The Brave New World

She squeezed the key to the sliding doors in her hand until it bit into her skin. She knew she had to open those doors to let some air inside. She had checked the bungalow"s central air conditioning system, and it wasn"t working. Neither did anything electric, including the kitchen stove. Bother!

She had tried to switch on her bedside radio the moment she woke up: she"d wanted to listen to the news, and find what was going on. She heard a sad little pop, and that was it. That was her morning news broadcast.

She was scared, but didn"t really have a choice. She had to open the back doors, or they"d suffocate inside. She walked up to the doors, unlocked them, and slid them open.

The cube was still there, right in the middle of the bed of her beloved begonias. The plants were completely destroyed. The flowers that weren"t under the cube had been beaten down by the rain: their leaves and stems lay limply in the mud.

She glared at the cube. It was the cube that had caused the power outage, she was sure. It was the cube that brought the rain. It was the cube that had kept her husband awake until the small hours.

He"d shut himself in his study with those horrible things he"d somehow extracted from inside the cube, and did not respond to her entreaties to let her inside. She gave up on him when she heard him snoring behind the locked door.

She glanced at the barbecue briefly, and wondered whether she could boil water on the grill. She decided she would give it a try; it was high time for breakfast, she was hungry.

She would fry a pan of eggs and bacon on the grill as well, and toast some bread. Thank heavens that it was gas! Everyone around had been switching to the new electric barbecue grills with the smoke flavor capsules. But Harold had rejected that.

"There"s just no subst.i.tute for meat cooked over a flame, bunny," he"d explained. "It tastes much better."

She agreed, though she wished he would stop calling her "bunny". She used to like it a lot, but after she"d turned fifty her rump started growing and didn"t stop until very recently. When she stood sideways to the mirror, she looked like a bunny on stilts.

Enough! She was still healthy, thank G.o.d, and she was going to cook a good, hearty breakfast. She was sure the smell of frying bacon would entice Harold out of his study, too. Harold had a very keen sense of smell, and loved eggs fried with bacon for breakfast.

She was right. He appeared in the doorway to the back yawning and stretching just as she was preparing to load the plates - perfect timing. He was a sight, too. He hadn"t shaved or combed, and his long white hair was sticking out in all directions. He looked like an old, mad scientist.

"Look who"s here," she said. shooting him a reproachful look.

"Morning, bunny. Clever of you to cook breakfast on the barbie. Power still out, eh?"

"Yes," she said curtly. She really wished he would stop calling her "bunny".

She didn"t get a proper look at him until they were sitting down to eat. Her eyes opened wide. She said:

"Harold!"

"What?"

"You"ve got a shining blue spot on your head!"

"What, that? There." He put away his fork and smoothed down his hair, covering the blue spot.

"Harold!"

"I"ll explain everything, bunny. But can we east first? I"m famished. And this is delicious. You"re a queen."

"Don"t you get cute with me, Harold Pendleton."

"I"m sorry. I just have to eat first."

It didn"t take long. He vacuumed the food off his plate with such speed that she was only halfway through when he began speaking.

She knew some of it, of course. He"d had to tell her about the objects he got from the cube before she would allow them inside the house. She knew there was plenty to read on the glowing scroll, and she suspected that was how he"d spent the time in his study: reading it.

But she was completely unprepared for what he had to say.

He told her that he"d been to the New World. He told her what it was like. He had to spend a lot of time rea.s.suring her that he was still the same Harold Pendleton she"d married nearly fifty years earlier.

Her eyes narrowed when he told her he had been totally naked throughout the time he"d spent there. She waited patiently until he"d finished, then said:

"Harold Pendleton, you"re a fool. It"s a prank. An advertising gimmick. Just like those balloons last year. Where if one landed in your backyard and you brought it in, you got a discount. You probably got filmed prancing around buck naked, and they"ll use it for some sort of a publicity stunt. That"s what it is."

"Bunny!"

"Don"t you "bunny" me."

"But bunny -"

"If you call me "bunny" again, I shall whack you."

"I"m sorry. I"m really sorry. Please forgive me. But don"t you understand -"

"No, Harold. I don"t understand you at all."

"But bun - Gladys! You have to believe me!"

