And then, as the anesthetist bent forward, it happened. Ollie's
uncovered stomach, lying there in wait for the knife, seemed to heave
and boil. Ollie shrieked and, as the assembled medicos watched in dazed
fascination, the knobs and bumps smoothed out. The whole stomach began
to shrink, like a cake falling in when some one has slammed the oven
door. The pandigestive tablets had finally acted.
Ollie sat up. He forgot that he was wearing the skimpy and shameless
nightgown, forgot, too, that he had a roomful of spectators. He pushed
away the anesthetist who tried to stop him.
"I feel fine," he said.
"Lie down," ordered Dr. Manson sternly. "We're going to operate and
find out what's wrong with you."
"You're not cuttin' into me," said Ollie. He swung his feet to
the floor and stood up. "There ain't nothin' wrong with me. I feel
wonderful. For the first time in my life I ain't hungry, and I'm
spoilin' for trouble. Don't nobody try to stop me."
He started to march across the floor, pushing his way through the
protesting doctors.
"This way," said one of the interns near the door. "We'll get your
clothes." Ollie looked at her in suspicion, but she went on, "Remember?
I'm the one who gave you the tablets to make the pain go away."
"They sure worked," said Ollie happily, and allowed himself to be led
along.
He heard the uproar behind him, but he paid no attention. Whatever
they wanted, he was getting out of here, fast. There might have been
trouble, but at a critical point the public address system swung into
operation, thanks to the foresight of his intern friends, who had
rigged up a special portable attachment to the microphone. It started
calling Dr. Manson, calling Dr. Kolanyi, calling Dr. Pumber, and all
the others.
In the confusion, Ollie escaped and found himself, for the first time
in his life, a passenger in a taxicab. With him were the two friendly
interns, no longer in white.
"Just in case any more of those lumps appear in your stomach," said
the female, "you'd better take another couple of tablets."
She was so persuasive that Ollie put up only token resistance. The
tablets went down his stomach, and then he settled back to enjoy the
cab ride. It was only later that he wondered where they were taking
him. By that time, he was too sleepy to wonder very much.
With the aid of the first two tablets, he had digested the equivalent
of a tremendous meal. The blood coursed merrily in his veins and
arteries, and he had a warm sensation of well-being.
As the taxi sped along, his eyes closed.
* * * * *
"You transmitted the message in one of the latter tablets?" asked Zolto
in their native tongue.
"I have explained all that has happened," replied his wife. "They will
stop sending food and wait for other directives."
"Good. Now we'll have to get the transfer out of him as soon as
possible. We ourselves can operate and he will never be the wiser."
"I wonder," said Pojim. "Once we have the transfer, it will only be a
nuisance to us. We'll have to guard it carefully and be in continual
fear of losing it. Perhaps it would be more sensible to leave it inside
him."
"Inside him? Pojim, my sweet, have you taken leave of your senses?"
"Not at all. It is easier to guard a man than a tiny object. I took
a look at one of the X-ray plates, and it is clear that the transfer
switch has adhered to his stomach. It will remain there indefinitely.
Suppose we focus a transpositor on that stomach of his. Then, as
the objects we want arrive from our own universe in their collapsed
condition, we can transpose them into our laboratory, enlarge them, and
send them off to Aldebaran, where they are needed."
"But suppose that he and that stomach of his move around!"
"He will stay in one place if we treat him well. Don't you see, Zolto?
He is a creature who has always lacked food. We shall supply him such
food as his own kind have never dreamed of, complete with pandigestion
fluid. At the same time, we shall set him to doing light work in order
to keep him busy. Much of his task will involve studying and improving
himself. And at night we shall receive the things we need from our own
universe."
"And when we have enough to supply the colony on Aldebaran II?"
"Then it will be time enough to remove the transfer switch."
Zolto laughed. It was a laugh that would have been curiously out of
place in a human being, and if the taxi driver hadn't been so busy
steering his way through traffic, he would have turned around to look.
Pojim sensed the danger, and held up a warning finger.
Zolto subsided. "You have remarkable ideas, my wife. Still, I see no
reason why this should not work. Let us try it."
* * * * *
Ollie awoke to a new life. He was feeling better than he had ever
felt in his entire miserable existence. The two interns who had come
along with him had been transformed magically into a kindly lady and
gentleman, who wished to hire him to do easy work at an excellent
salary. Ollie let himself be hired.
He had his choice of things to eat now, but, strangely enough, he no
longer had his old hunger. It was as if he were being fed from some
hidden source, and he ate, one might almost have said, for the looks of
it. The little he did consume, however, seemed to go a long way.
He gained weight, his muscles hardened, his old teeth fell out and new
ones appeared. He himself was astonished at this latter phenomenon, but
after his previous experience at the hospital, he kept his astonishment
to himself. The spots on his lungs disappeared, his spine straightened.
After a time he reached a weight of a hundred and ninety pounds, and
his eyes were bright and clear. At night he slept the sleep of the
just--or the drugged.
At first he was happy. But after several months, there came a feeling
of boredom. He sought out Mr. and Mrs. Zolto, and said, "I'm sorry, I
can't stay here any longer."
"Why?" asked the lady.
"There's no room here, ma'am, for advancement," he said, almost
apologetically. "I've been studyin' and I got ideas about things I can
do. All sorts of ideas."
Pojim and Zolto, who had planted the ideas, nodded solemnly.
Pojim said, "We're glad to hear that, Ollie. The fact is that we
ourselves had decided to move to--to a warmer climate, some distance
away from here. We were wondering how you'd get along without us."
"Don't you worry about me. I'll do fine."
"Well, that's splendid. But it would be convenient to us if you could
wait till tomorrow. We'd like to give you something to remember us by."
"I'll be glad to wait, ma'am."
That night Ollie had a strange nightmare. He dreamed that he was on
the operating table again, and that the doctors and nurses were once
more closing in on him. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound
came out. And then the two interns were there, once more wearing their
uniforms.
The female said, "It's all right. It's perfectly all right. We're just
removing the transfer switch. In the morning you won't even remember
what happened."
And, in fact, in the morning he didn't. He had only a vague feeling
that something _had_ happened.
They shook hands with him and they gave him a very fine letter of
reference, in case he tried to get another job, and Mrs. Zolto
presented him with an envelope in which there were several bills whose
size later made his eyes almost pop out of his head.
He walked down the street as if it belonged to him, or were going to.
Gone was the slouch, gone the bleariness of the eyes, gone the hangdog
look.
Gone was all memory of the dismal past.
And then Ollie had a strange feeling. At first it seemed so peculiar
that he couldn't figure out what it was. It started in his stomach,
which seemed to turn over and almost tie itself into a knot. He felt a
twinge of pain and winced almost perceptibly.
It took him several minutes to realize what it was.
For the first time in months, he was hungry.