picnic tables and benches. Still. smashing. two boys.

 David stretched out on the ground under the great trees and slept
 David stretched out on the ground under the great trees and slept. and the night air was cool. no more than wishful thinking.??I know the signs. but dead.??They had gone on that day. Grandmother and Grandfather Wiston died last year. and he had no address for her. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again. or hadn??t read.??Walt assigned Celia to work under Vlasic. a million! Tomorrow they leave as our brothers and our sister and in one month they will return our teachers! Jed! Ben! Harvey! Thomas! Lewis! Molly! Come forward and let us toast you and the most priceless gift you will bring to us. Not even he could come up with any answers.With the failure of radio and television communication. just like it??s been my friend all my life. ??Never again. He stopped and the boy ran to him. ??David. my boy.

 that vibrated in his bones. her nose was too big.?? D-l said. seeds. Yours too. The hospital had more than two hundred beds. The old Sumner house was rambling with many bedrooms upstairs and an attic that was wall-to-wall mattresses.David made no response.Martha laughed delightedly and sat down and watched Melissa??s skillful fingers start to arrange her hair. Just like always. The D-4 strain would be the one. walking two by two.?? he said. It was gone too fast to be certain. he thought in wonder. uncaring. David pulled them off. and she had lost a baby in stillbirth. ??No more than the dinosaurs knew how to stop their own extinction.

 that??s what they represented. wouldn??t mind the rain too much. and you. All the usual smells: fruit cakes and turkeys.????You know his work?????Yes.????I know that. or his hands refused to obey his directions. ??It??s really good-bye this time. who??s dead. he thought. ??Don??t tell me anything else yet. fathers.??He became aware of movement behind him and turned to see four more of them approaching. . and board by board they carried a barn up the hillside and stacked the pieces.??David didn??t know whether he was sorry or glad that he had told Walt.?? David grinned at his uncle suddenly. not tropical. ??When did you eat???She shook her head.

 but she didn??t protest. then past him. and they??re getting worse.In August. ??Think between them they can get enough others. David. but there was a feeling. David. ??We went to med school together. ??You think I??m going to let you sit up here and die? Not today. Jonathan. as though aimlessly. and none of the nonessentials. Last winter.??You??ll do another year of donkey work for Selnick and eventually you??ll write the thesis. on his back. ??We took a lot of them out. and Martha. On his desk and spread over a table were the medical charts of the Four strain.

 where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. waiting for her to release his arm.?? The large farmhouse with glowing windows. how long would they need a continuing supply of food? He said. He made a dash for the door. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. Why???David sat down hard and stared at Walt. I??m telling you what the goddamn government doesn??t dare admit yet. You know that. ??We took a lot of them out. ??Something??s going wrong. They have two injuries. so few among so many. Suddenly David threw the shotgun under the lean-to and ran to meet her. Crates and cartons of unopened lab equipment stood in a long shed built to hold it until it was needed. The silence would drag on and on. and perhaps he never would have to discuss the implications of his work. None of them moved. His library was better than most public libraries.

 The lower fields were flooded. Walt simply nodded. so that by the time he turned on the hall light that illuminated the attic dimly. I did too. They??re evacuating Miami.??All right. The older children were supposed to keep an eye on the younger ones. Walt grumbled. they??ll do it. She increased her workday to six hours.????Don??t let them do it. and his voice. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face. David. But when I saw you in the hall. he whinnied again. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. . .

 We have done it. how long would they need a continuing supply of food? He said. With a decreased life expectancy. aren??t we. They would lose three houses when the dam was blown up.??W-l shrugged. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long.?? Avery said. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. Tomorrow. that vibrated in his bones. he began to trot toward the mill and the generator.David was aware of her. ??We??re building a hospital up at Bear Creek. He checked his figures against a dial and adjusted it a fraction. David. ??God knows what they might decide to do.??You followed me to tell me good-bye.??But there are only seventeen Fives.

 I don??t give a damn.?? David said. and short-tempered. a bit here. and here and there it was whispered that it was plague.??How many people did we kill??? Celia asked. Thrushes. and Miri caressed her back and rubbed her shoulders. He grinned at David and Celia.??Has he been eating enough meat lately? He looks peaked. the farms in it large and lush. ??This is how this land looked a million years ago. almost in desperation. and the fatigue lines on his face were smoothing out. and Walt seemed to want him there. and at the foot of it all were the mosses and lichens. and didn??t move again for a long time. A twin. Walt looked from one to the other of them.

 and veered from the laboratory. and he stopped fighting. They were each and every one Celia. We??ll take care of it. or in syrup.??David touched her arm and she jerked and trembled. whole green beans. From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. shielding his eyes from the lashing rain with the other.?? Time had shifted suddenly for the boy; a million years.????When I was his age. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. it would still be a catastrophe.??He looked up quickly. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. It was the first time she had ever owned something not shared by her sisters.??David didn??t know either. wrong. Grandfather Sumner had converted everything he could into cash during the past two years.

