The Sky Is Falling

he true name be summoned cells

hingness. Then, abruptly, he was aware of being alive, and surprised. He sucked in on the air around him, an

less, and he could force an awareness of the smells around him. But there was none of the pungent odor of the hospita

utened with the sharp pain of lon

cepted and are leaving. Only a true being can sneeze. But

deeper fire than most salamanders can stir, Ser Perth. We might aid it with high-freque

first voice an swered. "And with the

e sky was falling? Who killed Foxy Loxy? I, said the spider, who sat down

oaked. "The b

the first v

and he tried again, forcing his reluctant

he even pronounc

sense of. Yet he understood it-had even spoken it, he realized. There was nothing wrong with his command o

of the bedframe. He focused his eyes slowly on what must be the doctors and nurses there, and their faces looked back with the proper professional worry. But the var

than any other discovery. He must be delirious and imagining the room. Dave Hanson was so nea

mm," the man said in the voice of the first speaker. "Mars trines Neptune. And wi

ooked up into soothing blue eyes. The nurse's face was framed in copper-red hair. She had the transparent skin and classic f

er head gently. Her other hand began a series of compl

lax and sleep, Dave Hanson, an

a long time.... He couldn't hold the thought. At a final rapid motion of the girl's hand his eyes closed, the smell faded from his nose and all sounds vanished. Once there was a stinging sensation, as if he

s dream of himself and every woman's dreams of manliness. But at the moment, to Dave, he looked more like a

"And you come crawling here to tell me you want to do the honorable thing, is that it? All ri

Dave

the whole business, and in no hurry to end it. "And I happen to know, Dave, that you don't even have fare to Saskatchewan left. You quit and I'll see you never get another job. I promised my sister I'd make a man of you and, by ju

back toward the computer building. Then, in a further burst of anger, he swung off the trail. To

e to let him try his scheme of building a great deflection wall across northern Canada to change the weather patterns. And no other man could have accomplished the impossible task, even after twelve countries pooled

. He'd been doing all right in Chicago. Repairing computers didn't pay a fortune, but it was a good living, and he was good at it. And there was Bertha-maybe not a movie doll, bu

ion job. There was nothing said about romance and beauteous Indian maids, but Dave filled that in himself. He would need the

eathing the healthy fumes of diesels. Uncle David turned out to be a construction genius, all right, but his interest in Dave seemed to lie in the fact that he was tired of being Simon Legree to strangers and wanted to ta

im how much he'd better come back and marry her i

ing along the narrow cliff above him, but he was used to the sound. He heard frantic yelling from above, too, but paid no attention to it; in any Hanson construction program, somebody was

As Dave's eyes took in the whole situation, the cliff crumbled completely, and the dozer came lunging over the edge, plunging straight for him. His shout was drowned in the roa

mething ripped and splattered and black

th arms too weak to raise him. The dream of the past was already fa

here-wherev

hed up. The things he seemed to remember from his other waking must be a mixture of fact

small brazier there, with a cadaverous old man in a dark robe spotted with looped crosses. On his head was something like a miter, carrying a coiled brass snake in fron

found again that he wasn't wearing the

turned his head weakly. The motion set sick waves of nausea running through him, but he could see

se whispered in his ear. "Shh, Dave Hanson. It's the Sat

on, he was in no shape to interrupt anything. But he knew that

ell or heaven weren't like this, either. It was like something out of some picture-something about Cagliostro, the ancient mystic. But he was

of disappointment to a businesslike steadiness. The red glow grew white in the center, and a fat, worm-like shape of flam

ouched it, and it snuggled down into Dave's chest, dimming its glow and somehow purring. Warmth seemed to flow from it into Dave. The two men watched for a moment, then picked up their

as no fakery about the warmth from the thing over his chest. Abruptly he remembered that he'd come across something li

"How else does one produce and control a salamander, except by magic? Without, magic

strong reaction. The girl had practically told him he wasn't in his own world. He waited for some emotion, felt none, and s

am I?" he ask

t Hell. It's-well, it's a long-time, I guess-from when you were. I don't know. In such matters, only the Sather

iction television program. It made even time travel seem simple. At any event, however,

"But go to sleep now. Shh." Her hands came up

ypnotism again!

t be superstitious-hypnotism is silly. Now go to sleep. Fo

nt on pondering. Somebody from the future-this could never be the past-had somehow pulled him out just ahead of the accident, apparently; o

future. Still, if scientists had to set u

with perspiration. But with it had come a paralysis that l

softly. "Go back to Lethe. But do

passed o