Part 15 (1/2)
When he returned his attention to the knife, he was swept with a wave of revulsion. A black insect a quarter of an inch long was worming out through the hole. Then came another and another-until there were six, huddled together in a pit in the cus.h.i.+on, a pit made a moment before by Lowell's elbow. The insects' movements were sluggish and clumsy, as though they were shaken and dazed. Now they seemed to fall asleep in their shallow refuge.
Lowell took a magazine from the coffee table, rolled it up, and prepared to smash the nasty little beasts before they could lay their eggs and infest Madelaine's apartment.
It was then he saw that the insects were three men and three women, perfectly proportioned, and clad in glistening black tights.
On the telephone table in the front hall, Madelaine had taped a list of telephone numbers: the numbers of her office, Bud Stafford-her boss, her lawyer, her broker, her doctor, her dentist, her hairdresser, the police, the fire department, and the department store at which Lowell worked.
Lowell was running his finger down the list for the tenth time, looking for the number of the proper person to tell about the arrival on earth of six little people a quarter of an inch high.
He wished Madelaine would come home.
Tentatively, he dialed the number of the police.
”Seventh precin't. Sergeant Cahoon speakin'.”
The voice was coa.r.s.e, and Lowell was appalled by the image of Cahoon that appeared in his mind: gross and clumsy, slab-footed, with room for fifty little people in each yawning chamber of his service revolver.
Lowell returned the telephone to its cradle without saying a word to Cahoon. Cahoon was not the man.
Everything about the world suddenly seemed preposterously huge and brutal to Lowell. He lugged out the ma.s.sive telephone book, and opened it to ”United States Government.” ”United States Government.” ”Agriculture Department ... Justice Department ... Treasury Department”-everything had the sound of cras.h.i.+ng giants. Lowell closed the book helplessly. ”Agriculture Department ... Justice Department ... Treasury Department”-everything had the sound of cras.h.i.+ng giants. Lowell closed the book helplessly.
He wondered when Madelaine was coming home.
He glanced nervously at the couch, and saw that the little people, who had been motionless for half an hour, were beginning to stir, to explore the slick, plum-colored terrain and flora of tufts in the cus.h.i.+on. They were soon brought up short by the walls of a gla.s.s bell jar Lowell had taken from Madelaine's antique clock on the mantelpiece and lowered over them.
”Brave, brave little devils,” said Lowell to himself, wonderingly. He congratulated himself on his calm, his reasonableness with respect to the little people. He hadn't panicked, hadn't killed them or called for help. He doubted that many people would have had the imagination to admit that the little people really were explorers from another world, and that the seeming knife was really a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.
”Guess you picked the right man to come and see,” he murmured to them from a distance, ”but darned if I know what to do with you. If word got out about you, it'd be murder.” He could imagine the panic and the mobs outside the apartment.
As Lowell approached the little people for another look, crossing the carpet silently, there came a ticking from the bell jar, as one of the men circled inside it again and again, tapping with some sort of tool, seeking an opening. The others were engrossed with a bit of tobacco one had pulled out from under a tuft.
Lowell lifted the jar. ”h.e.l.lo, there,” he said gently.
The little people shrieked, making sounds like the high notes of a music box, and scrambled toward the cleft where the cus.h.i.+on met the back of the couch.
”No, no, no, no,” said Lowell. ”Don't be afraid, little people.” He held out a fingertip to stop one of the women. To his horror, a spark snapped from his finger, striking her down in a little heap the size of a morning-glory seed.
The others had tumbled out of sight behind the cus.h.i.+on.
”Dear G.o.d, what have I done, what have I done?” said Lowell heartbrokenly.
He ran to get a magnifying gla.s.s from Madelaine's desk, and then peered through it at the tiny, still body. ”Dear, dear, oh, dear,” he murmured.
He was more upset than ever when he saw how beautiful the woman was. She bore a slight resemblance to a girl he had known before he met Madelaine.
