Year Of The Jackpot

by

Robert A Heinlein

JBitsoup.orgJ

At first Potiphar Breen did not notice the*girl who was

undressing.

She was standing at a bus stop only ten feet away. He

was indoors but that would not have kept him from notic-

ing; he was seated in a drugstore booth adjacent to the bus

stop; there was nothing between Potiphar and the young

lady but plate glass and an occasional pedestrian.

Nevertheless he did not look up when she began to peel.

Propped up in front of him was a Los Angeles Times; beside

it,  still  unopened,  were  the  Herald-Express  and  the  Daily

News. He was scanning the newspaper carefully but the

headline stories got only a passing glance. He noted the

maximum and minimum temperatures in Brownsville, Texas

and entered them in a neat black notebook; he did the

same with the closing prices of three blue chips and two

dogs on the New York Exchange, as well as the total number

of shares. He then began a rapid sifting of minor news

stories, from time to time entering briefs of them in his little

book; the items he recorded seemed randomly unrelated

among them a publicity release in which Miss National

Cottage Cheese Week announced that she intended to

marry and have twelve children by a man who could prove

that he had been a life-long vegetarian, a circumstantial but

wildly unlikely flying saucer report, and a call for prayers

for rain throughout Southern California.

Potiphar had just written down the names and addresses

of three residents of Watts, California who had been miracu-

lously healed at a tent meeting of the God-is-AII First Truth

Brethren by the Reverend Dickie Bottomley, the eight-year-

old evangelist, and was preparing to tackle the Herald-Ex-

press, when he glanced over his reading glasses and saw the

amateur ecdysiast on the street comer outside. He stood up,

placed his glasses in their case, folded the newspapers and

put them carefully in his right coat pocket, counted out the

exact amount of his check and added twenty-five cents. He

then took his raincoat from a hook, placed it over his arm,

and went outside.

By now the girl was practically down to the buff. It

seemed to Potiphar Breen that she had quite a lot of buff.

Nevertheless she had not pulled much of a house. The cor-

ner newsboy had stopped hawking his disasters and was

grinning at her, and a mixed pair of transvestites who were

apparently waiting for the bus had their eyes on her. None

of the passers-by stopped. They glanced at her, then with the

self-conscious indifference to the unusual of the true South-

ern Californian, they went on their various ways. The trans-

vestites were frankly staring. The male member of the team

wore a frilly feminine blouse but his skirt was a conservative

Scottish kilthis female companion wore a business suit and

Homburg hat; she stared with lively interest.

As Breen approached the girl hung a scrap of nylon on

the bus stop bench, then reached for her shoes. A police of-

ficer, looking hot and unhappy, crossed with the lights and

came up to them. "Okay," he said in a tired voice, "that'll

be all, lady. Get them duds back on and clear out of here."

The femalte transvestite took a cigar out of her mouth.

"Just," she said, "what business is it of yours, officer?"

The cop turned to her. "Keep out of this I" He ran his eyes

over her get up, that of her companion. "I ought to run both

of you in, too."

The transvestite raised her eyebrows. "Arrest us for being

clothed, arrest her for not being. I think I'm going to like

this." She turned to the girl, who was standing still and say-

ing nothing, as if she were puzzled by what was going on.

"I'm a lawyer, dear." She pulled a card from her vest pocket.

"If this uniformed Neanderthal persists in annoying you,

I'll be delighted to handle him."

The man in the kilt said, "Grace! Pleasel"

She shook him off. "Quiet, Normanthis is our business."

She went on to the policeman, "Well? Call the wagon. In

the meantime my client will answer no questions."

The official looked unhappy enough to cry and his face

was getting dangerously red. Breen quietly stepped forward

and slipped his raincoat around the shoulders of the girl.

She looked startled and spoke for the first time. "Uh

thanks." She pulled the coat about her, cape fashion.

The female attorney glanced at Breen then back to the

cop. "Well, officer? Ready to arrest us?"

He shoved his face close to hers. "I ain't going to give

you the satisfaction]" He sighed and added, "Thanks, Mr.

Breenyou know this lady?"

"Ill take care of her. You can forget it, Kawonski."

"I sure hope so. If she's with you, III do just that. But get

her out of here, Mr. Breenpleasel"

The lawyer interrupted. "Just a momentyou're interfer-

ing with my client."

Kawonski said, "Shut up, you! You heard Mr. Breenshe's

with him. Right, Mr. Breen?"

"Wellyes. 1m a friend. I'll take care of her."

The transvestite said suspiciously, "I didn't hear her say

that."

Her companion said, "Gracepleasel There's our bus."

"And I didn't hear her say she was your client," the cop

retorted. "You look like a" His words were drowned out

by the bus's brakes, "and besides that, if you don't climb

on that bus and get off my territory, I'll . . . I'll . . ."

"YouTI what?"

"Grace! We'll miss our bus."

"Just a moment, Norman. Dear, is this man really a friend

of yours? Are you with him?"

The girl looked uncertainly at Breen, then said in a low

voice, "Uh, yes. That's right."

"Well . . ." The lawyer's companion pulled at her arm.

She shoved her card into Breen's hand and got on the bus;

it pulled away.

Breen pocketed the card. Kawonski wiped his forehead.

"Why did you do it, lady?" he said peevishly.

The girl looked puzzled. "I . . . I don't know."

"You hear that, Mr. Breen? That's what they all say. And

if you pull 'em in, there's six more the next day. The Chief

said" He sighed. "The Chief saidwell, if I had arrested

her like that female shyster wanted me to. I'd be out at a

hundred and ninety-sixth and Ploughed Ground tomorrow

morning, thinking about retirement. So get her out of here,

will you?"

The girl said, "But-"

"No 'buts,' lady. Just be glad a real gentleman like Mr.

Breen is willing to help you." He gathered up her clothes,

handed them to her. When she reached for them she again

exposed an uncustomary amount of skin; Kawonski hastily

gave them to Breen instead, who crowded them into his

coat pockets.

She let Breen lead her to where his car was parked, got in

and tucked the raincoat around her so that she was rather

more dressed than a girl usually is. She looked at him.

She saw a medium-sized and undistinguished man who

was slipping down the wrong side of thirty-five and looked

older. His eyes had that mild and slightly naked look of tlie

habitual spectacles wearer who is not at the moment with

glasses; his hair was gray at the temples and thin on top.

His herringbone suit, black shoes, white shirt, and neat tie

smacked more of the East than of California.

He saw a face which he classified as "pretty" and "whole-

some" rather than "beautiful" and "glamorous," It was

topped by a healthy mop of light brown hair. He set her

age at twenty-five, give or take eighteen months. He smiled

gently, climbed in without speaking and started his car.

He turned up Doheny Drive and east on Sunset. Near La

Cienega he slowed down. "Feeling better?"

"Uh, I guess so Mr.'Breen'?"

"Call me Potiphar. What's your name? Don't tell me if

you don't want to,"

"Me? I'm . . . I'm Meade Barstow."

"Thank you, Meade. Where do you want to go? Home?"

"I suppose so. IOh my no! I can't go home like this."

She clutched the coat tightly to her.

"Parents?"

"No. My landlady. She'd be shocked to death."

"Where, then?"

She thought. "Maybe we could stop at a filling station and

I could sneak into the ladies' room."

"Mmm, . . . maybe. See here, Meademy house is six

blocks from here and has a garage entrance. You could get

inside without being seen." He looked at her.

She stared back. "Potipharyou don't look like a wolf?"

"Oh, but I am! The worst sort." He whistled and gnashed

his teeth. "See? But Wednesday is my day off from it."

She looked at him and dimpled. "Oh, well! I'd rather

wrestle with you than with Mrs. Megeath. Let's go."

He turned up into the hills. His bachelor diggings were

one of the many little frame houses clinging like fungus to

the brown slopes of the Santa Monica Mountains. The ga-

rage was notched into this hill; the house sat on it. He drove

in, cut the ingition, and led her up a teetei-y inside stairway

into the living room. "In there," he said, pointing. "Help

yourself." He pulled her clothes out of his coat pockets and

handed them to her.

She blushed and took them, disappeared into his bed-

room. He heard her turn the key in the lock. He settled down

in his easy chair, took out his notebook, and opened the

Herald-Exprew.

