Sci Fiction Classics Volume 4 (78 page)

BOOK: Sci Fiction Classics Volume 4
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Scene VI.
Statue of Liberty, holding up a sword. Same voice: "At
last, just as Britain has its Neptunia ruling the waves, just as France
has its 'La belle dame sans merci,' now America has Mrs. Liberty,
welcoming the storm-tossed aliens." (Karl Rossman passes.) "Welcome!
Welcome to the melting pot!"

Scene VII.
(Animation) Cauldron marked
MELTING
POT
. Ladle pours in liquefied "masses." Cauldron slowly sags and
melts.

A Special Message from the President

The president's black-and-white image appeared on the television screen
surrounded by a black condolence border. He seemed almost too humble to
have a clear image. Instead the fuzzy, bleached patches of his face, oddly
patterned by liver spots and furrows, gave him the look of a soiled
etching.

"My countrymen, it is a grave announcement that I must make to you this
evening. What I am about to say is a block of sadness and grief in the
neighborhood of my heart, as I am sure it will be in yours.

"Tonight several nuclear explosions occurred at different places along the
population barrier between the United States and Mexico. These explosions,
let me make this perfectly dear, were accidental. No one is to blame. No
one could have avoided them. Certain technical failures in our security
system set off a chain of events—and Nature took its course.

"Still, there's no denying that many thousands, millions, rather, of
people have been killed. Since these bombs were located on top of
high-rise retirement ranches and on top of mental hospitals, they have
killed many unfortunate persons, and that is to be regretted. It is also
regrettable that a lethal zone has been created along our border."

The black border vanished. Jubilant music swelled behind his voice as our
leader intoned: "On the positive side, very few of our troops in the area
were injured. The army reports only a dozen casualties. Some of Will
Doody's Funville projects have been destroyed, but I am going to ask
Congress to compensate Mr. Doody for this terrible loss. As for the Wall
itself, it has been badly burned and cratered in spots. Luckily it
protects our border yet with a barrier of radiation. For the present, we
are vigilant but safe. And for the future?"

Suddenly the air about the grey President was filled with tiny,
bright-colored figures: animated elves, fairies, butterflies and
bluebirds, tiny pink bats in spangled hose, flying chipmunks and dancing
dragonflies. Smiling, he too burst into color. "The future is ours, my
countrymen! We will rebuild our Wall taller and stronger and safer than
ever, so secure that it will last a thousand years! Come! Help me make
this country strong!" He extended an arm upon which doves and butterflies
were alighting already. And as the chorus sang "… from sea to
shining sea," twittering bluebirds modestly covered the scene with a
Star-Spangled Curtain.

Epilogue

Ras turned up again in Red Square, conspicuous in a black cape and a tall
silk hat. The cane in his hand was a sword cane, naturally, and the
whiskers hooked over his ears on spectacle bows. A tourist gaped for a
moment as Ras harangued a crowd of pigeons.

When he'd finished, he produced a round black bomb, lit it, and tossed it
into the crowd. Its small pop was enough to attract the notice of two
yawning policemen, who came over to examine the three dead pigeons.

As, still stifling yawns, they escorted him away, Ras shouted slogans into
the faces of other tourists. Probably they knew no English, for they
stared sullenly, all but one man, who sought an explanation in his
guidebook.

The End

Annotations

1
And
bulletproof, another legacy of poor Rogers.

2
War god of
the Fon.

3
The other
bunkhouses were Shirley Temple, Margaret O'Brien, Butch Jenkins, Baby
Leroy, Bobby Driscoll, Jackie Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland,
Luana Patten, Mickey Rooney, Dean Stockwell, and Skippy Homeier.

4
Lambs: a
vigilante group borrowing rhetoric and enthusiasm from late "silent
patriot" S. Agnew: "They call us pigs, but we are really sacrificial
lambs. We will not bandy epithets, but gladly give our lives to sweep this
country clean of its plethora of pusillanimous liberals and their
drug-pushing, parasitical radical associates."

© John Sladek 1977.
The Great Wall of Mexico
first appeared in
Bad Moon Rising
, 8 1973, Thomas M. Disch.

BOOK: Sci Fiction Classics Volume 4
2.3Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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