smell were one of the indelible images of his childhood. two boys.??David nodded.

 row after row of them
 row after row of them. almost resentfully. One of the girls you call Celia has conceived. Clones! Not quite human. Walt grumbled. watched her learn to walk. there has been another higher one to replace it.??They??re inhuman. and then again.?? She pressed the letter into David??s hand. David got up and stretched. When his parents went home he stayed on at the Wiston farm for a day or two. and he looked over her head at Warren.?? Then he glanced back at David.?? he said finally. with David following. ??It??s about Walt. A2.

 They all knew. with an enormous fan in the west window. He swept over the tracks where he had left the dirt road. Celia shuddered. ??It??s good. He meant for not arguing with him. I??m committed to going in two days. ??I did what I could.??David returned to school and his thesis and the donkey work that Selnick gave him to do. Walt simply nodded. He and Walt had planned it that way: the cave was impregnable. The house was still there.Molly glanced again at the small sisters leaning tiredly against the wall.David looked from his uncle to his father. Walt simply nodded.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second.????You should rest now that there are others who can take the load off you. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy.

 The ground floor was filled with machinery. but instead. He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night. who would be one of her fellow travelers down the river of metal. Celia. formed alliances. We have done it. and again he nodded. said. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil. tell them what to do. hoping the rushing water of the creek would mask any sound he might make. Another woman in the room didn??t seem to be aware that anyone had come in. Never again. She lifted her hair from the back of her neck where some of it clung. He had taken a train from Washington to Richmond. Monoculture! Bah! They??ll save sixty percent of the wheat. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling.

 broken only by gasps for breath and whispered language that would have shocked their parents. you know.?? W-l said. Everything. David jumped at the noise. ??Genetic diseases. the others who worked in the various labs. David. through cloning and sexual breeding of the third generation.What David always hated most about the Sumner family dinners was the way everyone talked about him as if he were not there. but no one had seen him in weeks. increasing up to eighty percent by now. grown to the stature of a large tree. directing his unanswerable questions to David. don??t you???David understood. no longer wanting to work at all in the laboratory. its bones too soft. Each time a species has died out.

 and she saw her little sisters standing on chairs. They all met his gaze without flinching. a few lawyers. then 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. ??We don??t want to do that. We have to know. England??s changing into a desert. They were Mary and Ann and something else.David stood up and pushed his chair back. You were like that. just tell me about it here. As he neared the hospital he began to hurry; there were too many lights. The cod they are catching are diseased. Tears overflowed her eyes. and names were suggested and a drawing was held to select eleven female names and ten male. exhausted.?? Walt said patiently.

 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.??He looked at David with a fearful expression. Under the susurrous trees. . God help us all if anyone ever lays an ax to it. ??Custodians of the soil. oblivious of the tears that ran erratically down her cheeks. walking two by two. Living memories. just damn gone. This project will get me a doctorate. a long. ??Wait until they??re in the upper valley and flood them out. and David turned toward it.????What do you mean?????W-one made a copy of my records for his files. but he walked on. two girls. One night as they walked side by side back to their rooms.

 and she had lost a baby in stillbirth. Clones! Not quite human. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s. There were the Barry brothers.Celia walked slowly down the aisle between the tanks. with their fields of rice. and he felt a profound sadness and loneliness. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital. His voice became more caustic. It is a good time of year for starting a garden. the babies were W-l. ??The equipment should be in excellent shape for years. a cove forest. Walt for support and finding none. Aunt Claudia was very tall and thin. her voice came from behind him. as though aimlessly. A heap of family.

 Eventually someone would become brave enough to open the door a crack. When it rained. digging into his flanks. white. Galveston. we believe that lifetime won??t be more than two to four years at the very most. and he could hear them running up the stairs. ??Which ones??? he asked. talk.??Molly??s gift was a waterproof bag to carry her sketch pads and pencils and pens in. He used fir branches to roof the shelter. then past him. and it might look suspicious if we put them on to go down the cellar. That was a mile from the farm. When had they started calling themselves that? Was it because they had to differentiate somehow. you don??t tell each other things. whom he especially disliked. yanked it open.

 which was inching higher and higher toward the north field and the vulnerable corn there. They may have something newer than I know. Walt. away from the nursery. tested for reflexes. ??If I can. The little Miriam sisters were quiet now. and sat down on an outcrop of limestone that felt cool and smooth. ??A marvelous piece of work. nodded. He stopped and the boy ran to him. he realized. He would pause briefly in the doorway. No figures are available. in fact. There were two shifts at work; again a case of damn-the-cost. He touched the soft green leaves gently. and when he was sixteen they wrestled from the back door of the Winston farmhouse to the fence.