He was finishing the Daily News and had added several

notes to his collection when she came out. Her hair was

neatly rolled; her face was restored; she had brushed most

of the wrinkles out of her skirt. Her sweater was neither too

tight nor deep cut, but it was pleasantly filled. She reminded

him of well water and farm breakfasts.

He took his raincoat from her, hung it up, and said, "Sit

down, Meade."

She said uncertainly, "I had better go."

"Go if you mustbut I had hoped to talk with you."

"Well" She sat down on the edge of his couch and

looked around. The room was small but as neat as his neck-

tie, clean as his collar. The fireplace was swept; the floor was

bare and polished. Books crowded bookshelves in every pos-

sible space. One corner was filled by an elderly flat-top

desk; the papers on it were neatly in order. Near it, on its

own stand, was a small electric calculator. To her right,

French windows gave out on a tiny porch over the garage.

Beyond it she could see the sprawling city; a few neon signs

were already blinking.

She sat back a little. "This is a nice roomPotiphar. It

looks like you."

"I take that as a compliment. Thank you." She did not

answer; he went on, "Would you like a drink?"

"Oh, would II" She shivered. "I guess I've got the jitters."

He got up. "Not surprising. What'll it be?"

She took Scotch and water, no ice; he was a Bourbon-

and-gingcr-ale man. She had soaked up half her highball in

silence, then put it down, squared her shoulders and said,

"Potiphar?"

"Yes, Meade?"

"Lookif you brought me here to make a pass, I wish

you'd go ahead and make it. It won't do you a bit of good,

but it makes me nervous to wait for it."

He said nothing and did not change his expression. She

went on uneasily, "Not that I'd blame you for tryingunder

the circumstances. And I am grateful. But . . . wellit's just

that I don't-"

He came over and took both her hands. "My dear, I

haven't the slightest thought of making a pass at you. Nor

need you feel grateful. I butted in because I was interested

in your case."

"My case? Are you a doctor? A psychiatrist?"

He shook his head. "I'm a mathematician. A statistician,

to be precise."

"Hub? I don't get it."

"Don't worry about it. But I would like to ask some ques-

tions. May I?"

"Uh, sure, sure! I owe you that muchand then some."

"You owe me nothing. Want your drink sweetened?"

She gulped it and handed him her glass, then followed

him out into the kitchen. He did an exact job of measuring

and gave it back. "Now tell me why you took your clothes

off?"

She frowned. "I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I guess I just went crazy." She added round-eyed, "But I

don't feel crazy. Could I go off my rocker and not know it?"

"You're not crazy . . . not moi-e so than the rest of us," he

amended. "Tell mewhere did you see someone else do

this?"

"Hub? But I never have."

"Where did you read about it?"

"But I haven't. Wait a minutethose people up in Canada.

Dooka-somethings."

"Doukhobors. That's all? No bareskin swimming parties?

No strip poker?"

She shook her head. "No. You may not believe it but I

was the kind oi a little girl who undressed under her

nightie." She colored and added, "I still dounless I re-

member to tell myself it's silly."

"I believe it. No news stories?"

"No. Yes, there was tool About two weeks ago, I think it

was. Some girl in a theater, in the audience, I mean. But I

thought it was just publicity. You know the stunts they pull

here."

He shook his head. "It wasn't. February 3rd, the Grand

Theater, Mrs. Alvin Copley. Charges dismissed."

"Hub? How did you know?"

"Excuse me." He went to his desk, dialed the City News

Bureau. "Alf? This is Pot Breen. They still sitting on that

story? . . . yes, yes, the Gypsy Rose file. Any new ones

today?" He waited; Meade thought that she could make

out swearing. "Take it easy, Alfthis hot weather can't last

forever. Nine, eh? Well, add anotherSanta Monica Bou-

levard, late this afternoon. No arrest." He added, "Nope,

nobody got her namea middle-aged woman with a cast in

one eye. I happened to see it . . . who, me? Why would I

want to get mixed up? But it's rounding up into a very,

very interesting picture." He put the phone down.

Meade said, "Cast in one eye, indeed!"

"Shall I call him back and give him your name?"

"Oh, nol"

"Very well. Now, Meade, we seemed to have located the

point of contagion in your caseMrs. Copley. What I'd like

to know next is how you felt, what you were thinking about,

when you did it?"

She was frowning intently. "Wait a minute, Potiphai do

I understand that nine other girls have pulled the stunt I

pulled?"

"Oh, nonine others today. You are" He paused briefly.

"the three hundred and nineteenth case in Los Angeles

county since the first of the year. I don't have figures on the

rest of the country, but the suggestion to clamp down on the

stories came from the eastern news services when the papers

here put our first cases on the wire. That proves that it's a

problem elsewhere, too."

"You mean that women all over the country are peel-

ing off their clothes in public? Why, how shocking!"

He said nothing. She blushed again and insisted, "Well,

it is shocking, even if it was me, this time."

"No, Meade. One case is shocking; over three hundred

makes it scientifically interesting. That's why I want to know

how it felt. Tell me about it."

"But All right, I'll try. I told you I don't know why I

did it; I still don't. I-"

"You remember it?"

"Oh, yesi I remember getting up off the bench and pulling

up my sweater. I remember unzipping my skirt. I remember

thinking I would have to hurry as I could see my bus stopped

two blocks down the street. I remember how good it felt

when I finally, uh" She paused and looked puzzled. "But

I still don't know why."

"What were you thinking about just before you stood

up?"

"I don't remember."

"Visualize the street. What was passing by? Where were

your hands? Were your legs crossed or uncrossed? Was there

anybody near you? What were you thinking about?"

"Uh . . . nobody was on the bench with me. I had my

hands in my lap. Those characters in the mixed-up clothes

were standing near by, but I wasn't paying attention. I

wasn't thinking much except that my feet hurt and I wanted

to get homeand how unbearably hot and sultry it was.

Then" Her eyes became distant, "suddenly I knew what

I had to do and it was very urgent that I do it. So I stood up

and I . . . and I" Her voice became shrill.

"Take it easy!" he said. "Don't do it again."

"Hub? Why, Mr. Breeni I wouldn't do anything like that."

"Of course not. Then what?"

"Why, you put your raincoat around me and you know

the rest." She faced him. "Say, Potiphar, what were you

doing with a raincoat? It hasn't rained in weeksthis is the

driest, hottest rainy season in years."

"In sixty-eight years, to be exact."

"Hub?"

"I carry a raincoat anyhow. Uh, just a notion of mine, but

I feel that when it does rain, it's going to rain awfully hard."

He added, "Forty days and forty nights, maybe."

She decided that he was being humorous and laughed.

He went on, "Can you remember how you got the idea?"

She swirled her glass and thought. "I simply don't know."

He nodded. "That's what I expected."

"I don't understand youunless you think I'm crazy. Do

you?"

"No. I think you had to do it and could not help it and

don't know why and can't know why."

"But you know." She said it accusingly.

"Maybe. At least I have some figures. Ever take any

interest in statistics, Meade?"

She shook her head. "Figures confuse me. Never mind

statistics1 want to know why I did what I didl"

He looked at her very soberly. "I think we're lemmings,

Meade."

She looked puzzled, then horrified. "You mean those little

furry mouselike creatures? The ones that"

"Yes. The ones that periodically make a death migration,

until millions, hundreds of millions of them drown them-

selves in the sea. Ask a lemming why he does it. If you

could get him to slow up his rush toward death, even money

says he would rationalize his answer as well as any college

graduate. But he does it because he has toand so do we."

"That's a horrid idea, Potiphar."

"Maybe. Come here, Meade. I'll show you figures that

confuse me, too." He went to his desk and opened a drawer,

took out a packet of cards. "Here's one. Two weeks ago

a man sues an entire state legislature for alienation of his

wife's affectionand the judge lets the suit be tried. Or this

onea patent application for a device to lay the globe over

on its side and warm up the arctic regions. Patent denied,

but the inventor took in over three hundred thousand dol-

lars in down payments on South Pole real estate before the

postal authorities stepped in. Now he's fighting the case and

it looks as if he might win. And hereprominent bishop

proposes applied courses in the so-called facts of life in high

schools." He put the card away hastily. "Here's a dilly: a bill

introduced in the Alabama lower house to repeal the laws

of atomic energynot the present statutes, but the natural

laws concerning nuclear physics; the wording makes that

plain." He shrugged. "How silly can you get?"

