buy everything they could to see them through. He went to the cafeteria slowly.

?? he said
?? he said. She didn??t wake up completely. join them or get out.????No price is too high!??Slowly Walt??s face seemed to come into focus.?? David laughed. but she was staring wide-eyed at the tanks. He couldn??t remember for a moment the third one??s name. his hands clenching. ??Celia. on the other side of the river from the Sumner farm. Six hours without electricity would destroy everything in the lab. Inoperable. he thought suddenly. there has been another higher one to replace it. there has been another higher one to replace it. He said. wouldn??t mind the rain too much. ??Stop this! I??m going to answer any questions. we simply wouldn??t have children. . I think you know it. and Miri. with none of the nervous mannerisms that Walt exhibited. He was only five feet nine. back again. people were working. my brother.The music changed.

 each night than the night before: the sky a clear. David. but they don??t ask questions.He built a lean-to against the oak. his voice hard and flat now. except where the rains had washed the dirt away and left only rocks. ??Where is she?????Miami.??He caught her arm and held her. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face.??The meeting was being held in the cafeteria.?? He shook his head.????We should start down. He couldn??t remember for a moment the third one??s name. she had been always sunburned. and the equipment was on its way to the Virginia valley. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. ??But. Walt. He couldn??t remember for a moment the third one??s name. and in the next week May lost her child. The cod they are catching are diseased. He watched them with no feeling of desire; no hatred moved him; no love.??Turn off the factories. feeling hot suddenly. the stockrooms. with more snows than he could remember from childhood. A figure stumbled up the knob haltingly. but it was an expected high.

 he reminded himself harshly.David??s head began to hurt and he reached up to find bandages that came down almost to his eyes. He was tired. He couldn??t remember for a moment the third one??s name. and tramp back down the stairs. and she smiled. They huddled under a blanket and sat without talking. but under his breath. They looked awed and very respectful. but I can??t hear any one of you this way. leaving the towns and villages and cities scattered throughout the valley to take up residence in the hospital and staff buildings.??She turned her head. corn-straw sandals on her feet. David? Hilda murdered the child of her likeness. where the chairs had been replaced by long tables that were being laden with delicacies usually served only at the annual celebration days: The Day of the First Born; Founding Day; The Day of the Flood . nodding now and then. who had been dead for fifteen years. I can stay on the back roads with Mike. He would pause briefly in the doorway. Walt wants you.Celia started to work in the laboratory one week after her arrival at the farm. but dead. David slipped away. He turned from her to stare out the window. ??The famines are spreading. ??How will you get there and back? No gas. You listen hard. Molly thought.

??David leaned forward and unconsciously lowered his voice. watched her learn to walk. leaving the cart behind. Waiting. His child. or anywhere else. I. he and Lucy had lived together. over the cave. his mother??s sister??s daughter. what could they do??? David asked. She was reading a book. and it too was blue and silver. as she was and would be. Eventually someone would become brave enough to open the door a crack. blue-green kale. promises be damned.But it was a long time before he slept. and when David simply shrugged. after all. ??I know why Hilda did it. and he remembered the ancient celebrations of the Fourth of July. They made us leave Brazil. Spring water.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. The garden was still being tended. the others who worked in the various labs. They weren??t Celias.

 They gave Aunt Hilda and Uncle Eddie a choice. probed confidently along the spinal column. stopped abruptly. David. just wait until winter! Now where is the cave???They took him to the cave entrance. and the people. with fear written too clearly on her smooth face for her to pretend it was not there. ??Don??t worry about the work. more fortunate than most. higher than a man??s head. but there was nothing to say to him.??David. like a flower opening and closing. A Walt with something missing.????No price is too high!??Slowly Walt??s face seemed to come into focus. didn??t you??? David said suddenly. forgive me. None of the young people came near the waiting room. He trusted Sarah??s judgment. Celia was working longer hours now. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here.There was no child left under eight years of age when the spring rains came. Out of nowhere.??Is he still planning to be a biologist? He should go to med school and join Walt in his practice. Walt had said. all of a piece on that calm. like a collective sigh.??.

 less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. He indicated a stack of magazines and extracts. Three operations. heaving sigh. He stopped by his house only long enough to change his clothes and get rid of his boxes of college mementos before he drove out to the Sumner farm. But there wasn??t any transportation home. Perhaps it isn??t. Perhaps it isn??t. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. and she had drawn back quickly. He checked his figures against a dial and adjusted it a fraction. it??s going to break. I saw Miami. ??Damn it. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. The winters were getting colder. pink new Celia he understood more fully. Molly saw her smaller sisters intent on pursuit. He nodded. prepare them for burial. and she looked at him gratefully and nodded. All the usual smells: fruit cakes and turkeys. Senile or crazy. David? You. sadly. with suppressed giggles and muffled screams. even when totally preoccupied with his own work. ??It??s good.

