“It’s been established for some time. So now, perhaps, you can understand that your Dr. Shima goes into fugue and is forced to follow certain pheromone trails.”
“Ah! An outré aspect of The Nose. It makes sense, Miz Nunn. It really does. What trails is he compelled to follow? Women?”
“No. The death wish.”
“What!”
“The death wish.”
“Miz Nunn!”
“Why the surprise, sir? Surely you’re all aware of this aspect of the human psyche. Many people suffer from an unconscious but powerful urge to self-destruct. Some psychiatrists claim that we all do. Apparently this leaves a pheromone trail which Shima senses… I would guess only in certain cases… and is forced to follow.”
“And then?”
“Apparently he grants the wish.”
“Impossible!”
“Preposterous!”
“What’s she saying?”
“That the gook grants the death wish. He kills the ones that want to die. Lethal-One.”
“I do, gentlemen.”
“Apparently! Apparently!” the chairman stormed. “Dr. Shima? Murder? Ridiculous! I demand proof positive of such a monstrous accusation.”
“Very well, you’ll get it, sir. There are one or two things I must wrap up with him before I close the contract, and in the course of that, I’m afraid he’s in for a shock.”
* * *
“This is cruel and unusual punishment to my hands,” Mary Mixup complained. “Did they really have to push needles with their finners in ancient days?”
“Aye, they DID! But the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense. Hamlet. ACT V, sc. 1. Let’s quit.”
“I’m with you, Sarah. I’m fed up with this number.”
“Me too, Yenta. Let’s take a vote. All in favor of dropping the quilting bee? Hands, please. Not you, Pi. Six out of eight. Carried.” Nellie Gwyn grinned. “Oodgedye and Udgedye recusing, as usual.”
“We’re not recusing. We’re dissenting.”
“So now what, Regina?” Priss asked.
“Oh dear. I’m out of entertainment ideas. Perhaps another call to Lucifer?”
“Why not?” Yenta grumbled. “Maybe we can get him to finish this dreary quilt.”
“Regina. Ladies. Attention. Red-hot news. My Droney says we’re calling up the Devil all wrong.”
“We are? How, Nell?”
“Droney says we’re in the twenty-second century. We have to drop the medieval schtik and communicate in a modern language.”
“After all our memorizing! Why?”
“He says maybe Lucifer hears us but when he tries to return our call, he goes to the wrong century.”
“That’s an idea. Fiends can make mistakes, too.”
“Sure. They’re only human.”
“What language does he suggest, Nell?”
“Computer binary. Droney programmed the whole bit for us. I’ve got it here. Look…”
2,047
1,799
2,015
1,501
1,501
1,025
1,501
1,501
2,015
1,799
2,047
“What in the name of— He has to be guffing.”
“No, ladies, this is madly modern magic. The computer automatically translates the decimal into binary oneses and zeroses which form a sinister, evil, dirty rotten cross which no self-respecting demon can resist.”
“What do you think, Regina?”
“It’s worth a try, but I don’t think we should just sit around cold. Let’s give it the full treatment. We’ll put the kitchen computer in the pentacle and kneel around and really want it to happen. Pi-girl! Bring the lights and the smells and the computer.”
* * *
11111111111
11100000111
11111011111
10111011101
10111011101
10000000001
10111011101
10111011101
11111011111
11100000111
11111111111
“My goodness! Will you look at that tape!”
“Better make that ‘My badness,’ Priss.”
“But all I see is ones and zeros.”
“Yes, that’s the binary, Mary, but look at the design the zeros are making.”
“Why! It’s the wicked cross from the Seal of Solomon; the one we started to quilt.”
“Right. My Droney’s a genius.”
“Will it really summon Satan?”
“If a computer can’t, nothing can.”
“Shush, ladies. We must be worshipful. No whispering, please.”
“The computer can’t hear us, Regina.”
“But perhaps Lucifer is listening. Now be devout, you witches. Want! Yearn! Will!”
6
When Gretchen Nunn told the CCC board that she had one or two things to wrap up with Blaise Shima before she closed the contract, that was a half-truth from a woman half in love. She knew she had to see him again, but her motives were confused.
Q: To discover whether she really could love him despite what she knew about him?
Q: To find out whether he really loved her or was merely playing with a Guff flower?
Q: To tell him the truth about herself?
Q: To tell him the truth about himself?
Q: To close her contract with Mr. Tinsmith in cool, professional style, and to hell with the personal relationships involved?
A: She didn’t know. Certainly she didn’t know that while she was preparing a shock for Mr. Wish, she was due for a bombshell herself, delivered quite casually by Shima.
“Were you born blind?” he murmured that night.
She sat bolt upright in bed. “What? What?”
“You heard me, Gretchen.”
“Blind? Me blind? You must be mad. I’ve had twenty-twenty all my life. Better.”
“Ah-so. Then you didn’t know. I suspected that might be it.”
“You’re not making sense, Blaise.”
“Oh, you’re blind all right,” he said calmly. “Only you’ve never known because you’re blessed with something far more extraordinary than sight; you have extrasensory perception of other people’s senses. You see through other people’s eyes. For all I know, you may be deaf and hear through their ears, and so on through all the senses. It’s a fantastic faculty. Absolutely fascinating. We must explore it sometime.”
“I never heard anything more absurd in all my life!” she said angrily.
“I can prove it if you insist, darling.”
“Go ahead, Blaise. Prove it.”
“Come into the lounge.”
In the living room, he pointed to a vase. “What color is that, Gretchen?” “Pearl, of course.” A carpet. “What color is that?” “Elephant-grey.” “And that lamp?” “A sort of ice color with a black shade.”
“Q.E.D.,” Shima smiled. “It has been demonstrated.”
“What’s been demonstrated?”
“That you’re seeing through my eyes.”
“How can you say a ridiculous thing like that?”
“Because I’m color-blind. That’s what gave me the clue in the first place.”
“No!”
“Yes.”
“Blaise, if you’re guffing me I swear I’ll—”
“This is no guff, love, it’s a fact.”
“No!”
“But yes.” He took her in his arms to quiet her trembling. “It’s a fact. The vase is green. The rug is amber and gold. The lamp is crimson with a burgundy shade. I can’t see the colors, but the decorator told me and I remember.”
She let out a little moan.
“Now why the terror, love? You’re blind, yes, but you’re blessed with something far more miraculous than sight. You see through the eyes of the entire world. I envy you. I’d change places with you anytime.”
“It can’t be true!” she cried. “It’s too horrible! Blind? A cripple? A freak? No!”
“It’s true, darling, but don’t think of yourself as a cripple.”
“But when I’m alone I can see.”
“Alone? When are you ever alone? When is anybody in the crowded Corridor ever alone?”
She tore herself away from him, snatched up her shift and ran out of the penthouse, sobbing hysterically. She ran back to her own Oasis nearly crazed with terror and despair. In her familiar apartment she recovered a little poise and resolved to put the disaster to the test. Either Shima was right and she was doomed, or else Shima was trying to destroy her. But why? Because he thought she was a Guff flower to be played with and tortured?