"They're crazy."

"No, Meade. One such is crazy; a lot of them is a lemming

death march. No, don't objectI've plotted them on a curve.

The last time we had anything like this was the so-called

Era of Wonderful Nonsense. But this one is much worse."

He delved into a lower drawer, hauled out a graph. "The

amplitude is more than twice as great and we haven't

reached peak. What the peak will be I don't dare guess

three separate rhythms, reinforcing."

She peered at the curves. "You mean that the laddy with

the artic real estate deal is somewhere on this line?"

"He adds to it. And back here on the last crest are the flag-

pole sitters and the goldfish swallowers and the Ponzi hoax

and the marathon dancers and the man who pushed a pea-

nut up Pikes Peak with his nose. You're on the new crest-

or you will be when I add you in."

She made a face. "I don't like it."

"Neither do 1. But it's as clear as a bank statement. This

year the human race is letting down its hair, flipping its lip

with a finger, and saying, 'Wubba, wubba, wubba."'

She shivered. "Do you suppose I could have another

drink? Then I'll go."

"I have a better idea. I owe you a dinner for answering

questions. Pick a place and we'll have a cocktail before."

She chewed her lip. "You don't owe me anything. And

I don't feel up to facing a restaurant crowd. I might . . . I

might"

"No, you wouldn't," he said sharply. "It doesn't hit twice."

"You're sure? Anyhow, I don't want to face a crowd." She

glanced at his kitchen door. "Have you anything to eat in

there? I can cook."

"Urn, breakfast things. And there's a pound of ground

round in the freezer compartment and some rolls. I some-

times make hamburgers when I don't want to go out."

She headed for the kitchen. "Drunk or sober, fully dressed

ornaked, I can cook. YouTI see."

He did see. Open-faced sandwiches with the meat mar-

ried to toasted buns and the flavor garnished rather than

suppressed by scraped Bermuda onion and thin-sliced dill,

a salad made from things she had scrounged out of his re-

frigerator, potatoes crisp but not vulcanized. They ate it on

the tiny balcony, sopping it down with cold beer.

He sighed and wiped his mouth. "Yes, Meade, you can

cook."

'"Some day III arrive with proper materials and pay you

back. Then III prove it."

"You've already proved it. Nevertheless I accept. But I

tell you three times, you owe me nothing."

"No? If you hadn't been a Boy Scout, I'd be in jail."

Breen shook his head. "The police have orders to keep it

quiet at all coststo keep it from growing. You saw that.

And, my dear, you weren't a person to me at the time. I

didn't even see your face; I"

"You saw plenty else!"

"Truthfully, I didn't look. You were just aa statistic."

She toyed with her knife and said slowly, "I'm not sure,

but I think I've just been insulted. In all the twenty-five

years that I've fought men off, more or less successfully, I've

been called a lot of namesbut a 'statistic'why I ought to

take your slide rule and beat you to death with it."

"My dear young lady"

"1m not a lady, that's for sure. But I'm not a statistic."

"My dear Meade, then. I wanted to tell you, before you

did anything hasty, that in college I wrestled varsity

middleweight."

She grinned and dimpled. "That's more the talk a girl

likes to hear. I was beginning to be afraid you had been

assembled in an adding machine factory. Potty, you're

rather a dear."

"If that is a diminutive of my given name, I like it. But if

it refers to my waist line, I resent it."

She reached across and patted his stomach. "I like your

waist line; lean and hungry men are difficult. If I were cook-

ing for you regularly, I'd really pad it."

"Is that a proposal?"

"Let it lie, let it liePotty, do you really think the whole

country is losing its buttons?"

He sobered at once. "It's worse than that."

"Hub?"

"Come inside. Ill show you." They gathered up dishes

and dumped them in the sink, Breen talking all the while.

"As a kid I was fascinated by numbers. Numbers are pretty

things and they combine in such interesting configurations.

I took my degree in math, of course, and got a ]'ob as a

junior actuary with Midwestem Mutualthe insurance out-

fit. That was funno way on earth to tell when a particular

man is going to die, but an absolute certainty that so many

men of a certain age group would die before a certain date.

The curves were so lovelyand they always worked out.

Always. You didn't have to know why; you could predict

with dead certainty and never know why. The equations

worked; the curves were right.

"I was interested in astronomy too; it was the one science

where individual figures worked out neatly, completely,

and accurately, down to the last decimal point the instru-

ments were good for. Compared with astronomy the other

sciences were mere carpentry and kitchen chemistry.

"I found there were nooks and crannies in astronomy

where individual numbers won't do, where you have to go

over to statistics, and I became even more interested. I

joined the Variable Star Association and I might have gone

into astronomy professionally, instead of what I'm in now

business consultationif I hadn't gotten interested in

something else."

'"Business consultation'?" repeated Meade. "Income tax

work?"

"Oh, nothat's too elementary. I'm the numbers boy for a

firm of industrial engineers. I can tell a rancher exactly how

many of his Hereford bull calves will be sterile. Or I tell a

motion picture producer how much rain insurance to carry

on location. Or maybe how big a company in a particular

line must be to carry its own risk in industrial accidents.

And 1m right, 1m always right."

"Wait a minute. Seems to me a big company would have

to have insurance."

"Contrariwise. A really big corporation begins to resemble

a statistical universe."

"Hub?"

"Never mind. I got interested in something elsecycles.

Cycles are everything, Meade. And everywhere. The tides.

The seasons. Wars. Love. Everybody knows that in the

spring the young man's fancy lightly turns to what the girls

never stopped thinking about, but did you know that it runs

in an eighteen-year-plus cycle as well? And that a girl born

at the wrong swing of the curve doesn't stand nearly as good

a chance as her older or younger sister?"

"What? Is that why I'm a doddering old maid?"

"You're twenty-five?" He pondered. "Maybebut your

chances are picking up again; the curve is swinging up. Any-

how, remember you are just one statistic; the curve applies

to the group. Some girls get married every year anyhow."

"Don't call me a statistic."

"Sorry. And marriages match up with acreage planted to

wheat, with wheat cresting ahead. You could almost say

that planting wheat makes people get married."

"Sounds silly."

"It is silly. The whole notion of cause-and-effect is proba-

bly superstition. But the same cycle shows a peak in house

building right after a peak in marriages, every time."

"Now that makes sense."

"Does it? How many newlyweds do you know who can

afford to build a house? You might as well blame it on wheat

acreage. We don't know why; it just is."

"Sun spots, maybe?"

"You can correlate sun spots with stock prices, or Colum-

bia River salmon, or women's skirts. And you are just as

much justified in blaming short skirts for sun spots as you

are in blaming sun spots for salmon. We don't know. But the

curves go on just the same."

"But there has to be some reason behind it."

"Does there? That's mere assumption. A fact has no 'why.'

There it stands, self demonstrating. Why did you take your

clothes off today?"

She frowned. "That's not fair."

"Maybe not. But I want to show you why I'm worried."

He went into the bedroom, came out with a large roll of

tracing paper. "We'll spread it on the floor. Here they are,

all of them. The 54-year cyclesee the Civil War there? See

how it matches in? The 18 & % year cycle, the 9-plus cycle,

the 41-month shorty, the three rhythms of sun spots

everything, all combined in one grand chart. Mississippi

River floods, fur catches in Canada, stock market prices,

marriages, epidemics, freight-car loadings, bank clearings,

locust plagues, divorces, tree growth, wars, rainfall, earth

magnetism, building construction patents applied for, mur-

dersyou name it; I've got it there."

She stared at the bewildering array of wavy lines. "But,

Potty, what does it mean?"

"It means that these things all happen, in regular rhythm,

whether we like. it or not. It means that when skirts are due

to go up, all the stylists in Paris can't make 'em go down.

It means that when prices are going down, all the controls

and supports and government planning can't make 'em go

up." He pointed to a curve. "Take a look at the grocery ads.

Then turn to the financial page and read how the Big Brains

try to double-talk their way out of it. It means that when an

epidemic is due, it happens, despite all the public health

efforts. It means we're lemmings."

She pulled her lip. "I don't like it. 1 am the master of my

fate,' and so forth. I've got free will, Potty. I know I have

I can feel it."

