PROOF OF THE PUDDING-4
952 Words
ON THE THIRD ATTEMPT he had the thing right—he had never realized how deceptive the shapes of women could be—and then he made a pair of gold sandals with high heels for her.
“A little tight,” she said, putting them on, “and not too practical without sidewalks. But thanks much. This trick of yours really solves the Christmas present problem, doesn’t it?” Her dark hair was shiny in the noon sun, and she looked very lovely and warm and human.
“See if you can create,” he urged, anxious to share his startling new ability with her.
“I’ve already tried,” she said. “No go. Still a man’s world.”
He frowned. “How can I be absolutely sure you’re real?”
“That again? Do you remember creating me, Master?” she asked mockingly, bending to loosen the strap on one shoe.
“I had been thinking—about women,” he said grimly. “I might have created you while I was asleep. Why shouldn’t my subconscious mind have as much power as my conscious mind? I would have equipped you with a memory, given you a background. You would have been extremely plausible. And if my subconscious mind did create you, then it would make certain that my conscious mind would never know.”
“You’re ridiculous!”
“Because if my conscious mind knew,” he went on relentlessly, “it would reject your existence. Your entire function, as a creation of my subconscious, would be to keep me from knowing. To prove, by any means in your power, by any logic, that you were—”
“Let’s see you make a woman, then, if your mind is so good!” She crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair, giving a single sharp nod.
“All right.” He stared at the cave wall and a woman started to appear. It took shape sloppily, one arm too short, legs too long. Concentrating harder, he was able to make its proportions fairly true. But its eyes were set at an odd angle; its shoulders and back were sloped and twisted. He had created a shell without brains or internal organs, an automaton. He commanded it to speak, but only gulps came from the shapeless mouth; he hadn’t given it any vocal apparatus. Shuddering, he destroyed the nightmare figure.
“I’m not a sculptor,” he said. “Nor am I God.”
“I’m glad you finally realize that.”
“That still doesn’t prove,” he continued stubbornly, “that you’re real. I don’t know what my subconscious mind is capable of.”
“Make something for me,” she said abruptly. “I’m tired of listening to this nonsense.”
I’ve hurt her feelings, he thought. The only other human on Earth and I’ve hurt her. He nodded, took her by the hand and led her out of the cave. On the flat plain below he created a city. He had experimented with it a few days back, and it was much easier this time. Patterned after pictures and childhood dreams of the Thousand and One Nights, it towered black and white and rose. The walls were gleaming ruby, and the gates were of silver-stained ebony. The towers were red gold, and sapphires glittered in them. A great staircase of milky ivory climbed to the highest opal spire, set with thousands of steps of veined marble. There were lagoons of blue water, and little birds fluttered above them, and silver and gold fish darted through the still depths.
They walked through the city, and he created roses for her, white and yellow and red, and gardens of strange blossoms. Between two domed and spired buildings he created a vast pool of water; on it he put a purple-canopied pleasure barge, loading it with every kind of food and drink he could remember.
* * *
* * * *
THEY FLOATED ACROSS the lagoon, fanned by the soft breeze he had created.
“And all this is false,” he reminded her after a little while.
She smiled. “No it’s not. You can touch it. It’s real.”
“Will it be here after I die?”
“Who cares? Besides, if you can do all this, you can cure any sickness. Perhaps you can even cure old age and death.” She plucked a blossom from an over-hanging bough and sniffed its fragrance. “You could keep this from fading and dying. You could probably do the same for us, so where’s the problem?”
“Would you like to go away?” he said, puffing on a newly created cigarette. “Would you like to find a new planet, untouched by war? Would you like to start over?”
“Start over? You mean.... Later perhaps. Now I don’t even want to go near the ship. It reminds me of the war.”
They floated on a little way.
“Are you sure now that I’m real?” she asked.
“If you want me to be honest, no,” he replied. “But I want very much to believe it.”
“Then listen to me,” she said, leaning toward him. “I’m real.” She slipped her arms around his neck. “I’ve always been real. I always will be real. You want proof? Well, I know I’m real. So do you. What more can you ask?”
He stared at her for a long moment, felt her warm arms around his neck, listened to her breathing. He could smell the fragrance of her skin and hair, the unique essence of an individual.
Slowly he said, “I believe you. I love you. What—what is your name?”
She thought for a moment. “Joan.”
“Strange,” he said. “I always dreamed of a girl named Joan. What’s your last name?”
She kissed him.
Overhead, the swallows he had created—his swallows—wheeled in wide circles above the lagoon, his fish darted aimlessly to and fro, and his city stretched, proud and beautiful, to the edge of the twisted lava mountains.
“You didn’t tell me your last name,” he said.
“Oh, that. A girl’s maiden name never matters—she always takes her husband’s.”
“That’s an evasion!”
She smiled. “It is, isn’t it?”
- Writer
