Children of Tomorrow (8 page)

and were therefore on either the second, third or fourth stories.

His guess was .,. fourth floor. Because that - Bud had reported to him - was the view floor. By deduction, since Lee David’s father was a fairly high-level space officer, it seemed obvious that the David’s would have one of the better apartments. So up to the fourth floor he went, and then began the search. From window to window he darted, pausing only to make the test, the perception probe, that would apprize him that Bud was inside ... and found him after an indeterminate time - on the fourth floor.

It was unfortunate, then, that the windows were adjusted so that no light emitted through them from inside. And irritating that Bud merely acknowledged his presence, and then ceased his communication. Finally the father could restrain his curiosity no longer.

It is true, my son that I am here primarily as your protector. But I am also interested in the strategy by which outfits operate.
He demanded
What are they doing?

He was aware, then, of those dimly perceived mental processes by which another person showed awareness that he had been derelict of his duty. It was a guilty but excited Bud that replied:
As a courtesy to the Yellow Deer outfit, we're dashing Joe Patton. The Yellow Deer leader, Tom Clanton, is here, to make sure we handle him right.

But what does it mean - dashing?
... Baffled.

He’s got to convince us. But we keep pushing him away.

He's got to convince you that he won't do something again? What?

While the telepathic dialogue between father and son continued. inside the apartment Mike was saying to Joe. ‘My feeling is, you’d sneak off with that slab again if you thought no one would find out.’ Having spoken the negation, he gave Joe a hard push toward one of the other boys of the Red Cat outfit.

This time, Joe refused to accept the rejection. He recovered his balance, and, with lips tightening, attacked Mike. His arms flailed. He staggered forward. His movements were so awkward that Mike had no difficulty avoiding him. In fact, he caught at one of the arms as it passed by him, and using it as a lever, propelled Joe toward Albert. Joe flailed at Albert, who ducked under his arms, caught him around the body, and pushed him toward Lee.

All of a sudden, the repeated imbalance, and what was undoubtedly a cumulative dizziness was too much for Joe. He grew angrier, but had less and less control over his movements. He fell, tried twice to get up, and then lay there on the carpet, giggling. ‘Honest,’ he giggled, ‘it won’t happen again.’

Tom Clanton, a sandy-haired, husky boy of seventeen, who had been standing off to one side, came forward, and said softly
₅
'What’s funny, Joe?’

And that, also, was too much for Joe. He began to laugh wildly, his body twisted on the floor. His eyes rolled. He roared with what was presently obvious hysteria - became silent from exhaustion; mumbled, ‘I just saw myself here, getting dashed because of a slab. That’s funny.’

The girl referred to as a slab - Dolores Munroe - made a face as those words were spoken. She was sitting on a chair near the big window. She leaned forward, and stared at Joe on the floor ten feet away. Her voice projected clear and venomous into the silence created by Joe’s exhaustion: ‘That’s typical outfit courtesy. Blame the woman. The Yellow Deer outfit ought to be called the yellow dog outfit.’

‘Honest,’ said Joe thickly - he seemed to be recovering a little

‘I don’t even like her, the way she is now. She used to be a pretty girl, but the sickness inside her shows on her face; and I shouldn’t ever have become interested in a girl who had that look on her face; and I knew it. And here I am ... in trouble with my friends for that. How crazy can you get?’

‘Joe/ said Dolores, and her voice trembled with rage, “you’re a stinker.’

Tom Clanton stepped closer to Joe, half bent over him. His voice was steady, as he said, ‘Joe, I advise you to pay no attenion to anything that this former jabber says in her present state of mind.’

Joe sat up. The flush was gone from his cheeks and forehead, and there was sincerity in his voice as he said earnestly, ‘Honest, jabbers, it won’t happen again. I mean it.’

Mike came forward in that quick way of his. Lean-bodied and lean-faced, he stood beside Tom Clanton, and glanced around at the circle of faces. “What’s real bad about this is that Joe fell for the come-on of this slab - ’ He made a swift motion toward Dolores. ‘Now, he’s done her harm.’

Dolores’s voice came piercingly from across the room The only person who’s done me harm is that little phony Susan Lane,
^?