"I imagine every little neutron in an atom bomb feels the

same way. He can go spungi or he can sit still, just as he

pleases. But statistical mechanics work out anyhow. And

the bomb goes offwhich is what I'm leading up to. See

anything odd there, Meade?"

She studied the chart, trying not to let the curving lines

confuse her. "They sort of bunch up over at the right end."

"You're dem tootin' they dol See that dotted vertical line?

That's right nowand things are bad enough. But take a

look at that solid vertical; that's about six months from now

and that's when we get it. Look at the cyclesthe long

ones, the short ones, all of them. Every single last one of

them reaches either a trough or a crest exactly onor almost

onthat line."

"That's bad?"

"What do you think? Three of the big ones troughed in

1929 and the depression almost ruined us . . . even with

the big 54-year cycle supporting things. Now we've got the

big one troughingand the few crests are not things that

help. I mean to say, tent caterpillars and influenza don't do

us any good, Meade, if statistics mean anything, this tired

old planet hasn't seen a jackpot like this since Eve went into

the apple business. I'm scared."

She searched his face. "Pottyyou're not simply having

fun with me? You know I can't check up on you."

"I wish to heaven I were. No, Meade, I can't fool about

numbers; I wouldn't know how. This is it. The Year of the

Jackpot."

She was very silent as he drove her home. As they ap-

proached West Los Angeles, she said, "Potty?"

"Yes, Meade?"

"What do we do about it?"

"What do you do about a hurricane? You pull in your

ears. What can you do about an atom bomb? You try to

out-guess it, not be there when it goes off. What else can

you do?"

"Oh." She was silent for a few moments, then added,

"Potty? Will you tell me which way to jump?"

"Hub? Oh, sure! If I can figure it out."

He took her to her door, turned to go. She said, "Pottyl"

He faced her. "Yes, Meade?"

She grabbed his head, shook itthen kissed him fiercely

on the mouth. "Thereis that just a statistic?"

"Uh, no."

"It had better not be," she said dangerously. "Potty, I

think I'm going to have to change your curve."

II

"RUSSIANS BEJECT UN NOTE"

"MISSOURI FLOOD DAMAGE EXCEEDS 1951 BECORD"

"MISSISSIPPI MESSIAH DEFIES COURT"

"NUDIST CONVENTION STORMS BAILEY'S BEACH"

"BBITISH-IRAN TALKS STILL DEAD-LOCKED"

"FASTER-THAN-LIGHT WEAPON PROMISED"

"TYPHOON DOUBLING BACK ON MANILA"

"MAKBIAGE SOLEMNIZED ON FLOOB OF HUDSONNew York,

13 July, In a specially-constructed diving suit built for two,

Merydith Smithe, caf6 society headline girl, and Prince

Augie Schleswieg of New Vork and the Riviera were united

today by Bishop Dalton in a service televised with the aid

of the Navy's ultra-new"

As the Year of the Jackpot progressed Breen took melan-

choly pleasure in adding to the data which proved that the

curve was sagging as predicted. The undeclared World War

continued its bloody, blundering way at half a dozen spots

around a tortured globe. Breen did not chart it; the head-

lines were there for anyone to read. He concentrated on the

odd facts in the other pages of the papers, facts which,

taken singly, meant nothing, but taken together showed a

disastrous trend.

He listed stock market prices, rainfall, wheat futures, but

it was the "silly season" items which fascinated him. To be

sure, some humans were always doing silly thingsbut at

what point had prime damfoolishness become common-

place? When, for example, had the zombie-like professional

models become accepted ideals of American womanhood?

What were the gradations between National Cancer Week

and National Athlete's Foot Week? On what day had the

American people finally taken leave of horse sense?

Take transvestismmale-and-female dress customs were

arbitrary, but they had seemed to be deeply rooted in the

culture. When did the breakdown start? With Marlene Die-

trich's tailored suits? By the late forties there was no "male"

article of clothing that a woman could not wear in public-

but when had men started to slip over the line? Should he

count the psychological cripples who had made the word

"drag" a byword in Greenwich Village and Hollywood long

before this outbreak? Or were they "wild shots" not belong-

ing on the curve? Did it start with some unknown normal

man attending a masquerade and there discovering that

skirts actually were more comfortable and practical than

trousers? Or had it started with the resurgence of Scottish

nationalism reflected in the wearing of kilts by many

Scottish-Americans?

Ask a lemming to state his motives! The outcome was in

front of him, a news story. Transvestism by draft-dodgers

had at last resulted in a mass arrest in Chicago which was

to have ended in a giant joint trialonly to have the deputy

prosecutor show up in a pinafore and defy the judge to

submit to an examination to determine the judge's true sex.

The judge suffered a stroke and died and the trial was

postponedpostponed  forever  in  Breen's  opinion;  he

doubted that this particular blue law would ever again be

enforced.

Or the laws about indecent exposure, for that matter. The

attempt to limit the Gypsy-Rose syndrome by ignoring it

had taken the starch out of enforcement; now here was a

report about the All Souls Community Church of Spring-

field: the pastor had reinstituted ceremonial nudity. Prob-

ably the first time this thousand years, Breen thought, aside

from some screwball cults in Los Angeles. The reverend

gentleman claimed that the ceremony was identical with

the "dance of the high priestess" in the ancient temple of

Kamak.

Could bebut Breen had private information that the

"priestess" had been working the burlesque & nightclub cir-

cuit before her present engagement. In any case the holy

leader was packing them in and had not been arrested.

Two weeks later a hundred and nine churches in thirty-

three states offered equivalent attractions. Breen entered

them on his curves.

This queasy oddity seemed to him to have no relation to

the startling rise in the dissident evangelical cults through-

out the country. These churches were sincere, earnest and

poorbut growing, ever since the War. Now they were

multiplying like yeast. It seemed a statistical cinch that the

United States was about to become godstruck again. He

correlated it with Transcendentalism and the trek of the

Latter Day Saintshmm . . . yes, it fitted. And the curve

was pushing toward a crest.

Billions in war bonds were now falling due; wartime mar-

riages were reflected in the swollen peak of the Los Angeles

school population. The Colorado River was at a record low

and the towers in Lake Mead stood high out of the water.

But the Angelenos committed slow suicide by watering

lawns as usual. The Metropolitan Water District commis-

sioners tried to stop itit fell between the stools of the police

powers of fifty "sovereign" cities. The taps remained open,

trickling away the life blood of the desert paradise.

The four regular party conventionsDixiecrats, Regular

Republicans, the other Regular Republicans, and the Demo-

cratsattracted scant attention, as the Know-Nothings had

not yet met. The fact that the "American Rally," as the

Know-Nothings preferred to be called, claimed not to be a

party but an educational society did not detract from their

strength. But what was their strength? Their beginnings had

been so obscure that Breen had had to go back and dig into

the December 1951 filesbut he had been approached twice

this very week to join them, right inside his own officeonce

by his boss, once by the janitor.

He hadn't been able to chart the Know-Nothings. They

gave him chills in his spine. He kept column-inches on them,

found that their publicity was shrinking while their numbers

were obviously zooming.

Krakatau blew up on July i8th. It provided the first im-

portant transpacific TV-cast; its effect on sunsets, on solar

constant, on mean temperature, and on rainfall would not

be felt until later in the year. The San Andreas fault, its

stresses unrelieved since the Long Beach disaster of 19331

continued to build up imbalancean unhealed wound run-

ning the full length of the West Coast. PelBe and Etna

erupted; Mauna Loa was still quiet.

Flying saucers seemed to be landing daily in every state.

No one had exhibited one on the groundor had the De-

partment of Defense sat on them? Breen was unsatisfied

with the off-the-record reports he had been able to get; the

alcoholic content of some of them had been high. But the

sea serpent on Ventura Beach was real; he had seen it. The

troglodyte in Tennessee he was not in a position to verify.

Thirty-one domestic air crashes the last week in July . , .

was it sabotage? Or was it a sagging curve on a chart? And

that neo-polio epidemic that skipped from Seattle to New

York? Time for a big epidemic? Breen's chart said it was.

