Virtual Unrealities, The Short Fiction of Alfred Bester (10 page)

“He’s insane, Mr. Aquila.”

“No! Yes? Insane?” Aquila was shocked.

“Quite insane, sir. It’s very sad. They’ve had to put him away. He spends his time drawing these pictures on money.”

“God damn,
mon ami
. Who gives him money?”

“I do, Mr. Aquila; and his friends. Whenever we visit him he begs for money for his drawings.”

“
Le jour viendra
, by Jeez! Why you don’t give him paper for drawings, eh, my ancient of days?”

Derelict smiled sadly. “We tried that, sir. When we gave Jeff paper, he drew pictures of money.”

“HimmelHerrGott!
My favorite artist. In the looney bin.
Eh bien
. How in the holy hell am I to buy paintings from same if such be the case?”

“You won’t, Mr. Aquila. I’m afraid no one will ever buy a Halsyon again. He’s quite hopeless.”

“Why does he jump his tracks, Jimmy?”

“They say it’s a withdrawal, Mr. Aquila. His success did it to him.”

“Ah? Q.E.D. me, big boy. Translate.”

“Well, sir, he’s still a young man; in his thirties and very immature. When he became so very successful, he wasn’t ready for it. He wasn’t prepared for the responsibilities of his life and his career. That’s what the doctors told me. So he turned his back on everything and withdrew into childhood.”

“Ah? And the drawing on money?”

“They say that’s his symbol of his return to childhood, Mr. Aquila. It proves he’s too young to know what money is for.”

“Ah?
Oui. Ja
. Astute, by crackey. And my portrait?”

“I can’t explain that, Mr. Aquila, unless you have met him in the past and he remembers you somehow.”

“Hmmm. Perhaps. So. You know something, my attic of Greece? I am disappointed.
Je n’oublierai jamais
. I am most severely disappointed. God damn. No more Halsyons ever?
Merde
. My slogan. We must do something about Jeffrey Halsyon. I will not be disappointed. We must do something.”

Mr. Solon Aquila nodded his head emphatically, took out a cigarette, took out a lighter, then paused, deep in thought. After a long moment, he nodded again, this time with decision, and did an astonishing thing. He returned the lighter to his pocket, took out another, glanced around quickly and lit it under Mr. Derelict’s nose.

Mr. Derelict appeared not to notice. Mr. Derelict appeared, in one instant, to be frozen. Allowing the lighter to burn, Mr. Aquila placed it carefully on a ledge in front of the art dealer who stood before it without moving. The orange flame gleamed on his glassy eyeballs.

Aquila darted out into the shop, searched and found a rare Chinese crystal globe. He took it from its case, warmed it against his heart, and peered into it. He mumbled. He nodded. He returned the globe to the case, went to the cashier’s desk, took a pad and pencil and began ciphering in symbols that bore no relationship to any language or any graphology. He nodded again, tore up the sheet of paper, and took out his wallet.

From the wallet he removed a dollar bill. He placed the bill on the glass counter, took an assortment of fountain pens from his vest pocket, selected one and unscrewed it. Carefully shielding his eyes, he allowed one drop to fall from the pen point onto the bill. There was a blinding flash of light. There was a humming vibration that slowly died.

Mr. Aquila returned the pens to his pocket, carefully picked up the bill by a corner, and ran back into the picture gallery where the art dealer still stood staring glassily at the orange flame. Aquila fluttered the bill before the sightless eyes.

“Listen, my ancient,” Aquila whispered. “You will visit Jeffrey Halsyon this afternoon.
N’est-ce-pas?
You will give him this very own coin of the realm when he asks for drawing materials. Eh? God damn.” He removed Mr. Derelict’s wallet from his pocket, placed the bill inside and returned the wallet.

“And this is why you make the visit,” Aquila continued. “It is because you have had an inspiration from
le Diable Boiteux. Nolens volens
, the lame devil has inspired you with a plan for healing Jeffrey Halsyon. God damn. You will show him samples of his great art of the past to bring him to his senses. Memory is the all-mother.
HimmelHerrGott!
You hear me, big boy? You do what I say. Go today and devil take the hindmost.”

Mr. Aquila picked up the burning lighter, lit his cigarette and permitted the flame to go out. As he did so, he said: “No, my holy of holies! Jeffrey Halsyon is too great an artist to languish in durance vile. He must be returned to this world. He must be returned to me.
È sempre l’ora
. I will not be disappointed. You hear me, Jimmy? I will not!”

