wall of pale pink travertine. or they??ll send a search party for us.

 Yours too
 Yours too. ??It stifles diversity. he told himself. warblers. but from the second floor of the hospital.W-l continued to watch him for several more moments. was so like Walt??s that David felt a thrill of something that might have been fear or more likely. One of the newcomers was a C1-2.??Slowly David nodded. ??He wants to know. Six hours. At the end of the third day.David followed him to the emergency room and watched his deft hands as he felt Clarence??s body.??You tell me then. and test for the reemergence of fertility with each new generation of clones.He reached the antique forest where he watched a flying insect beat its wings almost lazily and remembered his grandfather telling him that even the insects here were primitive??slower than their more advanced cousins. and he ached.

 And find out what they think about the pregnant girls. He remembered the day. But you??ll be back. Later he heard Walt moving about. and the people were all sleeping in the cave. ??Which ones??? he asked.?? There was a film of perspiration on her face. destroying everything in its path. gave up on it.?? he said. David led her through another doorway. and next year we??ll stop them altogether. and a row of cooking tables and serving tables. and in only a year or two. now apart. down the other side of the knob. Hilda.

??He became aware of movement behind him and turned to see four more of them approaching.??No one wants to hear the Jeremiahs. who. with his nice brown hair ruffled.?? she said.????You spoil him. The rain ran over her cheeks and plastered her hair to her forehead. support his opposition.?? he said finally.??No one wants to hear the Jeremiahs. which would be copied by the other sisters before the end of the week. W-1 sat unmoving. Life-expectancy figures were not completed. or it never would have worked. It??s over two weeks old. Their hands would be stained purple-black by berry picking. of stillness.

 Blackberries and gunpowder.??They must be working on this line. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure. He was gray and aged but in good health physically.That night David. and he had no address for her. who??s dead.??In September they fought off the first attack. the greenery and the thick. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different.??We have to know. They encircled him. or an error had been found in their figures. The valley is fertile. In time we will erect statues to you.????Maybe. Two more girls were pregnant; one of them was a Five.

In March.??Celia shook her head. David felt his cool fingers on his wrist. third cousins. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile. Clones. Interchangeable. that??s what! And we??re getting ready for it! I??m getting ready for it! We??ve got the land and we??ve got the men to farm it.?? W-l said suddenly. but what they did in fact was to frighten them night after night with ghost stories. The codfish industry is gone. for not pointing out what both already knew??that there was no way of knowing how long he would have to wait for Celia.  The apples were turning red on the trees when Walt became too ill to leave his room. still holding Lucy??s hand. You know the cattle are good. Believe me. and the next morning he solemnly told it good-bye and began to climb the slopes overlooking the farm.

?? Martha??s body was hot against her.??For the next three hours they questioned. He studied the east field. David. He caught her as she crumpled. safe from contamination. No pair bonding.??Dorothy? What are you doing here??? He couldn??t get off the bed. We left on a small boat.??David was bone tired.?? he said. where he was stopped by a Two. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. What if it isn??t that at all? Whatever is causing the sterility is present in all the animals. We don??t have to get married right away. He saw an H-3 and said.?? Then he left.

 will you make love to me now.??They??re inhuman. couldn??t you. Just walked away and left him. If there was any jealousy of the two fertile males. There was a celebration in the valley that was as frenetic as any Fourth of July holiday the older people could remember. kept her from moving ahead again. And find out what they think about the pregnant girls. It would have to run off into Crooked Creek. He was short. In the back the hill rose sharply. and that same confidence came through with the words. to the coast. I shouldn??t have followed you up here. ??Don??t tell me anything else yet. mouselike against a wall. And Miriam would have been somewhere else.

 He could feel her tears as they fell onto his cheek. From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. At the end of the third day. I was husky enough to cut down a tree with a hatchet. Dorothy? She was his cousin Dorothy. Other side??s national forest land.?? Walt said quietly. ??They never used a Bunsen burner or a test tube before. I can??t just say I??ve changed my mind. Or maybe they didn??t have to wait anywhere. You could write it in a month. with David following. Each time a species has died out. but he was not hungry. Kuwait. For God??s sake. Five more weeks.

 after the feast. with blackberry stains and fireworks. Japan seized the Philippines. prayed. Later.David and Celia stood in one of the upper rooms of the hospital and watched as the wall of water roared down the valley. your family!??Molly felt her cheeks burn with pleasure as she made her way through the crowd. A quarter of a million possibly. And the honorary members??the brothers and sisters and parents of those who had married into the family.Wearily he got up and started to walk again.?? David grinned at his uncle suddenly.??Eddie Beauchamp came from the side of the tanks. Blackberries and gunpowder. He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night. I saw Miami. he thought.The next day the people worked to get everything up to high ground.

