteen fifty nine. It wasn't
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: until the mermaid turned up in his bath tub that
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Simon grew seriously began to wonder what the Russians were
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: doing on the roof next door. The old house next door,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: together with this spacious tar papered roof, which held a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: sort of pint shack, a cylindrical old water tank, and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: several chicken wiring closures, had always been a focus of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: curiosity in this region of Greenwich Village, especially to whoever
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: happened to be renting Simon's studio. The north window coombs skylight
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of which looked down upon it if you were exceptionally tall,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: or if like Simon, you stood halfway up a step
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: ladder and peered. During the nineteen twenties, old timers told
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Simon the house had been owned by a bootlegger who
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: had installed a costly pipe organ and used the water
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: tank to store hooch. Later, there had been a colony
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: of shaven headed Buddhist monks who had strolled about the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: roof in their orange and yellow robes, meditating and eating
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: raw vegetables. There had followed a Comedia del art, theatrical group,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: a fencing salon, a school of the organ. The Bootleggers
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Organ was always one of the prime renting points of
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the house, an Arabian restaurant, several art schools and silver
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: craft shops, of course, and an existentialist coffee house. The
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: last occupants had been two bony cheeked Swedish blondes whose
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: sun bathed in permitably, and had built the chicken wire
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: enclosures to cage a large number of sinister, smoke colored dogs.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Simon decided they were breeding werewolves, and one of his
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: most successful abstractions, Gray Hunger, had been painted to the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: inspiration of an eldritch howling. The dogs in their owners
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: had departed abruptly one night in a closed van, without
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: any of the dogs ever having been offered for sale,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: or either of the girls having responded with anything more
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: than a raised eyebrow to Simon's brave Greenings of Skull.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: The Russians had taken possession about six months ago, four
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: brothers apparently, and one sister who never stirred from the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: house but could occasionally be seen peering greamily from a window.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: A white card with a boldly inked Stuleinkov Gorovich had
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: been thumbtacked to the peeling green painted front door. Love
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Kadio Smith's, the interior decorator, told Simon that the newcomers
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: were clearly white Russians, he could tell by their bushy beards.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Lester Fliggums maintained that they were red Russians passing as white,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and talked alarmingly of spying, sabotage and suit case bombs. Simon,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: who had the advantages of living on the spot and
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: having been introduced to one of the brothers of Vlassi
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: at a neighboring art gallery, came to believe that they
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: were both red and white and something more solid complete Slavs,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: in any case, double Dostoevsky Russians, if one may be
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: permitted the expression. They ordered vodka caviare and soda crackers,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: by the case. They argued interminably loudly in Russian, softly
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: in English. They went on mysterious, silent errands. They gloomed
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: about on the roof. They made melancholy music with their deep,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: harmonious voices and several large guitars. Once Simon thought they
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: even had the Bootleggers organ going, but there had been
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: a bad storm at the time, and he hadn't been sure.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: They were not quite as tight lipped as the Swedish girls. Gradually,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: a kurt front sidewalk acquaintance developed, and Simon came to
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: know their names. There was Vlassi, of course, who wore
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: thick glasses, the most scholarly looking of the lot, and
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: certainly the most bibulous. Simon came to think of Lossi
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: as the vodka breather. Occasionally he could be glimpsed holding
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: early in Mayer flasks, trays of cultured dishes and other
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: pieces of biological equipment, or absent mindedly wiping off a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: glass slide with his beard. Then there was Ivan, the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: dowerist of the four, though none of them, save Lossi,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: seemed very amiable. Simon's private names for Ivan were the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Nihilist and the bomber, since he sometimes lugged about with
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: him a heavy globular leather case with it, and his
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: beard a square, black one. He had more than once
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: created a mild sensation in the narrow streets of the village.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Next there was Mikael, who wore a large crucifix on
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a silver chain around his neck and looked like a
