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18 - My Fair Planet · Astounding Sci-Fi Audiobook Library

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Speaker 1: My Fair Planet by Evelyn E. Smith. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Josh Kibby My Fair Planet by Evelyn E. Smith.
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Speaker 1: As Paul Lamberkin was clambering up the stairs of his
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Speaker 1: rooming house, he met a man whose face was all wrong.
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Speaker 1: Good evening, Paul said politely, and was about to continue
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Speaker 1: on his way when the man stopped him. You are
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Speaker 1: the first person I have encountered in this place who
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Speaker 1: is not shuttered at the sight of me, he said,
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Speaker 1: in a toneless voice, with an accent that was outside
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Speaker 1: the standard repertoire. Am I, Paul asked, bringing himself back
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Speaker 1: from one of the Roseat dreams with which he kept
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Speaker 1: himself insulated from a not too kind reality. I dare
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Speaker 1: say that's because I'm a bit near sighted. He peered
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Speaker 1: vaguely at the stranger. Then he recoiled. What is incorrect
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Speaker 1: about me? Then the stranger demanded, Do I not have
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Speaker 1: two eyes, one nose, and one mouth, the identical as
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Speaker 1: other people? Paul studied the other man, Yes, but somehow
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Speaker 1: they seem to be put together all wrong. Not that
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Speaker 1: you can help it, of course, he added apologetically, for
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Speaker 1: when he thought of it, he hated to hurt people's feelings.
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Speaker 1: Yes again, for of a truth. Twas I who put
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Speaker 1: myself together? What did I do amiss? Paul looked consideringly
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Speaker 1: at him. I can't quite put my finger on it,
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Speaker 1: but there are certain subtle nuances you just don't seem
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Speaker 1: to have caught. If you want my professional advice, you'll
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Speaker 1: model yourself directly on some real person until you've got
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Speaker 1: the knack of improvisation like unto this, the stranger's outline
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Speaker 1: shimmered and blurred into an amorphous cloud, which thing coalesced
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Speaker 1: into the shape of a tall, beautiful young man with
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Speaker 1: the face of an ingenuous demon. Be old, is that superior? Oh?
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Speaker 1: Far superior? Paul reached up to a just a stray
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Speaker 1: lock of hair, then realized he was not looking into
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Speaker 1: a mirror. Trouble is well, I'd rather you choose someone
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Speaker 1: else to model yourself on. You see, in my profession
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Speaker 1: it's important to look as unique as possible. Helps people
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Speaker 1: remember you. I'm an actor, you know. Currently I happen
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Speaker 1: to be at Liberty, but the year before last, Well,
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Speaker 1: whom should I appear like? Should I perhaps pick some
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Speaker 1: fine abstanding figure from your public prints to emulate like
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Speaker 1: your president? Perhaply? I uh, hardly think so. It wouldn't
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Speaker 1: do to model yourself on someone well known, or even
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Speaker 1: someone obscure, whom he might just happen to run into someday.
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Speaker 1: Being a kind hearted young man, Paul added, come up
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Speaker 1: to my room. I have some British film magazines, and
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Speaker 1: there are lots of relatively obscure English actors who are
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Speaker 1: very decent looking chaps. So they climbed up to Paul's
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Speaker 1: hot little room under the eaves, and after leaving through
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Speaker 1: several magazines, Paul chose one Ivo Darcy as a likely candidate,
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Speaker 1: whereupon the stranger deliquest and reformed into the personable simulacrum
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Speaker 1: of young mister Darcy. That's quite a trick, Paul observed,
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Speaker 1: as it finally got through to him what the other
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Speaker 1: had done. It would come and andy in the profession
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Speaker 1: for character parts. You know, I fear you would never
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Speaker 1: be able to acquisition it, the stranger said, surveying his
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Speaker 1: new self in the mirror complacently. It is not a trick,
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Speaker 1: but a racial ableness. You see, I feel I can
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Speaker 1: trust you. Of course, I'm not really a character actor.
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Speaker 1: I'm a leading man, but I believe one should be versatile,
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Speaker 1: because there are times in a really good character part
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Speaker 1: comes along. I am not a human being. I am
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Speaker 1: a native of the fifth planet circulating around the star
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Speaker 1: you call Sirius, and we Syrians have the ableness to
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Speaker 1: change ourselves into the apparition of any other livid form.
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Speaker 1: I thought that might be a near Eastern accent, Paul exclaimed, diverted.
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Speaker 1: Is Lebanese anything like it? Because I understand there's a
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Speaker 1: really juicy part coming up in I said Syrian, not Syrian.
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Speaker 1: I do not come from minor Asia, but from outer space,
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Speaker 1: from an outer wear Solar system. I am an outworlder,
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Speaker 1: an extraterrestrial. I hope you had a nice trip, Paul
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Speaker 1: said politely, from Sirius. Did you say, what's the state
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Speaker 1: of theater there? In its infanticide? The stranger told him.