But how about B.W.P Could a chart know that a Slav bio-

chemist would perfect an efficient virus-and-vector at the

right time? Nonsensel

But the curves, if they meant anything at all, included

"free will"; they averaged in all the individual "wills" of a

statistical universeand came out as  a smooth function,

Every morning three million "free wills" flowed toward the

center of the New York megapolis; every evening they

flowed out againall by "free will," and on a smooth and

predictable curve.

Ask a lemming! Ask (dl the lemmings, dead and alive-

let them take a vote on it! Breen tossed his notebook aside

and called Meade, "Is this my favorite statistic?"

"Potty! I was thinking about you."

"Naturally. This is your night off."

"Yes, but another reason, too. Potiphar, have you ever

taken a look at the Great Pyramid?"

"I haven't even been to Niagara Falls. I'm looking for a

rich woman, so I can travel."

"Yes, yes, I'll let you know when I get my first million,

but-"

"That's the first time you've proposed to me this week."

"Shut up. Have you ever looked into the prophecies they

found inside the pyramid?"

"Hub? Look, Meade, that's in the same class with

astrologystrictly for squirrels. Grow up."

"Yes, of course. But Potty, I thought you were interested

in anything odd. This is odd."

"Oh. Sorry. If it's 'silly season' stuff, let's see it."

"All right. Am I cooking for you tonight?"

"It's Wednesday, isn't it?"

"How soon?"

He glanced at his watch. "Pick you up in eleven minutes."

He felt his whiskers. "No, twelve and a half."

"I'll be ready. Mrs. Megeath says that these regular dates

mean that you are going to marry me."

"Pay no attention to her. She's just a statistic. And I'm

a wild datum."

"Oh, well, I've got two hundred and forty-seven dollars

toward that million. 'Bye!"

Meade's prize was the usual Rosicrucian come-on, elabo-

rately printed, and including a photograph (retouched, he

was sure) of the much disputed line on the corridor wall

which was alleged to prophesy, by its various discon-

tinuities, the entire future. This one had an unusual time

scale but the major events were all marked on itthe fall of

Rome, the Norman Invasion, the Discovery of America, Na-

poleon, the World Wars.

What made it interesting was that it suddenly stopped

now.

"What about it. Potty?"

"I guess the stonecutter got tired. Or got fired. Or they

got a new head priest with new ideas." He tucked it into his

desk. "Thanks. I'll think about how to list it." But he got it

out again, applied dividers and a magnifying glass. "It says

here," he announced, "that the end comes late in August

unless that's a fly speck."

"Morning or afternoon? I have to know how to dress."

"Shoes will be worn. All God's chilluns got shoes." He

put it away.

She was quiet for a moment, then said, "Potty, isn't it

about time to jump?"

"Hub? Girl, don't let that thing affect youl That's 'silly

season' stuff."

"Yes. But take a look at your chart."

Nevertheless he took the next afternoon off, spent it in

the reference room oi the main library, confirmed his opin-

ion of soothsayers.  Nostradamus was pretentiously silly,

Mother Shippey was worse. In any of them you could find

what you looked for.

He did find one item in Nostradamus that he liked: "The

Oriental shall come forth from his seat . . . he shall pass

through the sky, through the waters and the snow, and he

shall strike each one with his weapon."

That sounded like what the Department of Defense ex-

pected the commies to try to do to the Western Allies.

But it was also a description of every invasion that had

come out of the "heartland" in the memory of mankind.

Nuts!

When he got home he found himself taking down his

father's Bible and turning to Revelations. He could not find

anything that he could understand but he got fascinated by

the recurring use of precise numbers. Presently he thumbed

through the Book at random; his eye lit on: "Boast not thy-

self of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may

bring forth." He put the Book away, feeling humbled but

not cheered.

The rains started the next morning. The Master Plumbers

elected Miss Star Morning "Miss Sanitary Engineering" on

the same day that the morticians designated her as "The

Body I would Like Best to Prepare," and her option was

dropped by Fragrant Features. Congress voted $1.37 to

compensate Thomas Jefferson Meeks for losses incurred

while an emergency postman for the Christmas rush of i936>

approved the appointment of five lieutenant generals and

one ambassador and adjourned in eight minutes. The fire

extinguishers in a midwest orphanage turned out to be

filled with air. The chancellor of the leading football  in-

stitution sponsored a fund to send peace messages and vita-

mins to the Politburo. The stock market slumped nineteen

points and the tickers ran two hours late. Wichita, Kansas,

remained flooded while Phoenix, Arizona, cut off drinking

water to areas outside city limits. And Potiphar Breen found

that he had left his raincoat at Meade Barstow's rooming

house.

He phoned her landlady, but Mrs. Megeath turned him

over to Meade. "What are you doing home on a Friday?"

he demanded.

"The theater manager laid me off. Now you'll have to

marry me."

"You can't afford me. Meadeseriously, baby, what

happened?"

"I was ready to leave the dump anyway. For the last six

weeks the popcorn machine has been carrying the place.

Today I sat through I Was A Teen-Age Beatnik twice. Noth-

ing to do."

"I'll be along."

"Eleven minutes?"

"It's raining. Twentywith luck."

It was more nearly sixty. Santa Monica Boulevard was a

navigable stream; Sunset Boulevard was a subway jam.

When he tried to ford the streams leading to Mrs. Megeath's

house, he found that changing tires with the wheel wedged

against a storm drain presented problems.

"Potty! You look like a drowned rat."

"I'll live," But presently he found himself wrapped in a

blanket robe belonging to the late Mr. Megeath and sipping

hot cocoa while Mrs. Megeath dried his clothing in the

kitchen.

"Meade . . . I'm 'at liberty,' too."

"Hub? You quit your job?"

"Not exactly. Old Man Wiley and I have been having

differences of opinion about my answers for monthstoo

much 'Jackpot factor' in the figures I give him to turn over

to clients. Not that I call it that, but he has felt that I was

unduly pessimistic."

"But you were right!"

"Since when has being right endeared a man to his boss?

But that wasn't why he fired me; that was just the excuse.

He wants a man willing to back up the Know-Nothing pro-

gram with scientific double-talk. And I wouldn't join." He

went to the window. "It's raining harder."

"But they haven't got any program."

"I know that."

"Potty, you should have joined. It doesn't mean any-

thing1 joined three months ago."

"The hell you did!"

She shrugged. "You pay your dollar and you turn up for

two meetings and they leave you alone. It kept my job for

another three months. What of it?"

"Uh, wellI'm sorry you did it; that's all. Forget it.

Meade, the water is over the curbs out there."

"You had better stay here overnight."

"Mmm . . . I don't like to leave 'Entropy' parked out in

this stuff all night. Meade?"

"Yes, Potty?"

"We're both out of jobs. How would you like to duck

north into the Mojave and find a dry spot?"

"I'd love it. But look, Pottyis this a proposal, or just a

proposition?"

"Don't pull that 'either-or' stuff on me. It's just a sugges-

tion for a vacation. Do you want to take a chaperone?"

XT

No.

"Then pack a bag."

"Right away. But look, Potipharpack a bag how? Are

you trying to tell me it's time to jumpP"

He faced her, then looked back at the window. "I don't

know," he said slowly, "but this rain might go on quite a

while. Don't take anything you don't have to havebut don't

leave anything behind you can't get along without."

He repossessed his clothing from Mrs. Megeath while

Meade was upstairs, She came down dressed in slacks and

carrying two large bags; under one arm was a battered and

rakish Teddy bear. "This is Winnie."

"Winnie the Pooh?"

"No, Winnie Churchill. When I feel bad he promises me

'blood, toil, tears, and sweat'; then I feel better. You said to

bring anything I couldn't do without?" She looked at him

anxiously.

"Right." He took the bags. Mrs. Megeath had seemed

satisfied with his explanation that they were going to visit

his (mythical) aunt in Bakersfield before looking for jobs;

nevertheless she embarrassed him by kissing him good-by

and telling him to "take care of my little girl."

Santa Monica Boulevard was blocked off from use. While

stalled in traffic in Beverly Hills he fiddled with the car

radio, getting squawks and crackling noises, then finally one

station nearby: "in effect," a harsh, high, staccato voice

was saying, "the Kremlin has given us till sundown to get

out of town. This is your New York Reporter, who thinks

that in days like these every American must personally keep

his powder dry. And now for a word from" Breen switched

it  off  and  glanced  at  her  face.  "Don't  worry,"  he  said.

