Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"Gee whiz." The boy was so embarrassed that he had to leave. "Me and
Max are going down to the swimmin' hole. You wanta come?"
"No, thanks. You go ahead. I think I'll just sit here in the Sun for a
while and watch my toes curl."
As they said good-by, the visitor traveled to the new mind.
* * * * *
With the girl's eyes, he saw the boy and the dog running across the
meadow and down to the stream at the edge of the woods.
The traveler experienced a sensation of tremendous fondness as he
watched them go.
But he mustn't get carried away, he told himself. He must make another
attempt to take command. This girl might be the one he could
influence. She was doing nothing active; her mind was relaxed.
The visitor bent himself to the task. He would be cleverly simple. He
would have her pick a daisy. They were all around at her feet. He
concentrated. Her gaze traveled back across the meadow to the grassy
knoll on which she was standing. She sat. She stretched out her arms
behind her and leaned back on them. She tossed her hair and gazed into
the sky.
She wasn't even thinking of the daisy.
Irritated, he gathered all his powers into a compact mass and hurled
them at her mind.
But with a swoop and a soar, he was carried up and away, through the
sweet summer air, to a cloud of white softness.
This was not what he had planned, by any means.
A steady, warm breeze enveloped him and there was a tinkle of faraway
music. It frightened him and he struggled to get back into contact
with the girl's mind. But there was no contact. Apparently he had been
cast out, against his will.
The forces of creation buffeted him. His dizzying flight carried him
through the clean air in swift journey from horizon to horizon, then
up, up and out beyond the limits of the atmosphere, only to return him
in a trice to the breast of the rolling meadow. He was conscious now
of the steady growth of slim green leaves as they pressed confidently
through the nurturing Earth, of the other tiny living things in and on
the Earth, and the heartbeat of the Earth itself, assuring him with
its great strength of the continuation of all things.
Then he was back with the girl, watching through her eyes a butterfly
as it fluttered to rest on a flower and perched there, gently waving
its gaudy wings.
He had not been cast out. The young woman herself had gone on that
wild journey to the heavens, not only with her mind, but with her
entire being, attuned to the rest of creation. There was a continuity,
he realized, a oneness between herself, the mother-to-be, and the
Universe. With her, then, he felt the stirrings of new life, and he
was proud and content.
He forgot for the moment that he had been a failure.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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