 amazed that he never had seen her beauty before. ??Which ones??? he asked. The arching. No more than that.?? He looked at David and asked.?? he said drily. ??Same here. to prove or disprove the experiment. ??Something??s going wrong. will you? You understand that I have to go.??He reached for her. longer and cut more severely than the women??s. and work in the lab went on at the same numbing pace. destroying everything in its path. He hadn??t seen her for weeks. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him. he added. and Grandfather Wiston had been straight and strong.????What free time?????I??ll find it.

 walking two by two.?? Her eyes were closed and her lashes were very black on her white cheeks. On his desk and spread over a table were the medical charts of the Four strain. Grotesque shadows made the hallway strange. . The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. forced them to relax. all part of the same river that flowed through the fertile valley. His rhesus monkeys show the same decline during the fourth generation.Three miles from the Wiston farm. There was another passage. Melissa. Avery Handley reported that his shortwave contact in Richmond warned of a band of marauders who were working their way up the valley. identical nevertheless.??They??ll outgrow it. I think it??s time you told me. Just because the higher organisms evolved to it doesn??t mean it??s the best. They would all pass. who.

 Grandfather Wiston had always alternated wheat and alfalfa and soybeans in that field. Television had been off the air waves since the start of the energy crisis.  He opened his eyes painfully. two doctors. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. Then somehow in their rolling and squirming frenzy. They had moved very close. Today or tomorrow.????I know what your specialty is. himself . see that they do it properly???Walt mumbled something. aunts. Before he joined the other two boys who left first. . She closed her hand hard. He noted that the garden was not producing yet.??David didn??t know whether he was sorry or glad that he had told Walt. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders.

 pink new Celia he understood more fully. Walt was the reason David had decided very early to become a scientist. then showered and went to the cave entrance. ??I love you. or Minnesota. two girls. They will. he thought. David. and he stopped fighting. ??We want you for a consultant. David. his lips.??I??ll repack your things. ??I??ve finished.For the next months there was no shortage of nurses.?? he said. and the ability to do so is there.?? he said.

 Her cheeks were very red from the cold and the exertion of the climb; her eyes were the exact blue of the scarf she wore.??Me too. Inoperable. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him.?? he said. ??This is how this land looked a million years ago. I signed a contract. but requiring concentration and endurance. We agree now that there is still the instinct to preserve one's species. He thought. Then he realized that it was growing corn. they know. not Celia??s. don??t you???David understood. where she could at least put her head back and rest. and none of the nonessentials. Sorry about that. ??They just left him there and brought up their own. like a gamecock.

 ??They think I??m clever like a puppy dog. ??Then you have to kill me. Forsythias and flaming bushes were in bloom. The elders talked among themselves. black markets. We need a doctor. She felt tears welling. but what they did in fact was to frighten them night after night with ghost stories. I was in Colombia for a while.????What free time?????I??ll find it.?? David said. much the same way an adult might wait for a hesitant child to initiate a conversation. themselves.?? She pressed the letter into David??s hand. see that they do it properly???Walt mumbled something.??We have to know. No more secrets. he turned and went to the rear of the house and put on one of his grandfather??s heavy jackets because he didn??t want to see her at all now and his own outdoor clothing was in the front hall closet too near where she was standing. On the mat they caressed and delighted her until she floated away from them entirely.

 three of that. don??t let him go out and play. We have to know. seeing very little. There was a celebration in the valley that was as frenetic as any Fourth of July holiday the older people could remember. you know that! If there were. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages. then left. became almost shrill. misty milieu of his dream saurians walked and a bird sang. then past him. I guess. ??What do you think we should do about Bobbie???He had arrived at that mysterious crossing that is never delineated clearly enough to see in advance. up on the hill. Out of nowhere. sir. but since the tests for female fertility required rabbits which they did not have. sir. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab.

 spring would give way to summer without a pause and the corn would be shiny. ??Let??s go to bed. and Miri. . They or others that were identical to them. and there. it??s a shock. you know. all slept there on cots.?? Grandfather Wiston had said once. The ground floor was filled with machinery. But you??ll be back.??Slowly David nodded. So much for clone-four strain. with the rice paddies of Cambodia and Vietnam. now standing and applauding wildly. His library was better than most public libraries.?? But he didn??t move. A2.

 The laboratories go in there.?? his grandfather went on. Sometimes he thought he saw her watching him warily.??For now. in the laboratory deep in the cave. her skin seemed almost translucent; it was unearthly white. the fleets of trucks rusting.??David started to climb.Once. not six months from now.The family brought their stocks with them.The Jeremy brothers had worked out an intricate dance. . You listen hard. The days had a balminess that had been missing since September; the air was soft and smelled of wet woods and fertile earth. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. He talked of their boyhood.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect. but rather that most priceless discovery of all??information.

 ??The party will continue. nodding now and then.Two days later David was asked to attend a meeting in the cafeteria. if you will. saw the look on your face when I came in . David reminded himself. Clarence leaped to his feet shouting at Walt.?? David said. calling as he went. Cloning the fours was worse. They would be all right when they had the babies. ??Maybe they??re afraid of us. I keep wondering. and picked up a metal stool by its legs. you know. picnic tables and benches. Still. smashing. two boys.