"Funny?"
"Uh-huh. It doesn't look like any kind I ever saw before."
"Well you just try it and see if you don't like it."
Biddy picked up one of the little white sticks and bit off an end. She
chewed it warily, then with relish. "It's very good. Where did you get
it?"
"I brought it with me."
They ate in silence for a while, then Joe said, "Biddy, what do your
mother and father think of the Eastern Bloc?"
Biddy looked up in surprise. "Why they hate it of course. Everybody
hates the Eastern Bloc because they're mean and cruel."
"What do the people of your town expect to happen?"
"With the Eastern Bloc?"
"Yes."
"Everybody knows we'll have to fight them someday. We built a space
station and so they had to go and build one too and they want to wreck
our station so they'll have the only one. And when they do the big war
will start."
"And I suppose the Eastern Bloc knows you want to wreck their space
station?"
"Why they can't think that because we had one first and we could have
stopped them from building one but we didn't because we aren't mean
like they are."
"I see." Joe thought that over very carefully for a long time and then
all the food on the tray was gone and Biddy said, "What's the sky bloc
like, Joe?"
"The sky bloc?"
"That's where you said you came from."
"Oh, yes. Well, it's a little hard to describe. It's very big and I
think probably you'd like it if you ever went there."
"Did they send you away?"
"Not exactly. They sent me down here to do something."
"What do you have to do?"
"I have to talk to some people."
"What people do you have to talk to?"
"I'm not quite sure yet. I haven't made up my mind."
"When will you make up your mind?"
* * * * *
Joe considered Biddy's questions gravely as though each one was very
important. "I'm not quite sure. That machine in the cave isn't just
to make little girl's legs well. It does other things. It tunes in on
thought waves just the way your television set tunes in on pictures."
"You mean it tells you what people are thinking about?"
"In a way, it does. And after a while I'll look at the things the
machine has recorded and then I'll decide what I have to do or say."
There was silence while Biddy's mind went off on another track. Pretty
soon she said, "Joe, there's a boy named Davey--well, he isn't a boy,
really, he's almost a man--and his leg is like mine was. He can't walk
on it either."
"Does he live in Sage Bend?"
"No. He lives on the ranch where my Pop works. I think it would be
awfully nice if you fixed his leg too."
"Perhaps I can."
Biddy clapped her hands and looked at Joe through bright eyes. "I think
you're wonderful, Joe--just wonderful--and there's old Mr. Haney. He's
blind, so maybe you could--"
Joe laughed. "Now wait a minute, Biddy. I'm no miracle man. I can't
reconstruct people's minds."
"But Mr. Haney's mind is fine. It's just his eyes that are no good."
"I'm afraid you're wrong about that."
"Do you know Mr. Haney?"
"Not exactly. I've wandered around a little and I met him while he was
taking a walk."
"Then you know how bad it is to be blind."
"Yes, but you don't understand, Biddy. I wouldn't be helping Mr. Haney.
I'd be hurting him."
"Hurting him?"
"Yes. Mr. Haney is far happier the way he is than if he had his sight
back. With his eyes functioning he'd be just like anyone else."
"That's what he wants."
"No he doesn't. Being blind makes him different and he's grown to
depend on that difference as a staff of comfort. He lives on the
sympathy he gets from people who can see. Mr. Haney doesn't know it
himself but he would be very miserable if we gave him back his sight.
As I said, Biddy, I can't change people's minds. I'm no miracle man."
"That's what Mom and Pop said happened to me. A miracle. Was that
right, Joe?"
"No Biddy. You see where I come from we're a little further ahead in
some scientific developments than the people down here. The expansion
and reconstruction of bone and tissue isn't very difficult when you
know how and have the right sonic frequencies to work with."
"I see," Biddy answered gravely although she didn't see at all. "But
what about Davey Taber? He doesn't really want to be crippled does he?"
"I doubt it. Maybe we'll have a chance to see...."