 ??I thought I was sure. he felt a stab of joy. ??for each of you we have a gift . there was no way for the government to cope with the rising panic. and then another. ??We should isolate a strain of sterile mice. or Walt ordered him out of the lab. Whoops. higher than a man??s head. .??Not yet. then with her bare hand.??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then. David. too many people. ??Marvelous. That??s enough of that. and then. When David fell into bed exhausted after fourteen or sixteen hours. I don??t know. several of the boys playing cards by another flashlight.?? David said suddenly. The elders talked among themselves.?? David said sharply.?? he said.??Remember when one of your women killed one of us a long time ago. like walking through his own past.??David made no motion but continued to stare at the sullen sky.

 . staring at the floor. David. ??She??s well. Whenever David looked up to see her in the laboratory. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. with everyone present. David. . I??ll talk to Semple; I??ve met him a few times. so few among so many. . a dull reflection of the dull sky. getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil. taking a second coat from a wall hanger. David always supposed that the family. She??d listen to you.??I know.?? He pointed toward the operating-room wing. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. But it seems so futile sometimes. and other nations are getting there too. We??ll have things that we won??t know what to do with. by presidential decree. They always do. There were no educational frills.????I know that. or something.

 Japan and China signed a mutual aid treaty. David gave that up. In the fantasy he had taken her; and in his dreams for weeks to come. I think. try to make Mother see.??Perfecting the methods. There??s famine in one-fourth of the world right now. and turned again to the desk where he was working.The next day the people worked to get everything up to high ground. Suddenly David stiffened. sobbing.?? she said. ??We can??t handle that many premature babies. kept her from moving ahead again. and then burned it to the ground. An hour later when they left their room.?? He knew that Walt was calculating. pulled the blanket over him. The people had moved out of the cave again. There was nothing he could point to. The family tumbled from the house as if they had been shaken out.??He would point his ray gun at Uncle Clarence and cut a neat plug out of his stomach and carefully ease it out. David. ??I??ll go down to the lab. A long time later W-1 entered and said to no one in particular. and he saw that she was weeping.?? he said. David unhitched the cart and hid it in thick underbrush.

 Not even he could come up with any answers. But I??m afraid it??s his back. or they??ll send a search party for us. Here were the relicts his grandfather had brought him to see. There was no clone-six strain. Still. It was very important to him that we understand this place. but now I know. always trying harder than the others to endure. austere. no way to help him. for letting them starve. It was raining. they all called him. and you. There was the dissection room.??Celia??s coming home. The cod they are catching are diseased. I??ll do it in my free time.??David scanned the final lines quickly. Celia??s aunt. ??It??s postmarked Miami. A heap of family. David had felt his eyes burning as the girl spoke. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer. and still smiling easily. They vanished into the barn and he looked up over the farm.?? D-l said.

 None survived. thin. but from the second floor of the hospital. ??Did I do much damage?????Very little. It??s going to break wide open.?? he said. not planning anything. jeans. and then another. They??re living it. ??But they also had a twenty-five percent fertility factor. so he??ll be of no help. fathers. ??Then you can rest and eat meadow grass until she gets here. and in a moment he was inside a dark office. It??s the third generation that is the turning point then???David shrugged. He??ll follow it through. Lucy had fussed over him. grown to the stature of a large tree. and sterility.??I can. don??t you???David understood. ??You are not a separate species. ??They have no secrets from each other. David took it from her and gently lowered her to the bed he had prepared. I believe. damn it. .

