The Anything Box

enough.'
'You take me.'
June herded him ahead of her, her knees bumping his reluctant back at every
step until he got a good look at the whole front room. Then he sighed and
relaxed.
'He's gone,' he said normally.
'Sure he is,' replied June. 'Play-like stuff always goes away.' She tucked
him under his covers. Then, as if hoping to brush his fears—and hers—away, by
calmly discussing it, 'What did he look like?'
'Well, he had a body like Mother's vacuum cleaner —the one that lies down
on the floor—and his legs were like my sled, so he could slide on the floor,
and had a nose like the hose on the cleaner only he was able to make it long
or short when he wanted to.'
Dubby, overstrained, leaned back against his pillows.
The mantel clock began to boom the hour deliberately.
'And he had little eyes like the light inside the refrigerator—'
June heard a choonk at the hall door and glanced up. Then with
fear-stiffened lips, she continued for him, 'And ears like TV antennae because
he needs good ears to find the noises.' And watched, stunned, as the round
metallic body glided across the floor on shiny runners and paused in front of
the clock that was deliberating on the sixth stroke.
The long, wrinkly trunk-like nose on the front of the thing flashed upward.
The end of it shimmered, then melted into the case of the clock. And the
seventh stroke never began. There was a soft sucking sound and the nose
dropped free. On the mantel, the hands of the clock dropped soundlessly to the
bottom of the dial.
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In the tight circle of June's arms, Dubby whimpered. June clapped her handover his mouth. But his shoulders began to shake and he rolled franticimploring eyes at her as another coughing spell began. He couldn't control it.
June tried to muffle the sound with her shoulder, but over the deep,hawking convulsions, she heard the choonk and slither of the creature andscreamed as she felt it nudge her knee. Then the long snout nuzzled againsther shoulder and she heard a soft hiss as it touched the straining throat ofthe coughing child. She grabbed the horribly vibrating thing and tried to pullit away, but Dubby's cough cut off in mid-spasm.
In the sudden quiet that followed she heard a gurgle like a straw in thebottom of a soda glass and Dubby folded into himself like an empty laundrybag. June tried to straighten him against the pillows, but he slid laxly down.
June stood up slowly. Her dazed eyes wandered trance-like to the clock,then to the couch, then to the horrible thing that lay beside it. Its glowingeyes were blinking and its ears shifting planes—probably to locate sound.
Her mouth opened to let out the terror that was constricting her lungs, andher frantic scream coincided with the shrill clamor of the telephone. TheEater hesitated, then slid swiftly toward the repeated ring. In the pauseafter the party line's four identifying rings, it stopped and June clappedboth hands over her mouth, her eyes dilated with paralyzed terror.
The ring began again. June caught Dubby up into her arms and backed slowlytoward the front door. The Eater's snout darted out to the telephone and thering stilled without even an after-resonance.
The latch of the front door gave a rasping click under June's tremblinghand. Behind her, she heard the choonk and horrible slither as the Eater lostinterest in the silenced telephone. She whirled away from the door, staggeringoff balance under the limp load of Dubby's body. She slipped to one knee,spilling the child to the floor with a thump. The Eater slid toward her,pausing at the hall door, its ears tilting and moving.
June crouched on her knees, staring, one hand caught under Dubby. Sheswallowed convulsively, then cautiously withdrew her hand. She touched Dubby'sbony little chest. There was no movement. She hesitated indecisively, thenbacked away, eyes intent on the Eater.
Her heart drummed in her burning throat. Her blood roared in her ears. Thestarchy krunkle of her wide skirt rattled in the stillness. The fibers of therug murmured under her knees and toes. She circled wider, wider, the noiseonly loud enough to hold the Eater's attention—not to attract him to her. Shebacked guardedly into the corner by the radio. Calculatingly, she reached overand clicked it on, turning the volume dial as far as it would go.
The Eater slid tentatively toward her at the click of the switch. Junebacked slowly away, eyes intent on the creature. The sudden insane blare ofthe radio hit her an almost physical blow. The Eater glided up close againstthe vibrating cabinet, its snout lifting and drinking in the horriblecacophony of sound.
June lurched for the front door, wrenching frantically at the door knob.She stumbled outside, slamming the door behind her. Trembling, she sank to thetop step, wiping the cold sweat from her face with the under side of herskirt. She shivered in the sharp cold, listening to the raucous outpouringfrom the radio that boomed so loud it was no longer intelligible.
She dragged herself to her feet, pausing irresolutely, looking around atthe huddled houses, each set on its own acre of weeds and lawn. They were alldark in the early winter evening.
June gave a little moan and sank on the step again, hugging herselfdesperately against the penetrating chill. It seemed an eternity that shecrouched there before the radio cut off in mid-note.
Fearfully, she roused and pressed her face to one of the door panes. Dimlythrough the glass curtains she could see the Eater, sluggish and swollen,lying quietly by the radio. Hysteria was rising for a moment, but sheresolutely knuckled the tears from her eyes.
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The headlights scythed around the corner, glittering swiftly across the
blank windows next door as the car crunched into the Warrens' driveway and
came to a gravel-skittering stop.
June pressed her hands to her mouth, sure that even through the closed door
she could hear the choonk and slither of the thing inside as it slid to and
fro, seeking sound.
The car door slammed and hurried footsteps echoed along the path. June made
wild shushing motions with her hands as Mrs. Warren scurried around the corner
of the house.
'June!' Mrs. Warren's voice was ragged with worry. 'Is Dubby all right?
What are you doing out here? What's wrong with the phone?' She fumbled for the
door knob.
'No, no!' June shouldered her roughly aside. 'Don't go in! It'll get you,
too!'
She heard a thud just inside the door. Dimly through the glass she saw the
flicker of movement as the snout of the Eater raised and wavered toward them.
'June!' Mrs. Warren jerked her away from the door. 'Let me in! What's the
matter? Have you gone crazy?' Mrs. Warren stopped suddenly, her face
whitening. 'What have you done to Dubby, June?'
The girl gulped with the shock of the accusation. 'I haven't done anything,
Mrs. Warren. He made a Noise-eater and it—it—' June winced away from the
sudden blaze of Mrs. Warren's eyes.
'Get away from that door!' Mrs. Warren's face was that of a stranger, her