"It"s that implant. It"s made you crazy."

"Gladys!"

"I"m sorry, Harold. I don"t trust you. You have to see a doctor."

A strange gleam appeared in Harold"s eye. He said:

"Well, I"m seeing our doctor today at three. And so are you. The Ramseys are coming over for a visit."

"But they were here only yesterday!"

"Dave Ramsey has been our doctor for over twenty years, am I right? You trust him, don"t you?"

"Yes. But how - they didn"t say anything last night."

"I know. I fixed it up with them when I met them in the New World."

"MET them? Harold!"

"I was walking down to the beach. I went there because I could hear the sea and it turned out to be much farther away than it is here. I b.u.mped into them, into the Ramseys on the way. They too were walking to the beach. We talked a lot."

"The three of you were standing around talking, and all of you buck naked?"

"Yes. But being naked was unimportant. It didn"t matter. Really."

"It matters to me."

"Please, Gladys. Don"t be silly."

"You and your naked threesomes."

"We didn"t have a threesome. We had a talk and went down to the beach and watched the dawn and wandered around a little, getting our bearings. We found a freshwater stream, and then we split up. They wanted to do a bit more exploring. I wanted to go back home, I mean here. But to get back here, I had to fall asleep over there. I had a hard time. I was hungry and the sun was strong all day. I only managed to fall asleep when it was dark."

"Over here? Over there? You spent a full day in this new world of yours? Harold, what are you talking about?"

"Yes, a full day. More, actually. You see, b - pet, while you"re there, time pa.s.ses exactly like it does here. But relative to here - relative to the time on Earth, it goes much faster. Maybe as much as ten times faster. I don"t know. Hard to tell when there are no clocks and watches around."

"Can I get something clear? What do you mean by "here"?"

"Where we both are right now. 12 Solar Crescent, Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia."

"And what do you mean by "there"?"

"Well, it"s basically the same spot. Same place, but no Port Douglas or Solar Crescent. No houses, nothing but nature."

"You were exploited for a beach resort ad, Harold. You injected some sort drug from that metal thing, and you just lost your mind. Then they filmed the three of you cavorting around naked. They"ll use that to advertise that new nudist beach they"ve got at the Sheraton. Mark my words."

"Gladys. Do you trust Dave Ramsey?"

"I"m not sure any more."

"As a doctor? Do you trust him as a doctor?"

"Not if he"s under the influence of drugs."

Harold Pendleton sighed heavily.

"Let"s make a deal," he said. "If you are still concerned about me tomorrow, I"m going to the hospital for a complete checkup and observation. But first, please listen to what Dave Ramsey has to say."

"Did you say they are coming at three?"

"Yes."

"Oh G.o.d. I must see what time it is."

"Wait, don"t get up yet. What happened to your watch?"

"I don"t know. It just stopped working. The bedside radio stopped working, too. Something seemed to pop inside when I turned it on."

Harold frowned and said:

"Gladys. You know, maybe it just isn"t safe to fiddle around with anything electrical right now. Don"t touch any of the appliances, and don"t use your phone."

"I wasn"t going to. There"s no way to charge it, so it"s best to leave it for emergencies."

"Please turn it off."

"I already did."

"That"s good. Do your thing then, and I"ll clear up and do the dishes."

Luckily, the water was still running although the pressure seemed to be getting weaker. She showered and filled the bathtub to the brim, just in case. Then it took her an age to get her hair right: the grey was showing everywhere, she would have to make an appointment with her hairdresser very soon.

She spent a long time getting herself ready. She had just finished putting the mascara on when she heard the front door knocker. The Ramseys had arrived early. That was odd. They usually came just a little late, maybe because they lived just a couple of houses down the street and left their house at the last moment.

Harold called for her to answer the door if she could, so she did. When she opened it, she came close to screaming.

They both had the blue spots shining on their heads. Dave"s was just over his ear, and Susan"s right on her temple, in plain sight. She was frightened by the look in their eyes; it was alien. Their smiles implied secret, dangerous knowledge. She felt as if she was in a movie with zombies or wicked aliens from outer s.p.a.ce, pretending to be human.

It took her a real effort to smile back at them.

"Come in," she said.

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