The Lovers   ::   Фармер Филип Хосе

His right hand shot to thehandle of the whip, closed around the crux ansata on its end, and he pulled it from his belt. It cracked in the air, a few inches from Hal's face.

'See this?' shrieked Pornsen. 'Seven lashes! One for each of the Seven Deadly Unrealities! You've felt them before; you'll feel them again!'

Harshly, Hal said, 'Shut up!'

Again, Pornsen's jaw dropped. Whining, he said, 'How, how dare you? I, your beloved gapt, am–'

'I told you to shut up!' said Hal, less loudly but just as bitingly. 'I'm sick of your whine. I've been sick of it for years, my whole life.'

Even as he spoke, he watched Fobo walking toward them. Behind Fobo, the antelope lay dead on the road.

The animal is dead, Hal thought. I thought it had managed to get away. Those eyes staring through the bush at me. Antelope eyes? But if it is dead, whose eyes did I see?

Pornsen's voice recalled Hal to the present.

'I think, my son, that we spoke in anger, not in premeditated evil. Let us forgive one another, and we'll say nothing to the Uzzites when we get back to the ship.'

'Shib with me if it's with you,' said Hal.

Hal was surprised to see tears welling in Pornsen's eyes. And he was even more surprised, almost shocked, when Pornsen made an attempt to put his arm around Hal's shoulder.

'Ah, my boy, if you only knew how much I loved you, how much it has hurt me when I've had to punish you.'

'I find that rather hard to believe,' said Hal, and he walked away from Pornsen and toward Fobo.

Fobo, too, had large tears in his unhumanly large and round eyes. But they were from another cause. He was weeping because of sympathy for the beast and shock from the accident. However, with every step toward Hal, his expression became less grieved, and tears dried. He was making a circular sign over himself with his right index finger.

It was, Hal knew, a religious sign which the wogs used in many different situations. Now, Fobo seemed to be using it to relieve his tension. Suddenly, he smiled the ghastly V-in-V smile of a wogglebug. And he was in good spirits. Though supersensitive, his nervous system was hit and run. Charge and discharge came easily.

Fobo stopped before them and said, 'A clash of personalities, gentlemen? A disagreement, an argument, a dispute?'

'No,' replied Hal. 'We were just a little shaken up. Tell me, how far will we have to walk to get to the humanoid ruins? Your car's wrecked. Tell Zugu I'm sorry.'

'Do not bother your skulls... heads. Zugu was ready to build a new and better vehicle.