The other visitors paid no attention to what was going on around the dead body of their fellow. They continued cutting timber and spewing out the bales of cellulose. Some of them were budding and a dozen or so of their young were scurrying about~ chomping at the bales of cellulose.
Kathy lowered the glasses, laid them in her lap.
“Anything to see over there?” asked Norton.
“Nothing I can make out,” said Kathy. She handed the glasses to him. “You want to have a try?”
“Even if I saw something, I’d probably not recognize it,” said Norton. “I thought maybe they would try to move the dead visitor somewhere. To the university down at Minneapolis, maybe. But I guess it’s just too large. That thing must weigh tons.”
“Maybe they will later on,” said Kathy, “but as I understand it, it was important to get some tissue samples as soon as possible, if what they are getting can be called tissue.”
Norton lifted the glasses to his face, stared through them for a long time, then took them down, handing them to Kathy.
“I’ve never seen such tight security,” said Kathy. “Nor set up so fast. Chet and I got here only a few hours after you phoned us, but by that time, they had it buttoned up. Ordinarily, there would be some sort of public relations setup to give you some idea of what might be going on. But here there’s nothing. Not even someone around to tell you there’ll be no information. We’re just locked out.”
“Washington probably figures this is important. Top secret.”
“Sure they do,” said Kathy. “And more than that, they were caught flat-footed and had to move fast. Who would have expected that one of the visitors would die and they’d have a shot at it. When we write about how tight the security is, the government will complain. Claiming we are overemphasizing.”
“In a little while,” said Norton, “Lone Pine will be swarming with newsmen. Like it was before. Maybe then someone will be able to jar something loose.”
“I tried,” said Kathy, “but there’s no one to jar. Just those silly, flat-faced guardsmen who won’t let you through. Most of them won’t even talk to you. Not even the officers. Usually officers will talk, at least a little, to show you how important they are, if for no other reason. I tell you, Frank, I don’t even know why I’m here. I could just as well have stayed back in the newsroom. Here I’m not doing any good. I don’t know what the hell I’ll tell Johnny when I phone him. Maybe someone else could have done better. Maybe Jay . .
“I don’t see how,” said Norton. “As you say, there’s no one here to talk to.”
“What beats me,” said Kathy, “is that there aren’t even any rumors. In a tight security situation such as this, there are always rumors. Someone had heard something and is embroidering on it. But here there isn’t even that. Stuffy is just as empty as I am. You’d expect that by now Stuffy would have heard something that he could enlarge a bit and pass on. Nor Sally, either. If she’d heard something, I’m sure she’d tell me.”
“You got to hang in there,” said Norton. “If you hang in long enough .
“Jerry and I were going to have dinner tonight,” said Kathy. “Both of us were counting on it. It’s been a long time since we’ve shared a dinner—a sit-down dinner, not just grabbing a hamburger at a fast-food joint. Poor Jerry, he’s had a bleak time of it. Six years as a student, living hand to mouth, picking up odd jobs so he can get the little money that he needs, living in a tiny room. I thought we should get married. Then, at least, he’d have a decent place to live, but he would have none of that. He refused to let a woman support him. The man has pride and I respect him for it, but that doesn’t keep me from feeling sorry for him, and he’d be sore if he knew I felt sorry for him. So I can’t show it. We could have shacked up and that would have made it easier for the two of us, but neither of us wanted that. There’s nothing really wrong with it; a lot of people do. But both of us shied away from it. I don’t know. It seemed sort of cheap and both of us agreed
“It’ll work out,” said Norton, trying to comfort her. “He’s only got a little while before he has his doctorate and then he’ll get a job..
“I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” she said. “I shouldn’t, but it just came out of me. Frank, why should I be telling this to you?”
“I don’t know,” said Norton, “but I am glad you could. If it helped you any, I am glad you could.”
They sat silent for a time in the autumn afternoon.
Finally, Norton said, “In a day or two, before the end of the week, I’ll be taking a few days off. I do it every fall. Usually earlier than this. Thus matter of the visitors makes me late this year. I’ll drive up through the wilderness area, a canoe strapped to the top of the ear. I’ll park beside a little river that I know and will spend a few days canoeing. A sort of farewell to the autumn wilderness, a few days with it before bad weather closes in. I just paddle along and look, taking it easy, not pushing myself. I won’t work at it. Maybe do a little fishing. Mostly looking, though.”
“It sounds nice,” said Kathy.
“I was thinking. Why don’t you phone Jerry and ask him to come up here. Tell Johnny you’re taking some vacation. The two of you join me on this little jaunt. You get away from your deadlines, Jerry from his classes. It would do the both of you a world of good.”
“I think it would,” said Kathy, “but we can’t. I used up all my vacation time in June and Jerry’s got his thesis.”
“I’m sorry,” Norton said. “It would have been nice to have had the two of you along.”
“I’m sorry, too,” said Kathy. “Thanks so much for asking.”
35. WASHINGTON, D.C.
The President came into the press office as Porter was preparing to leave. The press secretary rose from his desk, surprised, and said, “You are working late, sir.”
“And so are you,” said the President. “I saw your light and decided to come in.
“Is there anything I can do for you?”
“Only listen to me,” said the President. “I need someone I can sit down with and take off my shoes.”
He walked to a sofa against the wall and dropped into it, slouching, stretching out his legs, locking his hands behind his head.
“Dave,” he asked, “is all of this really happening or am I having a bad dream?”
“I fear,” said Porter, “that it is happening. Although there are times when I ask myself the same question.”
“Can you see an end to it? A logical end?”
Porter shook his head. “Not at this point, I can’t. But I have a sort of ingrown faith that it will work out. Even the worst situations usually do.”
“All day long,” said the President, “I have people hammering at me. Things they want me to do. Actions they want me to take. Probably silly things, but to the people who advocate them, I don’t suppose they’re silly. I have a stack of letters asking me to designate a day of prayer. I have phone calls from men I have always regarded as reasonable suggesting a proclamation calling for a day of prayer. And I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to call a day of prayer. Sure, presidents at various times have asked the people to observe a day of prayer, but only on occasions that patently call for prayer, and I don’t think this situation does.”
“It stems from all the religious fervor this business has stirred UP,” said Porter. “When people don’t know what else to do, they Suddenly turn to religion, or what for them may pass for religion. It constitutes a mystic retreat into unreality. It is a search for an understanding of forces that are beyond our capability to understand, a seeking for some symbol that will bridge the gap to understanding.”
“Yes, I realize all that,” said the President, “and, in a way, I can sympathize with it. But to call for prayer right now would overemphasize the problem that we face. What’s happening baffles the hell out of me, but I feel no sense of panic. Maybe I’m wrong, Dave. Should I be feeling panic?”
“I don’t think so,” Porter said. “It’s not a matter of panic. What is driving these people to urge a day of prayer is the obsessive urge of the suddenly devout to force everyone else into at least a simulation of their state of mind.”