Susan, who was standing near the door with Marianne, made a face as those words were spoken. But she said nothing.

Mike turned and gazed somberly at Dolores. ‘Susan will be judged in a few minutes for what she’s done. Then you’ll see how a real jabber handles an outfit facing - the same kind that knocked you for a loop.’

Dolores’s eyes widened. It was evidently new information to her. She said avidly, ‘Susan - judged here tonight. What’d she do?’ Her whole body was changing, almost as if she were expanding. There was suddenly delight in the way she held herself: a genuine, vicious joy. ‘Hey, this I want to see.’

'It’s not a show,’ said Lee from where he stood in the circle of Red Cat members. He did not glance at either Dolores or Susan. But he broke rank at this point, walked over to Joe, and helped him to his feet. To Joe, he said, 'You know this isn’t personal. We’re doing a job for your outfit. You just heard what Mike said. It’s true ... every word. But in my judgement you’ve proved you’re still a jabber.’ He glanced back and around. ‘Anybody here who doesn’t believe that?’

No one spoke. Even Dolores looked straight ahead of her, and could not be bothered to comment. Lee glanced at Tom Clanton, ‘Sack, Tom?’

The Yellow Deer leader nodded. ‘Sack,’ he said. His right hand went out, and caught Joe’s arm. ‘Come along,’ he said.

Except for the opening and closing of the hall door, there was dead silence as the two boys departed. Yet in those minutes the group had broken up. The circle of faces and bodies that had surrounded Joe was scattered. Marianne had been edging toward Mike. Albert had started to follow Lee, and was standing half- turned from what had been the circle. Three other boys had moved just enough so that what had been a pattern was without form. The other two girls, who had been standing on the farther side of Susan, stepped back and leaned against the wall there. Only Bud had remained where he was, near the window.

Lee seemed to be bracing himself. He pressed his lips together, and tightened his shoulders. Moments later, he walked over to Dolores. The girl looked up at him with sullen eyes, but she did not quite look into his eyes. Slightly avoiding his gaze, she said in a defiant tone, ‘Don’t you dare hit me.’

It was one of those wild, meaningless statements. Lee was visibly pained, and a kind of patient impatience showed in his manner. Mike came over, and said,
‘
How about recommending the camp for Dolores? You’ve been holding off on this slab too long.’

Dolores said in a pitying voice. ‘You’re such a child these days, Mike. You don’t seem to realise that I’m practically a woman.’

‘If you’re a woman,’ flashed Mike, “what are you doing snipping around the edges of the outfits?’

Lee laid a
restr
ainin
g
hand on Mike. “Let me handle this.’ He turned to Dolores, said, ‘For months you’ve chosen to be an outsider instead of an outfitter. But, as Mike says, you keep hanging around jabbers. Dolores . , . you’ve got to accept a bid from an outfit and stop all this foolishness.’

‘I’m not joining any outfit,’ said Dolores. ‘In fact’ - she hesitated; even for her it must have been a wild thought, but after a mere moment she made a body gesture of I’ll-show-you, and finished airily - ‘I may be getting married soon.’

Lee was embarrassed for her.
‘Sssshh,’
he said He made a placating, dismissing gesture. ‘Dolores for you - after Joe - we’ve finally got to make a deadline. You broke out of our outfit, and so long as you were merely a nuisance to us we could tolerate and hope. But we’re responsible for the damage you do to other outfits. So, all right - one week. You’ve got a week to become a jabber again.’

‘What if I don’t?’ Defiantly. ‘And I won’t.’

‘We call for help. We turn you over. The camp - like Mike said.’

‘Still under Mike’s thumb, aren’t you?’ said Dolores sweetly. ‘Still echoing his judgements.’ She was totally calm again. ‘I’ll think it over. I’ll see how you handle this companion slab of mine over here.’ She pointed directly at Susan. ‘A fair judgement against her may influence my decision.’

‘The two situations are not related,’ said Lee curtly. ‘Everybody gets his own judgement.’

‘I want to hear hers,’ said Dolores. Her lips curled cynically. She had lost her audience. Mike had walked over to Susan. Seeing him there, Lee turned away from Dolores and started across the room. As he came up, Mike was saying, ‘Lee and I were returning home from the district meeting when we saw that sailor Up-kissing you.’