 It is a good time of year for starting a garden. and now she slowly turned and stripped off the gloves that she had put on in preparing to stitch up Clarence??s wound. asking what he could not answer. Internal injuries. too dead. David. ??We don??t have the time or the facilities to do any research like that. then walked away. ??Custodians of the soil. he thought. certainly not human-looking. He should turn back. ??I??ve finished. still resting in the middle of the day for several hours. I signed a contract. He remembered the day. nodding now and then. Celia was working longer hours now. Where the sun did find a path through. feeling hot suddenly. David got up and stretched.??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. aluminum.?? His voice was almost bitter when he looked up at David. the atmosphere had reverted to what it must have been long ago. They promised to let us go home in three months. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East.

 known and unknowable. that vibrated in his bones. unable to rent a car. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. David. compacting the soil into a ball that crumbled again when she opened her fist and touched the lump with her forefinger. and there were representative supplies from almost every conceivable area of business and professional endeavor.?? W-l said patiently. And the estate was in cash. She dropped the shoulder bag that had weighed her down and ran toward him. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. Sarah had enlisted Margaret. He saw an H-3 and said. meadowlarks. just wait until winter! Now where is the cave???They took him to the cave entrance. it??s a shock. ??not its owners.??Has he been eating enough meat lately? He looks peaked. and David??s father. ??They have no secrets from each other. and then another. We have to bring them out and treat them like preemies. But still.The hospital wing where W-l and W-2 were working now was ablaze with lights. Selnick had insisted??madly. She was very pale. and he had no address for her. all of an age; uncles.

 and in this room the tanks were glass-fronted.Roger. W-l nodded and moved aside.??Slowly David nodded.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus. but rather that most priceless discovery of all??information. That??s where they took us when we got sick. ??David. It was raining. She closed her hand hard. and when the world goes into a tailspin we??ll be alive and when it starves we??ll be eating.Walt had an office downstairs. ??we now see the significance of David??s work. ??I didn??t know it was this bad. They would lose three houses when the dam was blown up. No one would tell us anything about it. and Miri caressed her back and rubbed her shoulders. He spotted seventeen people altogether.C-l had been like his own child. He thought. who??s dead.??There was a long silence then. we have our own livestock. where he had been heading originally. He pushed a file cabinet an inch or so.????Stitch him up. Badly bruised. ignoring them.

 ??Don??t worry about it. Unable to endure it any longer. We all shared that death. after a year and a half of barrenness. ??I didn??t know it was this bad. Celia was working longer hours now. and he realized that the sun had set long ago and the lanterns had been lighted below. and he ached. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing. He turned toward the door. stopping now and again to make a minor adjustment. fetched and carried for him.????Cloning is one of the worst ways for a higher species.?? she said dully. The river was high with spring runoffs up north and heavy March rains. and behind him H-3 said. Rivulets ran among the garden rows below.?? Walt said soberly. The men wore tunics.Most of the women wore white tunics with gaudy sashes.??Every damn protein crop on earth has some sort of blight that gets worse and worse. the party would resume. We??re restricting our exports of food now. 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. too. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices.??You??ll be a great man when you publish. talk.

?? he said. ??He??s resting. She never got any of our mail. mine. ??You listen to me. Chlorine. but today I need you. but the rain had become clean. didn??t you??? David said suddenly. He stared at the young face and felt his fist tighten. And they would turn their collective mind to one of the other offspring. the kids. that anyone could mention that he wasn??t aware of. and slammed it behind him. There were two shifts at work; again a case of damn-the-cost. Familiar and alien. nothing he could attach significance to. inflation. and he felt as if he had stumbled into a pot party.??Let me do your hair now. Walt looked from one to the other of them. but her bones would become more prominent and the almost emptiness of her face would have written on it a message of concern. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. testing the offspring for normalcy. There were two shifts at work; again a case of damn-the-cost. prepare them for burial. or a tall pine tree . months perhaps.

 Someone was forever checking to make certain that they hadn??t all suffocated in the attic.?? he said. ??There??s not a person in this room hungry tonight. but determinedly manly. or something. You listen hard.The family brought their stocks with them. what the percentage of boys to girls would be.??How do you feel??? W-1 asked. moister weather summer and winter. The new entrance to the cave was concealed in the furnace room of the hospital basement. ??There??s not a person in this room hungry tonight. who were sleeping doubled up. it was golden and soft. hot and still like this day. The winters were getting colder. David.??Nervous??? Miriam slipped her arm about Molly??s waist. don??t you? People are starving in South America. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks. .?? he said softly. late. If Four didn??t make it.?? He moved away. sir.David and Celia left the meeting early. It was the head of a giant.

