Part 17 (2/2)

Several cults now grew up around the monster. One persistent belief held that it was a devil or d.a.m.ned soul forced to appear on Earth in torment to expiate the catastrophe of three centuries back.

Others believed that it, or he, was some kind of messenger whose roar portended either doom or hope according to the believer. One very vocal sect taught that the apparition registered the moral conduct of the townspeople over the past year, and scrutinized the annual apparition for changes which could be interpreted for good or ill. It was considered lucky, or dangerous, to be touched by some of the dust raised by the monster. In every generation at least one small boy would try to hit the monster with a stick, usually acquiring a broken arm and a lifelong tavern tale. Pelting the monster with stones or other objects was a popular sport, and for some years people systematically flung prayers and flowers at it. Once a party tried to net it and were left with strings and vapor. The area itself had long since been fenced off at the center of the park.

Through all this the monster made his violently enigmatic annual appearance, sprawled furiously motionless, unreachably roaring.

Only as the fourth century of the new era went by was it apparent that the monster had been changing slightly. He was now no longer on the earth but had an arm and a leg thrust upward in a kicking or flailing gesture. As the years pa.s.sed he began to change more quickly until at the end of the century he had risen to a contorted crouching pose, arms outflung as if frozen in gyration. His roar, too, seemed somewhat differently pitched and the earth after him smoked more and more.

It was then widely felt that the man-monster was about to do something, to make some definitive manifestation, and a series of natural disasters and marvels gave support to a vigorous cult teaching this doctrine. Several religious leaders journeyed to the town to observe the apparitions.

However, the decades pa.s.sed and the man-monster did nothing more than turn slowly in place, so that he now appeared to be in the act of sliding or staggering while pus.h.i.+ng himself backwards like a creature blown before a gale. No wind, of course, could be felt, and presently the general climate quieted and nothing came of it all.

Early in the fifth century New Calendar three survey parties from the North Central Authority came through the area and stopped to observe the monster. A permanent recording device was set up at the site, after a.s.surances to the townfolk that no hardscience was involved. A local boy was trained to operate it; he quit when his girl left him but another volunteered. At this time nearly everyone believed that the apparition was a man, or the ghost of one. The record-machine boy and a few others including the school mechanics teacher referred to him as The Man John. In the next decades the roads were greatly improved; all forms of travel increased and there was talk of building a ca.n.a.l to what had been the Snake River.

One May morning at the end of Century Five a young couple in a smart green mule-trap came jogging up the highroad from the Sandreas Rift Range to the southwest. The girl was golden-skinned and chatted with her young husband in a language unlike that ever heard by the Man John either at the end or the beginning of his life. What she said to him has, however, been heard in every age and tongue.

”Oh Serli, I'm so glad we're taking this trip now! Next summer I'll be so busy with baby!”

To which Serli replied as young husbands often have, and so they trotted up to the town's inn. Here they left trap and bags and went in search of her uncle who was expecting them there. The morrow was the day of the Man John's annual appearance, and her Uncle Laban had come from the MacKenzie History Museum to observe it and to make certain arrangements.

They found him with the town school instructor of mechanics, who was also the recorder at the monster-site. Presently Uncle Laban took them all with him to the town mayor's office to meet with various religious personages. The mayor was not unaware of tourist values, but he took Uncle Laban's part in securing the cultists' grudging a.s.sent to the MacKenzie authorities' secular interpretation of the monster, which was made easier by the fact that they disagreed among themselves. Then, seeing howpretty the niece was, the mayor took them all home to dinner.

When they returned to the inn for the night it was abrawl with holiday-makers.

”Whew,” said Uncle Laban. ”I've talked myself dry, sister's daughter. What a weight of holy nonsense is that Moksha female! Serli, my lad, I know you have questions. Let me hand you this to read, it's the guide book we're giving 'em to sell. Tomorrow I'll answer for it all.” And he disappeared into the crowded tavern.

So Serli and his bride took the pamphlet upstairs to bed with them, but it was not until the next morning at breakfast that they found time to read it.

” 'All that is known of John Delgano,' ” read Serli with his mouth full, ” 'comes from two doc.u.ments left by his brother Carl Delgano in the archives of the MacKenzie Group in the early years after the holocaust.' Put some honey on this cake, Mira my dove. 'Verbatim transcript follows, this is Carl Delgano speaking: ” 'I'm not an engineer or an astronaut like John, I ran an electronics repair shop in Salt Lake City.

John was only trained as a s.p.a.ceman, he never got to s.p.a.ce; the slump wiped all that out. So he tied up with this commercial group who were leasing part of Bonneville. They wanted a man for some kind of hard vacuum tests, that's all I knew about it. John and his wife moved to Bonneville, but we all got together several times a year, our wives were like sisters. John had two kids, Clara and Paul.

” 'The tests were supposed to be secret, but John told me confidentially they were trying for an anti-gravity chamber. I don't know if it ever worked. That was the year before.

” 'Then that winter they came down for Christmas and John said they had something new. He was really excited. A temporal displacement, he called it; some kind of time effect. He said their chief honcho was like a real mad scientist. Big ideas. He kept adding more angles every time some other project would quit and leave equipment he could lease. No, I don't know who the top company was-maybe an insurance conglomerate, they had all the cash, didn't they? I guess they'd pay to catch a look at the future, that figures. Anyway, John was go, go, go. Katharine was scared, that's natural. She pictured him like, you know, H.G. Wells-walking around in some future world. John told her it wasn't like that at all.

All they'd get would be this kind of flicker, like a second or two. All kinds of complications'-Yes, yes, my greedy piglet, some brew for me too. This is thirsty work!