Susan said simply, ‘He took me by surprise.’ There was a tiny bit of emotion in her voice, the barest edge of shame that she could be in such a predicament, of actually being faced by her outfit. ‘He was extremely strong. I couldn’t move.’

‘I kind’ve believe that,’ said Mike, ‘but the outfit - all except Lee - thinks you should be placed on probation for a week.’

Susan looked shocked. ‘B-but I didn’t do anything,’ she protested. And then she was silent for a moment. ‘What does Lee think?’

‘He,’ said Mike, ‘thinks you didn’t do anything.’

‘I,’ said Lee, who had come up beside his friend, “would like to point out that Susan has been one of our hardest-working jabbers. This is the first time she’s been accused of anything. It’s been outfit policy on an actual first offense to have this short probation system, I have a feeling that Mike is arguing for probation because he has got something about me that he won’t push out. I don’t think Susan should have something against me, against her.’

There was silence. Then one of the usually quiet boys, a brownhaired sixteen-year-old, said, ‘But what was she doing out with a sailor in the first place?’

‘That,’ said Lee, ‘is an unacceptable question. Jabbers have their own world at their homes. Their relatives, the family friends who come there - none of our business, unless something happens.’

Susan volunteered, almost timidly for a girl of her forth-right nature, 'This sailor is my dad’s friend. If mother lets me he wants to take me on a flight Sunday. Is that all right? I was really looking forward to it until he grabbed me. But I cued him on cheek-kissing. I think he heard me.’

Mike was not happy with the prospect of another rendezvous, but he accepted it. ‘You’re free,’ he said curtly. ‘Just follow the rules .. . Sack?’

For Susan it was a limited solution. 'Sack,’ she said reluctantly. Mike gave her a hard look. ‘You’ll swallow the probation?’ Susan actually gulped before she answered. ‘I think it’s unfair,’ she said, “but I’ll swallow it.’-

‘Sack,’ said Mike with satisfaction. Whereupon, he twisted on his heel, and went over to Dolores. “You see,’ he said, ‘how a real jabber swallows her pride and accepts the judgement of the outfit.’

The rebellious expression on Dolores’s face remained unchanged. If anything she became even more contemptuous. ‘I’d give a lot to be as simple and pure as you are, Mike,’ she said. 'But I guess some of us are just smarter, and see the world as it is.’ Her lips tightened. ‘You poor victim, letting that phony Susan convince you she’s innocent - ’

‘That’s enough!’ It was Lee, sharp and hard. He had been standing slightly behind Mike, his face grim. ‘Dolores, you use the word phony once more in this group, and you’ll be in camp in one hour. We’ve got our rules. They don’t include meaningless words.’

There was a long pause. Many emotions darted briefly into Dolores’s eyes and cheeks. Her color changed from olive dark, accentuated by makeup, to a bloodless paleness, and then to a rich, red flush of anger. And yet in the end, she did her overly sweet thing, and said, ‘I’ll swallow that. . .
from you.’

Mike interjected quickly. ‘Dolores with that much of a start, why don’t you swallow all your pride and join an outfit?’

The dark-haired girl stood up. ‘That’s impossible,’ she said, ‘for a woman, Mike.’ She bowed facetiously. ‘Good-bye, Mike, Good-bye, Lee. Good-bye, Marianne ... ’ She went down the line of people,
namin
g
everybody but Susan whom she thus pointedly ignored. Having managed another insult, she walked to the hall door, and opened it. In the doorway, she turned, glared at Susan, and said, ‘I’ll be seeing you on slab row, dear. Welcome to the sisterhood, and remember once a slab, always... ’

She left the sentence unfinished, and facing about, walked out and closed the door behind her. The silence that remained in the room after she had gone, was broken by Lee. He stepped close to Susan. ‘Let me take you home,’ he said.

The tall, blonde girl was actually very glad to have the invitation. But for a little while, as she fought off a need to shed a few tears, her manner was aloof. During that time, most of the outfit departed. Alike and Marianne, except for Susan and Lee, the last two to go out, left the door to the corridor open. Susan walked over to the door, but Lee gestured to her to wait.