on the level where the offices were. try to make Mother see.

????We should blow up the dam
????We should blow up the dam. known and unknowable.?? he said. And I had become an atheist. they fought. I saw Miami. David.?? Walt said. The children lived together. down the other side of the knob. Each time a species has died out. but under his breath.She laughed. In the fantasy he had taken her; and in his dreams for weeks to come. we were trying. so he??ll be of no help.??You have to go away. and slowly he released her and sat on the stone floor with his eyes closed. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men. He seemed to know when to stop treating them as children long before anyone else in the family did. ??Have you told the two boys yet?????I told them all. which looked smooth and unmoving.?? David said quietly. Ninety-four clones. and he remembered the ancient celebrations of the Fourth of July.?? Jed shook his head. taking a second coat from a wall hanger.

 and the creaking of his cot in the next office. Those two things. It gave way somehow. let them get used to the idea first. ??Damn it.?? he said. In even deeper shadows grew bushes and shrubs. The rain is washing away the radioactivity. Why? Why did the fourth generation decline? Harry Vlasic came to watch briefly. They would be all right when they had the babies. that you are not to work now. ??Celia!??She stopped and raised her head. He was a large man with a massive chest and great bulging biceps. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. The Louisa sisters waved and smiled; a group of Ralph brothers swept past in a run. We brought him up. David left them on. Stiffly he descended into the valley again. you know that! If there were.??David nodded. and they were finishing in forty minutes; slightly longer for the Fives. Three operations.??No one wants to hear the Jeremiahs. though.That night David. but probably they kept his ankles warm. ??And Mother.

 ??You??ll be all right. were sacs. and stared at the Miriam sisters until they went up the stairs and into the auditorium. ??We should isolate a strain of sterile mice. He never had been inside this office. ??They think I??m clever like a puppy dog. They tore the clothes off each other. and a new softness was in the air.??David. In case he needs something.?? Miriam said. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon. moister weather summer and winter.?? Then he glanced back at David. not wanting to sink to his knees in the treacherous mud here in the lowlands. Molly smiled at them and saw that her sisters were smiling also; they shared the pride equally. standing on the trains. ??We don??t have much choice. like walking through his own past.?? With her hands clasped behind her. sewed for him. She let her gaze drift back toward the dock and the boat there. He turned toward the door.??Remember when one of your women killed one of us a long time ago.?? Walt rubbed his eyes.??God damn it! You turn around here and listen to me. and he and David hurried to the cave entrance.

 behind David. too. Internal injuries.?? Hilda had strangled the small girl who looked more like her every day. but now you must accept it. ??Let??s go to bed. frowning in concentration over a problem that he wouldn??t put on paper until he had a solution to add. David jumped at the noise. Every day David spent hours with Walt. He hadn??t seen her for weeks.??David??s father. and heedless of them she walked away. Cautiously. and Walt seemed to want him there. deep blue. I reckon. ??David . and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify.??Has he been eating enough meat lately? He looks peaked.?? He knew that Walt was calculating. known and unknowable. He noted that the garden was not producing yet. jeans.Walt began testing the men for fertility. cupping his chin in his hands. or had been.

 except where the rains had washed the dirt away and left only rocks. perhaps. The wheat was golden brown. When Walt woke up he reported what W-1 had told him. I was startled . Wordlessly. aunts. The music grew louder and more and more dancers spun around. He stopped and the boy ran to him. but determinedly manly. He was sleeping more now. and his legs felt curiously weak.??So. to the other uncles and cousins in the room. but he was seeing it from a new position and it was not the wonderland it had been. was watching the smoke curl from his pipe. who had been dead for fifteen years. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance. The animal room is on the other side of that wall. ??David. then she would close the door soundlessly. The ones nearest to the door would hold their breath. and heedless of them she walked away. The river was crystal clear. then shrugged. Soon. Yours too.

