The Funeral

by Kate Wilhelm

No one could say exactly how old Madam Westfall was when she finally died. At least one hundred twenty, it was estimated. At the very least. For twenty years Madam Westfall had been a shell containing the very latest products of advances made in gerontology, and now she was dead. What lay on the viewing dais was merely a painted, funereally garbed husk.

“She isn’t real,” Carla said to herself. “It’s a doll, or something. It isn’t really Madam Westfall.” She kept her head bowed, and didn’t move her lips, but she said the words over and over. She was afraid to look at a dead person. The second time they slaughtered all those who bore arms, unguided, mindless now, but lethal with the arms caches that they used indiscriminately.

Carla felt goose bumps along her arms and legs. She wondered if anyone else had been hearing the old Teacher’s words.

The line moved slowly, all the girls in their long grey skirts had their heads bowed, their hands clasped. The only sound down the corridor was the sush-sush of slippers on plastic flooring, the occasional rustle of a skirt.

The viewing room had a pale green plastic floor, frosted-green plastic walls, and floor-to-ceiling windows that were now slits of brilliant light from a westering sun. All the furniture had been taken from the room, all the ornamentation. There were no flowers, nothing but the dais, and the bedlike box covered by a transparent shield. And the Teachers. Two at the dais, others between the light strips, at the doors. Their white hands clasped against black garb, heads bowed, hair slicked against each head, straight parts emphasizing bilateral symmetry. The Teachers didn’t move, didn’t look at the dais, at the girls parading past it.

Carla kept her head bowed, her chin tucked almost inside the V of her collarbone. The serpentine line moved steadily, very slowly. “She isn’t real,” Carla said to herself, desperately now.

She crossed the line that was the cue to raise her head; it felt too heavy to lift, her neck seemed paralyzed. When she did move, she heard a joint crack, and although her jaws suddenly ached, she couldn’t relax.

The second green line. She turned her eyes to the right and looked at the incredibly shrunken, hardly human mummy. She felt her stomach lurch and for a moment she thought she was going to vomit. “She isn’t real. It’s a doll. She isn’t real!” The third line. She bowed her head, pressed her chin hard against her collarbone, making it hurt. She couldn’t swallow now, could hardly breathe. The line proceeded to the South Door and through it into the corridor.

She turned left at the South Door and, with her eyes downcast, started the walk back to her genetics class. She looked neither right nor left, but she could hear others moving in the same direction, slippers on plastic, the swish of a skirt, and when she passed by the door to the garden she heard laughter of some Ladies who had come to observe the viewing. She slowed down.

She felt the late sun hot on her skin at the open door and with a sideways glance, not moving her head, she looked quickly into the glaring greenery, but could not see them. Their laughter sounded like music as she went past the opening.

“That one, the one with the blue eyes and straw-colored hair. Stand up, girl.”

Carla didn’t move, didn’t realize she was being addressed until a Teacher pulled her from her seat.

“Don’t hurt her! Turn around, girl. Raise your skirts, higher. Look at me, child. Look up, let me see your face …”

“She’s too young for choosing,” said the Teacher, examining Carla’s bracelet. “Another year, Lady.”

“A pity. She’ll coarsen in a year’s time. The fuzz is so soft right now, the flesh so tender. Oh, well.…” She moved away, flicking a red skirt about her thighs, her red-clad legs narrowing to tiny ankles, flashing silver slippers with heels that were like icicles. She smelled … Carla didn’t know any words to describe how she smelled. She drank in the fragrance hungrily.

“Look at me, child. Look up, let me see your face.…” The words sang through her mind over and over. At night, falling asleep, she thought of the face, drawing it up from the deep black, trying to hold it in focus: white skin, pink cheek ridges, silver eyelids, black lashes longer than she had known lashes could be, silver-pink lips, three silver spots—one at the corner of her left eye, another at the corner of her mouth, the third like a dimple in the satiny cheek. Silver hair that was loose, in waves about her face, that rippled with life of its own when she moved. If only she had been allowed to touch the hair, to run her finger over that cheek … The dream that began with the music of the Lady’s laughter ended with the nightmare of her other words: “She’ll coarsen in a year’s time.…”