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Speaker 1: But let's face it, Paul muttered, bitterly, it's in its
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Speaker 1: infancy here too. No overall planning, no appreciation of the
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Speaker 1: fact that all the components that go to make up
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Speaker 1: a production should be a continuing totality instead of a
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Speaker 1: tenuous coalition of separate forces which disintegrate. You. I comprehend,
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Speaker 1: are disemployed and current, I should You won't find that
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Speaker 1: situation in Russia. Paul, please to discover a sympathetic audience
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Speaker 1: in this intelligent foreigner. Mind you, he added quickly, I
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Speaker 1: disapprove entirely of their politics. In fact, I disapprove of
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Speaker 1: all politics. But when it comes to theater and many respects,
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Speaker 1: the Russians like to make a proposal to our mutual advantage.
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Speaker 1: You wouldn't find an actor there playing a lead role
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Speaker 1: one season and then not being able to get any
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Speaker 1: parts except summer stock and out bits for the next
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Speaker 1: two years. All right, so the show I had the
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Speaker 1: lead infolded after two weeks, but the critics all raved
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Speaker 1: about my performance. It was the play that stink. Will
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Speaker 1: you terminate the monologue? And hearken? Unto me, the alien shouted.
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Speaker 1: Paul stopped talking. His feelings were hurt. He had thought
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Speaker 1: Ivo liked him. Now he saw all the outworlder wanted
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Speaker 1: to do was talk about his own problems. I desire
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Speaker 1: to extend to you a position, said Ivo. I can't
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Speaker 1: take a regular job Paul said sulkily, I have to
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Speaker 1: be available for interviews. Fellow I knew took a job
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Speaker 1: in a store, and when he was called to read
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Speaker 1: for a part, he couldn't get away. The fellow who
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Speaker 1: did get that part became a big star, and maybe
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Speaker 1: the other fellow could have been a star too. But
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Speaker 1: now all he is is a lousy chairman of the
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Speaker 1: board of some department store chain. This work can be
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Speaker 1: undergone at your convention, between readings and interviews. Whenever you
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Speaker 1: have the timing. I shall pay you beautifully, being abundant
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Speaker 1: with USA currency. I want you to teach me how
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Speaker 1: to act. Teach you how to act, Paul repeated, rather intrigued. Well,
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Speaker 1: I'm not a dramatic coach, you know. However, I do
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Speaker 1: happen to have some ideas on the subject. I feel
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Speaker 1: that most acting teachers nowadays fail to give their students
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Speaker 1: a really thorough grounding in all aspects of the dramatic art.
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Speaker 1: All they talk about is method, method, method, But what
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Speaker 1: about technique. I have observed your species with great diligence,
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Speaker 1: and I thought I had acquisitioned your habits and speakings
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Speaker 1: to perfectness. But I fear that like my an face.
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Speaker 1: I have got them awry. I want you to teach
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Speaker 1: me how to act like a human being, to talk
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Speaker 1: like a human being, to think like a human being.
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Speaker 1: Paul's attention was really caught. Well, that is a challenge.
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Speaker 1: I don't suppose Stanislovsky ever had to teach an extraterrestrial
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Speaker 1: or even Strasburg than we are in accordance, Ivo said,
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Speaker 1: you will instruction me, he essayed a smile. Paul shuddered,
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Speaker 1: very well, he said, we'll start now, and I think
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Speaker 1: the first thing we'd better start with is lessons in smiling.
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Speaker 1: Ivo proved to be a quick study. He not only
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Speaker 1: learned to smile, but to frown and to express surprise, pleasure, horror,
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Speaker 1: whatever the occasion demanded. He learned the knack of counterfeiting
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Speaker 1: humanity with such skill that Paul was moved to remark
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Speaker 1: one afternoon, when they are leaving Brooks Brothers after a fitting,
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Speaker 1: sometimes you seem even more human than I do. Ivo,
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Speaker 1: I wish you'd why for that tendency to rant, though
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Speaker 1: you're supposed to speak, not make speeches. I try not to,
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Speaker 1: Ivo said, but I keep getting carried away by enthusiasm.
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Speaker 1: Apparently I have a real flair for teaching, Paul went on,
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Speaker 1: as expertly camouflaged by Brooks, the two men melted away
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Speaker 1: into the dense, charcoal gray underbrush of Madison Avenue. I
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Speaker 1: seem to be even more versatile than I thought. Perhaps
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Speaker 1: I have been well, not wasting, but limiting my talents.
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Speaker 1: That may be because your talents have not been sufficiently
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Speaker 1: appreciated histar people suggested or given enough scope. Ivo was
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Speaker 1: so perceptive. As a matter of fact, Paul agreed, it
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Speaker 1: has often seem to me that if some really gifted individual,
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Speaker 1: equally adept at acting, directing, producing, playwriting, teaching it all,
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Speaker 1: were to undertake a thorough synthesis of the theater. Ah,
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Speaker 1: but that would cost money, he interrupted himself. And who
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Speaker 1: would underwrite such a project? Certainly not the government of
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Speaker 1: the United States, He gave a bitter laugh. Perhaps under
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Speaker 1: a new regime, conditions might be more favorable for the artist,
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Speaker 1: sh Paul looked nervously over his shoulder. There are senators everywhere. Besides,
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Speaker 1: I never said things were good in Russia, just better
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Speaker 1: for the actor. That is, of course, the plays are
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Speaker 1: atrocious propaganda. I was not referring to another human regime.
