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14 - Year of the Big Thaw · Famous Sci-Fi Stories Collection

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Speaker 1: Year of the Big Thaw by Marion Zimmer Bradley. This
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Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Year of the Big Thaw by Marion
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Speaker 1: Zimmer Bradley. In this warm and fanciful story of a
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Speaker 1: Connecticut farmer, Marion zimmer Bradley has caught some of the
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Speaker 1: glory that is in man's love for man, no matter
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Speaker 1: who he is, nor whence he's from. By heck, you'll
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Speaker 1: like little matt You say that Matthew is your own son,
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Speaker 1: mister Emmett, Yes, Reverend Don and a better boy never
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Speaker 1: stepped if I do say it is, shouldn't. I've trusted
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Speaker 1: him to drive team for me since he was eleven,
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Speaker 1: and you can't say more than that for a farm boy.
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Speaker 1: Way back when he was a little shaver so high.
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Speaker 1: When the war came on, he was bounding. He was
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Speaker 1: going to sail with the Admiral Farragut. You know boys
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Speaker 1: that age like runaway colts. I couldn't see no good
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Speaker 1: in his being cabin boy on some tarnation Navy ship.
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Speaker 1: And I told him so if he waited to sail
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Speaker 1: out on a whaling ship, I low, I'd have to
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Speaker 1: let him go. But Marthy, that's the boy's mom, took on,
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Speaker 1: so that Matt stayed home. Yes, he's a good boy
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Speaker 1: and a good son. Will miss him a powerful lot
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Speaker 1: if he gets the scholarship thing, But I low it'll
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Speaker 1: be good for the boy to get some learnin' besides
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Speaker 1: what he gets in the school. Here. It's right kind
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Speaker 1: of you, Reverend, to look over this application thing for me. Well,
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Speaker 1: if he is your own son, mister Emmett, why did
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Speaker 1: you write birthplace unknown on the line here, Reverend Don,
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Speaker 1: I'm glad you asked me that question. I've been turning
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Speaker 1: it over in my mind, and I've just about come
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Speaker 1: to the conclusion it wouldn't be no how fair to
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Speaker 1: hold it back. I didn't lie when I said Matt
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Speaker 1: was my son, because he's been a good son to
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Speaker 1: me and Marthy. But I'm not his paw and Marthy
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Speaker 1: ain't his maw. So could be I stretched the truth
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Speaker 1: just a mite, Reverend Done. It's a tarnal, funny yarn,
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Speaker 1: but I'll walk into the meetin' house and swear to it.
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Speaker 1: On a stack of bibles as thick as a cord
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Speaker 1: of wood. You know, I've been farming the old Corning
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Speaker 1: place these past seven years. It's good flat Connecticut bottom land.
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Speaker 1: But it isn't like our land up in Hampshire where
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Speaker 1: I was born and raised. My paw called it the
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Speaker 1: Hampshire Grant, and all that was King's land when his
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Speaker 1: paw came in there and started farming. At the foot
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Speaker 1: of Scuttick Mountain. That's engine for fires, folks say, because
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Speaker 1: the engines used to build fires up there in the
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Speaker 1: spring for some of their heathen do dads. Anyhow, up
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Speaker 1: there in the mountains we see a tarnal power of
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Speaker 1: queer things. You call to mind the year we had
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Speaker 1: the big thaw about twelve years before the war. You
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Speaker 1: mind the blizzard that year. I heard tell it spread
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Speaker 1: down most to York and at Fort Orange, the place
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Speaker 1: they call Albany now the Hudson froze right over, so
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Speaker 1: they say. But those York folks do a sight of exaggerating,
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Speaker 1: I'm told. Anyhow, when the ice went out there was
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Speaker 1: an almighty good thaw all over, And when the snow
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Speaker 1: run off Scuttic Mountain there was a good sized unk
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Speaker 1: of farmland in our valley went under water. The creek
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Speaker 1: on my farm flowed over the bank, and there was
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Speaker 1: a foot of water in the cow shed, and down
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Speaker 1: in the swimming hole in the back pasture wasn't nothing
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Speaker 1: but a big gully fifty foot and more across rushing
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Speaker 1: through that pasture, deep as a lake, and brown as
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Speaker 1: the old cow you know, fresh at floods, full up
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Speaker 1: with sticks and stones and old dead trees, and somebody's
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Speaker 1: old shed floating down the middle. And I swear to goodness, Parson,
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Speaker 1: that stream was running along so fast. I saw four
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Speaker 1: inch cobblestones floating and bumping along. I tied the cow
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Speaker 1: and the calf and Kate. She was our white mare,
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Speaker 1: you mind. She went lame last year and I had
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Speaker 1: to shoot her. But she was just a young mare then,
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Speaker 1: and skittish as all get out, But she was a
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Speaker 1: good little mare anyhow. I tied the whole kit and
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Speaker 1: kaboodle of them in the woodshed up behind the house,
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Speaker 1: where they'd be dry. Then I started to get the
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Speaker 1: milk pail. Right then I heard the gosh awful oft
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Speaker 1: screech I ever heard in my life. Sounded like thunder
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Speaker 1: and a foreshet and a forest fire all at once.
