Short Fiction, Mack Reynolds [best book reader txt] 📗

beer in the box, or,” he smirked at Patricia, “I got some port wine you might like, not this bellywash you buy by the gallon.”

They declined the refreshments, it wasn’t quite noon.

Crowley wrestled the chair which had been before the TV set around so that he could sit facing them, and then sat himself down. He didn’t get this and his face showed it.

Frederick Braun came to the point. “Mr. Crowley,” he said, “did it ever occur to you that somewhere amidst our nearly one hundred million American males there is the average man?”

Crowley looked at him.

Braun cleared his throat and with his thumb and forefinger pushed his glasses more firmly on the bridge of his nose. “I suppose that isn’t exactly the technical way in which to put it.”

Ross Wooley shifted his football shoulders and leaned forward earnestly. “No, Doctor, that’s exactly the way to put it.” He said to Crowley, very seriously, “We’ve done this most efficiently. We’ve gone through absolute piles of statistics. We’ve.⁠ ⁠…”

“Done what?” Crowley all but wailed. “Take it easy, will you? What are you all talking about?”

Patricia said impatiently, “Mr. Crowley, you are the average American. The man on the street. The Common Man.”

He frowned at her. “What’d’ya mean, common? I’m as good as anybody else.”

“That’s exactly what we mean,” Ross said placatingly. “You are exactly as good as anybody else, Mr. Crowley. You’re the average man.”

“I don’t know what the devil you’re talking about. Pardon my language, Miss.”

“Not at all,” Patricia sighed. “Dr. Braun, why don’t you take over? We seem to all be speaking at once.”

The little doctor began to enumerate on his fingers. “The center of population has shifted to this vicinity, so the average American lives here in the Middle West. Population is also shifting from rural to urban, so the average man lives in a city of approximately this size. Determining average age, height, weight is simple with government data as complete as they are. Also racial background. You, Mr. Crowley, are predominately English, German and Irish, but have traces of two or three other nationalities.”

Crowley was staring at him. “How in the devil did you know that?”

Ross said wearily, “We’ve gone to a lot of trouble.”

Dr. Braun hustled on. “You’ve had the average amount of education, didn’t quite finish high school. You make average wages working in a factory as a clerk. You spent some time in the army but never saw combat. You drink moderately, are married and have one child, which is average for your age. Your I.Q. is exactly average and you vote Democrat except occasionally when you switch over to Republican.”

“Now wait a minute,” Crowley protested. “You mean I’m the only man in this whole country that’s like me? I mean, you mean I’m the average guy, right in the middle?”

Patricia O’Gara said impatiently. “You are the nearest thing to it, Mr. Crowley. Actually, possibly one of a hundred persons would have served our purpose.”

“OK,” Crowley interrupted, holding up a hand. “That gets us to the point. What’s this here purpose? What’s the big idea prying, like, into my affairs till you learned all this about me? And what’s this stuff about me getting something out of it? Right now I’m between jobs.”

The doctor pushed his battered horn-rims back on his nose with his forefinger. “Yes, of course,” he said reasonably. “Now we get to the point. Mr. Crowley, how would you like to be invisible?”

The three of them looked at him. It seemed to be his turn.

Crowley got up and walked into the kitchen. He came back in a moment with an opened can of beer from which he was gulping even as he walked. He took the can away from his mouth and said carefully, “You mean like a ghost?”

“No, of course not,” Braun said in irritation. “By Caesar, man, have you no imagination? Can’t you see it was only a matter of time before someone, possibly working away on an entirely different subject of research, stumbled upon a practical method of achieving invisibility?”

“Now, wait a minute,” Crowley said, his voice belligerent. “I’m only a country boy, maybe, without any egghead background, but I’m just as good as the next man and just as smart. I don’t think I like your altitude.”

“Attitude,” Ross Wooley muttered unhappily. He shot a glance at Patricia O’Gara but she ignored him.

Patricia turned on the charm. Her face opened into smile and she said soothingly, “Don’t misunderstand, Mr. Crowley. May I call you Don? I’m sure we’re going to be associates. You see, Don, we need your assistance.”

This was more like it. Crowley sat down again and finished the can of beer. “OK, it won’t hurt to listen. What’s the pitch?”

The older man cleared his throat. “We’ll cover it quickly so that we can get to the immediate practical aspects. Are you interested in biodynamics⁠ ⁠… umah⁠ ⁠… no, of course not. Let me see. Are you at all familiar with the laws pertaining to refraction of⁠ ⁠… umah, no.” He cleared his throat again, unhappily. “Have you ever seen a medusa, Mr. Crowley? The gelatinous umbrella-shaped free swimming form of marine invertebrate related to the coral polyp and the sea anemone?”

Ross Wooley scratched his crew cut and grimaced. “Jellyfish, Doctor, jellyfish. But I think the Portuguese Man-of-War might be a better example.”

“Oh, jellyfish,” Crowley said. “Sure, I’ve seen jellyfish. I got an aunt lives near Baltimore. We used to go down there and swim in Chesapeake Bay. Sting the devil out of you. What about it?”

Patricia leaned forward, still smiling graciously. “I really don’t see a great deal of point going into theory, gentlemen.” She looked at Ross and Dr. Braun, then back at Crowley. “Don, I think that what the doctor was leading up to was an attempt to describe in layman’s language the theory of the process onto which we’ve stumbled. He was using the jellyfish as an example of a life form all but invisible. But I’m sure you aren’t interested in technical terminology, are you? A good deal of gobbledygook, really, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,