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Speaker 1: The human being is at best, save for certain choice
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Speaker 1: spirits unsympathetic to the arts. We outworlders have a far
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Speaker 1: greater respect for things of the mind. Paul opened his mouth,
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Speaker 1: Ivo continued, without giving him a chance to speak. No doubt,
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Speaker 1: you have often wondered just what I am doing here
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Speaker 1: on Earth. The question had never crossed Paul's mind. Feeling
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Speaker 1: vaguely guilty, he murmured, some people have funny ideas of
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Speaker 1: where to go for a vacation. I am here on business.
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Speaker 1: Ivo told him, the situation on Sirius is serious. You
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Speaker 1: know that's catchy. The situation on serious as serious. Paul repeated,
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Speaker 1: tappiness foot, I've often thought of trying my hand at
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Speaker 1: a musical com I mean, we have had a seer
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Speaker 1: grave population problem for the last couple of centuries. Hence,
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Speaker 1: our government has sent out scouts to look for other
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Speaker 1: planets with similar atmosphere, climate, gravity, and so on where
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Speaker 1: we can ship our excess population. So far we have
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Speaker 1: found very few. When Paul's attention was focused, he could
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Speaker 1: be as quick as anybody to put two and two together.
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Speaker 1: But Earth has already occupied. In fact, when I was
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Speaker 1: in school, hired something about our having a population problem ourselves.
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Speaker 1: The other planets we already h took over were in
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Speaker 1: a similar state. I've explained. We managed to surmount that difficulty,
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Speaker 1: how Paul asked, though we already suspected the answer. Oh,
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Speaker 1: we didn't dispose of all the inhabitants. We merely weeded
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Speaker 1: out the undesirables, who, by fortunate chance, happened to be
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Speaker 1: in the majority and achieved a happy and peaceful co
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Speaker 1: existence with the rest. But look, Paul protested, I mean
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Speaker 1: to say, for instance, Ivo said suavely, dig the vast
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Speaker 1: body of people who watch television and you have never
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Speaker 1: seen a legitimate play in their lives, and indeed rarely
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Speaker 1: go to the motion pictures. Surely they are expendable. Well, yes,
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Speaker 1: of course, But even among them there might be, oh, oh,
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Speaker 1: say a playwright's mother. One of the first measures our
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Speaker 1: regime would take would be to establish a vast network
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Speaker 1: of community theaters throughout the world, and you, Paul, would
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Speaker 1: receive first choice of starring roles. Now, wait a minute,
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Speaker 1: Paul cried hotly. He seldom allowed himself to lose his temper,
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Speaker 1: but when he did, he got angry. I pride myself
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Speaker 1: that have gotten this far wholly on my own merits.
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Speaker 1: I don't believe in using influence too, But my dear fellow,
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Speaker 1: all I meant was that with an intelligently coordinated theater
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Speaker 1: and an intellectually adult audience, you're a bi would be
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Speaker 1: recognized automatically. Oh, said Paul. He was not unaware that
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Speaker 1: he was being flattered, but it was so seldom that
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Speaker 1: anyone bothered to pay him any attention when he was
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Speaker 1: not playing a role that it was difficult not to succumb.
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Speaker 1: Are are you figuring on taking over the planet single handed?
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Speaker 1: He asked curiously. Heavens, no, talented as I am, there
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Speaker 1: are limits. I don't do the uh dirty work myself.
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Speaker 1: I just conduct the preliminary investigation to determine how powerful
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Speaker 1: the local defenses are. We have hydrogen bombs, Paul said,
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Speaker 1: trying to remember details of a newspaper article he had
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Speaker 1: once read in a producer's ante room. And plutonium bombs,
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Speaker 1: and oh, I know about all those, Ivo smiled expertly.
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Speaker 1: My job is checking to make sure you don't have
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Speaker 1: anything really dangerous. All that night, Paul wrestled with his conscience.
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Speaker 1: He knew he shouldn't just let Ivo go on yet,
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Speaker 1: what else could he do? Go to the proper authorities,
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Speaker 1: But which authorities were the proper ones? And even if
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Speaker 1: he found them, who would believe an actor off stage
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Speaker 1: delivering such improbable lines. He would either be laughed at
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Speaker 1: or accused of being part of a subversive plot. It
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Speaker 1: might result in a lot of bad publicity, which could
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Speaker 1: ruin his career. So Paul did nothing about Ivo. He
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Speaker 1: went back to the usual rounds of agents and producers offices,
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Speaker 1: and the knowledge of why Ivo was on earth got
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Speaker 1: pushed farther into the back of his mind as he
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Speaker 1: trudged from interview to reading to interview. It was an
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Speaker 1: exceptionally hot October, the kind of weather when sometimes he
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Speaker 1: almost lost his faith and began to wonder why he
13:40
Speaker 1: was batting his head against a stone wall, why he
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Speaker 1: didn't get a job in a department store somewhere, or
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Speaker 1: teaching school. And then he thought of the applause, the
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Speaker 1: curtain calls, the dream of some day seeing his name
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Speaker 1: and lights above the title of the play, and he
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Speaker 1: knew he would never give up. Quitting the theater would
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Speaker 1: be like committing suicide. For off the stage he was live.
