The Very Best of F & SF v1 (9 page)

His head
hanging, his body exhausted, Jerry muttered in misery, “Yes. All the Indian
nations on our borders have hostages. As earnests of our good will and peaceful
intentions.”

Bright Book
Jacket snapped his fingers. “That girl. Sarah Cameron— Canton—what’s-her-name.”

Jerry looked up.
“Calvin?” he asked. “Could it be
Calvin?
Sarah Calvin? The daughter of the Chief
Justice of the United States Supreme Court?”

“Sarah Calvin.
That’s the one. Been with us for five, six years. You remember, Chief? The girl
your son’s been playing around with?”

Three Hydrogen
Bombs looked amazed. “Is
she
the hostage? I thought she was some paleface female he had imported
from his plantations in southern Ohio. Well, well, well. Makes Much Radiation
is just a chip off the old block, no doubt about it.” He became suddenly
serious. “But that girl will never go back. She rather goes for Indian loving.
Goes for it all the way. And she has the idea that my son will eventually marry
her. Or some such.”

He looked Jerry
Franklin over. “Tell you what, my boy. Why don’t you wait outside while we talk
this over? And take the saber. Take it back with you. My son doesn’t seem to
want it.”

Jerry wearily
picked up the saber and trudged out of the wigwam.

Dully,
uninterestedly, he noticed the band of Sioux warriors around Sam Rutherford and
his horses. Then the group parted for a moment, and he saw Sam with a bottle in
his hand. Tequila! The damned fool had let the Indians give him tequila—he was
drunk as a pig.

Didn’t he know
that white men couldn’t drink, didn’t dare drink? With every inch of their
unthreatened arable land under cultivation for foodstuffs, they were all still
on the edge of starvation. There was absolutely no room in their economy for
such luxuries as intoxicating beverages—and no white man in the usual course of
a lifetime got close to so much as a glassful of the stuff. Give him a whole
bottle of tequila and he was a stinking mess.

As Sam was now.
He staggered back and forth in dipping semicircles, holding the bottle by its
neck and waving it idiotically. The Sioux chuckled, dug each other in the ribs
and pointed. Sam vomited loosely down the rags upon his chest and belly, tried
to take one more drink, and fell over backwards. The bottle continued to pour
over his face until it was empty. He was snoring loudly. The Sioux shook their
heads, made grimaces of distaste, and walked away.

Jerry looked on
and nursed the pain in his heart. Where could they go? What could they do? And
what difference did it make? Might as well be as drunk as Sammy there. At least
you wouldn’t be able to feel.

He looked at the
saber in one hand, the bright new pistol in the other. Logically, he should
throw them away. Wasn’t it ridiculous when you came right down to it, wasn’t it
pathetic—a white man carrying weapons?

Sylvester Thomas
came out of the tent. “Get your horses ready, my dear sir,” he whispered. “Be
prepared to ride as soon as I come back. Hurry!”

The young man
slouched over to the horses and followed instructions— might as well do that as
anything else. Ride where? Do what?

He lifted Sam
Rutherford up and tied him upon his horse. Go back home? Back to the great, the
powerful, the respected capital of what had once been the United States of
America?

Thomas came back
with a bound-and-gagged girl in his grasp. She wriggled madly. Her eyes
crackled with anger and rebellion. She kept trying to kick the Confederate
Ambassador.

She wore the
rich robes of an Indian princess. Her hair was braided in the style currently
fashionable among Sioux women. And her face had been stained carefully with
some darkish dye.

Sarah Calvin.
The daughter of the Chief Justice. They tied her to the pack horse.

“Chief Three
Hydrogen Bombs,” the Negro explained. “He feels his son plays around too much
with paleface females. He wants this one out of the way. The boy has to settle
down, prepare for the responsibilities of chieftainship. This may help. And
listen, the old man likes you. He told me to tell you something.”

“I’m grateful. I’m
grateful for every favor, no matter how small, how humiliating.”