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: more spiritual resputant. However, Simon thought of him less as
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the religious than as the whistler, for his inverterate habit
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: of whistling into his straggly beard, a strange tune that
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: obeyed no common harmonic laws. Sometimes Mikael seemed to carry
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a chili breeze around with him, a hermanent cold draft,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: so that Simon had to check himself in order not
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: to clutch together his coat collar whenever he heard the
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: approach of the eerie piping. Finally, there was Love, beardless,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: sharper by several inches, and certainly the most elusive of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the brothers. He always moved at a scurry, frequently dipping
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: his head, so that it was some time before Simon
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: assured himself that he had the Dulnkov Guroovich face. He
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: did unmistakably. Lev seemed to be away on trips, a
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: good deal. On his returns, he was frequently accompanied by
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: furtive but important looking men, a different one on each occasion.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: There would be much bustle at such times, among other things,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: the shades would be drawn, then in a few hours
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Lev would be off again. And it's mad about town
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: companion too, And of course there was the indoors keeping sister.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Several times Simon had heard one of the brothers calling Grushenka,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: so he assumed that was her name. She had these
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Stolnikov Guroovich face too, though on her almost incredibly it
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: was strangely attractive. She never ventured on the roof, but
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: she often sat in the pent shack. As far as
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Simon could make out, she always wore some dark Victorian costume.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: That least it had a high neck, long sleeves, and
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: puffed shoulders. Pale faced in the greenish gloom, she would
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: stare for hours out of the pinch shack's single window,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: though never in Simon's direction. Occasionally she would part and
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: close her lips, but not exactly as if she were speaking,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: at least aloud. He thought of calling her the bubble blower.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: The effect was as odd as Mikhail's whistling but not
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: as unpleasant. In fact, Simon found himself studying gushinka for
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: ridiculously long periods of time. His mild obsession began to
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: irk him, and one day he decided henceforth to stay
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: away altogether from his north window and the step ladder.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: As a result, he saw little of the alterations the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Russians began to make on the roof at this point,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: though he did notice that they lugged up, among other things,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: a length of large diameter, transparent plastic piping. O much
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: for the Russia, now for the mermaid. Late one night,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Simon started to fill his bath tub with cold water
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: to soak his brushes and rags. He was working with
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that kind of calcamine at the time, experimenting with portable
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: murals painted on large plaster faced wooden panels. Heavily laden.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: He got back to the bathroom just in time to
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: shut off the water and to see a tiny fish
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of some sort splashing around in it. He was not
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: unduly surprised. Fish up to four or five inches in
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: left were not unheard of apparitions in the cold water
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: supply of the area, and this specimen looked as if
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: it displaced no more than a teaspoon of water. He
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: made a lucky grab, and the next moment he was
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: holding in his firmly clenched right hand the bottom half
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: of a slim, wriggling creature hardly two inches long, And
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: now Simon was surprised. Indeed, to begin with, it was
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: not greenish white, nor in common fish color, but palely
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: pinkish flesh colored in fact, and it didn't seem so
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: much a fish as a tadpole. At least, its visible
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: half had a slightly oversized head, shaped like a bullet
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: that was mushroomed a little, and two tiny writhing arms
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: or appendages of some sort, and it felt as if
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: it had rather large hips for a fish or even
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: a tadpole. Equip a two month human embryo with a
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: finny tail, give it, in addition a precocious feminine sexiness,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and you'd get something of the same effect. But all
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: that was nothing. The trouble was that it had a face,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: a tiny face, of course, and rather goggly, ghostly like
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: a planarian's, but a face, nevertheless, a human looking face.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: And also here was the real trouble, a face that
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: bore a grotesque but striking resemblance to that of Grushenkastulikov Gurovitch.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Simon's fingers tightened convulsively. Simultaneously, the slippery creature gave a