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Speaker 1: Only technically he was good. He knew he was good,
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Speaker 1: so some day he assured himself he was bound to
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Speaker 1: get his big break toward the end of that month.
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Speaker 1: It came, after the maximum three readings, between which his
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Speaker 1: hopes alternately waxed and waned. He was cast as the
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Speaker 1: male lead in the Holiday Tree. The producers were more interested,
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Speaker 1: they said, in getting someone who fitted the role of
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Speaker 1: Eric Everard than in a big name, especially since the
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Speaker 1: female star preferred to have her luster undimmed by competition.
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Speaker 1: Rehearsals took up so much of his time that he
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Speaker 1: saw very little of Ivo for the next five weeks,
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Speaker 1: but by then Ivo didn't need him any more. Actually,
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Speaker 1: they were no longer teacher and people now, but companions,
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Speaker 1: drawn together by the fact that they both belonged to
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Speaker 1: different worlds from the one in which they were living.
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Speaker 1: In so far as he could like anyone who existed
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Speaker 1: outside of his imagination, Paul had grown rather fond of Ivo,
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Speaker 1: and he rather thought Ivo liked him too. But because
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Speaker 1: he could never be quite sure of ordinary people's reactions
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Speaker 1: toward him, how could he be sure of an outworlders.
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Speaker 1: Ivo came around a rehearsal sometimes, but naturally it would
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Speaker 1: be boring for him, since he wasn't in the profession,
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Speaker 1: and after a while he didn't come around very often.
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Speaker 1: At first, Paul felt a twinge of guilt, then he
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Speaker 1: remembered that he need not worry. Ivo had his own work.
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Speaker 1: The whole Holiday Tree troop went out of town for
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Speaker 1: the tryouts, and Paul didn't see Ivo at all for
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Speaker 1: six weeks. Busy, happy weeks they were for The play
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Speaker 1: was a smash hit from the start. It played to
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Speaker 1: packed houses in New Haven and Boston, and the box
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Speaker 1: office in New York was sold out for months in
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Speaker 1: advance before they even opened. Must be kind of fun acting,
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Speaker 1: Ivo told Paul the morning after the New York opening.
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Speaker 1: As Paul waltered contentedly on his bed, he had the
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Speaker 1: best room in the house now amid a pile of
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Speaker 1: rave notices. At long last, he had arrived. Everybody loved him.
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Speaker 1: He was a success, and now that he had read
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Speaker 1: the reviews and they were all favorable, he could pay
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Speaker 1: attention to the strange things that had happened to his friend.
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Speaker 1: Raising himself up on an elbow, Paul cried, Ivo, you're mumbling.
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Speaker 1: After all, I taught you about articulation, I got to
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Speaker 1: hanging round with this. Here a bunch of actors while
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Speaker 1: you were gone, Ivo said, They say mumbling's the common thing. Sides,
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Speaker 1: you kept yappin that, I declaimed, so, but you don't
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Speaker 1: have to go to the opposite extreme, and Ivo, incredulously
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Speaker 1: Paul took in the full details of the other's appearance.
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Speaker 1: What happened to your brooks brothers suits hung em in
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Speaker 1: a closet, Ivo replied, looking abashed. I did wear one
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Speaker 1: last night, though he went on defensively, wouldn't come just
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Speaker 1: like this to your opening, But all the other fellows
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Speaker 1: wear blue jeans and leather jackets. I mean, hell, I
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Speaker 1: gotta conform more'n anybody. You know that Paul, and Paul
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Speaker 1: set bolt upright. This was the supreme outrage. You've changed yourself,
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Speaker 1: You've gotten younger. This is an age of ute, Ivo mumbled,
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Speaker 1: And I figured I was bow ready for improvisation, like
16:53
Speaker 1: you said. Look, Ivo, if you really want to go
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Speaker 1: on the stage, Hell, I don't want to be no actor,
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Speaker 1: Ivo protested, far too vehemently. You know, damn well, I'm
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Speaker 1: a a spy scouting round a cevia a any secret
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Speaker 1: defenses before I make my report. I don't feel I'm
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Speaker 1: giving away any government secrets, Paul said, when I tell
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Speaker 1: you that the bastions of our defenses are not erected
17:15
Speaker 1: at the actor's studio, Listen, pow. You let me spy
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Speaker 1: the way I wanna, and I'll let you act the
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Speaker 1: way you wanna. Paul was disturbed by this change in IVO, because,
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Speaker 1: although he had always tried to steer clear of social involvement,
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Speaker 1: he could not help feeling that the young alien had
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Speaker 1: become in a measure his responsibility, particularly now that he
17:34
Speaker 1: was a teenager. Paul would even have worried about IVO
17:38
Speaker 1: if there hadn't been so many other things to occupy
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Speaker 1: his mind. First of all, the producers of The Holiday
17:43
Speaker 1: Tree could not resist the pressure of an adoring public.
