Damon Knight - Orbit 14

The erosion of shorelines and beaches is a natural phenomenon. Attempts to prevent this erosion by building wind and water barriers usually prove costly and futile. Fortunately, these precious recreational resources are no longer threatened by erosion. All of our beaches have been seeded with a made-to-order, deep-rooted sand ivy. This new plant has stopped all beach erosion by anchoring itself so permanently that it resists winds of hurricane force. It has also beautified our beaches by producing an unending profusion of orchidlike blossoms with a memorable fragrance. Most important of all, this new plant has stopped the overutilization of our beaches, since most people have allergic reactions to the plant’s fragrant blossoms. The most characteristic syndrome involves watering of the eyes, a temporary vague itching sensation and a permanent tendency to drool and giggle convulsively when sexually aroused.

The Venus Fly Trap is an unusual house plant with the curious ability to snare and digest insects. It does this by emitting a subtle odor which seduces the unsuspecting insect into landing on the plant, where it is quickly enmeshed. Plant geneticists have attempted to improve this interesting plant and turn it into a “natural insecticide” that would trap houseflies on a much larger scale. By breeding-in selected characteristics of the tropical breadfruit tree, they have created a much larger variety of Venus Fly Trap that emits mouth-watering odors of freshly baked cookies and tutti-frutti. This new plant no longer requires careful indoor culture. It will grow almost anywhere, although it prefers to reside in patches of heavy shade, such as those cast by sliding-boards in school playgrounds.

What do you expect of an afterlife where they can’t tell feet from shoes?

When Emanuel Forlesen awoke, his wife was already up preparing breakfast. Forlesen remembered nothing, knew nothing but his name, for an instant did not remember his wife, or that she was his wife, or that she was a human being, or what human beings were supposed to look like.

At the time he woke he knew only his own name; the rest came later and is therefore suspect, colored by rationalization and the expectations of the woman herself and the other people. He moaned, and his wife said: “Oh, you’re awake. Better read the orientation.”

He said, “What orientation?”

“You don’t remember where you work, do you? Or what you’re supposed to do.”

He said, “I don’t remember a damn thing.”

“Well, read the orientation.”

He pushed aside the gingham spread and got out of bed looking at himself, noticing first the oddly deformed hands at the ends of his legs, then remembering the name for them: shoes. He was naked, and his wife turned her back to him politely while she prepared food. “Where the hell am I?” he asked.

“In our house.” She gave him the address. “In our bedroom.”

“We cook in the bedroom?”

“We sure do,” his wife said. “There isn’t any kitchen. There’s a parlor, the children’s bedroom, this room and a bath. I’ve got an electric fry pan, a tabletop electric oven and a coffeepot here; we’ll be all right.”

The confidence in her voice heartened him. He said, “I suppose this used to be a one-bedroom house, and we made the kitchen into a place for the kids.”

“Maybe it’s an old house, and they made the kitchen into the bathroom when they got inside plumbing.”

He was dressing himself, having seen that she wore clothing, and that there was clothing too large for her piled on a chair near the bed. He said, “Don’t you know?”

“It wasn’t in the orientation.”

At first he did not understand what she had said. He repeated, “Don’t you know?”

“I told you, it wasn’t in there. There’s just a diagram of the house, and there’s this room, the children’s room, the parlor and the bath. It said that door there”—she gestured with the spatula— “was the bath, and that’s right, because I went in there to get the water for the coffee. I stay here and look after things and you go out and work, that’s what it said. There was some stuff about what you do, but I skipped that and read about what I do.”

“You didn’t know anything when you woke up either,” he said.

“Just my name.”

“What’s your name?”

“Edna Forlesen. I’m your wife—that’s what it said.”

He walked around the small table on which she had arranged the cooking appliances, wanting to look at her. “You’re sort of pretty,” he said.

“You are sort of handsome,” his wife said. “Anyway, you look tough and strong.”

This made him walk over to the mirror on the dresser and try to look at himself. He did not know what he looked like, but the man in the mirror was not he. The image was older, fatter, meaner, more cunning, and stupider than he knew himself to be, and he raised his hands (the man in the mirror did likewise) to touch his features; they were what they should have been and he turned away. “That mirror’s no good,” he said.

“Can’t you see yourself? That means you’re a vampire.”

He laughed, and decided that that was the way he always laughed when his wife’s jokes weren’t funny. She said, “Want some coffee?” and he sat down.

She put a cup in front of him, and a pile of books. “This is the orientation,” she said. “You better read it—you don’t have much time.”

On top of the pile was a mimeographed sheet, and he picked that up first. It said:

Welcome to the planet Planet.

You have awakened completely ignorant of everything. Do not be disturbed by this. It is NORMAL . Under no circumstances ever allow yourself to become excited, confused, angry, or FEARFUL. While you possess these capacities, they are to be regarded as incapacities.

Anything you may have remembered upon awakening is false. The orientation books provided you contain information of inestimable value. Master it as soon as possible, BUT DO NOT BE LATE FOR WORK . If there are no orientation books where you are, go to the house on your right (from the street). DO NOT CO TO THE HOUSE ON YOUR LEFT.

If you cannot find any books, live like everyone else.

The white paper under this paper is your JOB ASSIGNMENT. The yellow paper is your TABLE OF COMMONLY USED WAITS AND MEASURES. Read these first; they are more important than the books.

“Eat your egg,” his wife said. He tasted the egg. It was good but slightly oily, as though a drop of motor oil had found its way into the grease in which she had fried it. His Job Assignment read:

Forlosen, E.

To his wife he said, “They got our name wrong.”

Forlosen, E. You work at Model Pattern Products, 19000370 Plant Prkwy, Highland Industrial Park. Your duties are supervisory and managerial. When you arrive punch in on the S&M clock (beige) NOT the Labor clock (brown). The union is particular about this. Go to the Reconstruction and Advanced Research section. To arrive on time leave before 060.30.00.

The yellow paper was illegible save for the title and first line: There are 240 ours in each day.

“What time is it?” he asked his wife.

She glanced at her wrist. “Oh six oh ours. Didn’t they give you a watch?”

He looked at his own wrist—it was bare, of course. For a few moments Edna helped him search for one; but it seemed that none had been provided, and in the end he took hers, she saying that he would need it more than she. It was big for a woman’s watch, he thought, but very small for a man’s. “Try it,” she said, and he obediently studied the tiny screen. The words “The Time Is” were cast in the metal at its top; below them, glimmering and changing even as he looked: “060.07.43.” He took a sip of coffee and found the oily taste was there too.