Jerry Sohl

“ Reggie, attracted by the sudden noise, looked up to see the approaching vehicle. His mother stood up, set her palms against her cheeks and shrieked.
The car came on, crunched over the play pen, killing the child. The mother was hit and instantly killed, force of the blow snapping her spine and tossing her against the house. The car plunged on into a tree, hitting it a terrible blow, crumbling the car's forward end so it looked like an accordion. The men were thrown from the machine. ”

“ Trlk let out a high-pitched screech of joy and ran over to them. They wound their long tails around each other, clasped and unclasped them, twined them together. It seemed a sort of greeting. Meanwhile, they kept up a jabber that sounded like a 33-1/3 rpm record being played 78 rpm.
Finally, the biggest one detached himself from the group and gave Trlk a tongue-lashing that would have done justice to a Phipps. Trlk hung his head. Every time he tried to say something, the big one would start in again. ”

“ I closed my eyes, forced my mind back to the luggage compartment, spent a frantic moment before I found the bag again. I had to stop that balance wheel, just as I stopped my alarm clock every morning. I tried to close everything off—the throb of engines, the rush of air, the woman sipping coffee noisily beside me—and I went into the clock and surrounded the seesawing wheel. ”

“ Time to meditate, to ponder the problems of life, of all humanity, of each other. They had thought soberly of it as an opportunity to make something of themselves—write a great play, solve a great problem. ”

“ Tomlin, alone on the porch with the robot, turned to him and said, "Much of what you have told me comes to have new meaning, George. I understand what you mean when you talk about people being willing to work for your so-called Seventh Order."
"I knew you were a better than average man, Professor Tomlin," the humanoid said, nodding with gratification.
"This is where I get off, George. I'm warning you now that you'd better return to your ship or whatever it is you came in. People just won't stand for what you've done. They don't like murder!" ”

“ Vincent Potter was a large man with a shining expanse of flesh between two islands of black, bristling hair above heavy brows that met over his nose and almost concealed the bright, intelligent eyes that glittered beneath them. ”

“ It was totally unexpected. Portia had taken over Karen's bedroom next to his, closing and locking the intervening door as if forever. He had gone to sleep in his room, with her still distant and uncommunicative in hers.
He awakened to the smell of coffee and a cooking breakfast. He sat up quickly, wondering if Karen's death and the events that followed it had been a bad dream, and when he assured himself they had not, wondering if he had at last lost his mind. ”

“ The girl thanked him, picked it up, glanced at me indifferently, and then started for the entrance with it.
"Just a moment," I found myself saying, grabbing my bag and hurrying after her.
At her side and a little ahead of her, I said, "Listen to me."
She looked annoyed and increased her stride toward the door.
"It's a matter of life or death," I said. I wanted to wrest the bag from her and hurl it out through the doorway into the street, but I restrained myself.
She stopped and stared. I noticed a short, fat man in a rumpled suitcoat and unpressed pants staring, too. ”

“ I ran to the entrance and nearly collided with the redcap.
"See anybody go out of here with a little red bag and an old battered suitcase?"
"Bag? Suitcase?" he mumbled. Then he became excited. "Why, a man just stepped out of here—" He turned to look down the street. "That's him." ”

“ Man's wisdom was not infinite after all. All the man-years of thought, all the endless whirring and clicking of the computers and calculators—all of it had not taken into account what might happen to Karen. ”

“ Besides, suppose they didn't like each other?
"No," he said, standing in the sewing room and shaking his head, "it must not be a woman."
And then he brought himself back to reality. No sleeper had ever been awakened before the liner reached its destination. ”