New Folks' Home: And Other Stories (The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak Book 6) (36 page)

They’d throw him out before he had the sentence finished.

He called Doc Ames, and Doc told him that everything was all right, that Cooper had bought a lot of back-issue science fiction magazines and was going through them, cataloguing story themes and variant ideas. He seemed happy in this pastime and calmer than he’d been for weeks.

When Charley hung up, he found that his hands were shaking and he suddenly was cold all over, for he felt positive that he knew what Cooper was doing with those piles of magazines.

He sat in the one comfortable chair in his rented room and thought furiously, turning over and over the plots that he had run across in his science fiction reading. While there were some that might apply, he rejected them because they didn’t fit into the pattern of his fear.

It wasn’t until then that he realized he’d been so busy worrying about Cooper that he hadn’t been paying attention to the recent magazines. Cold fear gripped him that there might be something in the current issues that might apply most neatly.

He’d have to buy all the magazines he could find, and give them a good, fast check.

But he got busy at one thing and another and it was almost a week before he got around to buying them. By that time his fear had subsided to some extent. Trudging home with the magazines clutched beneath his arm, he decided that he would put aside his worry for one night at least and read for enjoyment.

That evening he settled himself in the comfortable chair and stacked the magazines beside him. He took the first one off the top of the stack and opened it, noting with some pleasure that the lead-off story was by a favorite author.

It was a grim affair about an Earthman holding an outpost against terrific odds. He read the next one … about a starship that hit a space warp and got hurled into another universe.

The third was about the Earth being threatened by a terrible war and how the hero solved the crisis by bringing about a condition which outlawed electricity, making it impossible in the Universe. Without electricity, planes couldn’t fly and tanks couldn’t move and guns couldn’t be sighted in, so there was no war.

Charley sat in the chair like a stricken man. The magazine dropped from his fingers to the floor and he stared across the room at the opposite wall with terror in his eyes, knowing that Cooper Jackson would have read that story, too.

After a while Charley got up and telephoned Doc.

“I’m worried, Charley,” Doc told him. “Coop has disappeared.”

“Disappeared!”

“We’ve tried to keep it quiet. Didn’t want to stir up any fuss—the way Coop is and all. There might be too many questions.”

“You’re looking for him?”

“We’re looking for him,” Doc said, “as quietly as we can. We have scoured the countryside and we’ve sent out wires to police officials and missing person bureaus.”

“You’ve got to find him, Doc!”

“We’re doing all we can.” Doc sounded tired and a bit bewildered.

“But where could he have gone?” asked Charley. “He doesn’t have any money, does he? He can’t stay hiding out too long without …”

“Coop can get money any time he wants it. He can get anything he wants any time he wants it.”

“I see what you mean,” said Charley.

“I’ll keep in touch,” said Doc.

“Is there anything …?”

“Not a thing,” said Doc. “Not a thing that anyone can do. We can wait. That’s all.”

That was months ago, and Charley is still waiting.

Cooper’s still missing and there’s no trace of him.

So Charley waits and worries.

And the thing he worries about is Cooper’s lack of a formal education, his utter lack of certain basic common knowledge.

There is one hope, of course—that Cooper, if and when he decides to act, will make his action retroactive, going back in time to outlaw not electricity itself, but Man’s discovery of electricity. For, disrupting and terrible as that might be, it would be better than the other way.

But Charley’s afraid that Cooper won’t see the necessity for retroactive action. He’s afraid that Cooper won’t realize that, when you outlaw electricity, you can’t limit it to the current that runs through a wire to light a lamp or turn an engine. When you rule out electricity as a natural phenomenon, you rule out
all
electricity, and that means you rule out an integral part of atomic structure. And that you affect not only this Earth but the entire Universe.

So Charley sits and worries and waits for the flicker of the lamp beside his chair.

Although he realizes, of course, that when it comes there won’t be any flicker.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016 the Estate of Clifford D. Simak

All stories reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.

“New Folks’ Home” © 1963 by The Conde Nast Publications, Inc. © 1991 by the Estate of Clifford D. Simak. Original appearance in
Analog Science Fact-Science Fiction
, v. 71, no. 5, July, 1963.

“The Questing of Foster Adams” © 1953 by King-Size Publications, Inc. © 1981 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Fantastic Universe
, v. 1, no. 2, Aug.-Sept., 1953.

“Hermit of Mars” © 1939 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © 1967 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Astounding Science-Fiction
, v. 23, no. 4, June, 1939.

“Worlds Without End” © 1956 by Columbia Publications, Inc. © 1984 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Future Science Fiction
, no. 31, Winter 1956-1957.

“Barb Wire Brings Bullets!” © 1945 by Fictioneers, Inc. © 1973 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Ace-High Western Stories
, v. 10, no. 3, Nov., 1945.

“Second Childhood” © 1950 by World Editions, Inc. © 1978 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Galaxy Science Fiction
, v. 1, no. 5, Feb., 1951.

“You’ll Never Go Home Again” © 1951 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. © 1979 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Fantastic Adventures
, v. 13, no. 7, July, 1951. Subsequently reprinted under title “Beachhead.”

“Sunspot Purge” © 1940 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © 1968 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Astounding Science-Fiction
, v. 26, no. 3, Nov., 1940.

“Drop Dead” © 1956 by Galaxy Publishing Corp. © 1984 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Galaxy Science Fiction
, v. 12, no. 3, July, 1956.

“Worrywart” © 1953 by Galaxy Publishing Corp. © 1981 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in
Galaxy Science Fiction
, v. 6, no. 6, Sept., 1953.

Introduction copyright © 2015 by David W. Wixon

Cover design by Jason Gabbert

978-1-5040-2318-4

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