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Speaker 1: I dropped the milk pail. I heard Marvie's scream inside
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Speaker 1: the house, and I run outside. Marvie was already there
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Speaker 1: in the yard, and she points up in the sky
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Speaker 1: and yelled, look up yonder. We stood looking up the
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Speaker 1: sky over Shattuck Mountain, where there was a great, big shoot.
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Speaker 1: Now I don't know as I can call its name,
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Speaker 1: but it was like a trail of fire in the sky,
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Speaker 1: and it was making the dangus racket you ever heard.
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Speaker 1: Reverend looked kind of like one of them fourth of
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Speaker 1: julyas skyrockets, but it was a big as a house.
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Speaker 1: Marthe was screaming, and she grabbed me and hollered, HEZ,
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Speaker 1: what in tunket is it? And when Marthy cusses like that, Reverend,
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Speaker 1: she don't know what she sang. She's so scared. I
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Speaker 1: was plumb scared myself. I heard Liza. That's our young'un
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Speaker 1: Liza Grace. They got married to the tailor boy. I
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Speaker 1: heard her crying on the stoop, and she came flying
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Speaker 1: out with her penny all black, and hollered to Marthe
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Speaker 1: that the pea soup was burning. Marthy let out another
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Speaker 1: screech and ran for the house. That's a woman for you.
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Speaker 1: So I quieted Liza down some and I went in
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Speaker 1: and told marthe it warn't no more than one of
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Speaker 1: them shooting stars. Then I went and did the milking.
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Speaker 1: But you know, while we were sitting down to supper,
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Speaker 1: there came the most awful, grinding, screeching, pounding crash I
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Speaker 1: ever heard. Sounded if it were in the back pasture.
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Speaker 1: But the house shook as if something had hit it.
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Speaker 1: Marthy jumped a mile and I never saw such a
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Speaker 1: look on her face. Hez, what was that? She asked?
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Speaker 1: Shoot now, nothing but the freshet, I told her, but
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Speaker 1: she kept on about it. You reckon that shooting star
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Speaker 1: fell and our back pasture has well. Now, I don't
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Speaker 1: know it did nothing like that, I told her, But
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Speaker 1: she was jittery as an old hen, and it warn't
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Speaker 1: like her nohow. She said it sounded like trouble. And
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Speaker 1: I finally quieted her down by saying I'd saddle Kate
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Speaker 1: up and go have a look. I kind of thought,
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Speaker 1: though I didn't tell Marvie that somebody's house had floated
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Speaker 1: away in the freshet and run aground in our back pasture.