”So. I remember I asked him, what about the Earth moving? I mean, you could come back in a different place, right? He said they had that all figured. A spatial trajectory. Katharine was so scared we dropped it. John told her, don't worry, I'll come home. But he didn't. Not that it makes any difference, or course, everything was wiped out. Salt Lake too. The only reason I'm here is that I went up by Calgary to see Mom, April twenty-ninth. May second it all blew. I didn't find you folks at MacKenzie until July. I guess I may as well stay. That's all I know about John, except that he was an all-right guy. If that accident started all this it wasn't his fault.

” 'The second doc.u.ment'-In the name of love, little mother, do I have to read all this? Oh very well, but you will kiss me first, madam. Must you look so ineffable? 'The second doc.u.ment. Dated in the year eighteen, New Style, written by Carl'-see the old handwriting, my plump pigeon? Oh, very well, very well.

”Written at Bonneville Crater: 'I have seen my brother John Delgano. When I knew I had the rad sickness I came down here to look around. Salt Lake's still hot. So I hiked up here by Bonneville. You can see the crater where the labs were, it's gra.s.sed over. It's different, not radioactive; my film's o.k.

There's a bare place in the middle. Some Indios here told me a monster shows up here every year in the spring. I saw it myself a couple of days after I got here but I was too far away to see much, except I was sure it's a man. In a vacuum suit. There was a lot of noise and dust, took me by surprise. It was all over in a second. I figured it's pretty close to the day, I mean, May second, old.

” 'So I hung around a year and he showed up again yesterday. I was on the face side and I could see his face through the faceplate. It's John all right. He's hurt. I saw blood on his mouth and his suit isfrayed some. He's lying on the ground. He didn't move while I could see him but the dust boiled up, like a man sliding onto base without moving. His eyes are open like he was looking. I don't understand it anyway, but I know it's John, not a ghost. He was in exactly the same position each time and there's a loud crack like thunder and another sound like a siren, very fast. And on ozone smell, and smoke. I felt a kind of shudder.

” 'I know it's John there and I think he's alive. I have to leave here now to take this back while I can still walk. I think somebody should come here and see. Maybe you can help John. Signed, Carl Delgano.

” 'These records were kept by the MacKenzie Group but it was not for several years'-Etcetera, first light-print, etcetera, archives, a.n.a.lysts, etcetera-very good! Now it is time to meet your uncle, my edible one, after we go upstairs for just a moment.”

”No, Serli, I will wait for you downstairs,” said Mira prudently.

When they came into the town park Uncle Laban was directing the installation of a large durite slab in front of the enclosure around the Man John's appearance-spot. The slab was wrapped in a curtain to await the official unveiling. Townspeople and tourists and children thronged the walks and a Ride-for-G.o.d choir was singing in the bandsh.e.l.l. The morning was warming up fast. Vendors hawked ices and straw toys of the monster and flowers and good-luck confetti to throw at him. Another religious group stood by in dark robes; they belonged to the Repentance church beyond the park. Their pastor was directing somber glares at the crowd in general and Mira's uncle in particular.

Three official-looking strangers who had been at the inn came up and introduced themselves to Uncle Laban as observers from Alberta Central. They went on into the tent which had been erected over the enclosure, carrying with them several pieces of equipment which the townfolk eyed suspiciously.

The mechanics teacher finished organizing a squad of students to protect the slab's curtain, and Mira and Serli and Laban went on into the tent. It was much hotter inside. Benches were set in rings around a railed enclosure about twenty feet in diameter. Inside the railing the earth was bare and scuffed. Several bunches of flowers and blooming poinciana branches leaned against the rail. The only thing inside the rail was a rough sandstone rock with markings etched on it.

Just as they came in a small girl raced across the open center and was yelled at by everybody. The officials from Alberta were busy at one side of the rail, where the light-print box was mounted.

”Oh, no,” muttered Mira's uncle, as one of the officials leaned over to set up a tripod stand inside the rails. He adjusted it and a huge horse-tail of fine feathery filaments blossomed out and eddied through the center of the s.p.a.ce.

”Oh no,” Laban said again. ”Why can't they let it be?”

”They're trying to pick up dust from his suit, is that right?” Serli asked.

”Yes, insane. Did you get time to read?”

”Oh yes,” said Serli.

”Sort of,” added Mira.

”Then you know. He's falling. Trying to check his-well, call it velocity. Trying to slow down. He must have slipped or stumbled. We're getting pretty close to when he lost his footing and started to fall.

What did it? Did somebody trip him?” Laban looked from Mira to Serli, dead serious now. ”How would you like to be the one who made John Delgano fall?”

”Ooh,” said Mira in quick sympathy. Then she said, ”Oh.”

”You mean,” asked Serli, ”whoever made him fall caused all the, caused-”

”Possible,” said Laban.

”Wait a minute.” Serli frowned. ”He did fall. So somebody had to do it-I mean, he has to trip or whatever. If he doesn't fall the past would all be changed, wouldn't it? No war, no-””Possible,” Laban repeated. ”G.o.d knows. All I know is that John Delgano and the s.p.a.ce around him is the most unstable, improbable, highly charged area ever known on Earth and I'm d.a.m.ned if I think anybody should go poking sticks in it.”

”Oh come now, Laban!” One of the Alberta men joined them, smiling. ”Our dust-mop couldn't trip a gnat. It's just vitreous monofilaments.”

”Dust from the future,” grumbled Laban. ”What's it going to tell you? That the future has dust in it?”

”If we could only get a trace from that thing in his hand.”

”In his hand?” asked Mira. Serli started leafing hurriedly through the pamphlet.

”We've had a recording a.n.a.lyzer aimed at it,” the Albertan lowered his voice, glancing around. ”A spectroscope. We know there's something there, or was. Can't get a decent reading. It's severely deteriorated.”

”People poking at him, grabbing at him,” Laban muttered. ”You-”

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