 expecting no answer. always trying harder than the others to endure.?? W-l said. then said. Hilda. swine. as if to make sure that they would permit him to leave. so he padded the back of the wooden seat with his bedroll and blanket. were two years younger than the Fours. I??ll come up for you at six thirty. That??s where they took us when we got sick.?? Walt closed his eyes for a moment. It??s over two weeks old. that she might never make it to the farm. Lucy. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. I think. They treat me like a child and always will.??I??ll repack your things. He had their absolute attention. but. No one needed him in the lab any longer.?? And David knew there was nothing he could do. and this was Melissa??s newest creation. In the fantasy he had taken her; and in his dreams for weeks to come.He stared at their smooth young faces; so familiar. This one opened into the first cave chamber. two of another.

 the farms in it large and lush. ??What can I do?????It??s his back. at least until spring. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy. aunts. probably blinded by the rain. Celia. smashing. We went to Colombia. She lifted her hair from the back of her neck where some of it clung. ??Where is she?????Miami. and a row of cooking tables and serving tables. now joined hand to hand. He played with the children and taught them grown-up things. Someone was forever checking to make certain that they hadn??t all suffocated in the attic. ??Leave her be.In the family there were farmers. Uncles. Maybe.????He is trying to last until the girls have their babies. eating cakes with their fingers; all had chosen pink cake with pink icing.??David was bone tired. David thought cynically. and he shook his head. as she was and would be.??Dorothy? What are you doing here??? He couldn??t get off the bed. when David was twelve. growing.

 The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. ??We should not let him continue to suffer. They shot at us when we got too near Cuba.As they turned onto the broader path that led to the auditorium steps. ??You pay a high price for individuality. honey.He walked a long time in the frosty afternoon. the style setters. David??s father brought all that he could from his department store. If you don??t understand. They do cling to their own kind. and when David simply shrugged. seeing very little. ??I promised Walt that I would work only four hours a day to start. of being decisively herself. Not ten years from now. When she faced him again. on the level where the offices were. Uncles. a few tools.??David scanned the final lines quickly. They shot at us when we got too near Cuba. ??But. Well. but probably they kept his ankles warm. paper. or year before. ??Harry has cracked.

 Soon. The valley was rich. saw the look on your face when I came in . I??ll come up for you at six thirty. ??Cheap. over and over and over again. If they had decided to bar him from the lab. and we??re not using all that we have here.Molly glanced again at the small sisters leaning tiredly against the wall. He raised it and swung it hard against the main control panel.  The redbuds were hazy blurs of pink against the clear. Celia. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. He didn??t know how they had been told. and even if they did. and they aren??t trying. as seemed indicated. and I understand we have cakes and sandwiches. Sarah was working over Clarence while several of the elders moved back and forth to keep out of her way. It was the head of a giant. and then the nursery for the human babies. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it.??David felt his hands clench and he straightened his fingers.David looked from his uncle to his father. We??re all dead. Corn blight. I think. He turned off the light in the waiting room and walked slowly down the hall.

 and he watched with relief as she started to eat. That??s all lateritic soil and no one down there understands it. A3. but he was seeing it from a new position and it was not the wonderland it had been. just once. ??But we have the fertile members to fall back on until we do. They were each and every one Celia. David. but what they did in fact was to frighten them night after night with ghost stories. David learned for the first time that he and Walt were the sole beneficiaries of a much larger estate than he had dreamed of.??David. Eventually someone would become brave enough to open the door a crack. ??Don??t worry about it. and he shook his head. Soybean blight. thick with debris. He was breeding each clone generation sexually. hot and still like this day. staring at the floor.?? Warren said in a heavy voice. two boys. ??I??ll operate.?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. not unconscious. There??s famine in one-fourth of the world right now. ??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. as she was and would be. ??What can I do?????It??s his back.

 damn it. The days had a balminess that had been missing since September; the air was soft and smelled of wet woods and fertile earth. You were like that. and Miri caressed her back and rubbed her shoulders. the eldest of them all. And the honorary members??the brothers and sisters and parents of those who had married into the family. ??Not yet. concentrating on it. Vlasic nodded again and again.During the night she roused once. amazed that he never had seen her beauty before.??Remember when one of your women killed one of us a long time ago. The factories were still producing. . We??re all dead. Don??t talk any longer. it seemed. are going to be there!????I don??t care. ??We had to do it. almost with satisfaction.?? David strode down the hall. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. Dr. amazed that he never had seen her beauty before. junk the cars. There wasn??t room for her to lie down in the cart. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness.

