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The New Adam
Stanley Weinbaum
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eBook - ePub
The New Adam
Stanley Weinbaum
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The New Adam finds himself not in Eden, but in a crowded world of men and women who look like him but who cannot comprehend his powers or his unique mentality. Nature had placed Edmund Hall a rung higher on the ladder of evolution than the men around him. How could he live in a world populated by creatures as far below him as the ape is below us?
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BOOK III. THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE
~
1. THE SEED PLANTED
āLISTEN TO ME A MINUTE, Vanny!ā Paul was expostulating. āIām serious. Youāve got to answer me.ā
Vanny stopped humming, turned her pert features toward him.
āAll right. The answer is maybe.ā
Paul stared at her a moment on the verge of anger, gave a gesture of exasperation, and strode to the window. Her laugh followed him. For a moment he stared down the street, where a bat whirled and circled the solitary arc light trying, no doubt, to look like a dragon. Paul spun about, faced the smiling girl.
āYouāre certainly expert at the fine art of torture,ā he said. Vanny wrinkled her nose at him, toying with the great black Persian cat beside her.
āListen to him, Eblis! Heās accusing your mistress.ā She turned back to Paul. āIāve been studying Torquemada.ā
āYou could teach him a few tricks!ā
āDonāt growl at me, Honey. All Iām suggesting is the use of a little intelligence.ā
āBah! Whatās the matter with me, Vanny? God knows I love you, and sometimes you seem to care for me. Why wonāt you marry me?ā
āI thought we agreed last time to drop the discussion.ā
āBut why wonāt you?ā
She cast him another impish smile. /* āSaid then the little maid, You have very little said To induce a little maid for to wed, wed, wed. So pray say a little more, Or produce a little ore, āEre Iāll make a little print in your bed, bed, bed!ā */
āVanny, youāre impossible!ā
āBut I mean it, Paul. Two of us canāt live comfortably on what Iāve got, and your contribution would hardly suffice.ā
Paul dropped to the davenport beside her, startling Eblis into an ebony flash to the floor.
āI guess youāre right,ā he said, dropping his face to his hands. A tinge of sympathy passed over the girlās face; she placed a hand on her companionās shoulder, touched his light hair.
āSnap out of it, Honey,ā she said. āAllās not lost save honor.ā
Paul sat erect. āVery well, but Iām giving you fair warning, Vannyāthis isnāt going on much longer! Iāll have you somehow.ā
She dropped her shining black head to his shoulder. āYou have my permission to tryātry as hard as ever you can, Paul.ā
For a time they were silent. Paul slipped his arm about her, drew her close, but he still brooded, morose and unhappy. Best start a new train of thought, reflected Vanny.
āHowās the night-work, Paul?ā
āIām through with it.ā
āFired?ā
āNo; I quit. Couldnāt stand it.ā
āWhy not?ā
āSomethingās wrong with that fellow, Vannyāsomethingās very wrong. Either heās crazy, orāI donāt know, but thereās something unnatural about him. His snaky hands and all.ā
āI used to think his hands were lovely, at school.ā
Paul did not answer. He was still sullen; something weighed heavily on him. Vanny looked at him with a tinge of pity.
āWhatās really the matter with you, Paul?ā
āNothing I can tell.ā
āDonāt be silly. Iām no prude, and I have the average gift of understanding.ā
āIt sounds foolish, Vannyābut Iām afraid of that fellow Edmond Hall.ā
āFor Peteās sake, why? You could crack him like a nut!ā
āWell, the other nightāthatās when I quitāhe wanted me to bring him here!ā
Vanny stared at Paulās distressed face, broke into a peal of laughter.
āHe wouldnāt be the first freak youāve dragged around, Honey!ā
āAll right,ā said Paul, again sullen. āYou would have it, and there it is.ā
āBut still, whatās the trouble? Why not bring him over some evening? Youāre not jealous in advance, are you.ā
āYes! I am!ā
Vanny laughed again, with a taunt in her eyes.
āNot in the way you think,ā said Paul.
āOf course not.ā She was still teasing.
āOh, I donāt think youād ever fall for him! Heās too devoid of sex appeal.ā
āThen what?ā
āI donāt know,ā said Paul, āexcept that I feel heās an ill-omened bird. Heās got a raven soul, and it croaks behind his every mood.ā
āBaa!ā said Vanny. āYou get tiresome. Your soulās an old woman soul, and doesnāt take second honors anywhere in croaking.ā
She cast off his arm, rose, and pirouetted before him, ending in a curtsy.
āCome on, Paul, Switch on the radio, and letās dance.ā
āI donāt feel like dancing.ā
Vanny crossed the room, spun the glowing dial. A dance orchestra swelled into melodious syncopation. She danced over to Paul, seized his hand and pulled him reluctantly erect, drawing herself into his arms as they swayed into the rhythm of the music.
āPaulāāshe threw back her head to look up at himāāwhy donāt you bring him over?ā
āNever!ā
āYou donāt have to be jealous, Honey. Iād just like to meet him again.ā
āYou never will through me!ā
āWell, you neednāt snap at me so!ā
āIf you want to see him, call him up yourself!ā
āIt would be a bit presumptuous, hardly having seen him for ten yearsānot since high school days.ā They swayed easily to the music. āHoweverāperhaps I will!ā
2. THE SEED SPROUTS
EDMOND felt no more anger at Paulās defection than he felt at the rain or wind or force of gravity, or any other natural circumstance, Indeed, he had anticipated it, perceiving in Paulās nature the emotional seeds from which the refusal sprang. Still, a quality in his own nature, either the goad of ennui or a certain grim persistence, led him to maintain Vanny as his objective. His usual merciless scrutiny of his own motives led him to a realization that a certain preference lay behind his persistence; this girl offered a rather rare aesthetic appeal that drew him more, perhaps, than his original plan contemplated.