"They've been talking that way for years,"

"You think they are bluffing?"

"I didn't say that. I said, 'don't worry.' "

But his own packing, with her help, was clearly on a

"Survival Kit" basiscanned goods, all his warm clothing,

a sporting rifle he had not fired in over two years, a first-aid

kit and the contents of his medicine chest. He dumped the

stuff from his desk into a carton, shoved it into the back

seat along with cans and books and coats and covered the

plunder with all the blankets in the house. They went back

up the rickety stairs for a last check.

"Pottywhere's your chart?"

"Rolled up on the back seat shelf. I guess that's allhey,

wait a minutel" He went to a shelf over his desk and began

taking down small, sober-looking magazines. "I dern near

left behind my file of The Western Astronomer and of the

Proceedings of the Variable Star Association."

"Why take them?"

"Hub? I must be nearly a year behind on both of them.

Now maybe I'll have time to read."

"Hmm . . . Potty, watching you read professional journals

is not my notion of a vacation."

"Quiet, womani You took Winnie; I take these."

She shut up and helped him. He cast a longing eye at his

electric calculator but decided it was too much like the

White Knight's mouse trap. He could get by with his slide

rule.

As the car splashed out into the street she said, "Potty,

how are you fixed for cash?"

"Hub? Okay, I guess."

"I mean, leaving while the banks are closed and every-

thing." She held up her purse. "Here's my bank. It isn't much,

but we can use it."

He smiled and patted her knee. "Stout fellow! 1m sitting

on my bank; I started turning everything to cash about the

first of the year."

"Oh. I closed out my bank account right after we met."

"You did? You must have taken my maunderings seri-

ously."

"I always take you seriously."

Mint Canyon was a five-mile-an-hour nightmare, with

visibility limited to the tail lights of the truck ahead. When

they stopped for coffee at Halfway, they confirmed what

seemed evident: Cajon Pass was closed and long-haul traffic

for Route 66 was being detoured through the secondary

pass. At long, long last they reached the Victorville cut-off

and lost some of the traffica good thing, as the windshield

wiper on his side had quit working and they were driving

by the committee system. Just short of Lancaster she said

suddenly, "Potty, is this buggy equipped with a snorkel?"

"Nope."

"Then we had better stop. But I see a light off the road."

The light was an auto court. Meade settled the matter of

economy versus convention by signing the book herself;

they were placed in one cabin. He saw that it had twin

beds and let the matter ride. Meade went to bed with her

Teddy bear without even asking to be kissed goodnight. It

was already gray, wet dawn.

They got up in the late afternoon and decided to stay

over one more night, then push north toward Bakersfield.

A high pressure area was alleged to be moving south,

crowding the warm, wet mass that smothered Southern

California. They wanted to get into it. Breen had the wiper

repaired and bought two new tires to replace his ruined

spare, added some camping items to his cargo, and bought

for Meade a .32 automatic, a lady's social-purposes gun; he

gave it to her somewhat sheepishly.

"What's this for?"

"Well, you're carrying quite a bit of cash."

"Oh. I thought maybe I was to use it to fight you off."

"Now, Meade"

"Never mind. Thanks, Potty."

They had finished supper and were packing the car with

their afternoon's purchases when the quake struck. Five

inches of rain in twenty-four hours, more than three billion

tons of mass suddenly loaded on a fault already over-

strained, all cut loose in one subsonic, stomach-twisting

rumble.

Meade sat down on the wet ground very suddenly; Breen

stayed upright by dancing like a logroller. When the

ground quieted down somewhat, thirty seconds later, he

helped her up. "You all right?"

"My slacks are soaked." She added pettishly, "But, Potty,

it never quakes in wet weather. Never."

"It did this time."

"But-"

"Keep quiet, can't you?" He opened the car door and

switched on the radio, waited impatiently for it to warm up.

Shortly he was searching the entire dial. "Not a confounded

Los Angeles station on the airl"

"Maybe the shock busted one of your tubes?"

"Pipe down." He passed a squeal and dialed back to it:

"your Sunshine Station in Riverside, California. Keep

tuned to this station for the latest developments. It is as of

now impossible to tell the size of the disaster. The Colorado

River aqueduct is broken; nothing is known of the extent

of the damage nor how long it will take to repair it. So far

as we know the Owens River Valley aqueduct may be in-

tact, but all persons in the Los Angeles area are advised to

conserve water. My personal advice is to stick your wash-

tubs out into this rain; it can't last forever. If we had time,

we'd play Cool Water, just to give you the idea. I now read

from the standard disaster instructions, quote: 'Boil all

water. Remain quietly in your homes and do not panic. Stay

off the highways. Cooperate with the police and render'

Joel Joel Catch that phonel 'render aid where necessary.

Do not use the telephone except for' Flashi an uncon-

firmed report from Long Beach states that the Wilmington

and San Pedro waterfront is under five feet of water. I re-

peat,  this  is  unconfirmed.  Here's  a  message  from  the

commanding general, March Field: 'official, all military per-

sonnel will report' "

Breen switched it off. "Get in the car."

"Where are we going?"

"North."

"We've paid for the cabin. Should we"

"Get in!"

He stopped in the town, managed to buy six five-gallon-

tins and a jeep tank. He filled them with gasoline and

packed them with blankets in the back seat, topping off the

mess with a dozen cans of oil. Then they were rolling.

"What are we doing, Potiphar?"

"I want to get west on the valley highway."

"Any particular place west?"

"I think si i. .Veil see. You work the radio, but keep an

eye on the road, too. That gas back thpre makes me

nervous."

Through the town of Mojave and northwest on 466 into

the Tehachapi Mountains Reception was poor in the pass

but what Meade could pick up confirmed the first impres-

sionworse than the quake of '06, worse than San Fran-

cisco, Managua, and Long Beach taken together.

When they got down out of the mountains it was clearing

locally; a few stars appeared. Breen swung left off the high-

way and ducked south of Bakersfield by the county road,

reached the Route 99 superhighway just south of Green-

field.  It  was,  as  he  had  feared,  already  jammed  with

refugees; he was forced to go along with the flow for a

couple of miles before he could cut west at Greenfield to-

ward Taft. They stopped on the western outskirts of the

town and ate at an all-night truckers' joint.

They were about to climb back into the car when there

was suddenly "sunrise" due south. The rosy light swelled

almost instantaneously, filled the sky, and died; where it

had been a red-and-purple pillar of cloud was mounting,

mountingspreading to a mushroom top.

Breen stared at it, glanced at his watch, then said harshly,

"Get in the car."

"Pottythat was . . . that was"

"That wasthat used to beLos Angeles. Get in the car!"

He simply drove for several minutes. Meade seemed to

be in a state of shock, unable to speak. When the sound

reached them he again glanced at his watch. "Six minutes

and "nineteen seconds. That's about right."

"Pottywe should have brought Mrs. Megeath."

"How was I to know?" he said angrily. "Anyhow, you can't

transplant an old tree. If she got it, she never knew it."

"Oh, I hope sol"

"Forget it; straighten out and fly right. We're going to

have all we can do to take care of ourselves. Take the flash-

light and check the map. I want to turn north at Taft and

over toward the coast."

"Yes, Potiphar."

"And try the radio."

She quieted down and did as she was told. The radio

gave nothing, not even the Riverside station; the whole

broadcast range was covered by a curious static, like rain

on a window. He slowed down as they approached Taft,

let her spot the turn north onto the state road, and turned

into it. Almost at once a figure jumped out into the road in

front of them, waved his arms violently. Breen tromped on

the brake.

The man came up on the left side of the car, rapped on

the window; Breen ran the glass down. Then he stared

stupidly at the gun in the man's left hand. "Out of the car,"

the stranger said sharply. "I've got to have it." He reached

inside with his right hand, groped for the door lever.

Meade reached across Breen, stuck her little lady's gun

in the man's face, pulled the trigger. Breen could feel the

flash on his own face, never noticed the report. The man

looked puzzled, with a neat, not-yet-bloody hole in his up-

per lipthen slowly sagged away from the car.

"Drive onl" Meade said in a high voice.

Breen caught his breath. "Good girl"

"Drive on! Get rolling!"

They followed the state road through Los Padres Na-

tional Forest, stopping once to fill the tank from their cans.