“Perhaps there’s hope, Mr. Aquila,” James Derelict said. “Something’s just occurred to me while you were talking … a way to bring Jeff back to sanity. I’m going to try it this afternoon.”

As he drew the face of the Faraway Fiend over George Washington’s portrait on a bill, Jeffrey Halsyon dictated his autobiography to nobody.

“Like Cellini,” he recited. “Line and literature simultaneously. Hand in hand, although all art is one art, holy brothers in barbiturate, near ones and dear ones in Nembutal. Very well. I commence: I was born. I am dead. Baby wants a dollar. No—”

He arose from the padded floor and raged from padded wall to padded wall, envisioning anger as a deep purple fury running into the pale lavenders of recrimination by the magic of his brushwork, his chiaroscuro, by the clever blending of oil, pigment, light, and the stolen genius of Jeffrey Halsyon torn from him by the Faraway Fiend whose hideous face—

“Begin anew,” he muttered. “We darken the highlights. Start with the underpainting …” He squatted on the floor again, picked up the quill drawing pen whose point was warranted harmless, dipped it into carbon ink whose contents were warranted poisonless, and applied himself to the monstrous face of the Faraway Fiend which was replacing the first President on the dollar.

“I was born,” he dictated to space while his cunning hand wrought beauty and horror on the banknote paper. “I had peace. I had hope. I had art. I had peace. Mama. Papa. Kin I have a glass a water? Oooo! There was a big bad bogey man who gave me a bad look; and now baby’s afraid. Mama! Baby wantsa make pretty pictures onna pretty paper for Mama and Papa. Look, Mama. Baby makin’ a picture of the bad bogey man with a mean look, a black look with his black eyes like pools of hell, like cold fires of terror, like faraway fiends from faraway fears—Who’s that!”

The cell door unbolted. Halsyon leaped into a corner and cowered, naked and squalling, as the door was opened for the Faraway Fiend to enter. But it was only the medicine man in his white jacket and a stranger-man in black suit, black homburg, carrying a black portfolio with the initials J.D. lettered on it in a bastard gold Gothic with ludicrous overtones of Goudy and Baskerville.

“Well, Jeffrey?” the medicine man inquired heartily.

“Dollar?” Halsyon whined. “Kin baby have a dollar?”

“I’ve brought an old friend, Jeffrey. You remember Mr. Derelict?”

“Dollar,” Halsyon whined. “Baby wants a dollar.”

“What happened to the last one, Jeffrey? You haven’t finished it yet, have you?”

Halsyon sat on the bill to conceal it, but the medicine man was too quick for him. He snatched it up and he and the stranger-man examined it.

“As great as all the rest,” Derelict sighed. “Greater! What a magnificent talent wasting away …”

Halsyon began to weep. “Baby wants a dollar!” he cried.

The stranger-man took out his wallet, selected a dollar bill and handed it to Halsyon. As soon as Halsyon touched it, he heard it sing and he tried to sing with it, but it was singing him a private song so he had to listen.

It was a lovely dollar; smooth but not too new, with a faintly matte surface that would take ink like kisses. George Washington looked reproachful but resigned, as though he was used to the treatment in store for him. And indeed he might well be, for he was much older on this dollar. Much older than on any other, for his serial number was 5,271,009 which made him 5,000,000 years old and more, and the oldest he had ever been before was 2,000,000.

As Halsyon squatted contentedly on the floor and dipped his pen in the ink as the dollar told him to, he heard the medicine man say, “I don’t think I should leave you alone, Mr. Derelict.”

“No, we must be alone together, doctor. Jeff always was shy about his work. He could only discuss it with me privately.”

“How much time would you need?”

“Give me an hour.”

“I doubt very much whether it’ll do any good.”

“But there’s no harm trying?”

“I suppose not. All right, Mr. Derelict. Call the nurse when you’re through.”

The door opened; the door closed. The stranger-man named Derelict put his hand on Halsyon’s shoulder in a friendly, intimate way. Halsyon looked up at him and grinned cleverly, meanwhile waiting for the sound of the bolt in the door. It came; like a shot, like a final nail in a coffin.

“Jeff, I’ve brought some of your old work with me,” Derelict said, in a voice that was only approximately casual. “I thought you might like to look it over with me.”