17:45
Speaker 1: Although the original star sulked, three months after the play
17:49
Speaker 1: had opened in New York, Paul's name went up in
17:51
Speaker 1: lights next to hers over the title of the play.
17:54
Speaker 1: He was a star. That was good. But then there
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Speaker 1: was Gregory, and that was bad. Gregory was Paul's understudy,
18:03
Speaker 1: a handsome, sullen youth who had, on numerous occasions been
18:06
Speaker 1: heard to utter words to the effect of it's the
18:09
Speaker 1: part that's so good, not him. If I had the
18:11
Speaker 1: chance to play Eric Everard just once they'd give Lamberkin
18:15
Speaker 1: back to the Indians. Sometimes he had said the words
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Speaker 1: in Paul's hearing. Sometimes the remarks had been lovingly passed
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Speaker 1: on by fellow members of the cast, who felt that
18:23
Speaker 1: Paul ought to know. I don't like that, Gregory, Paul
18:27
Speaker 1: told Ivo one Monday evening, as they were enjoying a
18:30
Speaker 1: quite smoke together, for there was no performance that night.
18:33
Speaker 1: He used to be a juvenile delinquent, got sent to
18:36
Speaker 1: one of those reform schools where they use acting as therapy,
18:39
Speaker 1: and it turned out to be his metier. But you
18:42
Speaker 1: never know when that kind I'll hear the call of
18:43
Speaker 1: the wild again. Ah, he's a good kid, Ivo said,
18:48
Speaker 1: he just never had a chance. Trouble is. I'm afraid
18:51
Speaker 1: he's going to make himself a chance. Chance that is, eh,
18:55
Speaker 1: retorted Ivo with prideful inarticulateness. However, when at six thirty
19:01
Speaker 1: that Friday, Paul fell over a wire stretched between the
19:04
Speaker 1: jambs of the doorway leading to his private bathroom and
19:07
Speaker 1: broke a leg, even Ivo was forced to admit that
19:10
Speaker 1: this did not look like an accident. Ivo Paul wailed
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Speaker 1: when the doctor had left. What am I going to do?
19:17
Speaker 1: I refuse to let Gregory go on in my place tonight.
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Speaker 1: You're gonna have to, Ivo said, shifting his gum to
19:23
Speaker 1: the other side of his mouth. He's young, a steady,
19:26
Speaker 1: but the doctor said it would be weeks before I
19:28
Speaker 1: can get around again. Either Gregory'll take over the part
19:31
Speaker 1: completely with his interpretation and I'll be left out in
19:34
Speaker 1: the cold, or more likely, he'll louse up the play
19:37
Speaker 1: and it'll fold before him on my feet. You gotta
19:40
Speaker 1: have more confidence in yourself, kid. The public ain't gonna
19:43
Speaker 1: forget you in a few weeks. But Paul knew far
19:46
Speaker 1: better than the idealistic Ivo how fickle the public can be. However,
19:50
Speaker 1: he chose an argument that would appeal to the boy.
19:52
Speaker 1: Don't forget he booby trapped me. Certainly he looks like it.
19:56
Speaker 1: Ivo was forced to concede. But what's you're gunna do?
19:59
Speaker 1: You can't prove besides, the curtain's gonna go up in
20:01
Speaker 1: a little over an hour. Paul gripped Ivo's sinewy wrist. Ivo,
20:06
Speaker 1: You've got to go on for me. You got rocks
20:09
Speaker 1: in your head of something, Ivo demanded, trying not to
20:12
Speaker 1: look pleased. I ain't got a nequity card, and even
20:15
Speaker 1: if I did, he's yan a study. No, you don't understand.
20:19
Speaker 1: I don't want you to go on as Ivo Darcy
20:21
Speaker 1: plain Eric Everard. I want you to go on as
20:23
Speaker 1: Paul Lamberkin, plain Eric Everard. You can do it, Ivo,
20:27
Speaker 1: good lord, so I can, Ivo whispered, temporarily neglecting a mumble.
20:32
Speaker 1: I'd almost forgotten. You know my lines too. You've cued
20:36
Speaker 1: me in my part often enough. Ivo rubbed his hand
20:39
Speaker 1: over his forehead. Yeah, I guess I do. Ivo. Paul
20:44
Speaker 1: beseeched him. I thought we were pals. I don't want
20:48
Speaker 1: to ask any favors, but I helped you out when
20:51
Speaker 1: you were in trouble. I always figured I could rely
20:54
Speaker 1: on you. I never thought you'd let me down, and
20:57
Speaker 1: I won't I'vo gripped Paul's hand. I'll go on and
21:00
Speaker 1: the night and play at Parl like I never been
21:01
Speaker 1: played before. I'll no no play it the way I
21:05
Speaker 1: played it. You're supposed to be me. Ivo, forget Strasburg,
21:09
Speaker 1: go back to Stanizovski. Okay, pal Ivo said, we'll do
21:14
Speaker 1: and promise me one thing. Ivo, promise me you won't mumble.
21:19
Speaker 1: Ivo winced, okay, but you're the only one I'd do
21:23
Speaker 1: at for. Slowly, he began to shimmer. Paul held his breath.
