Asimov, Isaac Mythical Beasties

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rooms the evening looked like turning into fun. I waited for him to come back with bated
breath. But you can't bate your breath forever, and he was gone hours. When he did come
back I'd fallen asleep and he woke me up belching.
LETTERS FROM LAURA
235
"Please," I said. "Do you have to do that?"
"Sony, kid," he said. "It's these gaunt old maids. Awful souring to the stomach." It seems
this windy diet was one of the things wrong with the government. He was very bitter about it
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all. Tender virgins, he said, had always been in short supply and now he was out of favor
with the new regime. I rummaged around in my wrist bag and found an antacid pill. He was
delighted. Can you imagine going into a transport over pills?"
"Any cute males ever find their way into this place?" I asked him. I got up and walked
around. You can loll on a couch just so long, you know.
"No boys!" The Minotaur jumped up and shook his fist at me. I cowered behind some
hangings, but I needn't have bothered. He didn't even jerk me out from behind them. Instead
he paced up and down and raved about the lies told on him. He swore he'd never eaten
boys hadn't cared for them at all. That creep, Theseus, was trying to ruin him politically.
"I've worn myself thin," he yelled, "in all these years of service " At that point I walked over
and poked him in his big, fat stomach. Then I gathered my things together and walked out.
He puffed along behind me wanting to know what was the matter. "Gee, kid," he kept
saying, "don't go home mad." 1 didn't say goodbye to him at all. A spider fell on him and it
threw him into a hissy. The last I saw of him he was cursing the government because they
hadn't sent him an exterminator.
Well, Prue, so much for the bogey man. Time travel in the
....i
raw'
Dear Mom:
Ancient Crete was nothing but politics, You didn't have a single cause to worry. Just as
particular about girls as you are.
Love,* Laura
Monday
not a bit exciting. These people are
Love, Laura
236 Mildred Clingerman
Tuesday Dear Mr. Detbert Barnes:
Stop calling me or 1 will complain to your boss. You cad- I see it all now. You and your fine
talk about how your Agency "fully protects its clients." That's a very high-sounding name for
it. Tell me, how many girls do you talk into going to ancient Crete? And do you provide all of
them with the same kind of insurance? Mr. Barnes, I don*t want any more insur- ance from
you. But I'm going to send you a client for that trip the baggiest old maid I know. She has
buck teeth and whiskers. Insure her.
Laura
P.S. Just in case you're feeling smug about me, put this in your pipe and smoke it. The
Minotaur knew, I can't imagine how, but you, Mr. Barnes, are no Minotaur.
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PEGASCIS
One of the most enduring dreams of human beings is to fly. Ail sorts of spirits and monsters
were pictured with wings, since flying seemed an obvious attribute of super- natural beings.
In addition, there were various ways of enabling human beings toffy flying carpets, for
instance, are common in the stories included in The Arabian Nights."
The ancient Greeks came up with the most attractive of all flying creatures Pegasus, the
divine and immortal winged horse. The thought of a flying horse may well have arisen from
the wonder of horseless human beings at the speed with which a horseman could cover the
ground. To a man going no faster than an oxcart will carry him, the racing horse might as
well have been flying.
Pegasus was supposed to have been born of the blood of the severed head of Medusa, the
gorgon killed by the Greek hero Perseus. Another Greek hero, Bellerophon, rode Pegasus
during the task of killing the chimera, and later in wars against the Amazons. Still later,
Bellerophon tried to use Pegasus to scale Olympus, the home of the gods, but was thrown
and badly hurt as punishment for this blasphemous attempt.
In later myths, Pegasus was associated with poetic inspi- ration. After all, the poet's fancy
lifts him to the skies (so to speak) as though he were riding a flying horse. Pegasus was
supposed to have landed on Mount Helicon near Thebes, and his hoof dug out a hollow from
which emerged
237
i8 F.A. Javor
a spring called the Hippocrene (''fountain of the horse"). which was a legendary source of
poetic inspiration.
It's almost a shame to have to point out that muscle- powered wings could not support the
weight of a man, let alone that of a horse. The following story, however, tack- les that
impossibility.
THE TRIUMPH OF PEGASUS
F.A. Javor
It was working out beautifully, just beautifully, and if Colin Hall had been a less dedicated
young man he would have been rubbing his capable hands together and perhaps even
pounding his equally young but no-so-sedate partner, Ed West, on his ample back.
Their entry in the jumper division of the horse show, Ato's Pride, so named from the initial
letters of their fledgling company's name. Animals to Order, a gleaming black stal- lion with
four perfectly matched white stockings and a diamond- shaped blaze on his forehead, was
just being led to the edge of the obstacle-planted ring and the roar of the crowd's approval
was hackle-raising. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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