[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Thrilling Wonder Stories December 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
We arrived in the golden autumn. We drove up through the russet leavesto the great house and descended lightly to the dew-drenched earth.
Celia darted on ahead of me, her pale body a diaphanous flowing. Imoved more slowly, my thoughts like muted chimes as I pondered themeaning of what had happened within the high, dark walls of the house.
For the first time on Earth a human child had been born who couldsummon us! He was eight years old now, but wise beyond his years andhe had summoned us deliberately across space. He had sat, hunchedand shivering, in his own small room, staring up at the far-flungconstellations. Then, abruptly, he had thrown out his arms and calledto us.
Celia could scarcely believe it even now. She had always wanted a childof her own, but we had despaired of ever finding one.
Then this call, this unbelievable summons! A sudden warmth and beauty,a child's laughter rippling through space. Spanning aeons, crossingdark barriers, as miraculous as the birth of a sun in utter blackness.
Celia had turned, and was staring back at me. She was shivering.Swiftly I darted to her side and took her burning hands in mine.
"Do not be afraid," I said. "He needs us as much as we need him. Likecalls to like, you know!"
"Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. He used the Illth formula!
"But how did he get out of his space? How did he know we would come ifhe called?" Celia's body was burning brightly now. Her eyes were veiledand her lips had opened like the petals of a flower.
"The very different ones would know," I said. "Johnny was never quitehuman and now—"
"Now he's ready?"
"Yes!"
The little boy turned and looked at his mother. He had a strangelypeaked face, the forehead inclined to broadness, the eyes wide andpiercing and very blue.
"Johnny, what are you doing up here all alone in the dark? We've beenlooking everywhere for you! You didn't touch your supper. What's thematter, darling? What's wrong?"
"I wasn't hungry!" he said.
"And last night you didn't sleep! You tossed and twisted—Oh, Johnny!"
The woman fell to her knees beside her son and drew him into her arms.She ran her fingers through his hair.
"You're not well, Johnny!"
"Go away!"
Johnny wriggled out of his mother's embrace and ran to the window. Hestood looking up at the pale stars, his lips quivering.
"Why don't they come?" he said in choked tones. Tears welled in hiseyes, ran down his cheeks. "I can't stand living here any longer! Theymust come! They must!"
Downstairs in the library Johnny's father knocked the dottle from hispipe and walked to the window. It was a clear, star speckled night, andthe dew-drenched grass seemed to breathe an air of freshness into theroom.
Stephen Ambler's mind went back across the years.
He saw again the terrible, mushrooming shape of flame, so bright that,when he shut his eyes, it stabbed through his eyelids into his brain.
Shutting his eyes high above Bikini Atoll, hearing only the drone ofhis own plane, he had truly believed that the little primitive minds ofmen had wrought a miracle.
But no miracle could compare with the one that he had wrought one yearlater—the bright, incredible miracle of Johnny!
His memory grew sharper. In his mind's gaze he was walking with Johnnyalong