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: desperate riggle, yet shot into the air in a high
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: curve and fell into the scant inch of space between
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: the bathtub and the wall. The next half hour was hectic,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: in a groveling sort of way. Retrieving anything from behind
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Simon's ancient claw footed bathtub was a most difficult feat.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: There was barely space to get an arm under it,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and at one point the warping of the floor boards
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: prevented even that. Besides, there was the host of dust
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: shrouded objects it had previously been too much trouble to
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: tease out, an accumulation of decades. At first, Simon tried
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to guide himself by the faint flopping noises along the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: hidden base of the wall, but these soon ceased. Being
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: on your knees and your chest with an ear against
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: the floor and an arm strainingly outstretched is probably not
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the best position to assume while weird trains of thought
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: go hooting through your head, but sometimes it has to
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: happen that way. First came a remembered piece of neighborhood
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: lore that supported the possibility of a connection between the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: house next door and the tiny, pink aquatic creature now
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: suffering minute agonies behind the bathtub. No one knew what
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: ancient and probably larce any minded amateur plumber was responsible,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: but the old timers a sure Simon there was a
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: link between the water supply of the Russian's house with
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: its aerial cistern, and that of the building containing Simon's
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: studio and several smaller apartments. At any rate, they maintained
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: that there was a time during the period when the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: bootlegger was storing hooch in the water tank, that several
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: neighborhood coal water taps were dispensing a week but nonetheless
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: authoritative mixture of bourbon and branch water. So thought Simon
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: as he groped and strained if the Russians were somehow
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: responsible for this weird fishletch, there was no insupperable difficulty
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: in understanding how it might have gotten here. But that
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: was the least of Simon's preoccupations. He scrabbled wildly and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: unsuccessfully for several minutes, and then realizing he would never
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: get anywhere, in this unsystematic manner. He began to remove
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: the accumulated debriathe piece by piece, dark cracked ns of soap,
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: wash rags dried out in tortured attitudes, innumerable dark dyed
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: cigarette stumps, several pocket magazines with bleached wrinkled pages, empty
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: and near empty medicine bottles and peel vials, rusty hairpins,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: bobby pins, safety pins, crumpled toothpaste tubes and a couple
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: for oil paint, a gray toothbrush, a fifty cent piece
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and several pennies, the mummy of a mouse, a letter
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: from Picasso, and last of all, from the dark corner
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: behind the bathtub's inside claw. The limp pitiful thing he
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: was seeking. It was even tinier than he'd thought. He
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: carefully washed the dust and flug off it, but it
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: was clearly dead, and its resemblance to Grushenka, Stulnikov, Korovitch
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: had become problematic. Indeed, Simon decided that someone seeing it
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: now for the first time would think it a freak
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: meadow or monstrous tadpoland nothing more. Though mutation or disease
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: had obviously been at work, the illusion of a miniature
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: mermaid still existed in the tapering tail and armlike appendages,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: but it was faint. He tried to remember what he
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: knew about salamander's almost nothing. It turned out. He thought
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of embryos, but his mind veered away from the subject.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: He wandered back into the studio. Carrying the thing in
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: his hand. He climbed the step ladder by the north
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: window and studied the house next door. What windows he
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: could see were dark. He got a very vague impression
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: that the roof had changed. After he had strained his
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: eyes for some time. He fancied he could see a
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: fat path of greenish luminescence streaming between the pent shack
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and the water tank, but it was very faint indeed,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and might only be his vision swimming. He climbed down
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the step ladder and stood for a moment weighing the tiny,
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: dead thing in his hand. It occurred to him that
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: one of his friends at the university could dig up
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: a zoologist to pass on his find, but Simon's curiosity
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: was more artistic than scientific. In the end, he twisted
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: a bit of cellophane around the thing, placed it on