* * * * *
The town of Sage Bend was in an uproar. The crowd--if the few dozen
persons who resided there could be called a crowd--were milling in
front of Dan Parker's house. They had seen some excitement and wanted
to see more.
It had started before dawn with Cecil Bates standing alone in the
street, watching Biddy ride off. When she had gone beyond his sight,
his confusion and consternation fused into a clear-cut thought. He'd
be triply damned if that heel Dan Parker hadn't been playing on the
sympathy of the town all this time.
Ever since Biddy had been brought back from the hospital in Phoenix.
Could you beat it? Putting a brace on a kid's leg and making her wear
it around town so people around town would be sorry for him. But why?
What end did it serve?
Then Cecil knew. Not the townspeople. Of course not. Sam Taber was the
target of Dan's rotten plan. Who'd ever think a man would be so scared
of his job he'd make his own daughter act a cripple in order to keep it?
Well, he wouldn't get away with it any longer. Cecil fairly vibrated
with the importance he felt within himself at having come upon this
secret. He'd show this town. So they thought he was just a slob who sat
in front of the jailhouse all day, did they? Just a bouncer to take
drunks out of the tavern and sober them up behind bars. He'd show them
they had to get up pretty early to get the wool over Cecil Bates' eyes
and keep it there.
Nick Sanford was just coming down to open his lunch counter in case
any late drinkers wanted an early cup of coffee. Cecil hurried in that
direction. Nick unlocked the door and said, "Hi, Ceec. Up early ain't
you?"
"Early enough to find out what's been going on around here."
"Something happen?"
"Your damn tootin' something's been happening. Met the little Parker
girl riding out on her burro."
"So early? Where was she going?"
"Not important. The important thing was she didn't have her leg brace
on."
"Come on in while I make coffee."
Bates followed Nick inside and said, "Didn't you hear me? I said she
didn't have her leg brace on."
"Why not?"
"Because she didn't need it. She's never needed it. Her leg's as good
as yours or mine."
"You must be joking."
"Did I ever joke, Nick?" Cecil asked tonelessly.
* * * * *
Nick had to concede that one. In all the time he'd owned the lunch
room, he'd never seen Cecil Bates smile or say a light word. "What did
Biddy have to say about it?"
"Oh, she had some gobberish about a man up in the hills making her leg
well. Something Dan probably told her to say if she ever got caught."
"That doesn't seem logical. About Dan I mean. I can see why--"
Cecil laid out his ideas on the subject and Nick shook his head. "Can't
hardly go along with you on that. Don't figure it makes sense somehow."
"Gimme a cup of that coffee, will you?"
"Okay. So you think it's just been a masquerade all the time?"
"What other answer is there? A spindly, pipe-stem little leg doesn't
grow normal overnight."
"But we saw Biddy's deformed leg. All of us."
"I got that figured out too."
"Then tell me."
"Illusion," Cecil said wisely. "A kind of optical illusion. We see a
girl limping with a big brace on her leg. We really don't look any
further than that. We take it for granted the leg's bad. That's human
nature, Nick."
Sanford didn't seem entirely convinced but he didn't argue the point.
"Well, now that you know, what are you going to do about it?"
"Do about it? I'm going down there and expose that rat. After pulling a
slimy trick like that he should be held up for everybody to take a look
at."
"I don't know. I'd go a little easy if I were you."
Cecil's native caution perked up at the warning but he found a virtue
with which to defend his position. "I'd just be doing my duty--the
duty of any citizen. And I'm not going down there to accuse him. I'm
just going to ask him about it. I'll keep a completely open mind and
listen to what he has to say, the damned rat."
* * * * *
Two men entered the lunchroom after coffee and when they'd heard
Cecil's story they didn't think much of the "man in the hills" yarn
either. In fact, they didn't think at all. As one whispered to the
other, "I don't know what the hell this is all about but Ceec is on his
horse and there might be some excitement so let's stick around."