Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, Issue 45 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION THE TAP CURLED itself up and shot a stream of hot water into his face. He jumped back, startled, the tumbler falling from his hand onto the tiled floor, his mind completely refusing to belicve what his eyes saw. His hand went instinctively to his face, wiped away the drops of moisture whilst he stared fascinatedly at the chrome water tap. , Tentatively, almost reluc- tantly, he reached out and touched the tap, felt its smooth, warm, damp chrome slick under fingers that trembled slightly. It was a perfectly ordinary tap. And yet—it had curled itself up like an ele- phant’s trunk and squirted water all over his face. He took a deep breath and shut his eyes. He’d stepped into the wash- - room from his office to get a drink. Everybody’s always thirsty on Mars, even inside the pressurised domes with their trebly filtered air. Every- thing was normal. Then, when he’d bent down with the glass CO in his hand, the water tap had curled up and Glass crunched under foot with the brittle snap of break- ing dreams. His eyes opened and looked down as though they had never before seen a broken glass on a tiled wash- room floor. In an odd, sly fluidity of motion, his eyes went again to the tap. Little sharp gleams of light ran along its smooth chrome efficiency and the dampness was collecting into dwindling patches of mist along the faucet. It was just a water tap. Although his mouth and throat were parched, he had lost his desire for a drink of water. He needed something stronger right now. Shutting the door of the washroom be- hind him gave a frail sense of security, as though the thin plastic could bar whatever strange forces had been un- loosed from penetrating into his office. The whisky bottle chimed unevenly against the rim of the tumbler. He downed the burn- comiclooks.cormn