“Have you got a watch on you?” Halsyon asked.

Restraining his start of surprise at Halsyon’s normal tone, the art dealer took out his pocket watch and displayed it.

“Lend it to me for a minute.”

Derelict unchained the watch and handed it over. Halsyon took it carefully and said, “All right. Go ahead with the pictures.”

“Jeff!” Derelict exclaimed. “This is you again, isn’t it? This is the way you always—”

“Thirty,” Halsyon interrupted. “Thirty-five, forty, forty-five, fifty, fifty-five, ONE.” He concentrated on the flicking second hand with rapt expectation.

“No, I guess it isn’t,” the dealer muttered. “I only imagined you sounded—Oh well.” He opened the portfolio and began sorting mounted drawings.

“Forty, forty-five, fifty-five, TWO.”

“Here’s one of your earliest, Jeff. Remember when you came into the gallery with the roughs and we thought you were the new polisher from the agency? Took you months to forgive us. You always claimed we bought your first picture just to apologize. Do you still think so?”

“Forty, forty-five, fifty, fifty-five, THREE.”

“Here’s that tempera that gave you so many heartaches. I was wondering if you’d care to try another? I really don’t think tempera is as inflexible as you claim, and I’d be interested to have you try again now that your technique’s so much more mature. What do you say?”

“Forty, forty-five, fifty, fifty-five, FOUR.” .

“Jeff, put down that watch.”

“Ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five …”

“What the devil’s the point of counting minutes?”

“Well,” Halsyon said reasonably, “sometimes they lock the door and go away. Other times they lock up and stay and spy on you. But they never spy longer than three minutes, so I’m giving them five just to make sure. FIVE.”

Halsyon gripped the small pocket watch in his big fist and drove the fist cleanly into Derelict’s jaw. The dealer dropped without a sound. Halsyon dragged him to the wall, stripped him naked, dressed himself in his clothes, repacked the portfolio, and closed it. He picked up the dollar bill and pocketed it. He picked up the bottle of carbon ink warranted nonpoisonous and smeared the contents over his face.

Choking and shouting, he brought the nurse to the door.

“Let me out of here,” Halsyon cried in a muffled voice. “That maniac tried to drown me. Threw ink in my face. I want out!”

The door was unbolted and opened. Halsyon shoved past the nurse-man, cunningly mopping his blackened face with a hand that only masked it more. As the nurse-man started to enter the cell, Halsyon said, “Never mind Halsyon. He’s all right. Get me a towel or something. Hurry!

The nurse-man locked the door again, turned and ran down the corridor. Halsyon waited until he disappeared into a supply room, then turned and ran in the opposite direction. He went through the heavy doors to the main wing corridor, still cleverly mopping, still sputtering with cunning indignation. He reached the main building. He was halfway out and still no alarm. He knew those brazen bells. They tested them every Wednesday noon.

It’s like a game, he told himself. It’s fun. It’s nothing to be scared of. It’s being safely, sanely, joyously a kid again and when we quit playing I’m going home to mama and dinner and papa reading me the funnies and I’m a kid again, really a kid again, forever.

There still was no hue and cry when he reached the main floor. He complained about his indignity to the receptionist. He complained to the protection guards as he forged James Derelict’s name in the visitor’s book, and his inky hand smeared such a mess on the page that the forgery went undetected. The guard buzzed the final gate open. Halsyon passed through into the street, and as he started away he heard the brass of the bells begin a clattering that terrified him.

He ran. He stopped. He tried to stroll. He could not. He lurched down the street until he heard the guards shouting. He darted around a corner, and another, tore up endless streets, heard cars behind him, sirens, bells, shouts, commands. It was a ghastly Catherine wheel of flight. Searching desperately for a hiding place, Halsyon darted into the hallway of a desolate tenement.

Halsyon began to climb the stairs. He went up three at a clip, then two, then struggled step by step as his strength failed and panic paralyzed him. He stumbled at a landing and fell against a door. The door opened. The Faraway Fiend stood within, smiling briskly, rubbing his hands.

“Glückliche Reise,”
he said. “On the dot. God damn. You twenty-three skidooed, eh? Enter, my old. I’m expecting you. Be it never so humble …”

Halsyon screamed.

“No, no, no! No
Sturm und Drang
, my beauty.” Mr. Aquila clapped a hand over Halsyon’s mouth, heaved him up, dragged him through the doorway and slammed the door.