A Pail of Air
By FRITZ LEIBER
Illustrated by ED ALEXANDER
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction December 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The dark star passed, bringing with it
eternal night and turning history into
incredible myth in a single generation!
Pa had sent me out to get an extra pail of air. I'd just about scoopedit full and most of the warmth had leaked from my fingers when I sawthe thing.
You know, at first I thought it was a young lady. Yes, a beautifulyoung lady's face all glowing in the dark and looking at me from thefifth floor of the opposite apartment, which hereabouts is the floorjust above the white blanket of frozen air. I'd never seen a live younglady before, except in the old magazines—Sis is just a kid and Ma ispretty sick and miserable—and it gave me such a start that I droppedthe pail. Who wouldn't, knowing everyone on Earth was dead except Paand Ma and Sis and you?
Even at that, I don't suppose I should have been surprised. We allsee things now and then. Ma has some pretty bad ones, to judge fromthe way she bugs her eyes at nothing and just screams and screams andhuddles back against the blankets hanging around the Nest. Pa says itis natural we should react like that sometimes.
When I'd recovered the pail and could look again at the oppositeapartment, I got an idea of what Ma might be feeling at those times,for I saw it wasn't a young lady at all but simply a light—a tinylight that moved stealthily from window to window, just as if oneof the cruel little stars had come down out of the airless sky toinvestigate why the Earth had gone away from the Sun, and maybe to huntdown something to torment or terrify, now that the Earth didn't havethe Sun's protection.
I tell you, the thought of it gave me the creeps. I just stood thereshaking, and almost froze my feet and did frost my helmet so solid onthe inside that I couldn't have seen the light even if it had come outof one of the windows to get me. Then I had the wit to go back inside.
Pretty soon I was feeling my familiar way through the thirty or soblankets and rugs Pa has got hung around to slow down the escape ofair from the Nest, and I wasn't quite so scared. I began to hear thetick-ticking of the clocks in the Nest and knew I was getting backinto air, because there's no sound outside in the vacuum, of course.But my mind was still crawly and uneasy as I pushed through the lastblankets—Pa's got them faced with aluminum foil to hold in theheat—and came into the Nest.
Let me tell you about the Nest. It's low and snug, just room for thefour of us and our things. The floor is covered with thick woollyrugs. Three of the sides are blankets, and the blankets roofing ittouch Pa's head. He tells me it's inside a much bigger room, but I'venever seen the real walls or ceiling.
Against one of the blanket-walls is a big set of shelves, with toolsand books and other stuff, and on top of it a whole row of clocks. Pa'svery fussy about keeping them wound. He says we must never forget time,and without a sun or moon, that would be easy to do.
The fourth wall has blankets all over except around the fireplace, inwhich there is a fir