Stories by R. A. Lafferty Vol 1 Part 37

"Here come the religious nuts again," Doctor Dismas said. "I may have to kill one of the fools if they keep coming back."

"They won't come here this time," Agar said. "They'll prowl Doolen's Mountain from now on. They know it'll be there. But I don't think they'll kill Ginny. They don't understand what she is. They didn't understand the first time either; they didn't guess that it could possibly be one of thebig ones. We are all hoping that they will kill me and be satisfied and think that they have done it. They will find me there where they think the woman shou1d be, and that may fool them. Well, tootle! We have to hurry with everything or Ginny will be angry."

"No species can count itself secure that has not endured for ten million years," said Dr. Minden. "We still hear that old saying that evolution is irreversible. Hogwats.h.!.+ I have myself studied seven species of hogs washed away before one endured. The human race is so new that it has no stability. The majority of species do not survive, and we have lived only one tenth of the span that would tilt the odds for survival in our favor.

Even the species that finally survive will commonly revert several times before acquiring stability. We could revert at any time."

"Revert to what?"

"To what we were, to what we still are basically, little three-foot-high, big-headed, howling monkeys, without tools, and with only a fifth of our present life span."

"Reversions are like cosmic disasters, Minden. They take a few thousand years to happen, and by that time we'll be gone."

"No, this can happen instantly, Dismas, by a single neotic conception. And then it becomes the norm by the mechanics of mutational inhibition. The reversion will inhibit the old normal. We have already seen that inhibition at work."

The very stones crying out like demented rooks! Bushes barking like coyotes! Green-colored yowling, and laughter that sang like a band-saw. And Ginny was in the middle of them again.

She was the howlingest kid ever pupped.

"I don't think that I will talk any more after today, Father," she said solemnly after she had cut off her other noises. "I think I'll just forget how. I'll just holler and hoot and cary on. That's more fun anyhow.

"Why aren't my servants back with my provisions? They've had almost time to get back if they did everything at breakncck speed and had good luck. They might have had to go to more than one place to get that much bread and peanut b.u.t.ter, though. I doubt if I'll eat it. I just want to have it if I need it, and I wanted to teach them obedience. I'll probably start to eat meadow mice and ground squirrels tomorrow.

"Here comes Mrs. Minden crying over that Krios. What's the good of that?"

There was a keening. Clarinda was running and crying, and Sally Dismas had rushed out of the house and met her.

"Clarinda, what in the world has happened?" Dr. Minden cried, rus.h.i.+ng to his tearful wife.

"Our baby Krios has killed himself."

"I to1d him to," said Ginny. "I'd gotten everything I wanted from him. I'll find better ones for the other times."

"Ginny!" Her mother was horrified. "I'll whip --"

"Don"t punish the child, Sally," Clarinda Minden said. "She's beyond good and evil. Whatever was between her and my baby Krios, it's better that I never know."

"Did I say something wrong?" Ginny asked. "The last thing I ever say, and it should be wrong? Dr. Minden, you know about things like that.

What are you creatures, anyhow?"

"People, Ginny," Dr. Minden said miserably.

"Funny I never saw any of you before. I sure don't intend to get involved with people."

Raucous rowling! Hound-dog hooting! Hissing of badgers, and the clattering giggle of geese! s.h.a.g-tooth shouting and the roaring of baby bulls!

And a screaming monkey leaped and tumbled up the rocks like crazy water.