āI weave nets to entrap myself,ā he reflected, answering at the same moment in another part of his mind, āSurely I am strong enough to break any snare of my own creating.ā
Thus he set about the task of rebuilding an acquaintanceship of his past. He wished to arrange an apparently casual meeting, confiding thereafter in designs of his own, and he was content for the present to trust to chance to provide the encounter.
For several mornings he drove his car along Sheridan Road, past Vannyās accustomed bus-stop, but failed to meet her. Once he fancied he glimpsed her entering a lumbering bus several blocks ahead of him. He did not pursue; the chancy seeming of the meeting would have been destroyedāa subtlety he preferred to preserve.
In his complex mentalities he reflected, āPaul has beyond doubt informed this girl of my suggestion; let her vanity be a little flattered by my interest, and then a little piqued by my lack of it. This at least will give our ultimate encounter a spice of attention.ā Thus he reflected, and afterwards parked his car on a side street; spending the better part of the day watching a school of minnows that sported though the lagoon in Lincoln Park. He thought idly of many things, amusing himself for a time trying to imagine a feat impossible to perform in the world of the Material.
āAll things are possible,ā he concluded, āgiven time and a price, and the greater the span of time, the smaller is the price requiredāand this in effect is but saying that in eternity whatever can happen must happen. Flammarion glimpsed this truth, but his specious theory of past eternity and future is obviously fallacious.ā
The meeting was not entirely unexpected by Vanny. She sat at a table in Kelseyās Venice, with Walter Nussman. The orchestra, ensconced in its gondola, drifted silent in the fifteen-foot pool. Vanny was a little flushed, her black eyes a trifle brighter than usual; she had already taken four highballs from Walterās rather capacious flask. Walter was becoming a bit solicitous; indeed, Vanny seldom indulged very freely, yet here she was sipping her fifth, and the evening still young. āWhy donāt you quit worrying about Paul, Vanny? Heāll be around as usual!ā
āListen, Grandpa! My worries are my personal property! For your information, Iām not worrying anyway.ā
āWhatās the trouble between you? As your elder, I always thought you two made such an attractive couple.ā
āWe had a spatāand besides, I wonāt be coupled with anybody! Iām a trust-buster!ā
āHuh?ā
āHe was acting in restraint of trade, and Iām the Sherman Law. Verstehen Sie?ā
āYouāre pickled,ā said Walter, with a judicial air. āYouāre soused, pie- eyed, blotto, besotted!ā
Something in his remark seemed deliriously funny to the girl; she laughed unrestrainedly.
āWhy I am not! Iām as sober as you are!ā
āMy God!ā said Walter. āThen weād better leave at once!ā
Vanny raised her glass as the orchestra emitted a blare of introductory chords. Walter seized the opportunity.
āPut it down and letās dance.ā
āSure,ā said Vanny. āYou just whirl me around. Thatās as good as a drink.ā
They moved on toward the floor, joining the throng already swinging into the time of the music. Vanny was just a shade unsteady.
āPut some pep into it!ā she complained; but the sedate Walter danced as he always danced, marking time as if the staccato blues were a Teutonic march. After a while Vanny succeeded in losing herself in the music; she hummed the piece to herselfāthe perennial St. Louis Bluesāand achieved the sensation of drifting bodiless on a gently undulating sea. She closed her eyes. Walterās methodical steps required no effort to follow; all her consciousness flowed into the single sensation of rhythmic movement. She was dizzily content; there was a faint realization of the forgetting of something unpleasant. Paul! That was it. Well, let him do the remembering; she was well enough able to get along.
The undulations seemed to be lengthening, rising to a peak, and then a long downward slide. Not nearly so pleasant. Better open her eyesāso. The room was swaying a little; she forced her eyes to focus more sharply, and gazed without surprise into the eyes of Edmond Hall. She flashed him a smile of recognition; he responded. Alone at a table; did he always come to these places just to sit and drink?
āThereās Edmond Hall,ā she said.
Walter spun her around and gazed over her shoulder.
āThe cat-eyed gent sitting alone? Is he the electrical inventor?ā
āYou donāt have to spin me around so! I donāt like it.ā
āI had to write a Sunday feature about his radio tube,ā said Walter. āWrote it without an interview, too; he was in Europe. Thereās something deep about it. Half the authorities I called on said the thing didnāt exist, and the rest said it was a fake. Finally got a little information out of this fellow Alfred Stein at Northwestern.ā He chuckled. āThe paperās still getting peeved letters from professorial cranks!ā
The music stopped. They joined the general exit from the floor. Seated again, Vanny toyed with the remains of her highball. It was nearly flat, she added a little ginger ale.
āI went to school with him,ā she said.
āWith whom? OhāEdmond Hall.ā
āHeās funny, but not as bad as Paul makes out.ā
āCanāt prove anything by me,ā said Walter. āDidnāt we see him once beforeāat Spangliās?ā
āYes. Paul was working for him then.ā
She sipped the amber-fired glass before her.
āListen, Walter. He likes me.ā
āHow do you know?ā
āIām telling you. Youāre my father confessor. Thatās what started Paul and me quarreling. Thatās why Paul quit his job. Hall wanted to come over. And I said Iād ask him.ā
āI never saw you at the confidential stage before! Youāll be crying on my shoulder next.ā
āIām all right. Iām going to ask him over to our table.ā
āThatās your privilege, my dear.ā
Vanny turned; Edmond was still regarding her with cold amber eyes. She smiled and beckoned, and the...
Table of contents
- PROLOGUE
- INTRODUCTION
- BOOK I. THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE
- BOOK II. POWER
- BOOK III. THE PURSUIT OF PLEASURE