Valley of DreamsWeinbaum, Stanley G. (Stanley Grauman)
Science
Valley of Dreams
Weinbaum, Stanley G. (Stanley Grauman)
Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction
"Yes. It was a valley of them. Hundreds, I suppose, maybe thousands.
Enough, at any rate, to spread out a complete picture of your desires,
even all the forgotten ones that must have been drawn out of the
subconscious. A Paradise--of sorts! I saw a dozen Fancy Longs, in every
costume I'd ever admired on her, and some I must have imagined. I saw
every beautiful woman I've ever known, and all of them pleading for my
attention. I saw every lovely place I'd ever wanted to be, all packed
queerly into that little valley. And I saw--other things." He shook his
head soberly. "It wasn't all exactly pretty. Lord! How much of the beast
is left in us! I suppose if every man alive could have one look at that
weird valley, and could see just once what nastiness is hidden in
him--well, the world might gain by it. I thanked heaven afterwards that
Leroy--and even Tweel--saw their own pictures and not mine!"
Jarvis paused again, then resumed, "I turned dizzy with a sort of
ecstasy. I closed my eyes--and with eyes closed, I still saw the whole
thing! That beautiful, evil, devilish panorama was in my mind, not my
eyes. That's how those fiends work--through the mind. I knew it was the
dream-beasts; I didn't need Tweel's wail of 'No breet'! No breet'!'
But--_I couldn't keep away!_ I knew it was death beckoning, but it was
worth it for one moment with the vision."
"Which particular vision?" asked Harrison dryly.
Jarvis flushed. "No matter," he said. "But beside me I heard Leroy's cry
of 'Yvonne! Yvonne!' and I knew he was trapped like myself. I fought for
sanity; I kept telling myself to stop, and all the time I was rushing
headlong into the snare!
"Then something tripped me. Tweel! He had come leaping from behind; as I
crashed down I saw him flash over me straight toward--toward what I'd
been running to, with his vicious beak pointed right at her heart!"
"Oh!" nodded the captain. "_Her_ heart!"
"Never mind that. When I scrambled up, that particular image was gone,
and Tweel was in a twist of black ropey arms, just as when I first saw
him. He'd missed a vital point in the beast's anatomy, but was jabbing
away desperately with his beak.
"Somehow, the spell had lifted, or partially lifted. I wasn't five feet
from Tweel, and it took a terrific struggle, but I managed to raise my
revolver and put a Boland shell into the beast. Out came a spurt of
horrible black corruption, drenching Tweel and me--and I guess the
sickening smell of it helped to destroy the illusion of that valley of
beauty. Anyway, we managed to get Leroy away from the devil that had
him, and the three of us staggered to the ridge and over. I had presence
of mind enough to raise my camera over the crest and take a shot of the
valley, but I'll bet it shows nothing but gray waste and writhing
horrors. What we saw was with our minds, not our eyes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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