A lot she cared about their ship. She knew what it was: stolen army property. Setting her bony hand rigidly around the gearshift knob, she threw the truck into neutral and coasted to a stop. As the men approached, she began pulling on the hand brake.
"Afternoon," Professor Crowley muttered, his eyes sharp and keen as he peered eagerly into the back of the truck.
Mrs. Berthelson grunted a noncommittal answer. She didn't like any of them… dirty men, smelling of sweat and fear, their bodies and clothes streaked with grime, and the ancient coating of desperation that never seemed to leave them. Like awed, pitiful children they clustered around the truck, poking hopefully at the packages, already beginning to pluck them out onto the black ground.
"Here now," she said sharply. "You leave those alone."
Their hands darted back as if seared. Mrs. Berthelson sternly climbed from the truck, grabbed up her inventory sheet and plodded up to Crowley.
"You just wait," she told him. "Those have to be checked off."
He nodded, glanced at Masterson, licked his dry lips, and waited. They all waited. It had always been that way; they knew, and she knew, that there was no other way they could get their supplies. And if they didn't get their supplies, their food and medicine and clothing and instruments and tools and raw materials, they wouldn't be able to leave in their ship.
In this world, in the "ahead," such things didn't exist. At least, not so anybody could use them. A cursory glance had told her that; she could see the ruin with her own eyes. They hadn't taken very good care of their world. They had wasted it all, turned it into black ash and ruin. Well, it was their business, not hers.
She had never been much interested in the relationship between their world and hers. She was content to know that both existed, and that she could go from one to the other and back. And she was the only one who knew how. Several times, people from this world, members of this group, had tried to go "back there" with her. It had always failed. As she made the transition, they were left behind. It was her power, her faculty. Not a shared faculty – she was glad of that. And for a person in business, quite a valuable faculty.
"All right," she said crisply. Standing where she could keep her eye on them, she began checking off each box as it was carried from the truck. Her routine was exact and certain; it was part of her life. As long as she could remember she had transacted business in a distinct way. Her father had taught her how to live in a business world; she had learned his stem principles and rules. She was following them now.
Flannery and Patricia Shelby stood together at one side; Flannery held the money, payment for the delivery. "Well," he said, under his breath, "now we can tell her to go leap in the river."
"Are you sure?" Pat asked nervously.
"The last load's here." Flannery grinned starkly and ran a trembling hand through his thinning black hair. "Now we can get rolling. With this stuff, the ship's crammed to the gills. We may even have to sit down and eat some of that now." He indicated a bulging pasteboard carton of groceries. "Bacon, eggs, milk, real coffee. Maybe we won't shove it in deep-freeze. Maybe we ought to have a last-meal-before-the-flight orgy."
Wistfully, Pat said, "It would be nice. It's been a long time since we've had food like that."
Masterson strode over. "Let's kill her and boil her in a big kettle. Skinny old witch – she might make good soup."
"In the oven," Flannery corrected. "Some gingerbread, to take along with us."
"I wish you wouldn't talk like that," Pat said apprehensively. "She's so – well, maybe she is a witch. I mean, maybe that's what witches were… old women with strange talents. Like her – being able to pass through time."
"Damn lucky for us," Masterson said briefly.
"But she doesn't understand it. Does she? Does she know what she's doing? That she could save us all this by sharing her ability. Does she know what's happened to our world?"
Flannery considered. "Probably she doesn't know – or care. A mind like hers, business and profit-getting exorbitant rates from us, selling this stuff to us at an incredible premium. And the joke is that money's worth nothing to us. If she could see, she'd know that. It's just paper, in this world. But she's caught in a narrow little routine. Business, profit." He shook his head. "A mind like that, a warped, miserable flea-sized mind… and she has that unique talent."
"But she can see," Pat persisted. "She can see the ash, the ruin. How can she not know?"
Flannery shrugged. "She probably doesn't connect it with her own life. After all, she'll be dead in a couple of years… she won't see the war in her real time. She'll only see it this way, as a region into which she can travel. A sort of travelogue of strange lands. She can enter and leave – but we're stuck. It must give you a damn fine sense of security to be able to walk out of one world into another. God, what I'd give to be able to go back with her."
"It's been tried," Masterson pointed out. "That lizardhead Tellman tried it. And he came walking back, covered with ash. He said the truck faded out."
"Of cou rse it did," Flannery said mildly. "She drove it back to Walnut Creek. Back to 1965. "
The unloading had been completed. The members of the colony were toiling up the slope, lugging the cartons to the check area beneath the ship. Mrs. Berthelson strode over to Flannery, accompanied by Professor Crowley.
"Here's the inventory," she said briskly. "A few items couldn't be found. You know, I don't stock all that in my store. I have to send out for most of it."
"We know," Flannery said, coldly amused. It would be interesting to see a country store that stocked binocular microscopes, turret lathes, frozen packs of antibiotics, high-frequency radio transmitters, advanced textbooks in all fields.
"So that's why I have to charge you a little dearer," the old woman continued, the inflexible routine of squeeze. "On items I bring in -" She examined her inventory, then returned the ten-page typewritten list that Crowley had given her on the previous visit. "Some of these weren't available. I marked them back order. That bunch of metals from those laboratories back East – they said maybe later." A cunning look slid over the ancient gray eyes. "And they'll be very expensive."
"It doesn't matter," Flannery said, handing her the money. "You can cancel all the back orders."
At first her face showed nothing. Only a vague inability to understand.
"No more shipments," Crowley explained. A certain tension faded from them; for the first time, they weren't afraid of her. The old relationship had ended. They weren't dependent on the rusty red truck. They had their shipment; they were ready to leave.
"We're taking off," Flannery said, grinning starkly. "We're full up. "
Comprehension came. "But I placed orders for those things." Her voice was thin, bleak. Without emotion, "They'll be shipped to me. I'll have to pay for them."
"Well," Flannery said softly, "isn't that too damn bad."
Crowley shot him a warning glance. "Sorry," he said to the old woman. "We can't stick around – this place is getting hot. We've got to take off."
On the withered face, dismay turned to growing wrath. "You ordered those things! You have to take them!" Her shrill voice rose to a screech of fury. "What am I supposed to do with them?"