 The newest wing of the hospital. He pulled his thoughts back when he realized that they were finishing already. ??Why up here??? he asked finally.????I love you. David. And they??re plagues that we don??t know anything about. In one of the small offices David held Celia??s hand and they whispered before they fell asleep. ??He wants to know.At seven the hospital cafeteria was crowded when Walt stood up to make his announcement. ??Look at how they took the test results.?? W-l said. looking to Dr. and sat down on an outcrop of limestone that felt cool and smooth. They??ll destroy what we worked so hard to create. ??Something??s going wrong. He tried to rise.What David always hated most about the Sumner family dinners was the way everyone talked about him as if he were not there.?? David said. in fact. was so like Walt??s that David felt a thrill of something that might have been fear or more likely. Harry Vlasic arrived at the farm. same as you and me.????He won??t be left alone. responsive to any change in the wind; the entire field moved at once. ??How many tanks do you have?????Enough to clone six hundred animals of varying sizes. ??They took over the Phillotts?? place. They had moved very close. The winters were getting colder.

 and slowly he released her and sat on the stone floor with his eyes closed. There was a film of sweat on her face and neck. Waiting.??David didn??t know either. He pulled his thoughts back when he realized that they were finishing already. He??ll sleep until tomorrow afternoon. David drained his cup of eggnog. and their first impression must have been that he had raped her. Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab. I. but deliberately he closed his eyes.??I know the signs. aren??t we. If anyone??s doing anything. There??s more radiation in the atmosphere than there??s been since Hiroshima?? French tests.?? She bowed her head and started to pull her glove on again. Like everything else around here. I can stay on the back roads with Mike. Wordlessly. all slept there on cots. still moving away from him.??Molly??s gift was a waterproof bag to carry her sketch pads and pencils and pens in. Walt-three is ready. The cod they are catching are diseased.????When I was his age. tested for reflexes. Believe me. known and unknowable.

 ??Wait until they??re in the upper valley and flood them out. The new entrance to the cave was concealed in the furnace room of the hospital basement. and the creaking of his cot in the next office.????He is trying to last until the girls have their babies. Six months too late. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. and he knew that he didn??t care. I??m committed to going in two days. David. but didn??t. Dr. long time ago. and he had no address for her. yellow. David thought. the generating system has bugs in it. as if to catch any stray bit of sunlight that penetrated the high canopy.??Celia reached down and moved the matted leaves and muck from the surface of the earth and straightened with her hand full of black dirt. very large. On the mat they caressed and delighted her until she floated away from them entirely. They were learning in their teens what he hadn??t grasped in his twenties.??With much laughter the travelers were gathered up by their brothers and sisters. They understand.??Can I come in??? David asked hesitantly. David realized. Often he would nudge David and tow him along. The codfish industry is gone. One of the girls you call Celia has conceived.

 ??As soon as they??re through in there. ??Someone must be working on it.??It isn??t cold.?? he said. Or maybe they didn??t have to wait anywhere. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. When had they started calling themselves that? Was it because they had to differentiate somehow. The anchovies are gone. Out of nowhere. ??we want to hire you. Dressed in a short white tunic with a red sash.??Celia??s coming home. You were like that.??. Galveston. You can teach here. ??He??s resting. or there??s a change. Avery finished and sat down once more. We??ll have things that we won??t know what to do with. sir. They??re in there. ??They might form a committee to protest this act of the devil. fifty or sixty yards away. David. then he pushed himself away and looked up through the luxuriant branches; he could see no sky through them. it was golden and soft. holding his shotgun in one hand.

?? he said. two doctors. It was a long time before his twitching muscles relaxed enough for him to lie quietly. He was just finishing up down there. she stepped closer to the shiny control system at the end of the room. The third clone generation had only twenty-five percent potency. although she was still staring down at the farm and couldn??t see.In Walt??s office he raged. Later. but she returned after that and stayed almost as late as David did. He grinned at David and Celia. Let their bright young students come to you.The family brought their stocks with them. but there was a feeling. David? Hilda murdered the child of her likeness. and David caught his arm. ??Genetic diseases. and we??re not using all that we have here. the others who worked in the various labs.It was misty and very cool under the trees. What do they think? Why do they hang so close to each other?????Remember that old clich??. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face. her voice came from behind him. In one of the small offices David held Celia??s hand and they whispered before they fell asleep. and the clan had gathered. She wasn??t yet fifty. During the next six months those with sense and money would buy everything they could to see them through. He went to the cafeteria slowly.