They turned off onto a dirt road. Meade kept trying the

radio, got San Francisco once but it was too jammed with

static to read. Then she got Salt Lake City, faint but clear:

"since there are no reports of anything passing our radar

screen the Kansas City bomb must be assumed to have been

planted rather than delivered. This is a tentative theory

but" They passed into a deep cut and lost the rest.

When the squawk box again came to life it was a new

voice: "Conelrad," said a crisp voice, "coming to you over

the combined networks. The rumor that Los Angeles has

been hit by an atom bomb is totally unfounded. It is true

that the western metropolis has suffered a severe earth-

quake shock but that is all. Government officials and the

Red Cross are on the spot to care for the victims, butand I

repeatthere has been no atomic bombing. So relax and

stay in your homes. Such wild rumors can damage the

United States quite as much as enemy's bombs. Stay off the

highways and listen for" Breen snapped it off.

"Somebody," he said bitterly, "has again decided that

'Mama knows best.' They won't tell us any bad news."

"Potiphar," Meade said sharply, "that was an atom bomb

. . . wasn't it?"

"It was. And now we don't know whether it was just Los

Angelesand Kansas Cityor all the big cities in the coun-

try. All we know is that they are lying to us."

"Maybe I can get another station?"

"The hell with it." He concentrated on driving. The road

was very bad.

As it began to get light she said, "Pottydo you know

where we're going? Are we just keeping out of cities?"

"I think I do. If I'm not lost." He stared around them.

"Nope, it's all right. See that hill up forward with the triple

gendarmes on its profile?"

"Gendarmes?"

"Big rock pillars. That's a sure landmark. I'm looking for a

private road now. It leads to a hunting lodge belonging to

two of my friendsan old ranch house actually, but as a

ranch it didn't pay."

"Oh. They won't mind us using it?"

He shrugged. "If they show up, we'll ask them. If they

show up. They lived in Los Angeles, Meade."

"Oh. Yes, I guess so."

The private road had once been a poor grade of wagon

trail; now it was almost impassable. But they finally topped

a hogback from which they could see almost to the Pacific,

then dropped down into a sheltered bowl where the cabin

was. "All out, girl. End of the line."

Meade sighed. "It looks heavenly."

"Think you can rustle breakfast while I unload? There's

probably wood in the shed. Or can you manage a wood

range?"

"Just try me."

Two hours later Breen was standing on the hogback,

smoking a cigarette, and staring off down to the west. He

wondered if that was a mushroom cloud up San Francisco

way? Probably his imagination, he decided, in view of the

distance. Certainly there was nothing to be seen to the

south.

Meade came out of the cabin. "Pottyl"

"Up here."

She joined him, took his hand, and smiled, then snitched

his cigarette and took a deep drag. She expelled it and said,

"I know it's sinful of me, but I feel more peaceful than I

have in months and months."

"I know."

"Did you see the canned goods in that pantry? We could

pull through a hard winter here."

"We might have to."

"I suppose. I wish we had a cow."

"What would you do with a cow?"

"I used to milk four cows before I caught the school bus,

every morning. I can butcher a hog, too."

"I'll try to find one."

"You do and III manage to smoke it." She yawned. "I'm

suddenly terribly sleepy."

"So am 1. And small wonder."

"Let's go to bed."

"Uh, yes. Meade?"

"Yes, Potty?"

"We may be here quite a while. You know that, don't

you?"

"Yes, Potty."

"In fact it might be smart to stay put until those curves all

start turning up again. They will, you know."

"Yes. I had figured that out."

He hesitated, then went on, "Meade . . . will you marry

me?"

"Yes." She moved up to him.

After a time he pushed her gently away and said, "My

dear, my very dear, uhwe could drive down and find a

minister in some little town?"

She looked at him steadily. "That wouldn't be very

bright, would it? I mean, nobody knows we're here and

that's the way we want it. And besides, your car might not

make it back up that road."

"No, it wouldn't be very bright. But I want to do the right

thing."

"It's all right. Potty. It's all right."

"Well, then . . . kneel down here with me. Well say

them together."

"Yes, Potiphar." She knelt and he took her hand. He

closed his eyes and prayed wordlessly.

When he opened them he said, "Whats the matter?"

"Uh, the gravel hurts my knees."

"Well stand up, then."

"No. Look, Potty, why don't we just go in the house and

say them there?"

"Hub? Hells bells, woman, we might forget to say them

entirely.  Now repeat  after me:  I,  Potiphar,  take  thee,

Meade-"

"Yes, Potiphar. I, Meade, take thee, Potiphar-"

III

"OFFICIAL: STATIONS WITHIN RANGE BELAY TWICE. EXECUTIVE

BULLETIN NUMBER NINEROAD LAWS PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED

HAVE BEEN IGNOBED IN MANY INSTANCES. PATBOLS ABE OB-

DEBED TO SHOOT WITHOUT WARNING AND PBOVOST MARSHALS

ABE DIBECTED TO USE DEATH PENALTY FOB UNAUTHOMZED

POSSESSION OF GASOLINE. B.W. AND BADIATION QUABANTINE

BEGULATIONS PREVIOUSLY ISSUED WILL BE BIGIDLY ENFOBCED.

LONG LIVE THE UNITED STATES! HABLEY J. NEAL, LIEUTENANT

GENEBAL, ACTING CHIEF OF GOVERNMENT. ALL STATIONS RE-

LAY TWICE."

"THIS IS THE FREE RADIO AMERICA BELAY NETWOBK. PASS THIS

ALONG, BOYS I GOVERNOR BBANDLEY WAS SWORN IN TODAY

AS PRESIDENT BY ACTING CHIEF JUSTICE BOBEBTS UNDEB THE

BULE-OF-SUCCESSION. THE PBESIDENT NAMED THOMAS DEWEY

AS SECRETARY OF STATE AND PAUL DOUGLAS AS SECRETARY OF

DEFENSE. HIS SECOND OFFICIAL ACT WAS TO STBIP THE BENE-

GADE NEAL OF BANK AND TO DIRECT HIS ABBEST BY ANY

CITIZEN OR OFFICIAL. MORE LATEB. PASS THE WORD ALONG.

"HELLO, CQ, CQ, CQ. THIS IS WgKMB, FBEEPOBT, QBB, QBRi

ANYBODY READ ME? ANYBODY? WE'RE DYING LIKE FLIES

DOWN HERE. WHAT'S HAPPENED? STARTS WITH FEVER AND A

BUBNING THIRST BUT YOU CAN'T SWALLOW. WE NEED HELP.

ANYBODY BEAD ME? HELLO, CQ 75, CQ 75 THIS IS "5 KILO

METBO BOMEO CALLING QBB AND CQ 75- BY FOR SOMEBODY.

... ANYBODYIII"

"THIS IS THE LORD'S TIME, SPONSOBED BY SWAN'S ELIXIB, THE

TONIC THAT MAKES WAITING FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD

WORTHWHILE. YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAB A MESSAGE OF CHEER

FROM JUDGE BBOOMFIELD, ANOINTED VICAB OF THE KINGDOM

ON EABTH. BUT FIKST A BULLETIN: SEND YOUR CONTRIBU-

TIONS TO 'MESSIAH,' CLINT, TEXAS. DON'T TRY TO MAIL

THEM: SEND THEM BY A KINGDOM MESSENGER OR BY SOME

PILGRIM JOURNEYING THIS WAY. AND NOW THE TABERNACLE

CHOIR FOLLOWED BY THE VOICE OF THE VICAB ON EARTH"

"THE FIRST SYMPTOM IS LITTLE RED SPOTS IN THE ARMPITS.

THEY ITCH. PUT 'EM TO BED AT ONCE AND KEEP 'EM COVERED

UP WARM. THEN GO SCRUB YOUBSELF AND WEAR A MASK: WE

DON'T KNOW YET HOW YOU CATCH IT. PASS IT ALONG, ED."

"NO NEW LANDINGS REPORTED ANYWHERE ON THIS CON-

TINENT. THE PARATROOPERS WHO ESCAPED THE ORIGINAL

SLAUGHTER ARE THOUGHT TO BE HIDING OUT IN THE POCONOS.

