[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
He was following the printing in the book, word by word. He was reading to
her!
In amazement Miss Fellowes got to her feet so quickly that the boy went
tumbling to the floor. He seemed to think it was some new game, and looked up
at her, grinning. But she pulled him quickly to his feet and set him upright.
"How long have you been able to read?"
He shrugged. "Always?"
"No-really."
"I don't know. I looked at the marks and heard the words, the way you said."
Excited nearly to frenzy, she swung him up into her arms and danced him around
the room while he stared at her in huge-eyed amazement.
"You can read! You can read!"
(Ape-boy, was he? Cave-boy? Some lesser form of human life? The cat ran up the
tree. The train blew its whistle. Show me the chimp that can read those lines!
Show me the gorilla that can! The train blew its whistle. Oh, Timmie, Timmie-)
"Miss Fellowes?" he said, sounding a little starded, as she swung him wildly
around.
She laughed and put him down.
This was a breakthrough that she had to share. The answer to Timmie's
unhappiness was in her hand. Picture tapes might keep him amused for a time,
but he was bound to outgrow them. Now, though, as he grew older, he would have
access to the full, rich world of books. If Timmie couldn't leave the Stasis
bubble to enter the world, the world could be brought into these three rooms
to Timmie-the whole world in books. He must be educated to his full capacity.
That much was owed to him.
"You stay here with your books," she told him. "I'll be back in a little
while. I have to see Dr. Hoskins."
She made her way along the catwalks and through the tortuous passageways that
led out of the Stasis zone, and
The receptionist pressed a button. "Miss Fellowes to see you, Dr.
Hoskins. She has no appointment."
(Since when do I need-?)
There was an uncomfortable pause. Miss Fellowes wondered if she was going to
have to make a scene in order to be admitted to Hoskins'
presence. Whatever he might be doing in there, it couldn't be as important as
what she had to tell him.
Hoskins' voice out of the intercom said, "Tell her to come in."
The door rolled open. Hoskins rose from behind the desk with its
GERALD A. HOSKTNS, PH.D. nameplate to greet her.
He looked flushed and excited himself, as though his mood was precisely
analogous to hers: a kind of triumph and glory. "So you've heard?" he said at
once. "No, of course, you couldn't have. We've done it.
We've actually done it."
"Done what?"
"We have intertemporal detection at close range."
Page 119
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
He was so mil of his own success that for a moment Miss Fellowes allowed it to
shove her own spectacular news into the background.
"You can reach historical times, you mean?" she said.
"That's exactly what I mean. We have a fix on a fourteenth-century individual
right now. Imagine. Imagine!
ask for it."
Miss Fellowes smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. Because I wonder if we can start
bringing in tutors for Timmie."
"Tutors?"
"To give him instruction. I can teach him only so much, and then I ought to
step aside in favor of someone who has the proper training for it."
"Instruction? In what?"
"Well, in everything. History, geography, science, arithmetic, grammar, the
whole elementary school curriculum. We have to set up a kind of school in here
for Timmie. So that he'll be able to learn all that he needs to know."
Hoskins stared at her as though she were speaking some alien language.
"You want to teach him long division? The story of the Pilgrims? The history
of the American Revolution?"
"Why not?"
"We can try to teach him, yes. And trigonometry and calculus, too, if you
like. But how much can he learn, Miss Fellowes? He's a great little boy, no
question of it. But we must never lose sight of the fact that he's only a
Neanderthal."
"Only?"
"He can read?" said Hoskins in wonder. "Really?"
"I showed him how the letters were shaped, and how they were put together in
words. And he did the rest. He's learned it in an astonishingly short span of
time. I can't wait for Dr. Mclntyre and the rest of the crew to find out about
it. So much for the very limited intellectual capacity of the
Neanderthals, eh, Dr. Hoskins? He can read a storybook. And as time goes along
you'll see him reading books without any pictures at all, reading newspapers,
magazines, textbooks-"
Hoskins sat there, seemingly suddenly depressed. "I don't know, Miss
Fellowes."
She said, "You just told me that anything I wanted-"
"I know, and I shouldn't have said that."
"A tutor for Timmie? Is that such a big expense?"
"It isn't the expense I'm concerned with," said Hoskins. "And it's a wonderful
thing that Timmie can read. Astonishing. I mean that. I want to see a
demonstration of it right away. But you talk about setting up a school for
him. You talk about all the things he'll learn as time goes along. -Miss
Fellowes, there isn't much more time."
She blinked. "There isn't?"
"I'm sure you must be aware that we aren't able to maintain the Timmie
experiment indefinitely."
"You're going to send him back?" she said in a tiny voice.
"I'm afraid so."
"But you're talking about a boy, Dr. Hoskins. Not about a rock."
Uneasily Hoskins said, "Even so. He can't be given undue importance, you know.
We've learned just about as much from him as we're likely to. He doesn't
remember anything about his life in the Neanderthal era that's of any real
scientific value. The anthropologists can't make much sense out of what he
says, and the questions they've put to him with you as the interpreter haven't
yielded a lot of worthwhile data, and so-"
Page 120
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I don't believe this," Miss Fellowes said numbly.
"Please, Miss Fellowes. It's not going to happen today, you know. But there's
no escaping the necessity of it." He indicated the research materials on his
desk. "Now that we expect to be bringing back individuals out of historical [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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He was following the printing in the book, word by word. He was reading to
her!