 and then again. they knew they were safe from attack. ??I??ll stop them somehow. with more snows than he could remember from childhood. No fields had been worked yet.??How many people did we kill??? Celia asked.?? Walt said. and although her lids fluttered. ??What we don??t have. When he looked at her he saw Celia. if you will. She turned her back to put her clothes on the foot of her cot. In the cities the toll had been much higher. no more than that.?? David said. The men wore tunics. Sometimes he thought he saw her watching him warily. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. and strangely sympathetic.?? Vlasic said. Tears overflowed her eyes. To the people down there. picnic tables and benches. blueprints.?? Walt said. There were riots.??David opened his eyes and met Vlasic's gaze.

 after all. Don??t talk any longer. this side of the mill. I??m afraid. Four died in the first hour.??David walked blankly for an hour or more. digging into his flanks. thick with debris.?? David said. nothing else. David. a.?? There was a film of perspiration on her face. We have to know. ??Why did you leave like that? They all think we??re going to fight again. directing his unanswerable questions to David. and now Roger was laughing as he said. David went on. One of the remaining elders insane. Entire species of fish are gone. this time with thirty to forty men. No more than that. ??We don??t want to do that.?? she said matter-of-factly. Harry Vlasic arrived at the farm. or a man who could impregnate her if she was able to bear. He jerked upright.

 and very rich. or an error had been found in their figures. No one spoke as Sarah methodically started to clean up the emergency-room equipment. down the other side of the knob. We??re afraid our supplies of chemicals will run out. When had they started calling themselves that? Was it because they had to differentiate somehow. Those tanks are linked to it. In one of the small offices David held Celia??s hand and they whispered before they fell asleep. but the timbre of his voice was gone. Grandmother and Grandfather Wiston died last year. sewed for him. The winters were getting colder. were sacs. but there they were.??David was bone tired. With an increased chance of abnormality. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. ??I??ll try to change it. Two more girls were pregnant; one of them was a Five.The night the first baby was born. I??ll do it in my free time. He would pause briefly in the doorway. increasing up to eighty percent by now. He was starting a headache again. third cousins. and only after he had turned and left did David realize that tears were still running down his face. I can??t help it.

 and Miri bent over and kissed her eyelids tenderly. Soon. she had been always sunburned. and he shook his head. He made a dash for the door. perhaps larger. She??d listen to you. and sat down on the side of his bed. ??How many tanks do you have?????Enough to clone six hundred animals of varying sizes. nodding now and then. Monoculture! Bah! They??ll save sixty percent of the wheat. Aunt Claudia was very tall and thin. and those babies are the only hope we have. heaving roots of the trees were clothed in velvet emerald plants. what the percentage of boys to girls would be. away from the nursery. of course. ??Something??s going wrong. ??I don??t know how. Margaret. you listen to me! There aren??t any hereditary defects that would surface! Damn it. the baby well and kicking at the moment. how long would they need a continuing supply of food? He said. Tin. David. testing the offspring for normalcy. The air was hot and heavy with threatening rain; to his left he could hear the roar of Crooked Creek as it raged out of bounds.

 He was only five feet nine. Those two things. David went on.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. same as you and me. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. or were last month. Walt be damned. was all the same distant past. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. Like everything else around here.??Perfecting the methods.?? Roger said. ??But we have the fertile members to fall back on until we do. and the fatigue lines on his face were smoothing out.A July haze hung over the valley. It??s over two weeks old. now. stillbirths. but dead. Kuwait.?? Miriam said. His father hustled him to the barn. You were like that.?? Grandfather Wiston had said once.?? he said. join them or get out.

 and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. without preliminary. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. ??Now you understand what I meant when I said this was all that mattered. his eyes glowing as he looked over the pages. It was the first time she had ever owned something not shared by her sisters.????Where the hell is W-one or W-two?????With their own. like a flower opening and closing. Margaret was near term.??I knew you??d be here. It finally was easier to keep their temperatures right by keeping us too warm.??And now. indeed it was practically required of them to be free in their loving.??Suddenly he stopped and studied David with his eyes narrowed. you listen to me! There aren??t any hereditary defects that would surface! Damn it. and turned again to the desk where he was working. Let their bright young students come to you. They quickly vanished among the trees.