21:28
Speaker 1: Maybe Ivo had forgotten how to transmute himself, but technique
21:32
Speaker 1: triumphed over method. Ivo Darcy gradually coalesced into the semblance
21:37
Speaker 1: of Paul Lamberkin. The show would go on. Well, how
21:41
Speaker 1: was everything? Paul asked anxiously when Ivo came into his
21:45
Speaker 1: room shortly after midnight. Pretty good, Ivo said, sitting down
21:49
Speaker 1: on the edge of the bed. Gregory was extremely surprised
21:52
Speaker 1: to see me, asked me half a dozen times how
21:55
Speaker 1: I was feeling? Ivo was not only articulating. Paul was
21:59
Speaker 1: gratified to notice he was enunciating. But the show, how
22:04
Speaker 1: did that go? Did anyone suspect you were a ringer? No?
22:08
Speaker 1: Ivo said slowly, No, I don't think so. I got
22:11
Speaker 1: twelve curtain calls, he added, staring straight ahead of him
22:15
Speaker 1: with a dreamy smile, twelve Friday nights. The audience is
22:19
Speaker 1: always enthusiastic. Then Paul swallowed hard and said, besides, I'm
22:24
Speaker 1: sure you were great in the role. But Ivo didn't
22:27
Speaker 1: seem to hear him. Ivo was still wrapped in his
22:30
Speaker 1: golden days. Just before the curtain went up, I didn't
22:33
Speaker 1: think I was going to be able to do it.
22:36
Speaker 1: I began to feel all quivery inside, the way I
22:38
Speaker 1: do before I I change butterflies in the stomach as
22:43
Speaker 1: the professional term. Paul nodded. Wisely, A really good actor
22:46
Speaker 1: gets them before every performance, no matter how many times
22:49
Speaker 1: I play a role. There's that minute when the house
22:51
Speaker 1: lights start to dim, when I'm in an absolute panic.
22:54
Speaker 1: And then the curtain went up and I was all right.
22:57
Speaker 1: I was fine. I was Paul Lamon, I was Eric Everard,
23:03
Speaker 1: I was everything, Ivo, Paul said, clapping him on the shoulder.
23:09
Speaker 1: You're a born trooper, yes, Ivo murmured. I'm beginning to
23:12
Speaker 1: think so myself. For the next four weeks, Paul Lamberkin
23:17
Speaker 1: lurked in his room while Ivo Darcy played Paul Lamberkin
23:20
Speaker 1: playing Eric Everard. It's terrific of you to take all
23:23
Speaker 1: this time away from your duties, old chap, Paul said
23:26
Speaker 1: to Ivo one day between the matinee and the evening performances.
23:29
Speaker 1: I really do appreciate it, although I suppose you've managed
23:32
Speaker 1: to squeeze some of them in. I never see you
23:34
Speaker 1: on non matinee afternoons duties, Ivo repeated vacantly, Yes, of
23:40
Speaker 1: course my duties. Let me give you some professional advice, though,
23:44
Speaker 1: be more careful when you take off your make up.
23:47
Speaker 1: There's still some grease paint in the roots of your hair.
23:50
Speaker 1: Sloppy of me, Ivo agreed, getting to work with a towel.
23:53
Speaker 1: I can't understand why you bother to put on the
23:55
Speaker 1: stuff at all, Paul grinned, when all you need to
23:58
Speaker 1: do is just change a little more. I know, Ivo
24:01
Speaker 1: rubbed his temples vigorously. I suppose I just like the
24:05
Speaker 1: smell of the stuff, Ivo, Paul laughed. There's no use
24:11
Speaker 1: in trying to kid me. You are stage struck. I'm
24:14
Speaker 1: sure I have enough pull now to get you a
24:16
Speaker 1: bit part somewhere when I'm up and around again, and
24:18
Speaker 1: then you can get yourself an equity card, maybe, he
24:22
Speaker 1: added amusedly. I can even have you replace Gregory as
24:25
Speaker 1: my understudy. Later in retrospect, Paul thought perhaps there'd been
24:31
Speaker 1: a curious expression in Ivo's eyes, but right then he'd
24:34
Speaker 1: had no inkling that anything untoward was up. He did
24:37
Speaker 1: not find out what had been at the back of
24:38
Speaker 1: Ivo's mind until the Sunday before the Tuesday on which
24:42
Speaker 1: he was planning to resume his role. Lord, it's going
24:45
Speaker 1: to be good to feel that stage under my feet again,
24:48
Speaker 1: he said, as he went through a series of complicated
24:50
Speaker 1: limbering up exercises of his own devisement, which he had
24:53
Speaker 1: sometimes thought of publishing as the Lambercn Time and Motion Studies.
24:57
Speaker 1: It seemed unfair to keep them from other actors. Ivo
25:00
Speaker 1: turned around from the mirror in which you had been
25:02
Speaker 1: contemplating their mutual beauty, Paul, he said, quietly, You're never
25:07
Speaker 1: going to feel that stage under your feet again. Paul
25:10
Speaker 1: sat on the floor and stared at him. You see, Paul,
25:13
Speaker 1: Ivo said, I am Paul Lamberkin. Now. I am more
25:17
Speaker 1: Paul Lamberkin than I was whoever I was on my
25:20
Speaker 1: native planet. I am more Paul Lamberkin than you ever were.