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the ledge of his easel, and went off to bed
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and to a series of disturbingly erotic dreams. Next day,
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: he got up late, and, after breakfasting on black coffee,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: gloomed around the studio for a while, picking things up
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and putting them down. He glanced frequently at the step ladder,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: but resisted the temptation to climb up and have another
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: look next door. Sighing, he thumb tacked a sheet of
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: paper to a drawing board and half heartily began blocking
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: in a female figure. It was insipid and lifeless. Stabbing
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: irritably at the heavy curve of the figure's hip, he
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: broke his charcoal. Damn, he said, glaring around the room.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Abandoning all pretense, he threw the charcoal on the floor
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: and climbed the step ladder. He pressed his nose against
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the glass. In daylight, the adjoining roof looked bare and grimy.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: There was a big transparent pipe running between the water
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: tank and the shack, braced in two places by improvised
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: looking wooden scaffolding. Listening intently, Simon thought he could hear
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: a motor going in the shack. The water looked sallow green.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: It reminded Simon of those futuristic algae forms where the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: stuff is supposed to be pumped through the transparent pipes
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to expose it to sunlight. There seemed to be a
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: transparent top on the water tank too. It was too
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: high for Simon to see, but there was a gleam
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: around the edge. Staring at the pipe again, Simon got
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: the impression there were little things traveling in the water,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: but he couldn't make them out. Climbing down in some excitement,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Simon got the twist of cellophane from the ledge of
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: the easel and stared at its contents. Wild thoughts were
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: tumbling through his head. As he got back up on
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: the step ladder. Sunlight flashed on the greenish water pipe
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: between the tank and the shack, but after the first
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: glance he had no eyes for it. Grushen got Stolnikov
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Gurovitch had her face tragically pressed to the window of
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the shack. She was wearing the black dress with high
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: neck and puffed shoulders. At that moment she looked straight
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: at him. She lifted her hands and seemed to speak imploringly.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Then she slowly sank from sight, as if it horribly
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: occurred to Simon into quicksand Simon sprang from his chair,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: heart beating wildly, and ran down the stairs to the street.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Two or three passers by paused to study him as
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: he alternately pounded the flaking green door of the Russian's
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: house and leaned on the button. Also watching was the
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: shirt slave driver of a moving van emblazoned Stoolnikov Guerovitch Enterprises,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: which almost filled the street in front of the house.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: The door opened narrowly, a man with a square black
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: beard frowned out of it. He topped Simon by almost
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: a head. Yes, Ivan, the bomber asked, in a deep
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: exasperated voice, I must see the lady the house immediately.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Simon cried, your sister, I believe she's in danger. He
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: surged forward. The butt of the bomber's right hand took
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: him firmly in the chest, and he staggered back. The
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: bomber said coldly, my sister is a haw taking a bath.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Simon cried, in that case, she's drowning, and surged forward again,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: but the bomber's hands stopped him short. I'll call the police,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Simon shouted, flailing his limbs. The hand at his chest
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: suddenly stopped pushing and began to pull gripped by the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: front of his shirt. Simon felt himself being drawn rapidly inside.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Let go help, I'll kidnapping, he shouted to the inquisitive
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: faces outside, before the door bangs shut. No police rumbled,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the bomber assisting Simon upstairs. Now look here, Simon protested futilely,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and the two story high living room to his right,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the pipes of an organ gleamed golden from the shadows.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: At the second landing, a disheveled figure met them, glasses twinkling. Vlassi,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the vodka breather. He spoke querulously in rushing to Ivan,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: who replied sharply. Then Vlassi turned and the three of
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: them climbed up the narrow third flight to the pent shack.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: This housed a small noisy machine, perhaps an eerit or
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: of some sort, for bubbles were streaming into the transparent
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: pipe where it was connected to the machine, and under
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the pipe, sitting with an idiot smile on a chair
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: of red plush and gilt, was a pale, black mustached man.