Sylvester Thomas
shook his head decisively. “Don’t be bitter, young sir. If you want to go on
living you have to be alert... and you can’t be alert and bitter at the same
time. The chief wants you to know there’s no point in your going home. He
couldn’t say it openly in council, but the reason the Sioux moved in on Trenton
has nothing to do with the Seminole on the other side. It has to do with the
Ojibway-Cree-Montagnais situation in the North. They’ve decided to take over
the Eastern Seaboard—that includes what’s left of your country. By this time,
they’re probably in Yonkers or the Bronx, somewhere inside New York City. In a
matter of hours, your government will no longer be in existence. The chief had
advance word of this and felt it necessary for the Sioux to establish some sort
of bridgehead on the coast before matters were permanently stabilized. By
occupying New Jersey he is preventing an Ojibway-Seminole junction. But he
likes you, as I said, and wants you warned against going home.”

“Fine, but where
do
I go? Up a rain cloud?
Down a well?”

“No,” Thomas
admitted without smiling. He hoisted Jerry up on his horse. “You might come
back with me to the Confederacy—” He paused, and when Jerry’s sullen expression
did not change, he went on, “Well, then, may I suggest— and mind you, this is
my advice, not the chiefs—head straight out to Asbury Park. It’s not far
away—you can make it in reasonable time if you ride hard. According to reports
I’ve overheard, there should be units of the United States Navy there, the
Tenth Fleet, to be exact.”

“Tell me,” Jerry
asked, bending down. “Have you heard any other news? Anything about the rest of
the world? How has it been with those people—the Russkies, the Sovietskis,
whatever they were called—the ones the United States had so much to do with
years ago?”

“According to
several of the chiefs councilors, the Soviet Russians were having a good deal
of difficulty with people called Tatars. I
think
they were called Tatars. But, my good sir, you should be on your
way.”

Jerry leaned
down farther and grasped his hand. “Thanks,” he said. “You’ve gone to a lot of
trouble for me. I’m grateful.”

“That’s quite
all right,” said Mr. Thomas earnestly. “After all, by the rocket’s red glare,
and all that. We were a single nation once.”

Jerry moved off,
leading the other two horses. He set a fast pace, exercising the minimum of
caution made necessary by the condition of the road. By the time they reached
Route 33, Sam Rutherford, though not altogether sober or well, was able to sit
in his saddle. They could then untie Sarah Calvin and ride with her between
them.

She cursed and
wept. “Filthy paleface! Foul, ugly, stinking whiteskins! I’m an Indian, can’t
you see I’m an Indian? My skin isn’t white—it’s brown, brown!”

They kept
riding.

Asbury Park was
a dismal clatter of rags and confusion and refugees. There were refugees from
the north, from Perth Amboy, from as far as Newark. There were refugees from
Princeton in the west, flying before the Sioux invasion. And from the south,
from Atlantic City—even, unbelievably, from distant Camden— were still other
refugees, with stories of a sudden Seminole attack, an attempt to flank the
armies of Three Hydrogen Bombs.

The three horses
were stared at enviously, even in their lathered, exhausted condition. They
represented food to the hungry, the fastest transportation possible to the
fearful. Jerry found the saber very useful. And the pistol was even better—it
had only to be exhibited. Few of these people had ever seen a pistol in action:
they had a mighty, superstitious fear of firearms...

With this fact
discovered, Jerry kept the pistol out nakedly in his right hand when he walked
into the United States Naval Depot on the beach at Asbury Park. Sam Rutherford
was at his side; Sarah Calvin walked sobbing behind.

He announced
their family backgrounds to Admiral Milton Chester. The son of the
Undersecretary of State. The daughter of the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. The oldest son of the Senator from Idaho. “And now. Do you recognize the
authority of this document?”

Admiral Chester
read the wrinkled commission slowly, spelling out the harder words to himself.
He twisted his head respectfully when he had finished, looking first at the
seal of the United States on the paper before him, and then at the glittering
pistol in Jerry’s hand.

“Yes,” he said
at last. “I recognize its authority. Is that a real pistol?”

Jerry nodded. “A
Crazy Horse .45. The latest.
How
do you recognize its authority?”

The admiral
spread his hands. “Everything is confused out here. The latest word I’ve
received is that there are Ojibway warriors in Manhattan—that there is no
longer any United States Government. And yet this”—he bent over the document
once more—” this is a commission by the President himself, appointing you full
plenipotentiary. To the Seminole, of course. But full plenipotentiary. The last
official appointment, to the best of my knowledge, of the President of the
United States of America.”

