The Anything Box

the haves and the have-nots, and some years ago we lost a lot of our 'brains'
in an experiment that got out of hand. We need help in keeping civilization
going for us until more of the native-born fill in the vacancy. So we
recruit.'
'Why not pick on grownups then? There's plenty of big bugs who'd probably
give an arm to even look at your ship.'
'That's true,' nodded the substitute, 'but we like them young so we can
train them to our ways. Besides, we don't want to attract attention. Few
grownups could step out of the world without questions being asked, especially
highly trained specialists. So we seek out kids like you who are too smart for
their own good in the environments where they happen to be. Sometimes they
know they're smart. Sometimes we have to prove it to them. And they're never
missed for long when we take them. Who is there to ask questions if you should
leave with me?'
'Aunt Mo,' snapped Keeley, 'And—and—'
'A half-crazy old hag—no one else!'
'You shut up about Aunt Mo. She's mine. I found her. And there is too
someone else—Miss Amberly. She'd care!'
'Dried up old maid school teacher!' the substitute returned bitingly.
'For a genius, you're pretty dumb!' retorted Keeley. 'She ain't so very old
and she ain't dried up and as soon as her and Mr. Bennett stop batting so many
words around, she won't be an old maid no more neither!'
'But two out of a world! That's not many to hold a fellow back from all we
could give you.'
'Two's two,' replied Keeley. 'How many you got that will care if you get
back from here or not?'
The substitute stood up abruptly, his face expressionless. 'Are you coming
with me, Keeley?'
'If I did, why couldn't I come back sometime?' Keeley's voice was pleading.
'I bet you know a lot of stuff that'd help Earth.'
'And we should give it to Earth, just like that?' asked the substitute
coldly.
'As much as I should leave Earth, just like that,' Keeley's voice was just
as icy.
'We could argue all night, Keeley,' said the substitute. 'Maybe it'd help
if I told you that Earth is in for a pretty sticky time of it and this is your
chance to get out of it.'
'Can you guys time-travel too?' asked Keeley.
'Well, no. But we can take into consideration the past and the present and
postulate the future.'
'Sounds kind of guessy to me. The future ain't an already built road. We're
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making some of it right now that I betcha wasn't in your figgering. Nope. Ifwe're in for a sticky time, I'll get stuck too, and maybe do some of theunsticking.'
'That's your decision?'
'Yep.' Keeley stood up and began to stack his books.
The substitute watched him silently, then he said, 'Suppose I shouldinsist?'
Keeley grinned at him. 'I can be awful dumb. Ask anybody.'
'Very well. It has to be voluntary or not at all. You might as well give methose earphones.' He held out his hand. 'They'll be of no use to you with ourtraining ship gone.'
Keeley snapped the wires and hefted the disks in his hand. Then he put themin his pocket.
'I'll keep them. Someday I’ll figure out how come this setup works withoutwords. If I can't, we've got men who can take stuff like this and figger outthe other end of it.'
'You're not so dumb, Keeley,' the substitute smiled suddenly.
'No, I'm not,' said Keeley. 'And I'm gonna prove it. Starting Monday, I'mgonna set my mind to school. By then I oughta be up with the class. I onlyhave to look a coupla times at a page to get it.'
The substitute paused at the door. 'Your last chance, Keeley. Coming orstaying?'
'Staying. Thanks for the help you gave me.'
'It was just an investment that didn't pay off,' said the substitute. 'ButKeeley…'
'Yeah?'
'I'm glad you're staying. I was born on Earth.'
The Grunder
Almost before Crae brought the car to a gravel-spraying stop in front of theMurmuring Pines Store and Station, Ellena had the door open and was out andaround the corner marked His and Hers. Crae stared angrily after her, his jawset and his lips moving half-audibly. Anger burned brightly in his brain andthe tight, swollen sickness inside him throbbed like a boil. It was all herfault— all because she had to smile at every man—she had to entice everymale—she always—! And then the fire was gone and Crae slumped down into theashes of despair. It was no use. No matter how hard he tried—no matter what hedid, it always ended this way.
This was to have been it. This trip into the White Mountains—a long happyfishing trip for the two of them to celebrate because he was learning to curbhis jealousy, his blind, unreasoning, unfounded jealousy that was wreckingeverything he and Ellena had planned for a life together. It had gone so well.The shadowy early morning beginning, the sweep up the hills from the baking,blistering valley, the sudden return to spring as they reached pine country,the incredible greenness of everything after the dust and dryness of thedesert.
And then they had stopped at Lakeside.
She said she had only asked how the fishing was. She said they had knownthe same old-timers. She said—! Crae slid lower in the car seat, writhinginside as he remembered his icy return to the car, his abrupt backing awayfrom the laughing group that clustered around Ellena's window, his measured,insane accusations and the light slowly dying out of Ellena's eyes, the quiet,miserable turning away of her white face and her silence as the car roaredon—through hell as far as the two of them were concerned—through the rollingtimberland to Murmuring Pines.
Crae wrenched himself up out of his futile rememberings and slid out of thecar, slamming the door resoundingly. He climbed the three steps up to thesagging store porch and stopped, fumbling for a cigarette.
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'Wife trouble?'
Crae started as the wheezy old voice from the creaking rocking chair brokethrough his misery. He stared over his half-raised cigarette into the fadedblue eyes that peered through dirty bifocals at him. Then he put the cigarettein his mouth and cupped his palms around his light.
'What's it to you?' he half snapped, but even his hair-triggered temperseemed to have deserted him.
'Nothing, son, nothing.' The chair rocked violently, then slowed down.'Only thing is, I kinda wondered, seeing her kite outa the car like that andyou standing there, sulling up. Sit down a spell. I'm Eli. Old Eli.'
Inexplicably, Crae sat down on the top step and said, 'You're right, Eli.Plenty of trouble, but it's me—not my wife.'
'Oh, that-a-way.' The frowsy old head nodded.
'Yeah,' muttered Crae, wondering dismally why he should be spilling hisguts to a busted-down old coot like this one. 'Jealous, crazy jealous.'