whatever shape we're in, we are natural. It's accustomed to seeing us shaped like cubes or squares or pyramids, as it sees us from its separate dimension. The baby's had no other experience, no other norm with which to compare what it sees. We are its norm. On the other hand, the baby seems weird to us because we compare it to our accustomed shapes and sizes.»
«Yes, I see. I see.»
Baby was conscious of movement. One White Cube held him in warm appendages. Another White Cube sat further over, within an oblong of purple. The oblong moved in the air over a vast bright plain of pyramids, hexagons, oblongs, pillars, bubbles, and multi-colored cubes.
One White Cube made a whistling noise. The other White Cube replied with a whistling. The White Cube that held him shifted about. Baby watched die two White Cubes, and watched the fleeing world outside the traveling bubble.
Baby felt — sleepy. Baby closed his eyes, settled his pyramidal youngness upon the lap of the White Cube, and made faint little noises …
«He's asleep,» said Polly Horn.
Summer came, Peter Horn himself was busy with his export-import business. But he made certain he was home every night. Polly was all right during the day, but, at night, when she had to be alone with the child, she got to smoking too much, and one night he found her passed out on the davenport, an empty sherry bottle on the table beside her. From then on, he took care of the child himself nights. When it cried it made a weird whistling noise, like some jungle animal lost and wailing. It wasn't the sound of a child.
Peter Horn had the nursery soundproofed.
«So your wife won't hear your baby crying?» asked the workman.
«Yes,» said Peter Horn. «So she won't hear.»
They had few visitors. They were afraid that someone might stumble on Py, dear sweet pyramid little Py.
«What's that noise?» asked a visitor one evening, over his cocktail. «Sounds like some sort of bird. You didn't tell me you had an aviary. Peter?»
«Oh, yes,» said Horn, closing the nursery door. «Have another drink. Let's drink, everyone.»
It was like having a dog or a cat in the house. At least that's how Polly looked upon it. Peter Horn watched her and observed exactly how she talked and petted the small Py. It was Py this and Py that, but somehow with some reserve, and sometimes she would look around the room and touch herself, and her hands would clench, and she would look lost and afraid, as if she were waiting for someone to arrive.
In September, Polly reported to her husband: «He can say Father. Yes he can. Come on, Py. Say, Father!»
She held the blue warm pyramid up.
«Wheelly,» whistled the tittle warm blue pyramid.
«Again,» repeated Polly.
«Wheelly!» whistled the pyramid.
«For God's sake, stop!» said Pete Horn. He took the child from her and put it in the nursery where it whistled over and over that name, that name, that name. Horn came out and poured himself a stiff drink. Polly was laughing quietly.
«Isn't that terrific?» she said. «Even his voice is in the fourth dimension. Won't it be nice when he learns to talk later? We'll give him Hamlet's soliloquy to memorize and he'll say it but it'll come out like something from James Joyce! Aren't we lucky? Give me a drink.»
«You've had enough,» he said.
«Thanks, I'll help myself,» she said and did.
October, and then November. Py was learning to talk now. He whistled and squealed and made a bell-like tone when he was hungry. Dr. Wolcott visited. «When his color is a constant bright blue,» said the doctor, «that means he's healthy. When the color fades, dull — the child is feeling poorly. Remember that.»
«Oh, yes, I will, I will,» said Polly. «Robin's-egg blue for health, dull cobalt for illness.»
«Young lady,» said Wolcott. «You'd better take a couple of these pills and come see me tomorrow for a little chat. I don't like the way you're talking. Stick out your tongue. Ah-hmm. You been drinking? Look at the stains on your fingers. Cut the cigarettes in half, See you tomorrow.»
«You don't give me much to go on,» said Polly. «It's been almost a year now.»
«My dear Mrs. Horn, I don't want to excite you continually. When we have our mechs ready we'll let you know. We're working every day. There'll be an experiment soon. Take those pills now and shut that nice mouth.» He chucked Py under the «chin.» «Good healthy baby, by God! Twenty pounds if he's an ounce!»
Baby was conscious of the goings and comings of the two nice White Cubes who were with him during all of his waking hours. There was another cube, a gray one, who visited on certain days. But mostly it was the two White Cubes who cared for and loved him. He looked up at the one warm, rounder, softer White Cube and made the low warbling soft sound of contentment. The White Cube fed him. He was content. He grew. All was familiar and good.
The New Year, the year 1989, arrived.
Rocket ships flashed on the sky, and helicopters whirred and flourished the warm California winds.
Peter Horn carted home large plates of specially poured blue and gray polarized glass, secretly. Through these, he peered at his «child.» Nothing. The pyramid remained a pyramid, no matter if he viewed it through X-ray or yellow cellophane. The barrier was unbreakable. Horn returned quietly to his drinking.
The big thing happened early in February. Horn, arriving home in his helicopter, was appalled to see a crowd of neighbors gathered on the lawn of his home. Some of them were sitting, others were standing, still others were moving away, with frightened expressions on their faces.
Polly was walking the «child» in the yard.
Polly was quite drunk. She held the small blue pyramid by the hand and walked him up and down. She did not see the helicopter land, nor did she pay much attention as Horn came running up.
One of the neighbors turned. «Oh, Mr. Horn, it's the cutest thing. Where'd you find it?»
One of the others cried, «Hey, you're quite the traveler, Horn. Pick it up in South America?»
Polly held the pyramid up. «Say Father!» she cried, trying to focus on her husband.
«Wheel!» cried the pyramid.
«Polly!» Peter Horn said.
«He's friendly as a dog or a cat,» said Polly moving the child with her. «Oh, no, he's not dangerous. He's friendly as a baby. My husband brought him from Afghanistan.»
The neighbors began to move off.
«Come back!» Polly waved at them. «Don't you want to see my baby? Isn't he simply beautiful!»
He slapped her face.
«My baby,» she said, brokenly.
He slapped her again and again until she quit saying it and collapsed. He picked her up and took her into the house. Then he came out and took Py in and then he sat down and phoned the Institute.
«Dr. Wolcott, this is Horn. You'd better have your stuff ready. It's tonight or not at all.»
There was a hesitation. Finally Wolcott sighed. «All right. Bring your wife and the child. We'll try to have things in shape.»
They hung up.
Horn sat there studying the pyramid.
«The neighbors thought he was grand,» said his wife, lying on the couch, her eyes shut, her lips trembling …
The Institute hall smelled clean, neat, sterile. Dr. Wolcott walked along it, followed by Peter Horn and his wife Polly, who was holding Py in her arms. They turned in at a doorway and stood in a large room. In the center of the room were two tables with large black hoods suspended over them.
Behind the tables were a number of machines with dials and levers on them. There was the faintest