He reached
forward and touched the pistol in Jerry Franklin’s hand curiously and
inquiringly. He nodded to himself, as if he’d come to a decision. He stood up,
and saluted with a flourish.

“I hereby
recognize you as the last legal authority of the United States Government. And
I place my fleet at your disposal.”

“Good.” Jerry
stuck the pistol in his belt. He pointed with the saber. “Do you have enough
food and water for a long voyage?”

“No, sir,” Admiral
Chester said. “But that can be arranged in a few hours at most. May I escort
you aboard, sir?”

He gestured
proudly down the beach and past the surf to where the three forty-five-foot,
gaff-rigged schooners rode at anchor. “The United States Tenth Fleet, sir.
Awaiting your orders.”

Hours later when
the three vessels were standing out to sea, the admiral came to the cramped
main cabin where Jerry Franklin was resting. Sam Rutherford and Sarah Calvin
were asleep in the bunks above.

“And the orders,
sir... ?”

Jerry Franklin
walked out on the narrow deck, looked up at the taut, patched sails. “Sail east.”

“East, sir?
Due
east?”

“Due east all
the way. To the fabled lands of Europe. To a place where a white man can stand
at last on his own two legs. Where he need not fear persecution. Where he need
not fear slavery. Sail east, Admiral, until we discover a new and hopeful
world—a world of freedom!”

Return to Table of
Contents

Probably our most famous and most
celebrated story, “Flowers for Algernon” has been adapted for film twice and
for stage once. (It also remains my all-time favorite
F&SF
story. ) Its origins and history were traced in
Algernon, Charlie, and I: A Writer’s
Journey
by Daniel Keyes (2000). Mr. Keyes
lives in Florida these days and is currently working on a couple of novels in
the thriller genre.

progris riport I—martch 5

Dr. Strauss says I shud rite down what I
think and evrey thing that happins to me from now on. I dont know why but he
says its importint so they will see if they will use me. I hope they use me.
Miss Kinnian says maybe they can make me smart. I want to be smart. My name is
Charlie Gordon. I am 37 years old and 2 weeks ago was my brithday. I have
nuthing more to rite now so I will close for today.

progris riport 2—martch 6

I had a test
today. I think I faled it. and I think that maybe now they wont use me. What
happind is a nice young man was in the room and he had some white cards with
ink spillled all over them. He sed Charlie what do you see on this card. I was
very skared even tho I had my rabits foot in my pockit because when I was a kid
I always faled tests in school and I spillled ink to. I told him I saw a inkblot.
He said yes and it made me feel good. I thot that was all but when I got up to
go he stopped me. He said now sit down Charlie we are not thru yet. Then I dont
remember so good but he wantid me to say what was in the ink. I dint see
nuthing in the ink but he said there was picturs there other pepul saw some
picturs. I coudnt see any picturs. I reely tryed to see. I held the card close
up and then far away. Then I said if I had my glases I coud see better I usally
only ware my glases in the movies or
tv
but I said they are in the closit in the
hall. I got them. Then I said let me see that card agen I bet I’ll find it now.

I tryed hard but
I still coudnt find the picturs I only saw the ink. I told him maybe I need new
glases. He rote somthing down on a paper and I got skared of faling the test. I
told him it was a very nice inkblot with littel points all around the eges. He
looked very sad so that wasnt it. I said please let me try agen. Ill get it in
a few minits becaus Im not so fast somtimes. Im a slow reeder too in Miss
Kinnians class for slow adults but I’m trying very hard.

He gave me a
chance with another card that had 2 kinds of ink spillled on it red and blue.

He was very nice
and talked slow like Miss Kinnian does and he explaned it to me that it was a
raw shok. He said pepul see things in the ink. I said show me where. He said
think. I told him I think a inkblot but that wasnt rite eather. He said what
does it remind you-pretend some thing. I closd my eyes for a long time to
pretend. I told him I pretned a fowntan pen with ink leeking all over a table
cloth. Then he got up and went out.

