Running away

It was so close to here. Where they found him, Mom said, pointing toward the television with the knife. The news anchor looked insincerely sincere as a map of our county appeared next to a blurry photo of a wolf in the upper right corner of the screen. The hunt for the truth, he said, continued. Youd think that after a week of reporting the same story over and over again, theyd at least get their simple facts straight. Their photo wasnt even the same species as my wolf, with his stormy gray coat and tawny yellow eyes.

Grace Brisbane.

      Recognition dawned on the hunters face. Lewis Brisbanes daughter?

      Koenig looked at him.

      The Brisbanes have a house right over there. On the edge of the woods. The hunter pointed in the direction of home. The house was invisible behind a black tangle of trees. 

Roots, below a sunny sky

Davy, being of the opinion that a snow-storm was a thing not to bewasted, had been out with his sled, trying to have a little fun with theweather; but presently, discovering that this particular storm was notfriendly to little boys, he had retreated into the house, and having puthis hat and his high shoes and his mittens by the kitchen fire to dry, he began to find his time hang heavily on his hands. He had wanderedidly all over the house, and had tried how cold his nose could be madeby holding it against the window-panes, and, I am sorry to say, had evenbeen sliding down the balusters and teasing the cat; and at last, asevening was coming on, had curled himself up in the big easy-chairfacing the fire, and had begun to read once more about the marvellousthings that happened to little Alice in Wonderland. Then, as it grewdarker, he laid aside the book and sat watching the blazing logs andlistening to the solemn ticking of the high Dutch clock against thewall.

      "It's only Badorful, " said the Goblin, laughing. "He's always snoringand waking himself up, and I suppose it's sleeping on the ground thatmakes him sneeze. Let's have a look at him;" and the Goblin led the wayalong the wall to a large grating.

In the dark, a light shines

Diamonds are forever
They are all I need to please me
They can stimulate and tease me
They won't leave in the night, I've no fear that they might desert me

Diamonds are forever
Hold one up and then caress it
Touch it, stroke it and undress it
I can see every part, nothing hides in the heart to hurt me

Diamonds are forever
Sparkling round my little finger
Unlike men, the diamonds linger
Men are mere mortals who are not worth going to your grave for

Wishful thinking, look at me

The trouble began in a seemingly trivial way. Connor had wanted to speakto Rhoda, his wife, wished himself onto a trunk line and then waited. "Dallas Shipping here, Mars and points Jupiterward, at your service, "said a business-is-business, unwifely voice in his mind.

 "My mind may have smaller scope outside the System but what's left of itisn't cracking, Rhoda. " Working himself into a spasm of righteous rage, he stalked out into the garden and tried to convince himself he wascalmly studying the rose bushes' growth. But Sheila and Tony Williamscame down the lane that skirted the garden and, as their eyes movedhaughtily past him, his rage shifted its focus. He came back into thehouse and remained in sullen silence. 

      But even this consolation did not last long. Why, Connor muttered tohimself, did they have to wait for letters when telephone and radiosystems could have eased their loneliness so much more effectively?Because the paras did not need such systems and their needs were theonly ones that mattered! His fingers itched to achieve something moresubstantial than the work, now childishly routine, that he was doing atthe factory. Just from studying Max he knew he could devise suchworkable communication systems. But all that was idle daydreaming--itwouldn't be in his lifetime.

Late night story

... this summer; knows that I'd be a fool to try to get away from it; and a selfish wretch if I let you and the children stay here because I have to. You've worked pretty hard on this job your- self, Julia" here, again, was a covert sarcasm which the Governor would never know if his wife understood "and a change will do you good. I don't suppose you'll rest you'll carry the job with you wherever you go but the change will help. And the children need it, too. Now, where do you want to go ? "

   Julia Livingston had brought him money. She had been considered a clever girl and most people believed she would make an excellent helpmeet for Lyman Innes, already when he married a well-established and a "rising" man. But their dream of success was not the same dream. She was everywhere spoken of as having been a great aid to her husband, with her energy, her skill in practical affairs, her ambition for him. But he knew if she did not that all she shared in his success was the enjoyment of its emoluments. She was a thin, sharp woman with pale-blue eyes and frizzy light hair. Her speech was quick and nervous, leading her into many bursts of tactless- ness.

Mixed up

Once she was outside the city, she would find berries to pick, or orchards she might raid for apples and cherries.“I’m going to take the Eva Rye up and over to the other side of those things. Why don’t you let go of our hull and just stay floating here? If they turn to follow us, you might then get a look at what they’re concealing.” The potshops would give you a fistful of coppers for a litter of pups, she'd heard, but she didn't like to think about that. She remembered seeing some from the kingsroad on the journey south. And she could dig for roots in the forest, even run down some rabbits. Maurice gave a half-hearted wave in return as he moved closer to the images. They reminded him of flowers: they were all the same size and shape, roughly spherical.The teamster cursed at them and drove them off with a crack of his whip.

Justinian gave an involuntary shiver as he said these words. It reminded him how far he was from home, and Justinian felt doubly alone. Toothpaste on the brush so. Scrub. Shaving mirror pointing at the ceiling. He adjusted it. For a moment it reflected a second bulldozer through the bathroom window. The bright blue belt of M32 rose into the dark sky behind the pod. The Milky Way was a monochrome rainbow in the other direction. Here he was, standing on a remote mud slick, lost on a planet that floated between galaxies, and yet he felt himself an outsider to the only group of humans for millions of light years. In other ministries and other places similar holocausts were under way. There was practically nothing going on on Kandar which was not relatedto the disaster for which the people of that world waited. The feel ofbitterness and despair was everywhere. Broadcasting stations stayed onthe air only to report monotonously that the tragic event had not yethappened.

Falling indefinetly

This time Alice waited patiently until it chose to speak again. In a minute or two the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth and yawned once or twice, and shook itself. Then it got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, `One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.' `One side of WHAT? The other side of WHAT?' thought Alice to herself.
`Of the mushroom,' said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.
Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.
`And now which is which?' she said to herself, and nibbled a little of the right-hand bit to try the effect: the next moment she felt a violent blow underneath her chin: it had struck her foot!
She was a good deal frightened by this very sudden change, but she felt that there was no time to be lost, as she was shrinking rapidly; so she set to work at once to eat some of the other bit. Her chin was pressed so closely against her foot, that there was hardly room to open her mouth; but she did it at last, and managed to swallow a morsel of the lefthand bit.

`Come, my head's free at last!' said Alice in a tone of delight, which changed into alarm in another moment, when she found that her shoulders were nowhere to be found: all she could see, when she looked down, was an immense length of neck, which seemed to rise like a stalk out of a sea of green leaves that lay far below her.
`What CAN all that green stuff be?' said Alice. `And where HAVE my shoulders got to? And oh, my poor hands, how is it I can't see you?' She was moving them about as she spoke, but no result seemed to follow, except a little shaking among the distant green leaves.
As there seemed to be no chance of getting her hands up to her head, she tried to get her head down to them, and was delighted to find that her neck would bend about easily in any direction, like a serpent. She had just succeeded in curving it down into a graceful zigzag, and was going to dive in among the leaves, which she found to be nothing but the tops of the trees under which she had been wandering, when a sharp hiss made her draw back in a hurry: a large pigeon had flown into her face, and was beating her violently with its wings.