Theodore Sturgeon

“ And I gave it to the monster, and it ate the knowledge and spiced it with the things it made me do in my real dreams. It made me trip a man up on a hat, of all absurd things, and fall into a subway excavation. And when I was in my teens, I was right by the excavation to see it happen. And that's the way with all of them! All the horrible accidents I have witnessed, I have half-remembered before they happened. There's no stopping any of them. ”

“ Jeremy blinked. He had been staring at the fine crack in the ceiling for so long that his eyes hurt.
"What are you doing?" asked the monster. "Dreaming real," said Jeremy. "I am grown up and sitting in the big empty lecture place, talking to the girl with the brown hair that shines. Her name's Catherine." "What are you talking about?" "Oh, all the funny dreams. Only--" "Well?" "They're not so funny." The monster scurried over to him and pounced on his chest. "Time to sleep now. And I want to--" "No," said Jeremy. ”

“ He thinks you're funny." Mummy stood over the crib, looking down at him. It seemed to be the frown that looked at him, while the eyes looked past. Finally she wet her lips and patted his head. "Good night, baby." "Good night, Mummy." He closed his eyes. Mummy tiptoed out. The monster kept right on doing it. It was nap-time the next day, and for the hundredth time Mummy had kissed him and said, "You're so good about your nap, Jeremy!" Well, he was. He always went straight up to bed at nap-time, as he did at bedtime. Mummy didn't know why, of course. Perhaps Jeremy did not know. ”

“ I will be bald on top and will wear eyeglasses like little thick ashtrays. I will give lectures to young things about human destiny and the metempsychosis of Plato." "What's a metempsychosis?" asked the monster hungrily. Jeremy was four and could afford to be patient. "A metempsychosis is a thing that happens when a person moves from one house to another." ”

“ Could I make her hair golden?" "Who is she?" countered the monster. "She is a girl who will be born here in about twenty years," said Jeremy. The monster snuggled closer to his neck. "If she is to be born here, then of course you can change her hair. Hurry and do it and go to sleep." Jeremy laughed delightedly. "What happened?" asked the monster. "I changed it," said Jeremy. "The girl behind her squeaked like the mouse with its leg caught. Then she jumped up. It's a big lecture-room, you know, built up and away from the speaker-place. ”

“ Her ears grew long, grew until they were like donkey's ears, like rabbit's ears, like horrible, long hairy spider's legs. Her teeth lengthened into tusks. Her arms shrivelled into jointed straws, and her body thickened. ”

“ There are people called by insurance actuaries, 'accident prone.' Most of these are involved in accidents through their own negligence, or through some psychological quirk which causes them to defy the world, or to demand attention, by getting hurt. ”

“ He put up his hand and kept the monster tight against his neck. "Is Fuzzy sleeping?" asked Mummy, her voice crooning with whimsy. "No," said Jeremy. "He's hungering himself." "How does he do that?" "When I eat, the--the hungry goes away. ”

“ There's something..." "Let's have some fun," said the monster. "This is the girl you can change, isn't it?" "Yes." "Go ahead. Give her an elephant's trunk. Make her grow a beard. Stop her nostrils up. Go on. You can do anything." Jeremy grinned briefly, and then said, "I don't want to." ”

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