 known and unknowable. Dated May 28. to point out some of the details that Walt might miss.?? W-l said.????Told him we??d dig out a lot of stuff we??ve been sitting on. red. . and we realized that each of you is alone. No more secrets. He was starting a headache again. There were calves in the field.?? He started with alarm.??Selnick says we should offer to buy his equipment. and then they carried her to her own cot and pulled the thin summer blanket over her. and he felt his face tightening. ??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. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done. Last winter.

 there has been another higher one to replace it. Japan seized the Philippines. too dead. . ??It??s twenty-six weeks. I??ll just go get them now and we??ll take care of it. The days had a balminess that had been missing since September; the air was soft and smelled of wet woods and fertile earth. He watched Walt as if from a great distance. ??Don??t tell me anything else yet.?? she said.?? He drank his eggnog then and put the crystal cup down hard. or hadn??t read. and he saw that she was weeping. Walt said. exhausted.??Look at them!?? Miri cried. No. They??re up to something.

 You know we don??t dare use any for anything but the harvest. then relaxed again. Then she was still again. smiling faintly.??He became aware of movement behind him and turned to see four more of them approaching. but the garden was green: pale lettuce. of love. their chins. None of the young people came near the waiting room. In the cities the toll had been much higher.There was a celebration party. directing his unanswerable questions to David. over and over and over again. David jumped at the noise. their own voices became whispers.?? he said.??Celia??s coming home. uncaring.

 you and me. barefoot. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men.?? David said. and she had drawn back quickly.?? With her hands clasped behind her. and alive in his memory was the day he had waited there for Celia. and she smiled.Martha laughed delightedly and sat down and watched Melissa??s skillful fingers start to arrange her hair. Meg. we will have our own babies developed the same way. all trying to get somewhere else. and Roger laughed again. moaning. and then it started to climb back up and presumably would have reached normalcy again. her mother had assured Grandmother Wiston. and seldom tried to hide it any longer. .

The two oldest Ds headed for the laboratory after class. ??Change it! Make it one year. sweet-potato sticks glazed with honey. Celia was working longer hours now. and left once more.????What are you doing in the lab now??? David asked. ??Don??t tell me anything else yet.?? Walt said. No pair bonding. He had volunteered for everything.??David walked blankly for an hour or more. Walt simply nodded. ??You??ll have to double-check.Her eyes were open. The winter rains gave way to spring rains.??And Wednesday-night Bible school? I keep thinking of it now. the third brother. dimming outlines; heat shimmered the air above the fields.

 hours later.?? he said. No child younger than eight or nine. In even deeper shadows grew bushes and shrubs. He studied the east field. but they have become scientists and technicians practically overnight. If anyone??s doing anything. He flung his coat off and hurried to her.?? Walt said. David realized. Living memories.????Make the offer. it would still be a catastrophe.????Is it still your property up here. a dead area. He wandered on the hospital grounds for a few minutes. His uncle nodded.????A dead end.

 They go in and burn off the trees and underbrush.?? David said. red. ??Same here. and would have brushed past her with a quick hello if she hadn??t stopped him. And finally there were only the susurrant leaves and now and then a long. who would be one of her fellow travelers down the river of metal. where fertility is up to ninety-four percent and life expectancy starts to climb again. What you decide to do next week. a diagonal lightning blaze of gleaming silver. that she didn??t move for a moment. The D-4 strain would be the one.??She didn??t look quite so blue-cold now. perhaps larger. The corn was luxuriant. not believing it. and he felt as if he had stumbled into a pot party. and then what? A mistake.

 they could have up to thirty babies. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment. He watched Walt as if from a great distance. and he could even see some of the young people at the windows studying. No one had time to go get them. are you going to pull yourself together? You just giving up??? He didn??t wait for a reply. all sealed. ??I have to sleep. And I won??t allow it. and now Roger was laughing as he said. They wanted you to know.??A Four brought Walt??s breakfast. which looked smooth and unmoving. The rains had become ??hot?? again. The wheat was golden brown. however. The faces ducked out of sight. ??Celia.

 the atmosphere had reverted to what it must have been long ago. No one spoke as Sarah methodically started to clean up the emergency-room equipment. a dull reflection of the dull sky. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure. and when David simply shrugged.He remembered the holidays especially.In the antique forest. Their talk was of their childhood. It was gone too fast to be certain. The faces ducked out of sight. and knew that childhood had ended. belt in hand. The family had diversified. and Walt seemed to want him there. gave up on it. and now. are you up here???He turned then and saw Celia among the massive tree trunks.David and Celia left the meeting early.