After that Carla had watched the changes take place on and within her body, and she understood what the Lady had meant. Her once smooth legs began to develop hair; it grew under her arms, and, most shameful, it sprouted as a dark, coarse bush under her belly. She wept. She tried to pull the hairs out, but it hurt too much, and made her skin sore and raw. Then she started to bleed, and she lay down and waited to die, and was happy that she would die. Instead, she was ordered to the infirmary and was forced to attend a lecture on feminine hygiene. She watched in stony-faced silence while the Doctor added the new information to her bracelet. The Doctor’s face was smooth and pink, her eyebrows pale, her lashes so colorless and stubby that they were almost invisible. On her chin was a brown mole with two long hairs. She wore a straight blue-grey gown that hung from her shoulders to the floor. Her drab hair was pulled back tightly from her face, fastened in a hard bun at the back of her neck. Carla hated her. She hated the Teachers. Most of all she hated herself. She yearned for maturity.

Madam Westfall had written: “Maturity brings grace, beauty, wisdom, happiness. Immaturity means ugliness, unfinished beings with potential only, wholly dependent upon and subservient to the mature citizens.”

There was a True-False quiz on the master screen in front of the classroom. Carla took her place quickly and touch-typed her ID number on the small screen of her machine.

She scanned the questions, and saw that they were all simple declarative statements of truth. Her stylus ran down the True column of her answer screen and it was done. She wondered why they were killing time like this, what they were waiting for. Madam Westfall’s death had thrown everything off schedule.

Paperlike brown skin, wrinkled and hard, with lines crossing lines, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, leaving little islands of flesh, hardly enough to coat the bones. Cracked voice, incomprehensible: they took away the music from the air … voices from the skies … erased pictures that move … boxes that sing and sob … Crazy talk. And, … only one left that knows. Only one.

Madam Trudeau entered the classroom and Carla understood why the class had been personalized that period. The Teacher had been waiting for Madam Trudeau’s appearance. The girls rose hurriedly. Madam Trudeau motioned for them to be seated once more.

“The following girls attended Madam Westfall during the past five years.” She read a list. Carla’s name was included on her list. On finishing it, she asked, “Is there anyone who attended Madam Westfall whose name I did not read?”

There was a rustle from behind Carla. She kept her gaze fastened on Madam Trudeau. “Name?” the Teacher asked.

“Luella, Madam.”

“You attended Madam Westfall? When?”

“Two years ago, Madam. I was a relief for Sonya, who became ill suddenly.”

“Very well.” Madam Trudeau added Luella’s name to her list. “You will all report to my office at eight A.M. tomorrow morning. You will be excused from classes and duties at that time. Dismissed.” With a bow she excused herself to the class Teacher and left the room.

· · · · ·

Carla’s legs twitched and ached. Her swim class was at eight each morning and she had missed it, had been sitting on the straight chair for almost two hours, when finally she was told to go into Madam Trudeau’s office. None of the other waiting girls looked up when she rose and followed the attendant from the anteroom. Madam Trudeau was seated at an oversized desk that was completely bare, with a mirrorlike finish. Carla stood before it with her eyes downcast, and she could see Madam Trudeau’s face reflected from the surface of the desk. Madam Trudeau was looking at a point over Carla’s head, unaware that the girl was examining her features.

“You attended Madam Westfall altogether seven times during the past four years, is that correct?”

“I think it is, Madam.”

“You aren’t certain?”

“I … I don’t remember, Madam?”

“I see. Do you recall if Madam Westfall spoke to you during any of those times?”

“Yes, Madam.”

“Carla, you are shaking. Are you frightened?”

“No, Madam.”

“Look at me, Carla.”

Carla’s hands tightened, and she could feel her fingernails cutting into her hands. She thought of the pain, and stopped shaking. Madam Trudeau had pasty white skin, with peaked black eyebrows, sharp black eyes, black hair. Her mouth was wide and full, her nose long and narrow. As she studied the girl before her, it seemed to Carla that something changed in her expression, but she couldn’t say what it was, or how it now differed from what it had been a moment earlier. A new intensity perhaps, a new interest.

“Carla, I’ve been looking over your records. Now that you are fourteen it is time to decide on your future. I shall propose your name for the Teachers’ Academy on the completion of your current courses. As my protégée, you will quit the quarters you now occupy and attend me in my chambers.…” She narrowed her eyes. “What is the matter with you, girl? Are you ill?”

