Business -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"Hold it!" Meg called sharply. "Flock of multiple-urgents coming in.
News Liaison: information bureaus swamped with flying-bread inquiries.
Aero-expresslines: Clear our airways or face law suit. U. S. Army: Why
do loaves flame when hit by incendiary bullets? U. S. Customs: If bread
intended for export, get export license or face prosecution. Russian
Consulate in Chicago: Advise on destination of bread-lift. And some
Kansas church is accusing us of a hoax inciting to blasphemy, of faking
miracles--I don't know _why_."
The business girl tore off her headphones. "Roger Snedden," she cried
with a hysteria that would have dumfounded her underlings, "you've
brought the name of Puffyloaf in front of the whole world, all right!
Now do something about the situation!"
Roger nodded obediently. But his pallor increased a shade, the pupils of
his eyes disappeared under the upper lids, and his head burrowed beneath
his forearms.
"Oh, boy," Rose Thinker called gayly to Tin Philosopher, "this looks
like the start of a real crisis session! Did you remember to bring spare
batteries?"
* * * * *
Meanwhile, the monstrous flight of Puffyloaves, filling midwestern skies
as no small fliers had since the days of the passenger pigeon, soared
steadily onward.
Private fliers approached the brown and glistening bread-front in
curiosity and dipped back in awe. Aero-expresslines organized
sightseeing flights along the flanks. Planes of the government forestry
and agricultural services and 'copters bearing the Puffyloaf emblem
hovered on the fringes, watching developments and waiting for orders. A
squadron of supersonic fighters hung menacingly above.
The behavior of birds varied considerably. Most fled or gave the loaves
a wide berth, but some bolder species, discovering the minimal nutritive
nature of the translucent brown objects, attacked them furiously with
beaks and claws. Hydrogen diffusing slowly through the crusts had now
distended most of the sealed plastic wrappers into little balloons,
which ruptured, when pierced, with disconcerting _pops_.
Below, neck-craning citizens crowded streets and back yards, cranks and
cultists had a field day, while local and national governments raged
indiscriminately at Puffyloaf and at each other.
Rumors that a fusion weapon would be exploded in the midst of the flying
bread drew angry protests from conservationists and a flood of telefax
pamphlets titled "H-Loaf or H-bomb?"
Stockholm sent a mystifying note of praise to the United Nations Food
Organization.
Delhi issued nervous denials of a millet blight that no one had heard of
until that moment and reaffirmed India's ability to feed her population
with no outside help except the usual.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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