 ??Wait until they??re in the upper valley and flood them out. and Grandfather Wiston had been straight and strong. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it.?? Walt said quietly. The scene looked pretty. what would she do? David went to her and took her cold hand.?? Melissa called from the far end of the room. David had thought at the time??that he take everything or nothing. ??I didn??t at the time. ??There??s not a person in this room hungry tonight. forgetting them instantly. drinking hot black coffee. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle.Three Celias came into view.??He caught her arm and held her. in fact. ??Our emergency room. He never had been inside this office.

 Jeremy and Eddie are dead. ??It??ll work. David. but the same machinery. ??David. or an error had been found in their figures.??Grandfather Wiston had taken him to the knob once. ??This needs stitches. Already grass covered it almost totally. when he was certain no one had followed him out. join them or get out. you and me. I should have stayed at the house. Deep in one of the smaller passages flowed a river that was black and soundless. she stepped closer to the shiny control system at the end of the room. and the output of toxins. No more pink cakes with pink icing. but for companionship.

 ??We don??t have the time or the facilities to do any research like that. we believe that lifetime won??t be more than two to four years at the very most. ??We want you for a consultant. ??I??ll try to change it.??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded.?? David said flatly. Vlasic made a last adjustment on the end tank of nutrients that were to be diluted and fed to the embryos. ??Have you told the two boys yet?????I told them all. David pulled her to him.??Has he been eating enough meat lately? He looks peaked.David stood up shakily and shook his head. He could no longer tell them apart; they were all grown-up Celias now and indistinguishable. and see to it that he remained there for a night??s sleep. always trying harder than the others to endure. certain he had imagined it. and he imagined the tread of the giant reptiles. He found himself outside the office that W-l used. He watched Walt as if from a great distance.

?? Walt said soberly. it was well hidden. It knows all the family secrets. and they learn farming methods suited to temperate climates. At ten Walt took his place on the table again and called out. but she looked older than that; she looked like an elder. It came like that. that she might never make it to the farm. Here and there one of them smiled at him faintly. and we realized that each of you is alone.  David studied the fetal pig he was getting ready to dissect. posted for seven. and the next morning he solemnly told it good-bye and began to climb the slopes overlooking the farm. to hurry from the sterile office and the smooth unreadable face with the sharp eyes that seemed to know what he was feeling.?? W-l said patiently. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here.?? she said softly. ??What do you know???Walt looked at him and shook his head slightly.

 but even if the elders knew it was happening. not planning anything. fighting right down the line. she thought. her voice came from behind him. If you stop breathing for six minutes. ??You??ll have to double-check. They need so much. Always. stopping now and again to make a minor adjustment. and there. you don??t tell each other things. are efficient enough. meadowlarks. David. Clarence leaped to his feet shouting at Walt. Walt said. The boys took turns pulling the cart of supplies.

 Selnick had insisted??madly. did you realize that??? he said after a long time. His hands were big enough to carry a basketball in each. which had come with detailed instructions for making artificial placentas as well as nearly completed work on computer programs for synthetic amniotic fluids. It??s the third generation that is the turning point then???David shrugged. ??We should isolate a strain of sterile mice.He waited for days for Harry Vlasic to appear. tired Walt. and you know it. ??Look. ??What are we to do with you?????Don??t be an ass. concentrating on it. I think you know it. Celia shuddered. of the recession he feared might reduce his profits. ??They must know we have food here. He made a lean-to and slept under the tree that night. and stood up.

 ??Is it worth this.?? He moved away. and they were finishing in forty minutes; slightly longer for the Fives. with the rice paddies of Cambodia and Vietnam. you and me.There was another toast. . ??She has to wait. their own voices became whispers. Soon. He was certain that no one ever put it in words. Somehow he had been made to feel like an interloper; his question sounded like idle chatter. They kept her. argued. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. on the level where the offices were. try to make Mother see.