“No, Madam. I … I had hoped. I mean, I designated my choice last month. I thought …”

Madam Trudeau looked to the side of her desk where a records screen was lighted. She scanned the report, and her lips curled derisively. “A Lady. You would be a Lady!” Carla felt a blush fire her face, and suddenly her palms were wet with sweat. Madam Trudeau laughed, a sharp barking sound. She said, “The girls who attended Madam Westfall in life shall attend her in death. You will be on duty in the Viewing Room for two hours each day, and when the procession starts for the burial services in Scranton, you will be part of the entourage. Meanwhile, each day for an additional two hours immediately following your attendance in the Viewing Room you will meditate on the words of wisdom you have heard from Madam Westfall, and you will write down every word she ever spoke in your presence. For this purpose there will be placed a notebook and a pen in your cubicle, which you will use for no other reason. You will discuss this with no one except me. You, Carla, will prepare to move to my quarters immediately, where a learning cubicle will be awaiting you. Dismissed.”

Her voice became sharper as she spoke, and when she finished the words were staccato. Carla bowed and turned to leave.

“Carla, you will find that there are certain rewards in being chosen as a Teacher.”

Carla didn’t know if she should turn and bow again, or stop where she was, or continue. When she hesitated, the voice came again, shorter, raspish. “Go. Return to your cubicle.”

· · · · ·

The first time, they slaughtered only the leaders, the rousers, … would be enough to defuse the bomb, leave the rest silent and powerless and malleable.…

Carla looked at the floor before her, trying to control the trembling in her legs. Madam Westfall hadn’t moved, hadn’t spoken. She was dead, gone. The only sound was the sush, sush of slippers. The green plastic floor was a glare that hurt her eyes. The air was heavy and smelled of death. Smelled the Lady, drank in the fragrance, longed to touch her. Pale, silvery-pink lips, soft, shiny, with two high peaks on the upper lip. The Lady stroked her face with fingers that were soft and cool and gentle.

… when their eyes become soft with unspeakable desires and their bodies show signs of womanhood, then let them have their duties chosen for them, some to bear the young for the society, some to become Teachers, some Nurses, Doctors, some to be taken as Lovers by the citizens, some to be …

Carla couldn’t control the sudden start that turned her head to look at the mummy. The room seemed to waver, then steadied again. The tremor in her legs became stronger, harder to stop. She pressed her knees together hard, hurting them where bone dug into flesh and skin. Fingers plucking at the coverlet. Plucking bones, brown bones with horny nails.

Water. Girl, give me water. Pretty pretty. You would have been killed, you would have. Pretty. The last time they left no one over ten. No one at all. Ten to twenty-five.

Pretty. Carla said it to herself. Pretty. She visualized it as p-r-i-t-y. Pity with an r. Scanning the dictionary for p-r-i-t-y. Nothing. Pretty. Afraid of shiny, pretty faces. Young, pretty faces.

The trembling was all through Carla. Two hours. Eternity. She had stood here forever, would die here, unmoving, trembling, aching. A sigh and the sound of a body falling softly to the floor. Soft body crumbling so easily. Carla didn’t turn her head. It must be Luella. So frightened of the mummy. She’d had nightmares every night since Madam Westfall’s death. What made a body stay upright, when it fell so easily? Take it out, the thing that held it together, and down, down. Just to let go, to know what to take out and allow the body to fall like that into sleep. Teachers moved across her field of vision, two of them in their black gowns. Sush-sush. Returned with Luella, or someone, between them. No sound. Sush-sush.

· · · · ·

The new learning cubicle was an exact duplicate of the old one. Cot, learning machine, chair, partitioned-off commode and washbasin. And new, the notebook and pen. Carla never had had a notebook and pen before. There was the stylus that was attached to the learning machine, and the lighted square in which to write, that then vanished into the machine. She turned the blank pages of the notebook, felt the paper between her fingers, tore a tiny corner off one of the back pages, examined it closely, the jagged edge, the texture of the fragment; she tasted it. She studied the pen just as minutely; it had a pointed, smooth end, and it wrote black. She made a line, stopped to admire it, and crossed it with another line. She wrote very slowly, “Carla,” started to put down her number, the one on her bracelet, then stopped in confusion. She never had considered it before, but she had no last name, none that she knew. She drew three heavy lines over the two digits she had put down.

At the end of the two hours of meditation she had written her name a number of times, had filled three pages with it, in fact, and had written one of the things that she could remember hearing from the grey lips of Madam Westfall: “Non-citizens are the property of the state.”

