On the way around to the back of the building, over the crunching
salt, I had a thought.
"If all he did was close an eye," I said. "How did you learn their
language, so you could invite him inside, explain about the
atmosphere?"
"I don't even know they have a language," he said. "Maybe he learned
mine. I used to draw pictures in the salt, the way they taught us at
school, and say words. Maybe it took him five years to put the
thoughts together, maybe they don't have any concept of language at
all, or need it. Maybe he was thinking about something else all those
five years, and just got around to noticing me. I don't know, Hap."
We came around the edge of an outbuilding then to an unobstructed view
of the bubble edge. Even through dark glasses he'd cautioned me to
wear with a gesture, as he put on another pair for himself, the scene
through the clear plastic was blinding white. Scattered here and there
on the glistening salt were blobs of black.
"Why," I exclaimed. "Those are octopi. I suppose that's what the
natives use for food? I've wondered."
"Those _are_ the natives," he answered, drily.
By now we were up to the plastic barrier of our bubble and stood
looking out at the scene.
"Well," I said after some long moments of staring. "It will be a
challenge to the D.T.'s, won't it?"
He looked at me with disgust.
"What do they eat?" I asked. "Salt?"
"I don't know if they eat," he said. "Can't you get it through your
thick skull, man, that these things are alien? Completely alien? How
do I know?"
"Well you must know some things after five years of study. You must
have observed them. They must get food somehow, they must sleep and
wake, they must procreate. You must have observed something."
"I've observed the process of procreation," he answered cautiously.
"Well fine, then," I said. "That's what's going to concern Aunt Mattie
the most."
"Here's something that may help you understand them," he said, and I
felt a bit of the sardonic in his voice, a grimness. "When that one
visited me inside here," he said. "I took him into my office, so I
could photograph him better with all the equipment. I was explaining
everything, not knowing how much he understood. I happened to pick up
a cigarette and a lighter. Soon as I flipped the lighter on, he shot
up a tentacle and took it out of my hand. I let him keep it, of
course. Next day, when I went outside, everyone of them, as far as I
could see in the distance, had a lighter, exactly like the one I'd
given him. Furthermore, in a chlorinated atmosphere, without oxygen,
those lighters burned normally. Does that help you to understand them
better?" he asked with no attempt to hide the heavy irony.
I didn't have a chance to answer because we both heard a crunching in
the salt behind us. We turned about and there was Aunt Mattie and her
two committee women behind her also now in dark glasses. I waited
until the ladies had come up to us, then I waved my arm grandly at the
scene beyond the plastic.
"Behold the natives in all their nakedness, Aunt Mattie," I said.
Then, to soften the blow it must have been, "I'm afraid somebody was
pulling your leg when they reported it to the D.T.'s."
Miss Point gasped audibly.