Darwinia

He was grateful to be released from this dark chain of thought. He moved into what Abby called “the living room,” though it was only the long south end of the plain rectangular house Guilford had built, largely by hand, a decade ago. He had framed the structure and poured the foundations; a local contractor had plastered and shingled it. Houses were easier in a warm climate. It was Abby and Nicholas who had brought the house to life, with framed pictures and tablecloths and antimacassars, with rubber balls and wooden toys lurking under the furniture.

The mail amounted to several back issues of Astounding, plus a stack of New York papers. The newspapers looked depressing: details of the war with Japan, better reporting than the wire — service coverage in the Fayetteville Herald but more dated.

Guilford turned to the magazines first. His taste for fantasy, had ebbed in the years after he lost Caroline and Lily, but the newer magazines had drawn him back. Vast airships, planetary travel, alien life: all these things seemed to him both more and less plausible than they used to. But the stories could be relied on to carry him away.

Except tonight. Tonight he finished whole pages without remembering what he’d read. He contented himself with staring at the gaudy and infinitely promising cover illustrations.

He was nodding in his chair when he heard the fire truck clanging its way into town from the station on Lantern Hill.

Then the telephone rang.

Telephones were relatively new to Fayetteville, and he hadn’t grown accustomed to having one at home, though he’d used the one at work for more than a year. The grating ring went up his spine like a fish knife.

The voice at the other end was Tim Mackelroy, his assistant at the studio. Come quick, Tim said, Christ, it’s terrible, but come quick, the shop is burning down.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Guilford had built his house away from town, a half mile by dirt track from the nearest paved road. He could see Fayetteville from the front door, a distant grid of streets and homes, and a plume of smoke rising from what was probably Spring Street.

He told Abby he’d sort this out. She shouldn’t wait up for him. He would call as soon as he had solid information. Until then she shouldn’t worry pointlessly; if worse came to worst, the business was insured with the Oro Delta Trust. They would rebuild.

Abby said nothing, only kissed him and watched from the window as he drove the battered Ford away in a rising cloud of dust.

It had been a dusty month. The sky was gaudy, the sun about to touch the rim of the western sea.

Guilford passed Nick, who was still cycling toward town. He stopped long enough to toss Nick’s bike in the back and make room for the boy up front.

Nick was somber when he heard the news, but Nick was often somber. Large eyes in a small face. He frowned constantly. No smiles for Nick, only different frowns. Even when he was happiest — playing, reading, working on his models — he wore his frown of concentration, a firm compression of the lips.

“How could the studio catch on fire?” Nick asked.

Guilford said he didn’t know. It was too soon to figure that out. The urgent business was to make sure Tim Mackelroy was safe and then to see what could be salvaged.

Wild hillside gave way to terraced fields. Guilford turned onto the paved High Road. Traffic was light, only a few motorcars, horsecarts from the Amish settlement up toward Palaepolis, a couple of farm trucks coming back empty from the granaries. Follette Road was Fayetteville’s main sheet, and he saw smoke as soon as he took the corner by the feed and grain warehouse. A pumper truck blocked the intersection of Follette and Spring.

There wasn’t much left of Law Mackelroy, Photographers. A few charred timbers. A shell of blackened bricks.

“Wow,” Nick breathed, the smoke reflected in his eyes.

Guilford found Tim Mackelroy standing under the marquee of the Tyrrhenian Talking Picture Theater. His face was streaked with smoke and tears.

Across the cobbled road the F.F.D. pumper played a steady stream of water over the smoldering ruins. The crowd had already begun to disperse. Guilford recognized most of the people there: a lawyer from Tunney’s law office, the salesgirl from Blake’s; Molly and Kate from the Lafayette Diner. When they saw him they made shy, sympathetic faces. Guilford told Nick to wait in the car while he talked to Mackelroy.