In amazement Miss Fellowes got to her feet so quickly that the boy went
tumbling to the floor. He seemed to think it was some new game, and looked up
at her, grinning. But she pulled him quickly to his feet and set him upright.
"How long have you been able to read?"
He shrugged. "Always?"
"No-really."
"I don't know. I looked at the marks and heard the words, the way you said."
Excited nearly to frenzy, she swung him up into her arms and danced him around
the room while he stared at her in huge-eyed amazement.
"You can read! You can read!"
(Ape-boy, was he? Cave-boy? Some lesser form of human life? The cat ran up the
tree. The train blew its whistle. Show me the chimp that can read those lines!
Show me the gorilla that can! The train blew its whistle. Oh, Timmie, Timmie-)
"Miss Fellowes?" he said, sounding a little starded, as she swung him wildly
around.
She laughed and put him down.
This was a breakthrough that she had to share. The answer to Timmie's
unhappiness was in her hand. Picture tapes might keep him amused for a time,
but he was bound to outgrow them. Now, though, as he grew older, he would have
access to the full, rich world of books. If Timmie couldn't leave the Stasis
bubble to enter the world, the world could be brought into these three rooms
to Timmie-the whole world in books. He must be educated to his full capacity.
That much was owed to him.
"You stay here with your books," she told him. "I'll be back in a little
while. I have to see Dr. Hoskins."
She made her way along the catwalks and through the tortuous passageways that
led out of the Stasis zone, and
The receptionist pressed a button. "Miss Fellowes to see you, Dr.
Hoskins. She has no appointment."
(Since when do I need-?)
There was an uncomfortable pause. Miss Fellowes wondered if she was going to
have to make a scene in order to be admitted to Hoskins'
presence. Whatever he might be doing in there, it couldn't be as important as
what she had to tell him.
Hoskins' voice out of the intercom said, "Tell her to come in."
The door rolled open. Hoskins rose from behind the desk with its
GERALD A. HOSKTNS, PH.D. nameplate to greet her.
He looked flushed and excited himself, as though his mood was precisely
analogous to hers: a kind of triumph and glory. "So you've heard?" he said at
once. "No, of course, you couldn't have. We've done it.
We've actually done it."
"Done what?"
"We have intertemporal detection at close range."
Page 119
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
He was so mil of his own success that for a moment Miss Fellowes allowed it to
shove her own spectacular news into the background.
"You can reach historical times, you mean?" she said.
"That's exactly what I mean. We have a fix on a fourteenth-century individual
right now. Imagine. Imagine!
ask for it."
Miss Fellowes smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. Because I wonder if we can start
bringing in tutors for Timmie."
"Tutors?"
"To give him instruction. I can teach him only so much, and then I ought to
step aside in favor of someone who has the proper training for it."
"Instruction? In what?"
"Well, in everything. History, geography, science, arithmetic, grammar, the
whole elementary school curriculum. We have to set up a kind of school in here
for Timmie. So that he'll be able to learn all that he needs to know."
Hoskins stared at her as though she were speaking some alien language.
"You want to teach him long division? The story of the Pilgrims? The history
of the American Revolution?"
"Why not?"
"We can try to teach him, yes. And trigonometry and calculus, too, if you
like. But how much can he learn, Miss Fellowes? He's a great little boy, no
question of it. But we must never lose sight of the fact that he's only a
Neanderthal."
"Only?"
"He can read?" said Hoskins in wonder. "Really?"
"I showed him how the letters were shaped, and how they were put together in
words. And he did the rest. He's learned it in an astonishingly short span of
time. I can't wait for Dr. Mclntyre and the rest of the crew to find out about
it. So much for the very limited intellectual capacity of the
Neanderthals, eh, Dr. Hoskins? He can read a storybook. And as time goes along
you'll see him reading books without any pictures at all, reading newspapers,
magazines, textbooks-"
Hoskins sat there, seemingly suddenly depressed. "I don't know, Miss
Fellowes."
She said, "You just told me that anything I wanted-"
"I know, and I shouldn't have said that."
"A tutor for Timmie? Is that such a big expense?"
"It isn't the expense I'm concerned with," said Hoskins. "And it's a wonderful
thing that Timmie can read. Astonishing. I mean that. I want to see a
demonstration of it right away. But you talk about setting up a school for
him. You talk about all the things he'll learn as time goes along. -Miss
Fellowes, there isn't much more time."
She blinked. "There isn't?"
"I'm sure you must be aware that we aren't able to maintain the Timmie
experiment indefinitely."
"You're going to send him back?" she said in a tiny voice.
"I'm afraid so."
"But you're talking about a boy, Dr. Hoskins. Not about a rock."
Uneasily Hoskins said, "Even so. He can't be given undue importance, you know.
We've learned just about as much from him as we're likely to. He doesn't
remember anything about his life in the Neanderthal era that's of any real
scientific value. The anthropologists can't make much sense out of what he
says, and the questions they've put to him with you as the interpreter haven't
yielded a lot of worthwhile data, and so-"
Page 120
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"I don't believe this," Miss Fellowes said numbly.
"Please, Miss Fellowes. It's not going to happen today, you know. But there's
no escaping the necessity of it." He indicated the research materials on his
desk. "Now that we expect to be bringing back individuals out of historical [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]