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Speaker 1: So I saddled up Kate and I told Marthy to
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Speaker 1: get some hot rum ready in case there was some
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Speaker 1: poor soul run aground back there, and I rode Kate
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Speaker 1: back to the back pasture. It was mostly uphill because
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Speaker 1: the top of the pasture is on high ground, and
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Speaker 1: it sloped down to the creek on the other side
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Speaker 1: of the rise. Well. I reached the top of the
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Speaker 1: hill and looked down the creek, where a regular river
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Speaker 1: now rushing along like Niagar. On the other side of
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Speaker 1: it was a stand of timber, then the slope of
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Speaker 1: Shattuck Mountain, and I saw right away the long streak
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Speaker 1: where all the timber had been cut out in a
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Speaker 1: big scoop, with roots standing up in the air and
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Speaker 1: a big side of rocks down the water. It was
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Speaker 1: still raining a mite, and the ground was sloshy and
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Speaker 1: squanchy underfoot. Kate scrunched hoofs and got real bulky, not
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Speaker 1: liking it a bit. When we got to the top
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Speaker 1: of the pasture, she started to whine and wicker and stamp,
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Speaker 1: and no matter how loud I wowed, she kept on stamping,
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Speaker 1: and I was plump, scared she'd pitch me off in
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Speaker 1: the mud. Then I started to smell a funny smell,
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Speaker 1: like something burning. Now, don't ask me how anything could
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Speaker 1: burn in all that water, because I don't know. When
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Speaker 1: we came up on the rise, I saw the contraption, Reverend.
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Speaker 1: It was the most tarnal, crazy contraption I ever saw
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Speaker 1: in my life. It was bigger nor my cowshd and
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Speaker 1: it was long and thin and as shiny as Marthy's
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Speaker 1: old pewter pitcher her mob brought from England. It had
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Speaker 1: a pair of red rods sticking out behind, and a
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Speaker 1: crazy globe fitted up where the top ought to be.
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Speaker 1: It was stuck in the mud, turned halfway over on
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Speaker 1: the little slide of roots and rocks, and I could
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Speaker 1: see what had happened. All right, the thing must have been. Now, Reverend,
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Speaker 1: you can say what you like, but that thing must
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Speaker 1: have flew across she took and landed on the slope
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Speaker 1: in the trees, then turned over and slid down the hill.
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Speaker 1: That must have been the crash we heard. The rods
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Speaker 1: weren't just red, they were red hot. I could hear
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Speaker 1: them sizzle as the rain hit them. In the middle
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Speaker 1: of the infernal contraption. There was a door, and it
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Speaker 1: hung all to others, as if every hinge on it
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Speaker 1: had been wrenched halfway off. As I pushed Old Kate
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Speaker 1: alongside it, I heard somebody hollering alongside the contraption. I
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Speaker 1: didn't know how get the words, but it must have
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Speaker 1: been for help, because I looked down and there was
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Speaker 1: a man a flopping along in the water. He was
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Speaker 1: a big fellow, and he wasn't swimming, just thrashing and hollering.
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Speaker 1: So I pulled off my coat in boots and hove
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Speaker 1: in after him. The stream was running fast, but he
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Speaker 1: was near the edge, and I managed to catch on
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Speaker 1: to an old tree root and hang on, keeping his
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Speaker 1: head out of the water till I got my feet aground.
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Speaker 1: Then I hauled him onto the bank. Up above me,
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Speaker 1: Kate was still winnying and raising ned, and I shouted
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Speaker 1: at her as I bent over the man. Well, Reverend,
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Speaker 1: he sure did give me a surprise. Warn't no proper
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Speaker 1: man i'd ever seed before. He was wearing some kind
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Speaker 1: of red clothes, real shiny and sort of stretchy, and
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Speaker 1: not wet from the water like you'd expect, but dry,
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Speaker 1: and it felt like the silk, an Indian rubber stuffed
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Speaker 1: mixed together, and it was such a bright red that
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Speaker 1: at first I didn't see the blood on it. When
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Speaker 1: I did, I knew he were a goner. His chest
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Speaker 1: were all stove in, smashed to pieces. One of the
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Speaker 1: old tree roots must have jabbed him as the current
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Speaker 1: flung him down. I thought he were dead already, But
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Speaker 1: then he opened his eyes a funny color. They were
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Speaker 1: greeny yellow, and I swear, Reverend, when he opened them eyes,
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Speaker 1: I felt he was reading my mind. I thought maybe
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Speaker 1: he might be one of them circus fellers in their
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Speaker 1: flying contraptions that hang at the bottom of a balloon.
