Argosy, September 1955 — page 137: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Ci THE CHRYSALIDS 135 I loved her. We all loved her . . . No thought of difference eVer crossed my mind, until it happened. . . It was harvest-time. Up in the twelve-acre we had six men mowing in echelon. I had just given up my scythe to one of them and was helping with the stooking by way of a breather, when the thing hit me .. . I had never known anything like it. One moment, I was placidly and contentedly propping up sheaves; the next, it was as if something had struck me, inside my head. Whether I staggered physically I don’t know, but I shouldn’t be surprised to know I did: certainly my mind staggered. Then there was pain, pulling like a fish-hook embedded in my brain. ‘There was no questioning whether I should go or not: I had to go. I dropped the sheaf I was holding, and pelted off across the field, past a blur of amazed faces. I ran for all I was worth; across half the twelve-acre, into the lane, over the fence, and down the slope of the East Pasture, towards the river. I did not know why I was running; only that I must... As I pounded at a slant across the slope, I could see the field, one of Angus Morton’s, which ran down to the other side of the river, and on the path that led to the footbridge was Rosalind, run- ning like the wind. I kept right on: down to the bank, along past the footbridge, downstream towards the deeper pools. ‘There was no hesitation. I kept on right to the brink of the second pool, and went into a dive without a check. I came up quite close to Petra. She was on the deep, steep-banked side, holding on to a little bush whose roots were on the point of pulling free from the soil. I swam to her and caught her under the arms... Just as suddenly as it had started, the compulsion stopped. I towed her to an easier landing-place. When I found bottom and could stand up, I saw Rosalind’s startled face peering anxiously over the bushes. ““Who is it?’ she said, in real words, and a shaky voice. She put her hand on her forehead. “Who was able to do that? ” I told her. ““ Petra? ”’ she repeated incredulously. I carried my little sister ashore, and laid her on the grass. She was exhausted, and only semi-conscious, but there did not seem to be anything seriously wrong with her. Rosalind came and knelt on the grass on the other side of her. We looked down at Petra in her sopping dress, with her curls darkened and matted. Then we gazed at one another. ““T didn’t know. I’d no idea she was one of us,” I said. Rosalind put her hands on either side of her face, fingertips on her temples. She shook her head slightly, and looked back at me from deeply disturbed eyes. *“ She isn’t,” she said. ‘‘ She isn’t one of us. None of us could command, like that. She’s something much more than we are.” comichooks.conm