25:25
Speaker 1: You learned the part superficially, Paul, But I really feel it.
25:29
Speaker 1: It's not a part, Paul said, querulously. It's me. I've
25:34
Speaker 1: always been Paul Lamberkin. How can you be sure of that?
25:38
Speaker 1: You've had so many identities, Why should this be the
25:41
Speaker 1: true one? No, you only think you're Paul Lamberkin. I
25:46
Speaker 1: know I am damn it, Paul said, that's the identity
25:50
Speaker 1: in which I've taken out equity membership and be reasonable. Ivo,
25:54
Speaker 1: there can't be two Paul Lamberkin's. Ivo smiled sadly. No, Paul,
25:59
Speaker 1: You're right, there can't. Of course, Paul had known all
26:03
Speaker 1: along that Ivo was not a human being. It was
26:06
Speaker 1: only now, however, that full realization came to him, of
26:09
Speaker 1: what a ruthless alien monster the other was, existing only
26:13
Speaker 1: to gratify his own purposes, unaware that others had a
26:16
Speaker 1: right to exist. Are are you going to dispose of me? Then,
26:22
Speaker 1: Paul asked, faintly, to dispose of you? Yes, Paul, but
26:26
Speaker 1: not to kill you. My kind is killed enough, conquered enough.
26:30
Speaker 1: We have no real population problem. That was just an
26:33
Speaker 1: excuse we made to solve our own consciences. You have consciences,
26:38
Speaker 1: do you. Paul's face twisted in a sneer that he
26:41
Speaker 1: himself sensed right away was overly dramatic and utterly unconvincing.
26:46
Speaker 1: Somehow he could never really be genuine. Off stage, Ivo
26:50
Speaker 1: made a sweeping gesture, don't be bitter, Paul. Of course
26:54
Speaker 1: we do. All intelligent life forms do. It's one of
26:58
Speaker 1: the penalties of sentience for a moment, Paul forgot himself.
27:02
Speaker 1: Watch it, Ivo, you're beginning to ham up your lines.
27:06
Speaker 1: We can institute birth control, Ivo went on his manner subdued.
27:10
Speaker 1: We can build taller buildings. Oh, there are many ways
27:13
Speaker 1: we can cope with the population increase. That's not the problem.
27:16
Speaker 1: The problem is how to divert our creative energies from
27:20
Speaker 1: destruction to construction. And I think I have solved it.
27:24
Speaker 1: How will your people know you have, Paul asked cunningly,
27:28
Speaker 1: Since you say you're not going back, I am not
27:31
Speaker 1: going back to Sirius. Paul, you are. It is you
27:34
Speaker 1: who are going to teach my people the art of
27:36
Speaker 1: peace to replace the art of war. Paul felt himself turn,
27:41
Speaker 1: which was probably a very effective wight. But but I
27:45
Speaker 1: can't even speak the language. I you will learn the
27:47
Speaker 1: language during the journey. I spent those afternoons I was
27:50
Speaker 1: away making a set of Syrian and a jiffy records
27:53
Speaker 1: for you. Syrian's a beautiful language, Paul, much more expressive
27:57
Speaker 1: than any of your Earth languages. You'll like it, I'm
28:00
Speaker 1: sure I shall. But Paul, you are going to bring
28:04
Speaker 1: my people the outlet for self expression they have always needed.
28:08
Speaker 1: You see, I lie to you. The theater unseerrious is
28:11
Speaker 1: not in insfancy. It has never been conceived. If it
28:15
Speaker 1: had been, we would never have become what we are
28:17
Speaker 1: to day. Can you imagine a race like mine, so
28:20
Speaker 1: superbly fitted to practice the dramatic art, remaining in blind
28:24
Speaker 1: ignorance that such an art exists. It does seem a
28:28
Speaker 1: terrible waste. Paul had to agree, although we could not
28:32
Speaker 1: be truly sympathetic just then. But I am hardly equipped.
28:37
Speaker 1: Who is better equipped than you to meet this mighty challenge?
28:41
Speaker 1: Can't you see that, at long last you will be
28:44
Speaker 1: able to achieve your great synthesis of the theatrical arts
28:47
Speaker 1: as producer, teacher, director, actor, playwright, whatever you will, working
28:52
Speaker 1: with a cast of individuals who can assume any shape
28:55
Speaker 1: or form, who have no preconceived notions of what can
28:58
Speaker 1: be done and what cannot. Oh, Paul, what a glorious
29:01
Speaker 1: opportunity awaits you? On serious five? How I envy you? Then?
29:07
Speaker 1: Why don't you do it yourself? Paul asked, Ivo smiled sadly. Again,
29:12
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I do not have your manifold abilities. All I
29:16
Speaker 1: can do is act superbly, of course, But that's all.
