Now Owain and Frigate sat down to drink lichen-alcohol and to talk of old times. Burton noticed that Owain seemed to remember incidents and friends much better than Frigate did. This was surprising, since Frigate had very good recall.
"Remember how we used to see the shows at the Princess, Columbia, and Apollo theaters?" Owain said. "Do you remember the Saturday we decided to find out how many movies we could see in one day? We went to a doublefeature at the Princess, then a double-feature at the Columbia, a triple-feature at the Apollo, and a midnight show at the Madison."
Frigate smiled and nodded. But his expression showed that his recollection was faulty.
"Then there was that time we took a trip to St. Louis with Al Everhard and Jack Dirkman and Dan Doobin. Al's cousin got some dates for us; they were nurses, remember? We drove out to the cemetery-what was it called?"
"Damned if I remember," Pete said.
"Yes, but I'll bet you haven't forgotten how you and that nurse stripped and you were chasing her around the cemetery and you jumped over a tombstone and fell smack into a wreath and got all torn up from the thorns and roses! Bet you haven't forgotten that!"
Frigate grinned embarrassedly. "How could I?"
"It sure took the wind out of your sails! And everything else! Haw, haw!"
There was more reminiscence. After a while, the talk turned to their reactions on awakening along the banks of The River. The others joined in then, since this was a favorite topic. That day had been so frightening, so awe-inspiring, so alien that no one would ever forget that. The horror, the panic, and confusion were still with them. Burton sometimes wondered if people were still talking so much about that experience because the recapitulation was a form of therapy. They hoped to rid themselves of the trauma by a verbal discharge.
There was a general agreement that everybody had acted somewhat silly that day.
"I remember how absurdly formal and dignified I was," Alice said. "Not that I was the only one. However, most people were hysterical. We were all in great shock. The wonder is that nobody died of a heart attack. You'd think that waking up in this strange place after you'd died would be enough to kill you again-at once."
Monat said, "Perhaps, just before resurrection, our anonymous benefactors injected some sort of drug into us that eased the impact of the shock. Also, the dreamgum we found in our grails may have acted as a sort of postoperative anesthesia. Though I must say that its effect caused some terribly savage behavior."
Alice looked at Burton then. Even after all these years, she still blushed at the memory. All their social inhibitions had been stripped off for a few hours, and they had acted as if they were minks whose sole diet was Spanish fly. Or as if their secret fantasies had taken control.
The conversation then centered on the Arcturan. Previously, despite his warm manner, he had encountered the standoffishness he met everywhere at first from strangers. His obvious nonhuman origin made them shy or caused repulsion.
Now they questioned him about his life on his native planet and his experience on Earth. A few had heard tales of how the Arcturans had been forced to slay almost all the people on Earth. No one present, however, except Frigate, had been living when the Arcturans' ship had arrived on Earth.
Burton said, "You know, that is peculiar, though I suppose it's to be expected. There were, according to Pete, eight billion people living in 2008 a.d. Yet, aside from Monat and Frigate here, and one other person, I've never met anyone who lived then. Did any of you?"
Nobody had. In fact, the only locals who had lived past the seventies of the twentieth century were Owain and a woman. She had died in 1982; he, in 1981.
Burton shook his head. "There must be at least thirty-six billion along The River. The biggest majority should be those who lived between 1983-I choose that date because I've met only three who lived past it-those who lived between 1983 and 2008. Yet, where are they?"
"Maybe there are some at the next grailstone," Frigate said. "After all, Dick, nobody's taken a census. What's more, nobody is able to do that. You pass hundreds of thousands every day, but how many do you get to talk to? A few dozen a day. Sooner or later you're bound to run into one."
They speculated for a while about why and how they had been resurrected and who could have done it. They also talked about why the growth of facial hair in men was inhibited, why all males had awakened circumcised, and why women had their hymens restored before resurrection. As for not needing to shave, half the men thought it a good thing while the other half resented not being able to grow moustaches and beards.
There was also some wonder about why the grails of both men and women occasionally yielded lipstick and other cosmetics.
Frigate said that he thought that their benefactors probably did not like to shave and that both their sexes painted their faces. That was, to him, the only reasonable explanation.
Then Alice brought up Burton's experience in the preresurrection bubble. This got everybody's attention, but he told them that he had no memory of that. He'd suffered a blow on his head which had wiped out all recollection of it.
As always, when he told this lie, he caught Monat smiling slightly at him. He suspected that the Arcturan guessed that he was prevaricating. However, the fellow had never said so. He respected Burton's reasons for concealment even if he did not know what they were.
Frigate and Alice recounted Burton's tale as they remembered it. They made several mistakes, which he, of course, could not correct.
"If that is so," a man said, "then the resurrection isn't a supernatural thing. It was done through scientific means. Amazing!"
"Yes, it is," Alice said. "But why are we no longer resurrected? Why has death, permanent death, returned?"
A gloomy pensiveness fell upon them for a minute.
Kazz broke it by saying, "There is one thing which Burton-naq has not.forgotten. That's the business with Spruce. The agent of the Ethicals."
That brought forth more questions.
"What are Ethicals?"
Burton took a long drink of scotch and launched into the story. At one time, he said, he and his party had been captured by grail-slavers. There was no need to explain this word. Everybody had had some experience with grail-slavers.
Burton told them how his boat had been attacked and how they had been put into a stockade. Thereafter, they had left it only to work under a heavy guard. All of their tobacco, marijuana, dream-gum, and liquor were taken by their captors. Moreover, these kept half of the food for themselves, leaving their prisoners on a bare-minimum diet.
After a few months, Burton and a man named Targoff had led a successful revolt against the slavers.
24
"A few days after we'd won our freedom, Frigate, Monat, and Kazz came to me. They greeted me, and then Kazz spoke excitedly.
"A long time ago, before I could speak English good, I see something. I try to tell you then, but you don't understand me. I see a man who don't have this on his forehead.'
"My friend here, my naq, as he calls it in his speech, indicated the center of his forehead and that of all of us.
"Kazz then said, 'I know you can't see it. Pete and Monat can't either. Nobody else can. But I see it on everybody's forehead. Except on that man I try to catch long time ago. Then, one day, I see a woman who don't have it, but I don't say nothing to you. Now, I see a third who don't have it.'
"I still did not understand. Monat, however, explained.
" 'He means that he is able to perceive certain symbols of characters on the forehead of each and every one of us. He can see these only in bright sunlight and at a certain angle. But everyone he's ever seen has had those symbols-except for the three he's mentioned.'