He smiled a little.
"Maybe now you can tell me your name," she said. "Don't you know your
name?"
His expression didn't change.
She pointed to herself. "Jane." Then she hesitated, looked downward for
a moment. "Jana, I was called before I came here."
The little face looked up at her. The small mouth opened. "Jana." It was
half whisper, half whistle.
"That's right," she replied, stroking his hair. "My, but your throat
must be sore. I hope you won't be sick from breathing too much of that
awful air."
She regarded him quizzically. "You know, I've never seen many little
boys. I don't quite know how to treat one. But I know you should get
some sleep."
She smiled and reached over to take off the rags. He pulled away
suddenly.
"Don't be afraid," she said reassuringly. "I wouldn't hurt you."
He clutched the little ragged shirt tightly.
"Don't be afraid," she repeated soothingly. "I'll tell you what. You lie
down and I'll put this blanket over you," she said, rising. "Will that
be all right?"
She laid him down and covered the small form with a blanket. He lay
there watching her with his large eyes.
"You don't look very sleepy," she said. "Perhaps I had better turn the
light down." She did so, slowly, so as not to alarm him. But he was
silent, watchful, never taking his eyes from her.
She smiled and sat down next to him. "Now I'll tell you a story and then
you must go to sleep," she said softly.
He smiled--just a little smile--and she was pleased.
"Fine," she cried. "Well--once upon a time there was a beautiful planet,
not at all like this one. There were lovely flowers and cool-running
streams and it only rained once in a while. You'd like it there for it's
a very nice place. But there were people there who liked to travel--to
see strange places and new things, and one day they left in a great big
ship."
She paused again, frowning in thought. "Well, they traveled a long, long
way and saw many things. Then one day something went wrong."
Her voice was low and soft. It had the quality of a dream, the texture
of a zephyr, but the little boy was still wide awake.
"Something went very, very wrong and they tried to land so they could
fix it. But when they tried to land they found they couldn't--and they
fell and just barely managed to save themselves. The big, beautiful ship
was all broken. Well, since they couldn't fix the ship at all now, they
set out on foot to find out where they were and to see if they could get
help. Then they found that they were in a land of great big giants, and
the people were very fierce."
The little boy's dark eyes were watching her intently but she went on,
hardly noticing.
"So they went back to the broken ship and tried to decide what to do.
They couldn't get in touch with their home because the radio part of the
ship was all broken up. And the giants were horrible and wanted
everything for themselves and were cruel and mean and probably would
have hurt the poor ship-wrecked people if they had known they were
there.
"So--do you know what they did? They got some things from the ship and
they went and built a giant. And they put little motors inside and
things to make it run and talk so that the giants wouldn't be able to
tell that it wasn't another giant just like themselves."
She paused, straightening slightly.
"And then they made a space inside the giant where somebody could sit
and run this big giant and talk and move around--and the giants wouldn't
ever know that she was there. They made it a _she_. In fact, she was the
only person who could do it because she could learn to talk all sorts of
languages--that's what she could do best. So she went out in the giant
suit and mingled with the giants and worked just like they did.
"But every once in a while she'd go back to the others, bringing them
things they needed. And she would bring back news. That was their only
hope--news of a ship which might be looking for them, which might take
them home--"
She broke off. "I wonder what the end of the story will be?" she
murmured.
For some time she had not been using English. She had been speaking in a
soft, fluid language unlike anything ever heard on Venus. But now she
had stopped speaking entirely.
After a slight pause--another voice spoke--in the same melodious, alien
tongue! It said, "I think I know the end of the story. I think someone
has come for you poor people and is going to take you home."
She gasped--for she realized it had not been her voice. Her artificial
eyes watched, stunned, as the little boy began peeling off a skin-tight,
flexible baby-faced mask, revealing underneath the face of a little man.
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _Fantastic Universe_ March 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.