29:20
Speaker 1: I don't have the capacity to build a living theater
29:22
Speaker 1: from scratch. You do. I have talent, Paul, but you
29:27
Speaker 1: have genius. It is a temptation, Paul admitted. But to
29:32
Speaker 1: leave my own world? Uh, Paul, Earth isn't your world.
29:36
Speaker 1: You carry yours along with you wherever you go. Your
29:39
Speaker 1: world exists in the mind and heart, not in reality.
29:43
Speaker 1: In any real situation. You're just as uncomfortable on Earth
29:46
Speaker 1: as you would be un serious. Yes, but think of
29:49
Speaker 1: it this way, Paul. You're not leaving your world. You're
29:53
Speaker 1: just leaving Earth to go on the road. It's a
29:55
Speaker 1: longer road, but look at what's waiting for you at
29:58
Speaker 1: the end of it. Yes, yes, Look, Paul said, reality
30:02
Speaker 1: very much to the fore in his mind and heart
30:04
Speaker 1: at that moment, death or vivisection. Paul, Do you believe
30:09
Speaker 1: I'd do that to you? There were tears in Ivo's eyes.
30:13
Speaker 1: If he was acting, he was a great performer. I
30:16
Speaker 1: really am when hell of a good teacher, Paul thought,
30:19
Speaker 1: And with thoughts of raw material like Ivo to work with,
30:21
Speaker 1: I could Could he really mean what he's saying? They
30:25
Speaker 1: won't harm you, Paul, because you will come to serious
30:27
Speaker 1: bearing a message from me. You will tell my people
30:30
Speaker 1: that Earth has a powerful defensive weapon, and you have
30:33
Speaker 1: come to teach them its secret. And it's true, Paul.
30:36
Speaker 1: The theater is your world's most powerful weapon. It's best
30:40
Speaker 1: defense against the universal enemy reality, Ivo, Paul said, you
30:46
Speaker 1: really must check that tendency toward bombast, especially with a
30:50
Speaker 1: purple speech like that. You simply got to learn to underplay.
30:54
Speaker 1: You'll watch out for that when I'm gone, won't you?
30:57
Speaker 1: I will. Ivo's face lighted up. Oh, I will, Paul.
31:02
Speaker 1: I promise never to chew the scenery again. I won't
31:06
Speaker 1: so much as nibble on a prop. The next day,
31:10
Speaker 1: the two of them went up to Bear Mountain, where
31:12
Speaker 1: Ivo's ship had been cashed all those months. Ivo explained
31:16
Speaker 1: to Paul how the controls worked, and showed him where
31:18
Speaker 1: the clean towels were pausing in the airlock. Paul looked
31:22
Speaker 1: back toward Manhattan. I dreamed so many years of seeing
31:25
Speaker 1: my name up in lights on Broadway, he murmured, And
31:28
Speaker 1: now just when I made it, I'll keep it up there,
31:31
Speaker 1: I've avowed, I promise. And meanwhile, you'll be building a
31:35
Speaker 1: new Broadway up there in the stars. Yes, Paul said, dreamily.
31:40
Speaker 1: That is something to look forward to, isn't it? Fresh,
31:43
Speaker 1: enthusiastic audiences, performers untrammeled by tradition, a co operative government,
31:48
Speaker 1: unlimited funds. Why there is a whole wonderful new world
31:52
Speaker 1: opening up before him in another ten years or so.
31:55
Speaker 1: Ivo was saying, Syrian actors will be coming to Earth
31:58
Speaker 1: in droves making when the native performers look sick, Paul
32:02
Speaker 1: smiled wisely. Now, Ivo, you know equity would never stand
32:06
Speaker 1: for that. Equity won't be able to help itself. Public
32:10
Speaker 1: pressure will surge upward in a mounting wave, and Ivo stopped. Sorry,
32:16
Speaker 1: I was ranting again, wasn't I? It's being out in
32:19
Speaker 1: the open air that does it? I need to be
32:21
Speaker 1: bounded by the four walls of a theater. That's a fallacy.
32:24
Speaker 1: Paul began on the Greek stage. Save that for the stars, fella.
32:28
Speaker 1: Ivo smiled, You've got to leave before it gets light.
32:32
Speaker 1: Then he wrung Paul's hand. Goodbye, kid, he said, you'll
32:36
Speaker 1: knock him dead on sirius, goodbye. Ivo. Paul returned the grip.
32:41
Speaker 1: Then he got inside and closed the air locked door
32:43
Speaker 1: behind him. He did hope Ivo would correct that tendency.
32:47
Speaker 1: Toward declamation. On the other hand, it was certainly better
32:50
Speaker 1: than mumbling. Paul put a Syrian in a jiffy record
32:53
Speaker 1: on the turntable because he might as well start to
32:56
Speaker 1: learning the language right away. Of course, he'd have no
32:59
Speaker 1: one to talk to but himself for many months, but then,
33:02
Speaker 1: when all was said and done, he was his own
33:04
Speaker 1: favorite audience. He strapped himself into the acceleration couch and
33:08
Speaker 1: prepared for take off next week East Lynne, he said
33:12
Speaker 1: to himself. End of My Fair Planet by Evelyn E.
33:17
Speaker 1: Smith