· · · · ·

The next day the citizens started to file past the dais. Carla breathed deeply, trying to sniff the fragrance of the passing Ladies, but they were too distant. She watched their feet, clad in shoes of rainbow colors: pointed toes, stiletto heels; rounded toes, carved heels; satin, sequined slippers.… And just before her duty ended for the day, the Males started to enter the room.

She heard a gasp, Luella again. She didn’t faint this time, merely gasped once. Carla saw the feet and legs at the same time and she looked up to see a male citizen. He was very tall and thick, and was dressed in the blue-and-white clothing of a Doctor of Law. He moved into the sunlight and there was a glitter from gold at his wrists and his neck, and the gleam of a smooth polished head. He turned past the dais and his eyes met Carla’s. She felt herself go lightheaded and hurriedly she ducked her head and clenched her hands. She thought he was standing still, looking at her, and she could feel her heart thumping hard. Her relief arrived then and she crossed the room as fast as she could without appearing indecorous.

Carla wrote: “Why did he scare me so much? Why have I never seen a Male before? Why does everyone else wear colors while the girls and the Teachers wear black and grey?”

She drew a wavering line figure of a man, and stared at it, and then Xed it out. Then she looked at the sheet of paper with dismay. Now she had four ruined sheets of paper to dispose of.

Had she angered him by staring? Nervously she tapped on the paper and tried to remember what his face had been like. Had he been frowning? She couldn’t remember. Why couldn’t she think of anything to write for Madam Trudeau? She bit the end of the pen and then wrote slowly, very carefully: “Society may dispose of its property as it chooses, following discussion with at least three members, and following permission which is not to be arbitrarily denied.”

Had Madam Westfall ever said that? She didn’t know, but she had to write something, and that was the sort of thing that Madam Westfall had quoted at great length. She threw herself down on the cot and stared at the ceiling. For three days she had kept hearing the Madam’s dead voice, but now when she needed to hear her again, nothing.

Sitting in the straight chair, alert for any change in the position of the ancient one, watchful, afraid of the old Teacher. Cramped, tired and sleepy. Half listening to mutterings, murmurings of exhaled and inhaled breaths that sounded like words that made no sense.… Mama said hide child, hide don’t move and Stevie wanted a razor for his birthday and Mama said you’re too young, you’re only nine and he said no Mama I’m thirteen don’t you remember and Mama said hide child hide don’t move at all and they came in hating pretty faces.…

Carla sat up and picked up the pen again, then stopped. When she heard the words, they were so clear in her head, but as soon as they ended, they faded away. She wrote: “hating pretty faces … hide child … only nine.” She stared at the words and drew a line through them.

Pretty faces. Madam Westfall had called her pretty, pretty.

· · · · ·

The chimes for social hour were repeated three times and finally Carla opened the door of her cubicle and took a step into the anteroom, where the other protégées already had gathered. There were five. Carla didn’t know any of them, but she had seen all of them from time to time in and around the school grounds. Madam Trudeau was sitting on a high-backed chair that was covered with black. She blended into it, so that only her hands and her face seemed apart from the chair, dead-white hands and face. Carla bowed to her and stood uncertainly at her own door.

“Come in, Carla. It is social hour. Relax. This is Wanda, Louise, Stephanie, Mary, Dorothy.” Each girl inclined her head slightly as her name was mentioned. Carla couldn’t tell afterward which name went with which girl. Two of them wore the black-striped overskirt that meant they were in the Teachers’ Academy. The other three still wore the grey of the lower school, as did Carla, with black bordering the hems.

“Carla doesn’t want to be a Teacher,” Madam Trudeau said dryly. “She prefers the paint box of a Lady.” She smiled with her mouth only. One of the academy girls laughed. “Carla, you are not the first to envy the paint box and the bright colors of the Ladies. I have something to show you. Wanda, the film.”

The girl who had laughed touched a button on a small table, and on one of the walls a picture was projected. Carla caught her breath. It was a Lady, all gold and white, gold hair, gold eyelids, filmy white gown that ended just above her knees. She turned and smiled, holding out both hands, flashing jeweled fingers, long, gleaming nails that came to points. Then she reached up and took off her hair.

