Fugitives from justice -- Fiction; Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"How should I know?" asked Monnn. "Minnn is an outlaw, under pursuit
and away from his planet. On our planet there are no killings." And he
hung up....
* * * * *
The Perfesser, umbrella under his arm, black serge suit dusty, walked
down a long alley and into Steve's Beer Bar. Beer, he always figured,
was a real help when you were perplexed.
Minnn witnessed this logic with disgust. The Perfesser's memory-units
showed the beer just made him more perplexed. But Minnn was resting in
witness-state, very tired from making the Perfesser do all that running.
The Perfesser hooked his umbrella over the bar and was waited upon by
Steve himself. "You look kinda bushed," said Steve respectfully.
"A man my age must watch himself, Steve. Especially when he is
enervated by the hardihoods of lifetime scholarship."
"Rough," said Steve admiringly. He didn't know what the language meant
but it sounded gorgeous.
The Perfesser turned to a pushed-down man beside him at the bar. "You
would hardly believe, friend, what has just happened to me. One moment
I was watching a home-visor-view--and the next I was standing in the
street. I can scarcely credit this phenomenon."
"Funny things happen," said the pushed-down man. "I drive a laundry
truck, and one stop is out to the national asylum. They got people out
there what don't know where they even came from, too."
"You sure this really happened, Perfesser?" said Steve. "I mean--you
wouldn't make it up or nothing." The Perfesser had drunk only one "fish
bowl" of beer--it was a little early for his star-spangled lying.
"I can aver it happened," said the Perfesser stiffly. "A phenomena of
psychic rarity--similar things have occurred to intellectual persons at
various points in history."
Minnn was not enjoying himself. Humans were fun when they were having
fun, but other moods were unendurable. Coupled with illogic it was
worse. Minnn was considering shifting to the truck driver when the man
suddenly arose. "Well, night, Steve, Perfesser--I gotta get the sheets
a-rolling," said the man, and vanished out the back door.
It was seconds later that two policemen burst in the front door
and headed straight for the Perfesser. Minnn acted instantly. The
Perfesser's awareness was clamped out and the creaking frame was sent
speeding to the back door.
Down the alley the laundry truck was starting, and the Perfesser's
voice sailed after it, "Wait, fellow. Hold on!"
The truck slowed and the wizened face of the driver peered back just in
time to see the police burst into the alley and open fire. The face was
withdrawn instantly and the truck gained speed.
The Perfesser ran after it, shouting until his breath gave out. There
was junk in the alley and it was crisscrossed by other alleys with
traffic on them and the driver dared not approach top speed. The cops
shot twice again at the Perfesser, who was running like an antelope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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