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Speaker 1: He spoke to me in English, kind of choky and stiff,
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Speaker 1: not like Joe the Portuguese sailor, or like those tarnal
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Speaker 1: dumb frenchies up Kennedy Way, but well funny. He said,
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Speaker 1: my baby, and she get baby. He tried to say more,
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Speaker 1: but his eyes were shut and he moaned hard. I yelped, God,
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Speaker 1: a mighty excuse me, Reverend, but I was so blame
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Speaker 1: upset that just what I did, say, God, a mighty man,
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Speaker 1: you mean there's a baby in there ding full contraption?
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Speaker 1: He just moaned. So after spreading my coat around the
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Speaker 1: man and a little bit, I just plunged in that
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Speaker 1: there river again, Reverend. I heard tell once about some
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Speaker 1: tomful idiot going over Niagara in a barrel, And I
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Speaker 1: tell you it was like that. When I tried crossing
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Speaker 1: that freshet to reach the contraption, I went under and
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Speaker 1: down and was whacked by floating sticks and whirled around
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Speaker 1: in the forshet. But somehow, I don't know how, except
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Speaker 1: by the pure grace of God, I got across that
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Speaker 1: raging torrent and clumb up to where that crazy ding
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Speaker 1: fought machine was sitting. Ship he called it. But that
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Speaker 1: weren't no ship, Reverend. It was some flying dragon kind
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Speaker 1: of thing. It was a real scary looking thing. But
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Speaker 1: I clumb up to the little door and hauled myself
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Speaker 1: inside it, and sure enough there was other people in
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Speaker 1: the cabin, only they was all dead. There was a
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Speaker 1: lady and a man, and some kind of an animal
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Speaker 1: looked like a bobcat, only smaller, with a funny shaped
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Speaker 1: rooster comb thing on its head. They all, even the
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Speaker 1: cat thing, was wearing those shiny, stretchy clothes, and they
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Speaker 1: all was so battered and smashed. I didn't even bother
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Speaker 1: to hunt for their heartbeats. I could see by the
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Speaker 1: look they was dead as a door knell. Then I
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Speaker 1: heard a funny little whimper like a kitten, and in
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Speaker 1: a funny rubber cushi thing, there's a little boy baby
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Speaker 1: looked about six months old. He was howling lusty enough,
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Speaker 1: And when I lifted him out of the cradle kind
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Speaker 1: of thing, I saw why that boy baby he was
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Speaker 1: wet and his little arm was twisted under him. That
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Speaker 1: there flying contraption must have smashed down awful hard, But
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Speaker 1: that rubber hammock was so soft and cushny. All it
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Speaker 1: did to him was jolt him good. I looked around,
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Speaker 1: but I couldn't find anything to wrap him in, and
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Speaker 1: the baby didn't have a stitch on him except a
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Speaker 1: sort of spongy paper diaper wet as sin. So I
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Speaker 1: finally lifted up the lady who had a long cape
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Speaker 1: thing around her, and I took the cape off her
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Speaker 1: real gentle. I knew she was dead and she wouldn't
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Speaker 1: be needing it, and that boy baby would catch his
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Speaker 1: death if I took him out bare naked like that.