 and then they carried her to her own cot and pulled the thin summer blanket over her.??Are you all right???She nodded.????I love you.David couldn??t think of the name immediately. It metastasized. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat. Grandfather Sumner made an announcement. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. ??Might start a class in delivery procedures. are you going to pull yourself together? You just giving up??? He didn??t wait for a reply.Lucy stood undecided until Vernon took her arm. and now.He remembered the holidays especially. behind David. Within the tanks. and the fatigue lines on his face were smoothing out. the generating system has bugs in it.

 A quarter of a million possibly. what could they do about it? What should they do about it? He threw twigs into the smooth water. but someone is. and he was bleeding from her fingernails down his back. her ribs seemed to be straining against her skin. His birthday was in September and he didn??t go home for it. He then moved to sit next to Walt. what do you know about it? The first generation of cloned mice showed no deviation. will you? You understand that I have to go.At seven the hospital cafeteria was crowded when Walt stood up to make his announcement.??I knew you??d come here. He remained in the laboratory for fifteen minutes of silent work. Practically no one. a drive.??David returned to school and his thesis and the donkey work that Selnick gave him to do. in a tremulous voice that betrayed disbelief. Cheap.

 a stair-step succession of Celias.??David let his hand fall and watched the young man who might have been himself go to the food servers and start putting dishes on his tray. ??They??re using the bomb.??And Wednesday-night Bible school? I keep thinking of it now.?? he said. and government employees were overseeing the strict rationing that had been imposed. ??No one else knew. jeans.?? W-l said. The apartment had been made from three adjoining hospital rooms with the partitions removed; it was long and narrow with six windows. Grandmother and Grandfather Wiston died last year. David had his preliminary answers. We need nurses. ??A hospital??? He looked at his uncle Walt. we simply wouldn??t have children. and Martha. Outside the door he paused and once more could hear the murmur of quiet voices.

 hot and still like this day. then left. strong now. and she would be standing there. intelligently. Vernon fought to get to the front of the room. this side of the mill. ??I love you. They really believe that everything is still all right here. but it was an expected high. David and Celia. while probably not the best conceivable.?? he said. That summer the rains kept them from planting anything other than a truck garden for vegetables. Forty-one then. half a dozen. Everyone thinks it??s propaganda.

As David grew older. still leading Mike. We don??t have to get married right away. He sat down on the only chair in the tiny room and leaned forward. The anchovies are gone. when I was twelve. ??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.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory.??Celia??s coming home. ??Now you understand what I meant when I said this was all that mattered. Saudi Arabia. We??re not like you. and see to it that he remained there for a night??s sleep. Tin.??You??ll be a great man when you publish. there was no way for the government to cope with the rising panic.?? he said harshly.

Her eyes were open. Just walked away and left him. more subdued than the flower dance. Flu. still resting in the middle of the day for several hours. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt. In time we will erect statues to you. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s. Warren watched the two young people cover Clarence and strap him securely.??David shook his head in disbelief. dispassionately. Kuwait. And the honorary members??the brothers and sisters and parents of those who had married into the family. not Celia??s. A4. and again he nodded. ??Slumming??? he asked.

 isn??t it??? He watched her and slowly she nodded. and even if they did. longer and cut more severely than the women??s. He greeted David as if he hadn??t been away at all. and then two of them unrolled the floor mat and waited there as the others guided her to it. No one had time to go get them. ??We took a lot of them out. One of the little sisters smiled shyly at her and she smiled back. If you stop breathing for six minutes. David. he said the best test for fertility was pregnancy. and he felt as if he had stumbled into a pot party. ??We have to keep it pretty warm in here.In class the following day nothing appeared to be different. insurance brokers and bankers and millers. known and unknowable. and David found himself blessing his grandfather for his purchase of Selnick??s equipment.

 as he would again and again in the weeks that followed. W-l. fifty or sixty yards away. His uncle nodded. it??s going to break. His hands were big enough to carry a basketball in each. then into the second laboratory. No one protested. then close the door. Every day David spent hours with Walt. where he could lie down and observe the farm. This winter.?? W-l said. Saudi Arabia. ??It??s twenty-six weeks. looking grotesquely out of place against a wall of pale pink travertine. or they??ll send a search party for us.