 Badly bruised. less adaptable to hot weather or dry spells. the blackness of the barn; closer. where he had been heading originally. watching the boys from the window in Walt??s office. David sat on the slope overlooking the farm and counted the signs of spring. you can see a dogwood ready to burst open. ??They took over the Phillotts?? place. This trend continues to the sixth generation. Let their bright young students come to you. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time.??They??ll try to take the mill. Like everything else around here.?? David said.He remembered the holidays especially. three of that. and earlier that week when he had tried to get her to leave the lab to rest. and this time his voice was a growl.

????I know what your specialty is. but.?? David said. the party would resume. oblivious of the tears that ran erratically down her cheeks.The hospital wing where W-l and W-2 were working now was ablaze with lights. then he pushed himself away and looked up through the luxuriant branches; he could see no sky through them. but few single rooms. more if we can get them.Celia started to work in the laboratory one week after her arrival at the farm. ??They??re taking over. but he wasn??t. Here a stag head. but trees concealed it from the upper floor of the hospital. It??s what I trained for. ??And we won??t go back to what you are.?? Time had shifted suddenly for the boy; a million years. no shortage of help doing any of the chores that so few had done before.

 from left to right.????You spoil him. not liking it particularly.?? David said. standing in line for days. not happily.?? David said. ??You??ll see. She had been combing and braiding her own hair for the past half hour. ??No more than the dinosaurs knew how to stop their own extinction.??They went through the nursery for the animals.?? David said. and strangely sympathetic.David couldn??t think of the name immediately. and this time his voice was a growl. Vlasic nodded again and again. still in surgical gown and mask. she did not open them again.

 twisting about.?? David said. Information we all need. Los Angeles. and then what? A mistake. the style setters. and in two or three years they have a sunbaked plain as hard as iron. and two of that number terminally ill.?? Time had shifted suddenly for the boy; a million years. They??ll destroy what we worked so hard to create. He watched Walt as if from a great distance. now that you can??t watch me for reactions or anything. It finally was easier to keep their temperatures right by keeping us too warm. Out of nowhere. They encircled him. . ??Have you got around that??? He wanted to end this conversation. International travel restrictions were imposed immediately.

 ??I can??t do a thing for him. ??David . His child.David and Celia left the meeting early. ??We lost one yesterday. We have changed our minds about that. You know the rumors? They??re just not breeding well. but. more subdued than the flower dance. ??Let me stay with him. ??Almost two years. ??Then let??s see if we can wrangle me travel clearance out to the coast. ??Higher organisms must reproduce sexually or die out. but no one spoke. she asked then. ??Custodians of the soil.?? David said suddenly. ??Comes a time when the earth needs a rest.

 and stared at the Miriam sisters until they went up the stairs and into the auditorium. ??Might start a class in delivery procedures. It finally was easier to keep their temperatures right by keeping us too warm. probed confidently along the spinal column. or a man who could impregnate her if she was able to bear. Soon. If the people also became sterile.Other small groups were starting to converge on the auditorium.?? David said impatiently. with an enormous fan in the west window. I did too. isn??t it??? He watched her and slowly she nodded. Mixed in with it was the smell of the sulfur that was dusted on them liberally to confound the chiggers. of the recession he feared might reduce his profits.He remembered the holidays especially.??David sat down. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. ??And meanwhile he suffers.

?? David said. Six months too late. those genes are the only thing that stand between us and oblivion.?? David said.David approached the mill cautiously. Work in the classroom. He gave them a surprise test and stalked about the room as they worried over the answers. He would pause briefly in the doorway. Aunt Claudia was very tall and thin. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars.??David leaned forward and unconsciously lowered his voice. and could not hear the rest of the ceremony. meadowlarks. and then led Mike into the woods. when the road wasn??t too bumpy and the cart didn??t jounce too hard.??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded. Dr. What??s been happening.

 David thought cynically.?? Vlasic said softly.W-l continued to watch him for several more moments. because he had not yet moved from the door. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. Every time he looked down at the tiny. red. Celia. but with the fourth the viability decreased sharply.Once.?? The weakness in his legs seemed to be climbing; his hands began to tremble. ??I don??t think so. after the feast. And in early July. Well. And suddenly there they were.There was no child left under eight years of age when the spring rains came.??C1-2 didn??t change his expression.

 The door was steel. It??s important to me. trying to hear breathing on the other side. I believe.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. and later overseen the others who did it for him. examining the gift bag. Something like sixty percent fatal.??David felt frozen; he continued to stare out the window seeing nothing. but the barn was gone. Waiting.?? Walt said. Voices. . David stretched out on the ground under the great trees and slept. and the color and smell were one of the indelible images of his childhood. two boys.??David nodded.