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Speaker 1: She was probably the baby's mom, a right, pretty woman
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Speaker 1: she was, but smashed up something shameful. So anyhow, to
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Speaker 1: make a long story short, I got that baby back
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Speaker 1: across the Niagara Fall somehow and laid him down by
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Speaker 1: his ball. The man opened his eyes kind and said,
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Speaker 1: in a chalky voice, take care baby. I told him
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Speaker 1: I would, and I said I'd try to get him
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Speaker 1: up to the house where Marthy could doctor him. The
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Speaker 1: man told me not to bother I dying. He says,
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Speaker 1: we come from planet Star up there crash here. His
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Speaker 1: voice trailed off into a language I couldn't understand, and
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Speaker 1: he looked like he was praying. I bent over him
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Speaker 1: and held his head on my knees real easy, and
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Speaker 1: I said, don't worry, mister. I'll take care of your
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Speaker 1: little fella until your folks come after him. Before God
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Speaker 1: I will. So the man closed his eyes and I said,
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Speaker 1: our Father, which art in heaven. And when I got
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Speaker 1: through he was dead. I got him up on kate,
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Speaker 1: but he was cruel heavy for all he was such
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Speaker 1: a tall, skinny fellow. Then I wrapped that there baby
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Speaker 1: up in the cape thing and took him home and
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Speaker 1: give him to Marthy. And the next day I buried
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Speaker 1: the fellow and the South Metter, and next meetin day
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Speaker 1: we had the baby baptized, Matthew Daniel Emmett, and brung
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Speaker 1: him up just like our own kids. That's all all,
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Speaker 1: mister Emmett. Didn't you ever find out where that ship
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Speaker 1: really came from? Why, Reverend he said it, I'm from
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Speaker 1: a star dying men don't lie, you know that. I
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Speaker 1: asked the teacher about them planets he mentioned, and she
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Speaker 1: says that on one of those planets, can't rightly remember
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Speaker 1: the name March or Mark or something like that. She says,
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Speaker 1: some big scientist fella with a telescope saw canals on
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Speaker 1: that planet, and they'd have to be pretty near as
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Speaker 1: big as this here eerie canal to see them so
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Speaker 1: far off. And if they could build canals on that planet,
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Speaker 1: I'd know why they couldn't build a flying machine. I
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Speaker 1: went back the next day, when the water was down
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Speaker 1: a little, to see if I couldn't get the rest
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Speaker 1: of them folks and bury them. But the flying machine
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Speaker 1: had broke up and washed down the creek. Marthe still
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Speaker 1: got the cape thing. She's a powerful saving woman. We
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Speaker 1: never did tell Matt though, might make him feel funny
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Speaker 1: to think he didn't really belong to us, But mister Emmett,
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Speaker 1: didn't anybody ask questions about the baby where you got it? Well, now,
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Speaker 1: I'll low there was curious because Marthy hadn't been in
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Speaker 1: the family way, and they knew it. But up here
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Speaker 1: folks mind their own business pretty well, and I just
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Speaker 1: let them wonder. I told Eliza Grace I'd found her
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Speaker 1: new little brother in the back pasture, and of course
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Speaker 1: it was the truth. When Liza Grace growed up, she
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Speaker 1: thought it was just one of them yarns old folks
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Speaker 1: tell the little shavers. And has Matthew ever shown any
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Speaker 1: differences from the other children that you could see? Well,
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Speaker 1: the reverend not so you could notice it. He's powerful smart,
19:53
Speaker 1: but his real paw and maw must have been right
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Speaker 1: smart to build a flying contraption that could come so far.
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Speaker 1: Of course, when he were about twelve years old, he
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Speaker 1: started reading folks minds, which didn't seem exactly right. He
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Speaker 1: did tell marthe what I was thinking and things like that.
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Speaker 1: He was just at the pesky age. Liza Grace and
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Speaker 1: Minnie were both at courtin then, and he'd drive their
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Speaker 1: boyfriend's crazy telling them what Liza Grace and Minnie were
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Speaker 1: a thinkin' and tease the gals by telling them what
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Speaker 1: the boys were thinking about. There warn't no harm in
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Speaker 1: the boy, though. It was all teasing, but it just
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Speaker 1: warn't decent somehow, So I took him out behind the
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Speaker 1: woodshed and gave his breeches a good dustin, just to
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Speaker 1: remind him that kind of thing warn't polite. Nohow, and
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Speaker 1: Reverend Doane, he ain't never done it since. End of
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Speaker 1: Year of the Big Thaw by Marion Zimmer Bradley