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: An empty clear glass bottle with a red and gold
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: label lay on the floor to feet. The opposite side
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: of the room was hidden by a heavy plastic shower curtain.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Rushenka Stolnikov Gurovitch was not in view. Ivan said something explosive,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: picking up the bottle and staring at it. What God,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: He went on, I have told you not to mix
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the pipe and the vodka. Now see what you have
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: done to be it seemed hospitable, said Vassi with an
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: apologetic gesture. Besides only one bottle. Ducking under the pipe
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: where he crossed the penshack, Ivan picked up the pale
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: man and dumped him crosswise in the chair, with his
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: patent leather shoe sticking up on one side and his
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: plump hands crossed over his chest. Let him sleep first,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: we must take down all the apparatus before the capitalistic
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: police arrive. Now, what to do with this one? He
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: looked at Simon and clenched one large and hairy fist.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Ny'ait nyit nyet, said the vodka breather and went to
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: whisper in Ivan's ear. Fabo stared at Simon, who felt
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: uncomfortable and began to back toward the door, but Ivan
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: ducked agile under the pipe and grasped him by the arm,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: pulling him effortlessly toward the roof exit. Just calm this way,
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: if you please, mister Gruyere, said Vlassie, hurrying after. As
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: they left the shack, he picked up a kitchen chair.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Crossing the roof, Simon made a sudden effort and wrenched
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: himself free. They caught him again at the edge of
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the roof where he had run with nothing clearly in mind,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: but with his mouth open to yell. Suspended in the
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: grip of the two Russians, with Ivan's meaty palm over
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: his mouth, Simon had a momentary glimpse of the street below.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: A third bearded figure, Mihail the Religious, was staring up
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: at them from the sunny sidewalk. The melancholy face, the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: deep socketed, tormented eyes, and the narrow beard tangle with
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: the dangling crucifix combined to give the effect of a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: toll story novel's dust jacket. As they hauled Simon away,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: he had the impression that a chilly breeze had sprung
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: up and the street had darkened. In his ears was
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: Mikail distant, oddly discordant, whistling, grunting. The two brothers set
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Simon down on the kitchen chair and slid him across
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the roof until something hard but resilient touched the top
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: of his head. It was the plastic pipe through which,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: peering upward, he could see myriads of tiny Pollywok shapes
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: flitting back and forth. Do I say kindness not to
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: make noise, said Ivan, removing his palm. My brother VLOSSI
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: will now explain. He went away. Curiosity as much as
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: shock kept Simon in his chair. Vlassi, bobbing his head
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: and smiling, sat down tailor fashioned on the roof in
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: front of him. First, I must tell you, mister Gruet,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: that I am specialist in biological sciences. Here you see
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: results of my most successful experiment. He withdrew a round,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: clear glass bottle from his pocket and unscrewed the top. Ah,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: said Simon, tentatively. Indeed, Yes, in my researches, mister Grue,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I discovered a chemical which will inhibit growth at any
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: level of embryonic development, producing a viable organism at that point.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: The basic effect of this chemical is always towards survival
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: at whatever level of development. One cell, a blast, july worm,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: a fish, shave. Forelegger this research, which Lysenko scoffed at
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: when I told him of it. I had no trouble
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: in keeping secret, though at the time I was working
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: as the unhappy collaborator of the godless Soviets. But perhaps
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I am being too technical, not at all, Simon assured him, good,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Vlasi said with simple satisfaction, and gulped at his bottle. Meanwhile,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: my brother Mikhael was a religious brother at a monastery
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: near Mount Athos. My Nehlus brother Ivan was in Central Europe,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: while my third brother Lev, who is of commercial talents,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: had preceded us to the New World, where we always
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: felt it would some day be our destiny to join
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: one another. With the aid of brother Ivan, I and
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: my sister Grushenka escaped from Russia. We picked up Mikhail
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: from his monastery and proceeded here, where Lev had become
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a capitalist business magnate. My brothers Ivan especially were interested
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: in my research. He had a theory that we could
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: eventually produce hosts and men in this way, whole armies
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: and political parties, all nihilist and all of them. Stulnikov
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Gurovitch's why assured him that this was impossible, that I
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: could not play cadmus for free swimming farms or one thing.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: We have the way to feed them in the aqueous medium,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: but to make fully developed mammals, placental nourishment is necessary
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: that I cannot provide. Yet, to please him, I began with,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: pardon me the egg of my sister. That was as
