The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reluctant Genius, by Henry Slesar

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Title: Reluctant Genius

Author: Henry Slesar

Release Date: February 9, 2009 [EBook #28030]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

RELUCTANT GENIUS

By O. H. LESLIE

_It is said that Life crawled up from the slime of the sea-bottoms
and became Man because of inherent greatness bred into him before
the dawn of time. But perhaps this urge was not as formless as we
think._

Buos was chastising Laloi as they sped through the ionosphere of the
green planet. But like the airy creature she was, Laloi ignored the
criticism and rippled zephyr-like through a clump of daffodils when they
completed their descent.

"So pretty," she sighed. She flung her incorporeal substance around each
flower, absorbing their unified beauty of scent, sight, and feel. Buos
shrilled himself into a column of wind to express his displeasure at her
attitude.

"Stupid, silly, shallow thing!" he said. "If the others only knew how
you behaved--"

"And you'll be glad to tell them, of course," she said, extending her
fingers of air into the roots of the wind-bent grass. She rolled across
the hill ecstatically, and Buos followed in grumbling billows of energy.

"I don't carry tales," he replied, somewhat mortified. "But we're here
as observers, and you insist upon making this world a plaything ..."

"I love it," she said happily. "It's so warm and green."

Buos whipped in front of her angrily. "This is an assignment," he
snapped, his emotion crackling the air about him. "We have a purpose
here."

"Purpose!" she groaned, settling over a patch of crowded clover. "How
many centuries will this assignment last?"

"This world is young," said Buos. "It will take time."

"But how long?" she asked mournfully. "Our world will be shrivelled and
dead before these people have the knowledge to rescue us. Why can't we
spend our lives here ..."

"And leave the others behind?" said Buos stif