Joseph Samachson

“ As the taxi sped along, his eyes closed.
"You transmitted the message in one of the latter tablets?" asked Zolto in their native tongue.
"I have explained all that has happened," replied his wife. "They will stop sending food and wait for other directives."
"Good. Now we'll have to get the transfer out of him as soon as possible. We ourselves can operate and he will never be the wiser."
"I wonder," said Pojim. "Once we have the transfer, it will only be a nuisance to us. We'll have to guard it carefully and be in continual fear of losing it. ”

“ Pojim said, "Control yourself, Zolto. When you laugh, you don't look human, and you certainly don't sound it."
"What difference does it make? We're alone."
"You can never tell when we'll be overheard."
"Don't change the subject. What are we supposed to do about the transfer?"
"We'll think of a way," said Pojim, but he could see she was worried.
In the hospital, they had put Ollie into a bed. They had wanted a nurse to bathe him, but he had objected violently to this indignity, and finally they had sent in a male orderly to do the job. ”

“ In order to keep the contest from developing an anticlimax, they started with Ollie, believing that he would be lucky if he ate ten eggs.
Ollie was so ravenous that he found it difficult to control himself, and he made a bad impression by gulping the first egg as fast as he could. A real eater would have let the egg slide down rapidly yet gently, without making an obvious effort. This uncontrolled, amateur speed, thought the judges, could only lead to a stomachache. ”

“ It is easier to guard a man than a tiny object. I took a look at one of the X-ray plates, and it is clear that the transfer switch has adhered to his stomach. It will remain there indefinitely. Suppose we focus a transpositor on that stomach of his. Then, as the objects we want arrive from our own universe in their collapsed condition, we can transpose them into our laboratory, enlarge them, and send them off to Aldebaran, where they are needed."
"But suppose that he and that stomach of his move around!"
"He will stay in one place if we treat him well. Don't you see, Zolto? ”

“ It's a good thing that they didn't send more of it at one time."
"The poor man must be in agony as it is."
"Never mind the poor man. Think of our own situation."
"But don't you see, Zolto? His digestive juices can't dissolve such unfamiliar chemical constituents, and his stomach must be greatly irritated."
She broke off for a moment as the nurse came past them, giving them only a casual glance. The X-ray specialist followed shortly, his face reflecting the bewilderment he felt as a result of studying the plate he was holding.
"That leaves only Dr. Manson with him," said Zolto. ”

“ One of the judges said wisely, "He palms them and slips them to a confederate."
"Out here on the stage?" demanded another judge. "Where's his confederate? Besides, you can see for yourself that he eats them. You can watch them going down his throat."
"But that's impossible. If they really went down his throat, he'd gain weight."
"I don't know how he does it," admitted the other. "But he does."
"The man is a freak. Let's get some doctors over here."
Ollie ate another hundred and forty-three eggs, and then had to stop because the restaurant ran out of them. ”

“ He went into a restaurant, not too good a restaurant or he would never have been allowed to take a seat, and ordered a meal he couldn't pay for.
He knew what would happen, of course, after he had eaten. He would put on an act about having lost his money, but that wouldn't fool the manager for more than one second. If the man was feeling good and needed help, he'd let Ollie work the price out washing dishes. If he was a little grumpy and had all the dishwashers he needed, he'd have them boot the tar out of Ollie and then turn him over to the police. ”

“ I think, Zolto, that you're right. The stomach contents are collapsed and passed into our universe through the transfer. But the stomach itself, being part of a living creature, cannot pass through the same switch. And the poor creature continually loses weight because of metabolism. ”

“ Ollie groaned and signed. The next moment he was being rushed into the operating room.
The morphine was wearing off rapidly, and he lay, still groaning, on the table. From the ceiling, bright lights beat down upon him. Near his head the anesthetist stood with his cone of sleep poised in readiness. At one side a happy Dr. Manson was slipping rubber gloves on his antiseptic hands, while the attentive nurses and assistants waited.
Two interns were standing near the doorway. One of them, Zolto, said softly, "We may have to use violence after all. They must not find it." ”

“ He had met with two strokes of luck—the accessible bottle and the incredibly generous manager. They had left him just as hungry and thirsty as before. Now he encountered a third gift of fortune. On the plate glass window of a restaurant was the flamboyant announcement: eating contest tonight at monte's restaurant! For the Championship of the World! Entries Being Taken now! No Charge if you Eat Enough for at Least Three People.
Ollie's face brightened. The way he felt, he could have eaten enough for a hundred. ”

“ By that time, he was too sleepy to wonder very much.
With the aid of the first two tablets, he had digested the equivalent of a tremendous meal. The blood coursed merrily in his veins and arteries, and he had a warm sensation of well-being. ”

“ Lacking strength and skill, he had been unable to find and hold a good job. Without a good job, he had been unable to pay for the food and medical care, and for the training he would have needed to acquire strength and skill. Once, in the search for food and training, he had offered himself to the Army, but the doctors who examined him had quickly turned thumbs down, and the Army had rejected him with contempt. They wanted better human material than that. ”

“ Manson. "Get a release, Nurse, and the minute he's capable of following directions, have him sign it."
In the corridor outside, two white-clad interns stopped at the door of Ollie's room and listened. They could not properly have been described as man and woman, but at any rate one was male and the other female. If you didn't look at them too closely, they seemed to be human, which, of course, was what they wanted you to think.
"Just as I said," observed Zolto. "They intend to operate. And their attention has already been drawn to the nut."
"We can stop them by violence, if necessary. ”