The Complete Stories (Page 143)

A thin wind ruffled the curtains at the window as Theremon opened it and leaned out. It played coldly with his hair as he stared at the crimson sunlight on his hand. Then he turned in sudden rebellion.

‘What is there in Darkness to drive me mad?’

Sheerin smiled to himself as he spun the empty liquor bottle with abstracted motions of his hand. ‘Have you ever experienced Darkness, young man?’

The newsman leaned against the wall and considered. ‘No. Can’t say I have. But I know what it is. Just — uh — ‘ He made vague motions with his fingers and then brightened. ‘Just no light. Like in caves.’ ,

‘Have you ever been in a cave?’

‘In a cave! Of course not!’

‘I thought not. I tried last week — just to see — but I got out in a hurry. I went in until the mouth of the cave was just visible as a blur of light, with black everywhere else. I never thought a person my weight could run that fast.’

Theremon’s lip curled. ‘Well, if it comes to that, I guess I wouldn’t have run if I had been there.’

The psychologist studied the young man with an annoyed frown.

‘My, don’t you talk big! I dare you to draw the curtain.’

Theremon looked his surprise and said, ‘What for? If we had four or five suns out there, we might want to cut the light down a bit for comfort, but now we haven’t enough light as it is.’

‘That’s the point. Just draw the curtain; then come here and sit down.’

‘All right.’ Theremon reached for the tasseled string and jerked. The red curtain slid across the wide window, the brass rings hissing their way along the crossbar, and a dusk-red shadow clamped down on the room.

Theremon’s footsteps sounded hollowly in the silence as he made his way to the table, and then they stopped halfway. ‘I can’t see you, sir,’ he whispered.

‘Feel your way,’ ordered Sheerin in a strained voice.

‘But I can’t see you, sir.’ The newsman was breathing harshly. ‘I can’t see anything.’

‘What did you expect?’ came the grim reply. ‘Come here and sit down!’

The footsteps sounded again, waveringly, approaching slowly. There was the sound of someone fumbling with a chair. Theremon’s voice came thinly, ‘Here I am. I feel . . . ulp . . . all right.’

‘You like it, do you?’

‘N — no. It’s pretty awful. The walls seem to be — ‘ He paused. ‘They seem to be closing in on me. I keep wanting to push them away. But I’m not going mad! In fact, the feeling isn’t as bad as it was.’

‘All right. Draw the curtain back again.’

There were cautious footsteps through the dark, the rustle of Theremon’s body against the curtain as he felt for the tassel, and then the triumphant roo-osh of the curtain slithering back. Red light flooded the room, and with a cry of joy Theremon looked up at the sun.

Sheerin wiped the moistness off his forehead with the back of a hand and said shakily, ‘And that was just a dark room.’

‘It can be stood,’ said Theremon lightly.

‘Yes, a dark room can. But were you at the Jonglor Centennial Exposition two years ago?’

‘No, it so happens I never got around to it. Six thousand miles was just a bit too much to travel, even for the exposition.’

‘Well, I was there. You remember hearing about the "Tunnel of Mystery" that broke all records in the amusement area — for the first month or so, anyway?’

‘Yes. Wasn’t there some fuss about it?’

‘Very little. It was hushed up. You see, that Tunnel of Mystery was just a mile-long tunnel — with no lights. You got into a little open car and jolted along through Darkness for fifteen minutes. It was very popular — while it lasted.’

‘Popular?’

‘Certainly. There’s a fascination in being frightened when it’s part of a game. A baby is born with three instinctive fears: of loud noises, of falling, and of the absence of light. That’s why it’s considered so funny to jump at someone and shout "Boo!" That’s why it’s such fun to ride a roller coaster. And that’s why that Tunnel of Mystery started cleaning up. People came out of that Darkness shaking, breathless, half dead with fear, but they kept on paying to get in.’

‘Wait a while, I remember now. Some people came out dead, didn’t they? There were rumors of that after it shut down.’

The psychologist snorted. ‘Bah! Two or three died. That was nothing! They paid off the families of the dead ones and argued the Jonglor City Council into forgetting it. After all, they said, if people with weak hearts want to go through the tunnel, it was at their own risk — and besides, it wouldn’t happen again. So they put a doctor in the front office and had every customer go through a physical examination before getting into the car. That actually boosted ticket sales.’

‘Well, then?’

‘But you see, there was something else. People sometimes came out in perfect order, except that they refused to go into buildings — any buildings; including palaces, mansions, apartment houses, tenements, cottages, huts, shacks, lean-tos, and tents.’

Theremon looked shocked. ‘You mean they refused to come in out of the open? Where’d they sleep?’

‘In the open.’

‘They should have forced them inside.’

‘Oh, they did, they did. Whereupon these people went into violent hysterics and did their best to bat their brains out against the nearest wall. Once you got them inside, you couldn’t keep them there without a strait jacket or a heavy dose of tranquilizer.’

‘They must have been crazy.’

‘Which is exactly what they were. One person out of every ten who went into that tunnel came out that way. They called in the psychologists, and we did the only thing possible. We closed down the exhibit.’ He spread his hands.

‘What was the matter with these people?’ asked Theremon finally.

‘Essentially the same thing that was the matter with you when you thought the walls of the room were crushing in on you in the dark. There is a psychological term for mankind’s instinctive fear of the absence of light. We call it "claustrophobia", because the lack of light is always tied up with enclosed places, so that fear of one is fear of the other. You see?’