SHOOTBUT BE CAREFUL; IT MIGHT BE AUNT TESSIE. OFF AND

CLEAR, UNTIL NOON TOMORROW"

The curves were turning up again. There was no longer

doubt in Breen's mind about that. It might not even be

necessary to stay up here in the Sierra Madres through the

winterthough he rather thought they would. He had

picked their spot to keep them west of the fallout; it would

be silly to be mowed down by the tail of a dying epidemic,

or be shot by a nervous vigilante, when a few months' wait

would take care of everything.

Besides, lie had chopped all that firewood. He looked

at his calloused handshe had done all that work and, by

George, he was going to enjoy the benefits!

He was headed out to the hogback to wait for sunset and

do an hour's reading; he glanced at his car as he passed it,

thinking that he would like to try the radio. He suppressed

the yen; two thirds of his reserve gasoline was gone already

just from keeping the battery charged for the radioand

here it was only December. He really ought to cut it down

to twice a week. But it meant a lot to catch the noon bulletin

of Free America and then twiddle the dial a few minutes to

see what else he could pick up.

But for the past three days Free America had not been on

the airsolar static maybe, or perhaps just a power failure.

But that rumor that President Brandley had been assassi-

natedwhile it hadn't come from the Free radio . . . and it

hadn't been denied by them, either, which was a good sign.

Still, it worried him.

And that other story that lost Atlantis had pushed up dur-

ing the quake period and that the Azores were now a little

continentalmost certainly a hang-over of the "silly season"

but it would be nice to hear a follow-up.

Rather sheepishly he let his feet carry him to the car.

It wasn't fair to listen when  Meade wasn't  around.  He

warmed it up, slowly spun the dial, once around and back.

Not a peep at full gain, nothing but a terrible amount of

static. Served him right.

He climbed the hogback, sat down on the bench he had

dragged up theretheir "memorial bench," sacred to the

memory of the time Meade had hurt her knees on the gravel

sat down and sighed. His lean belly was stuffed with veni-

son and corn fritters; he lacked only tobacco to make him

completely happy. The evening cloud colors were spectacu-

larly beautiful and the weather was extremely balmy for

December; both, he thought, caused by volcanic dust, with

perhaps an assist from atom bombs.

Surprising how fast things went to pieces when they

started to skid I And surprising how quickly they were go-

ing back together, judging by the signs. A curve reaches

trough and then starts right back up. World War III was

the shortest big war on recordforty cities gone, counting

Moscow and the other slave cities as well as the American

onesand then whoosh! neither side fit to fight. Of course,

the fact that both sides had thrown their ICBMs over the

pole through the most freakish arctic weather since Peary

invented the place had a lot to do with it, he supposed. It

was amazing that any of the Russian paratroop transports

had gotten through at all.

He sighed and pulled the November 1951 copy of the

Western Astronomer out of his pocket. Where was he? Oh,

yes, Some Notes on the Stability of G-Type Stars with

Especial Reference to Sol, by A. G. M. Dynkowski, Lenin

Institute, translated by Heinrich Ley, F. R. A. S. Good boy,

Skisound mathematician. Very clever application of har-

monic series and tightly reasoned. He started to thumb for

his place when he noticed a footnote that he had missed.

Dynkowski's own name carried down to it: "This mono-

graph was denounced by Pravda as romantic reactionariism

shortly after it was published. Professor Dynkowski has

been unreported since and must be presumed to be liqui-

dated,"

The poor geekl Well, he probably would have been atom-

ized by now anyway, along with the goons who did him in.

He wondered if they really had gotten all the Russki para-

troopers? Well, he had killed his quota; if he hadn't gotten

that doe within a quarter mile of the cabin and headed

right back, Meade would have had a bad time. He had shot

them in the back, the swinel and buried them beyond the

woodpileand then it had seemed a shame to skin and eat

an innocent deer while those lice got decent burial.

Aside from mathematics, just two things worth doing-

kill a man and love a woman. He had done both; he was

rich.

He settled down to some solid pleasure. Dynkowski was

a treat. Of course, it was old stuff that a G-type star, such

as the sun, was potentially unstable; a G-O star could ex-

plode, slide right off the Russell diagram, and end up as a

white dwarf. But no one before Dynkowski had defined

the exact conditions for such a catastrophe, nor had any-

one else devised mathematical means of diagnosing the in-

stability and describing its progress.

He looked up to rest his eyes from the fine print and saw

that the sun was obscured by a thin low cloudone of those

unusual conditions where the filtering effect is just right to

permit a man to view the sun clearly with the naked eye.

Probably volcanic dust in the air, he decided, acting al-

most like smoked glass.

He looked again. Either he had spots before his eyes or

that was one fancy big sun spot. He had heard of being

able to see them with the naked eye, but it had never hap-

pened to him. He longed for a telescope.

He biinked. Yep, it was still there, upper right. A big

spotno wonder the car radio sounded like a Hitler speech.

He turned back and continued on to the end of the

article, being anxious to finish before the light failed. At

first his mood was sheerest intellectual pleasure at the man's

tight mathematical reasoning. A 3% imbalance in the solar

constantyes, that was standard stuff; the sun would nova

with that much change. But Dynkowski went further; by

means of a novel mathematical operator which he had

dubbed "yokes" he bracketed the period in a star's history

when this could happen and tied it down further with sec-

ondary, tertiary, and quaternary yokes, showing exactly the

time of highest probability. Beautiful) Dynkowski even as-

signed dates to the extreme limit of his primary yoke, as a

good statistician should.

But, as he went back and reviewed the equations, his

mood changed from intellectual to personal. Dynkowski

was not talking about just any G-O star; in the latter part

he meant old Sol himself, Breen's personal sun, the big boy

out there with the oversized freckle on his face.

That was one hell of a big freckle! It was a hole you could

chuck Jupiter into and not make a splash. He could see it

very clearly now.

Everybody talks about "when the stars grow old and the

sun grows cold"but it's an impersonal concept, like one's

own death. Breen started thinking about it very personally.

How long would it take, from the instant the imbalance was

triggered until the expanding wave front engulfed earth?

The mechanics couldn't be solved without a calculator even

though they were implicit in the equations in front of him.

Half an hour, for a horseback guess, from incitement until

the earth went phutti

It hit him  with  gentle  melancholy.  No  more?  Never

again? Colorado on a cool morning . . . the Boston Post

road with autumn wood smoke tanging the air . . . Bucks

county bursting in the spring. The wet smells of the Fulton

Fish Marketno, that was gone already. Coffee at the

Morning Call. No more wild strawberries on a hillside in

Jersey, hot and sweet as lips. Dawn in the South Pacific

with the light airs cool velvet under your shirt and never a

sound but the chuckling of the water against the sides of

the old rust bucketwhat was her name? That was a long

time agothe S. S. Mary Brewster.

No more moon if the earth was gone. Starsbut no one

to look at them.

He looked back at the dates bracketing Dynkowski's

probability yoke. "Thine Alabaster Cities gleam, undimmed

by-

He suddenly felt the need for Meade and stood up.

She was coming out to meet him. "Hello, Pottyl Safe to

come in nowI've finished the dishes."

"I should help."

"You do the man's work; I'll do the woman's work. That's

fair." She shaded her eyes. "What a sunsetl We ought to

have volcanoes blowing their tops every year."

"Sit down and we'll watch it."

She sat beside him and he took her hand. "Notice the

sun spot? You can see it with your naked eye."

She stared. "Is that a sun spot? It looks as if somebody

had taken a bite out of it."

He squinted his eyes at it again. Damned if it didn't look

bigger!

Meade shivered. "I'm chilly. Put your arm around me."

He did so with his free arm, continuing to hold hands with

the other. It was biggerthe thing was growing.

What good is the race of man? Monkeys, he thought,

monkeys with a spot of poetry in them, cluttering and wast-

ing a second-string planet near a third-string star. But some-

times they finish in style.

She snuggled to him. "Keep me warm."

"It will be warmer soon. I mean I'll keep you warm."

"Dear Potty."

She looked up. "Pottysomething funny is happening to

the sunset."

"No darlingto the sun."

"1m frightened."

"I'm here, dear."

He glanced down at the journal, still open beside him. He

did not need to add up the two figures and divide by two

to reach the answer. Instead he clutched fiercely at her

hand, knowing with an unexpected and overpowering burst

of sorrow that this was

The End