I Don think I
pass the
raw shok
test.

progris report 3—martch
7

Dr Strauss and
Dr Nemur say it dont matter about the inkblots. I told them I dint spill the
ink on the cards and I coudnt see any-thing in the ink. They said that maybe
they will still use me. I said Miss Kinnian never gave me tests like that one
only spelling and reading. They said Miss Kinnian told that I was her bestist
pupil in the adult nite scool becaus I tryed the hardist and I reely wantid to
lern. They said how come you went to the adult nite scool all by yourself
Charlie. How did you find it. I said I askd pepul and sum-body told me where I
shud go to lern to read and spell good. They said why did you want to. I told
them becaus all my life I wantid to be smart and not dumb. But its very hard to
be smart. They said you know it will probly be tempirery. I said yes Miss
Kinnian told me. I dont care if it herts.

Later I had more
crazy tests today. The nice lady who gave it me told me the name and I asked
her how do you spellit so I can rite it in my progris riport. THEMATIC
APPERCEPTION TEST. I dont know the frist 2 words but I know what test means.
You got to pass it or you get bad marks. This test lookd easy becaus I coud see
the picturs. Only this time she dint want me to tell her the picturs. That mixd
me up. I said the man yesterday said I shoud tell him what I saw in the ink she
said that dont make no difrence. She said make up storys about the pepul in the
picturs.

I told her how
can you tell storys about pepul you never met. I said why shud I make up lies.
I never tell lies any more becaus I always get caut.

She told me this
test and the other one the raw-shok was for getting personalty. I laffed so
hard. I said how can you get that thing from inkblots and fotos. She got sore
and put her picturs away. I dont care. It was sily. I gess I faled that test
too.

Later some men
in white coats took me to a difernt part of the hospitil and gave me a game to
play. It was like a race with a white mouse. They called the mouse Algernon.
Algernon was in a box with a lot of twists and turns like all kinds of walls
and they gave me a pencil and a paper with lines and lots of boxes. On one side
it said START and on the other end it said FINISH. They said it was amazed and
that Algernon and me had the same amazed to do. I dint see how we could have
the same amazed if Algernon had a box and I had a paper but I dint say nothing.
Anyway there wasnt time because the race started.

One of the men
had a watch he was trying to hide so I woudnt see it so I tryed not to look and
that made me nervus. Anyway that test made me feel worser than all the others
because they did it over 10 times with difernt amazeds and Algernon won every
time. I dint know that mice were so smart. Maybe thats because Algernon is a
white mouse. Maybe white mice are smarter then other mice.

progris riport 4—Mar 8

Their going to
use me! Im so exited I can hardly write. Dr Nemur and Dr Strauss had a argament
about it first. Dr Nemur was in the office when Dr Strauss brot me in. Dr Nemur
was worryed about using me but Dr Strauss told him Miss Kinnian rekemmended me
the best from all the people who she was teaching. I like Miss Kinnian becaus
shes a very smart teacher. And she said Charlie your going to have a second
chance. If you volenteer for this experament you mite get smart. They dont know
if it will be perminint but theirs a chance. Thats why I said ok even when I
was scared because she said it
was an operashun. She
said dont be scared Charlie you done so much with so little I think you deserv
it most of all.

So I got scaird
when Dr Nemur and Dr Strauss argud about it. Dr Strauss said I had something
that was very good. He said I had a good
motor-vation.
I never even knew I had that. I
felt proud when he said that not every body with an eye-q of 68 had that thing.
I dont know what it is or where I got it but he said Algernon had it too.
Algernons
motor-vation
is the cheese they put in his box. But it cant be that because I
didnt eat any cheese this week.

Then he told Dr
Nemur something I dint understand so while they were talking I wrote down some
of the words.

He said Dr Nemur
I know Charlie is not what you had in mind as the first of your new brede of
intelek** (coudnt get the word) superman. But most people of his low ment** are
host** and uncoop** they are usualy dull apath** and hard to reach. He has a
good natcher hes intristed and eager to please.

Dr Nemur said
remember he will be the first human beeng ever to have his intelijence trippled
by surgicle meens.

Dr Strauss said
exakly. Look at how well hes lerned to read and write for his low mentel age
its as grate an acheve ** as you and I lerning einstines therey of **vity
without help. That shows the intenss motor-vation. Its comparat** a tremen**
achev** I say we use Charlie.

I dint get all
the words and they were talking to fast but it sounded like Dr Strauss was on
my side and like the other one wasnt.