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: good a beginning as any, and perhaps it intrigued my vanity.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I havn't dreamed his dreams of nihilist Stunikov Gurovitch humanity.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: It was harmless, as I told myself. Simon stared at him,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: glassy eyed. Something rather peculiar was beginning to happen inside
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: his head. About an inch under the point where the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: cool water filled plastic pipe pressed down on his scalp,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: little ghostly images were darting delightfully, wispy little girl things,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: smiling down at him impudently, then flirting away with the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: quick motion of their mermaid tails. The sky had been
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: growing steadily darker, and now there came the growl of
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: thunder against the purple gray clouds. Simon could barely make
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: out the semi transparent shapes of the pollywogs and the
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: pipe over his head, but the images inside his mind
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: were growing clearer by the minute. Ah, we have a storm,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Vlassie observed as the thunder growled again. That reminds me
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: of Mikael, who is much influenced by our finished grandmother.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: He had the belief as a child that he could
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: call up the winds by whistling for them. He even
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: learned special wind music from her. Later he became a
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Christian religious There are great struggles in him. Mihail objected
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to my researches when he heard I used the egg
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: of my sister. He said, we will produce millions of
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: souls who are not baptized. I asked him, how about
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the water they are in. He replied, this is not
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: the same thing. These little swimmers will wriggle in hell eternally.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: This worried him greatly. We tried to tell him I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: had not used the egg of my sister, only the
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: egg of a fish. But he did not believe this
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: because my sister changed greatly at the time. She no
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: longer spoke. She put on my mother's bathing costume. We
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: are a family people, and retired to the bathtub all
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: day long. I accepted this. At least in the water,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: she is not violent, Mikhail said, See her soul is
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: now split into many unredeemed sub souls, one each for
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the little swimmers. There is a sympathy between them, a
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: hypnotic vibration. So long as you keep them near her
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: in that tank on the roof, this will be If
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: they were gone from there, far from there, the sub
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: souls would reunite and Grushenka's soul would be won again.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: He begged me to stop my research, to dump it
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: in the sea, to scatter it away, but leave an
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Ivan demanded, I keep on. Yet Mikhail warned me that
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: works of evil end in the whirlwind. I am torn,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and On decided. He gulped at his vodka. Thunder growled louder.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Simon was thinking dreamily that if the soul of Grushenka,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Stulnikov Gurovitch were split into thousands of subsouls vibrating hypnotically
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: in the nearby water tank, with at least one of
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: them escaping as far as his bath tub, then it
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: was no wonder if Grushenka had a strange attraction for him.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: But that is not yet the worst Vlasi continued. The
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: hypnotic vibrations of the free swimming ones in their multitude,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: turn out to have a stimulating effect on any male
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: who is near. There some minds induced dreams of the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: piquant sort. Lev says that to make money for the work,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: we must sell these dreams to rich men. I protest,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: but to no avail. Lev is maddened for money. Now,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: besides selling the dreams, I find he plans to sell
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: the creatures themselves, sell them one by one, but keep
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: enough to sell the dreams too. It is a madness.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: The darkness had become that of night. The thunder continued
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: to growl, and now it seemed to Simon that it
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: had music in it. Visions swam through his mind to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: its rhythm. Hordes of swimming pygmy soles of unborn water babies,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: migrations of miniature mermaids. The pipe hanging between water tank
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: and pent shack became in his imagination a giant umbilicus,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: or a canal for a monstrous multiple birth. Sitting beneath it,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: helpless to move, he focused his attention, with increasing pleasure,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: on the active supple. Ever more human girl bodies that
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: swam across his mind, now more mermaid than tadpole, with
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: bright smiling lips and eyes, long lorell hair, trilling behind them,
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: they darted and hovered caressingly. In their wide cheeked o faces.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: He discovered, without shock there was a transcendent resemblance to
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the features of Grushenka Stolnikov Gudovich, a younger milk skinned
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: maiden of the steps, with challenging eyes and fingers that
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: brushed against him with delightful shocks. So it is for
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: me the great problem, Vlassi's distant voice continued, I see
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: in my work only the pure research, the play of
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: the mind. Love sees money, Ivan sees dragon teeth Foller
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: for his political canon, Mikhael sees unshriven souls. Grushenka sees
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: who knows madness. It is indeed one great problem. Thunder
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: came again, crashingly. This time the door of the pinch
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: shack opened. Framed in it stood Ivan, the bomber Lassie.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: He roared, do you know what that idiot is doing now?
