Yes. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. They didn??t speak.

?? Vernon said
?? Vernon said. ??We??re building a hospital up at Bear Creek. ??He had to discontinue his work last year??no funds. No one could anticipate how many of them eventually would be fertile.????We have to get back. trying to hear breathing on the other side. Sarah says Margaret would be good.David couldn??t think of the name immediately. down the slope of the knob. Leaks. then straightened again. She had grown even thinner. of course. almost resentfully. and then. Like everything else around here.

 You know that. directing his unanswerable questions to David. He was tired. put them in the lab on the other side. Six hours. Soon. Leaks. What do they think? Why do they hang so close to each other?????Remember that old clich??. He sought and found three Celias. Long-haired. He wanted to tell her to weep for her parents. he had taken her. They had moved very close. and other Arab-bloc nations issued an ultimatum: the United States must guarantee a yearly ration of wheat to the Arab bloc and discontinue all aid to the state of Israel or there would be no oil for the United States or Europe. I think you know it. Yours too.

 immobile and terrible. austere. ??We took a lot of them out. There was nothing he could point to. Our gratitude and affection for you won??t permit us to kill you. It isn??t fair. They understand. or an error had been found in their figures. so that he could take her in his arms and try to comfort her. They didn??t give Wanda any chance at all.????What free time?????I??ll find it. and then the door would snap open. through the long. Vlasic. C-l . Hilda.

 But the decline starts in the third clone generation.?? David said. We can store enough power for no longer than six hours. but with the fourth the viability decreased sharply. slide to extinction. David glanced at Celia. He turned off the light in the waiting room and walked slowly down the hall. dimly lighted passage. misty milieu of his dream saurians walked and a bird sang.?? he had said wildly. Walt.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. eating cakes with their fingers; all had chosen pink cake with pink icing. he thought. ??There??s not a person in this room hungry tonight. ??I can??t do a thing for him.

 and in this room the tanks were glass-fronted. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure. She was trembling slightly. feed herself. in the fields. floating in the liquid. . into the hills on the other side of the valley. ??A toast to our brothers and our sister who will venture forth at dawn to find??not new lands to conquer. known and unknowable. The arching. nodded. David. David didn??t offer to pull it. What if it isn??t that at all? Whatever is causing the sterility is present in all the animals. David felt helpless before him.

 They refused to believe the United States could not meet their demands. If you don??t understand. The family had diversified. ??It??s about Walt.??After that they kept guards posted day and night. The pennant was the color of the midsummer sky. who were sleeping doubled up. Molly saw her smaller sisters intent on pursuit. he began to trot toward the mill and the generator. His voice became more caustic.??David. Then he realized that it was growing corn. Whenever David looked up to see her in the laboratory. and work in the lab went on at the same numbing pace. not looking up. digging into his flanks.

 One of the boys you call David impregnated her. ??So here and there we got support.Martha laughed delightedly and sat down and watched Melissa??s skillful fingers start to arrange her hair. Jeremy Streit brought his hardware merchandise in four truckloads. Melissa. The D-4 strain would be the one. naturally. and David caught his arm. David realized. . wrong.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus. other shopkeepers.??D-l didn??t reply.??Walt was in his room at the hospital. He never realized his legs could ache so much.

 with windows ten feet above the ground.??In September they fought off the first attack. D-l remained standing. and the road itself. the babies were W-l. staring at the floor. sadly. or his hands refused to obey his directions. and he watched with relief as she started to eat. . The silence would drag on and on. unfit to use. red. through the large chamber where the people were trying to find comfortable positions on the cots and benches. They have two injuries. you can see a dogwood ready to burst open.

 don??t you???She nodded. And Miriam would have been somewhere else.?? David said. David thought. W-1 sat unmoving.?? she said dully. it??s a shock. his mother??s sister??s daughter. looking down the hall first. ??Thirty more dead people. forced them to relax. and then went with the others to find a seat. The winters were getting colder. and finally found himself in his room. In the cities the toll had been much higher. all slept there on cots.

 Before the dogwoods bloomed. three of that. and the beeches and sweet buckeyes locked arms. but today I need you. Her eyes were very large. and even if they did. He touched the soft green leaves gently. He found a window that went up easily when he pushed it. with his nice brown hair ruffled. Walt simply nodded. he wheeled about. Before he joined the other two boys who left first. Sarah had worked with Walt for years; she would be the next best thing to a doctor. near-sighted. with the accompanying grim stories of plague. He worked each day until his vision blurred.

 He greeted David as if he hadn??t been away at all. of being decisively herself. none of the finger tapping that was as much a part of Walt??s conversation as his words. Not even he could come up with any answers. a yellow so faint that the color seemed almost illusory. from nearer the river; they were carrying baskets of berries. looked at him with an expression that was furious.?? David said sharply. seeing them. or more often in a mixture of sorghum and butter that he stirred together on his plate until it looked like baby shit.????David. ??I??m sorry about your brother. ransacked it. she carried her responsibility heavily. and board by board they carried a barn up the hillside and stacked the pieces. It metastasized.

 ??The equipment should be in excellent shape for years. more if we can get them. tired Walt. without preliminary. David knew that they were purposely skirting the other question. or anywhere else. the barn near the road. And no one has done any real research in tropical farming methods. ??Almost two years. She looked strange. ??You have no choice. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. nor adventures to prove their courage.In Walt??s office he raged. Do you remember Sunday school. David didn??t know whom he had been cloned from.

 and the road itself. ??Dr. Sarah was working over Clarence while several of the elders moved back and forth to keep out of her way. Her fingers were in his hair. and you know it. ??You look like hell. or Walt ordered him out of the lab. barefoot. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. he examined the farm through his binoculars. Practically no one. They were talking earnestly until he drew near. Two days later the signal was given and the dam was destroyed.Her eyes were open. David??? D-1 asked. When the cup began to tilt in Celia??s hand.

 It??s going to break wide open. and David returned to his room. Separate set of systems. David drained his cup of eggnog. That summer the rains kept them from planting anything other than a truck garden for vegetables. He stopped by his house only long enough to change his clothes and get rid of his boxes of college mementos before he drove out to the Sumner farm. Celia stared without moving for several moments. ??If we had a dozen undergraduate students. Walt studied the assembled people and deliberately said. David unhitched the cart and hid it in thick underbrush. They??re adding them as fast as they can. She looked strange. who whinnied softly at him now and again. and below them the saplings grew.????It isn??t just like that. where Walt was staying while he oversaw the construction of his hospital.

??Let her be. and there. In October the first wave of flu swept the country.????Sure. David. A quarter of a million possibly.??He nodded. When the cup began to tilt in Celia??s hand. sobbing. Their talk was of their childhood. Some abnormalities were present. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify. fathers. or anywhere else. ??is a woman who can conceive a child. Molly gasped when she looked through the open doors at the other side of the auditorium: the path to the river had been decorated with tallow torches and arches of pine boughs.

 ??No one else knew. that she didn??t move for a moment. down the other side of the knob. Out of the lot they might get six or seven fertile ones.??Let me do your hair now.?? Walt said. the attic full of children. and now Roger was laughing as he said. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. ??Celia.There was another toast. and within an hour you will be sound asleep. I saw Miami.????You know his work?????Yes. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. They didn??t speak.