Then Dr Nemur
nodded he said all right maybe your right. We will use Charlie. When he said
that I got so exited I jumped up and shook his hand for being so good to me. I
told him thank you doc you wont be sorry for giving me a second chance. And I
mean it like I told him. After the operashun Im gonna try to be smart. Im gonna
try awful hard.

progris ript 5—Mar 10

Im skared. Lots
of people who work here and the nurses and the people who gave me the tests
came to bring me candy and wish me luck. I hope I have luck. I got my rabits
foot and my lucky penny and my horse shoe. Only a black cat crossed me when I
was comming to the hospitil. Dr Strauss says dont be supersitis Charlie this is
sience. Anyway Im keeping my rabits foot with me.

I asked Dr
Strauss if I’ll beat Algernon in the race after the operashun and he said
maybe. If the operashun works I’ll show that mouse I can be as smart as he is.
Maybe smarter. Then I’ll be abel to read better and spell the words good and
know lots of things and be like other people. I want to be smart like other
people. If it works perminint they will make everybody smart all over the
wurld.

They dint give
me anything to eat this morning. I dont know what that eating has to do with
getting smart. Im very hungry and Dr Nemur took away my box of candy. That Dr
Nemur is a grouch. Dr Strauss says I can have it back after the operashun. You
cant eat befor a operashun.

Progress Report 6—Mar 15

The operashun
dint hurt. He did it while I was sleeping. They took off the bandijis from my
eyes and my head today so I can make a PROGRESS REPORT. Dr Nemur who looked at
some of my other ones says I spell PROGRESS wrong and he told me how to spell
it and REPORT too. I got to try and remember that.

I have a very
bad memary for spelling. Dr Strauss says its Ok to tell about all the things that
happin to me but he says I shoud tell more about what I feel and what I think.
When I told him I dont know how to think he said try. All the time when the
bandijis were on my eyes I tryed to think. Nothing happened. I dont know what
to think about. Maybe if I ask him he will tell me how I can think now that Im
suppose to get smart. What do smart people think about. Fancy things I suppose.
I wish I knew some fancy things alredy.

Progress Report 7—Mar 19

Nothing is
happining. I had lots of tests and different kinds of races with Algernon. I
hate that mouse. He always beats me. Dr Strauss said I got to play those games.
And he said some time I got to take those tests over again. These inkblots are
stupid. And those pictures are stupid too. I like to draw a picture of a man
and a woman but I wont make up lies about people.

I got a headache
from trying to think so much. I thot Dr Strauss was my frend but he dont help
me. He dont tell me what to think or when I’ll get smart. Miss Kinnian dint
come to see me. I think writing these progress reports are stupid too.

Progress Report 8—Mar
23

Im going back to
work at the factery. They said it was better I shud go back to work but I cant
tell anyone what the operashun was for and I have to come
to
the hospitil for an hour evry night after work. They are gonna pay me mony
every month for lerning to be smart. Im glad Im going back to work because I
miss my job and all my frends and all the fun we have there.

Dr Strauss says
I shud keep writing things down but I dont have to do it every day just when I
think of something or something speshul happins. He says dont get discoridged
because it takes time and it happins slow. He says it took a long time with
Algernon before he got 3 times smarter then he was before. Thats why Algernon
beats me all the time because he had that operashun too. That makes me feel
better. I coud probly do that
amazed
faster than a reglar mouse. Maybe some
day I’ll beat Algernon. Boy that would be something. So far Algernon looks like
he mite be smart perminent.

Mar 25
(I dont have to write PROGRESS REPORT on top any more just when I
hand it in once a week for Dr Nemur to read. I just have to put the date on.
That saves time)

We had a lot of
fun at the factery today. Joe Carp said hey look where Charlie had his
operashun what did they do Charlie put some brains in. I was going to tell him
but I remembered Dr Strauss said no. Then Frank Reilly said what did you do
Charlie forget your key and open your door the hard way. That made me laff.
Their really my friends and they like me.

Sometimes
somebody will say hey look at Joe or Frank or George he really pulled a Charlie
Gordon. I dont know why they say that but they always laff. This morning Amos
Borg who is the 4 man at Donnegans used my name when he shouted at Ernie the
office boy. Ernie lost a packige. He said Ernie for godsake what are you trying
to be a Charlie Gordon. I dont understand why he said that. I never lost any
packiges.