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: As the thunder of his voice trailed off together, Simon
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: became aware at last of the identity of the other sound,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: which had been growing in volume all the time. Simultaneously,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Vlossy struggled to his feet the organ. He cried, mikhaiel
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: is playing the whirlwind music. We must stop him. Pausing
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: only for a last pull of the bottle, he charged
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: into the pinhack. Following Ivan Wend was shaking the heavy
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: pipe over Simon's head, tossing him back and forth in
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the chair. Looking with an effort toward the west, Simon
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: saw the reason, a spinning black pencil of wind that
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: was writing its way toward them in wreckage across the
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: intervening roofs. The chair fell under him, Stumbling across the roof,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: he tugged futilely at the door to the pinch shack,
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: then threw himself flat, clawing at the tar paper. There
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: was a mounting rule. The top of the water tank
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: went spinning off like a flying saucer. Momentarily as if
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: it were a giant syringe, the whirlwind dipped into the tank.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Simon felt himself sliding across the roof, felt his legs lifting.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: He fetched up against the roof's low wall, and at
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: that moment the wind let go of him, and his
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: legs touched tar paper again. Gaining his feet numbly, Simon
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: staggered into the leaning pinshack. The pale man was nowhere
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: to be seen. The plush chair empty. The curtain at
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: the other side of the room had fallen with its rods,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: revealing a bathtub more antique than Simon's. In the tub
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: under the window sat Grushenka. The lightning flares showed her
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: with her chin level with the water, her eyes placidly staring,
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: her mouth opening and closing. Simon found himself putting his
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: arms around the black clad figure. With a straining effort,
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: he lifted her out of the tub, water sloshing all
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: over his legs, and half carried, half slid with her
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: down the stairs. He fetched up, panting and disheveled at
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: the top, landing his attention riveted by the lightning illuminated
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: scene in the two story high living room below. At
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: the far end of it, a dark robed figure crouched
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: at the console of the mighty organ like a giant bat.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: At the base of the portico of a black and
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: gold temple in the center of the room, Ivan was
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: in the act of heaving above his head his globular
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: leather case. Mikhaiel darted a look over his shoulder and
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: sprang to one side. The projectile crashed against the organ.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Mikhael picked himself up tearing something from his deck. Ivan
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: lunched forward with a roar. Mikhaiel crashed a fist against
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: his jaw. The bomber went down and didn't come up.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Mikhaiel unwrapped his crucifix from his fingers and resumed playing
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: with a wild cry. Simon heaved himself to his feet,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: stumbled over Grushinska's sodden garments, and pitched headlong down the stairs.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: When he came to the house was empty and the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Stolnikoff moving van was gone. At the front door, he
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: was met by a poker faced young man who identified
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: himself as a member of the FBI. Simon showed him
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the globular case Ivan had thrown at the organ. It
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: proved to contain a bowling bamb The young gentleman listened
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to his story without changing expression, thanked him warmly and
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: shoot him out. The Stolnikoff Gudovitch's disappear for good, though
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: not quite without a trace. Simon found this item in
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: the next evening's paper, the first of many he accumulated
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: yearningly in a scrap book during the following months. Mermaid
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: rained a hoax, scientists, declares Milford Pennsylvani. The mermaid rain
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: reported here has been declared a fraud by an imminent
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: European biologist, Vlasi Stulnikov Gurovich, formerly professor of genetics at
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Peer University, Lafia, passing through here on a cross country trip,
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: declared the miniature mermaids were albino tadpoles, probably scattered about
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: as a hoax by schoolboys. The professor added, I would
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: like to know where they got them. However, there is
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: clear evidence of mutation, due perhaps to fall out. Doctor
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Stilnikoff directed his party in a brief but intense search
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: for overlooked specimens. His charming, silent sister, Grushenka Stolnikoff, wearing
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: a quaint Lotvian swimming costume, explored the shallows of the Delaware.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: After collecting as many specimens as possible, the professor and
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: his assistants continued their trip in their unusual camping car.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Doctor Stilnikoff intends to found a biological research center in
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the calm and tolerant atmosphere of the West Coast, he declared.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: End of pipe dream m HM