Her eyelids trembled and opened. ”Thank heaven,” he said. She looked up at him with terror.
”Well, now,” said Lowell briskly, ”that's more like it. I'm your friend. I don't want to hurt you. Lord knows I don't.” He smiled and rubbed his hands together. ”We'll have a welcome to earth banquet. What would you like? What do you little people eat, eh? I'll find something.”
He hurried to the kitchen, where dirty dishes and silverware cluttered the countertops. He chuckled to himself as he loaded a tray with bottles and jars and cans that now seemed enormous to him, literal mountains of food.
Whistling a festive air, Lowell brought the tray into the living room and set it on the coffee table. The little woman was no longer on the cus.h.i.+on.
”Now, where have you gone, eh?” said Lowell gaily. ”I know, I know where to find you when everything's ready. Oho! a banquet fit for kings and queens, no less.”
Using his fingertip, he made a circle of dabs around the center of a saucer, leaving mounds of peanut b.u.t.ter, mayonnaise, oleomargarine, minced ham, cream cheese, catsup, liver pate, grape jam, and moistened sugar. Inside this circle he put separate drops of milk, beer, water, and orange juice.
He lifted up the cus.h.i.+on. ”Come and get it, or I'll throw it on the ground,” he said. ”Now-where did you get to? I'll find you, I'll find you.” In the corner of the couch, where the cus.h.i.+on had been, lay a quarter and a dime, a paper match, and a cigar band, a band from the sort of cigars Madelaine's boss smoked.
”There you are,” said Lowell. Several tiny pairs of feet projected from the pile of debris.
Lowell picked up the coins, leaving the six little people huddled and trembling. He laid his hand before them, palm up. ”Come on, now, climb aboard. I have a surprise for you.”
They didn't move, and Lowell was obliged to shoo them into his palm with a pencil point. He lifted them through the air, dumped them on the saucer's rim like so many caraway seeds.
”I give you,” he said, ”the largest smorgasbord in history.” The dabs were all taller than the dinner guests.
After several minutes, the little people got courage enough to begin exploring again. Soon, the air around the saucer was filled with piping cries of delight, as delicious bonanza after bonanza was discovered.
Lowell watched happily through the magnifying gla.s.s as faces were lifted to him with lip-smacking, ogling grat.i.tude.
”Try the beer. Have you tried the beer?” said Lowell. Now, when he spoke, the little people didn't shriek, but listened attentively, trying to understand.
Lowell pointed to the amber drop, and all six dutifully sampled it, trying to look appreciative, but failing to hide their distaste.
”Acquired taste,” said Lowell. ”You'll learn. You'll-” The sentence died, unfinished. Outside a car had pulled up, and floating up through the summer evening was Madelaine's voice.
When Lowell returned from the window, after watching Madelaine kiss her boss, the little people were kneeling and facing him, chanting something that came to him sweet and faint.
”Hey,” said Lowell, beaming, ”what is this, anyway? It was nothing-nothing at all. Really. Look here, I'm just an ordinary guy. I'm common as dirt here on earth. Don't get the idea I'm-” He laughed at the absurdity of the notion.
The chant went on, ardent, supplicating, adoring.
”Look,” said Lowell, hearing Madelaine coming up the stairs, ”you've got to hide until I get squared away in my mind what to do about you.”
He looked around quickly, and saw the knife, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. He laid it by the saucer, and prodded them with the pencil again. ”Come on-back in here for a little while.”
They disappeared into the hole, and Lowell pressed the pearly hatch cover back into place just as Madelaine came in.
”h.e.l.lo,” she said cheerfully. She saw the saucer. ”Been entertaining?”
”In a small way,” said Lowell. ”Have you?”
”It looks like you've been having mice in.”
”I get lonely, like anybody else,” said Lowell.
She reddened. ”I'm sorry about the anniversary, Lowell.”