s a realist myself and a smart man, one able to
understand her predicament quite clearly--and because of that a much
sooner danger to her. She was feeling Old Number One Urge starting to
grow in her again and wondering whether it mightn't be wisest to give it
the hot-house treatment.

That is the trouble with a clear mind. For a little while you see things
as they really are and you can accurately predict how they're going to
shape the future ... and then suddenly you realize you've predicted
yourself a week or a month into the future and you can't live the
intervening time any more because you've already imagined it in detail.
People who live in communities, even the cultural queers of our maimed
era, aren't much bothered by it--there must be some sort of blinkers
they hand you out along with the key to the city--but in the Deathlands
it's a fairly common phenomenon and there's no hiding from it.

* * * * *

Me and my clear mind!--once again it had done me out of days of fun,
changed a thoroughly-explored love affair into a one night stand. Oh,
there was no question about it, this girl and I were finished, right
this minute, as of now, because she was just as psychic as I was this
morning and had sensed every last thing that I'd been thinking.

With a movement smooth enough not to look rushed I swung into a crouch.
She was on her knees faster than that, her left hand hovering over the
little set of tools for her stump, which like any good mechanic she'd
lined up neatly on the edge of the blanket--the hook, the comb, a long
telescoping fork, a couple of other items, and the knife. I'd grabbed a
handful of blanket, ready to jerk it from under her. She'd seen that I'd
grabbed it. Our gazes dueled.

There was a high-pitched whine over our heads! Quite loud from the
start, though it sounded as if it were very deep up in the haze. It
swiftly dropped in pitch and volume.

The top of the skeletal cracking plant across the freeway glowed with
St. Elmo's fire! Three times it glowed that way, so bright we could see
the violet-blue flames of it reaching up despite the full amber
daylight.

The whine died away but in the last moment, paradoxically, it seemed to
be coming closer!

This shared threat--for any unexpected event is a threat in the
Deathlands and a mysterious event doubly so--put a stop to our murder
game. The girl and I were buddies again, buddies to be relied on in a
pinch, for