Carla felt that she would faint when the golden hair came off in the Lady’s hands, leaving short, straight brown hair. She placed the gold hair on a ball, and then, one by one, stripped off the long gleaming nails, leaving her hands just hands, bony and ugly. The Lady peeled off her eyelashes and brows, and then patted a brown, thick coating of something on her face, and, with its removal, revealed pale skin with wrinkles about her eyes, with hard, deep lines beside her nose down to her mouth that had also changed, had become small and mean. Carla wanted to shut her eyes, turn away, and go back to her cubicle, but she didn’t dare move. She could feel Madam Trudeau’s stare, and the gaze seemed to burn.

The Lady took off the swirling gown, and under it was a garment Carla never had seen before that covered her from her breasts to her thighs. The stubby fingers worked at fasteners, and finally got the garment off, and there was her stomach, bigger, bulging, with cruel red lines where the garment had pinched and squeezed her. Her breasts drooped almost to her waist. Carla couldn’t stop her eyes, couldn’t make them not see, couldn’t make herself not look at the rest of the repulsive body.

Madam Trudeau stood up and went to her door. “Show Carla the other two films.” She looked at Carla then and said, “I order you to watch. I shall quiz you on the contents.” She left the room.

The other two films showed the same Lady at work. First with a protégée, then with a male citizen. When they were over Carla stumbled back to her cubicle and vomited repeatedly until she was exhausted. She had nightmares that night.

· · · · ·

How many days, she wondered, have I been here now? She no longer trembled, but became detached almost as soon as she took her place between two of the tall windows. She didn’t try to catch a whiff of the fragrance of the Ladies, or try to get a glimpse of the Males. She had chosen one particular spot in the floor on which to concentrate, and she didn’t shift her gaze from it.

They were old and full of hate, and they said, let us remake them in our image, and they did.

Madam Trudeau hated her, despised her. Old and full of hate …

“Why were you not chosen to become a Woman to bear young?”

“I am not fit, Madam. I am weak and timid.”

“Look at your hips, thin, like a Males’ hips. And your breasts, small and hard.” Madam Trudeau turned away in disgust. “Why were you not chosen to become a Professional, a Doctor, or a Technician?”

“I am not intelligent enough, Madam. I require many hours of study to grasp the mathematics.”

“So. Weak, frail, not too bright. Why do you weep?”

“I don’t know, Madam. I am sorry.”

“Go to your cubicle. You disgust me.”

Staring at a flaw in the floor, a place where an indentation distorted the light, creating one very small oval shadow, wondering when the ordeal would end, wondering why she couldn’t fill the notebook with the many things that Madam Westfall had said, things that she could remember here, and could not remember when she was in her cubicle with pen poised over the notebook.

Sometimes Carla forgot where she was, found herself in the chamber of Madam Westfall, watching the ancient one struggle to stay alive, forcing breaths in and out, refusing to admit death. Watching the incomprehensible dials and tubes and bottles of fluids with lowering levels, watching needles that vanished into flesh, tubes that disappeared under the bedclothes, that seemed to writhe now and again with a secret life, listening to the mumbling voice, the groans and sighs, the meaningless words.

Three times they rose against the children and three times slew them until there were none left none at all because the contagion had spread and all over ten were infected and carried radios.…

Radios? A disease? Infected with radios, spreading it among young people?

And Mama said hide child hide and don’t move and put this in the cave too and don’t touch it.

Carla’s relief came and numbly she walked from the Viewing Room. She watched the movement of the black border of her skirt as she walked and it seemed that the blackness crept up her legs, enveloped her middle, climbed her front until it reached her neck, and then it strangled her. She clamped her jaws hard and continued to walk her measured pace.

· · · · ·

The girls who had attended Madam Westfall in life were on duty throughout the school ceremonies after the viewing. They were required to stand in a line behind the dais. There were eulogies to the patience and firmness of the first Teacher. Eulogies to her wisdom in setting up the rules of the school. Carla tried to keep her attention on the speakers, but she was so tired and drowsy that she heard only snatches. Then she was jolted into awareness. Madam Trudeau was talking.

“… a book that will be the guide to all future Teachers, showing them the way through personal tribulations and trials to achieve the serenity that was Madam Westfall’s. I am honored by this privilege, in choosing me and my apprentices to accomplish this end.…”

Carla thought of the gibberish that she had been putting down in her notebook and she blinked back tears of shame. Madam Trudeau should have told them why she wanted the information. She would have to go back over it and destroy all the nonsense that she had written down.

Late that afternoon the entourage formed that would accompany Madam Westfall to her final ceremony in Scranton, her native city, where her burial would return her to her family.

Madam Trudeau had an interview with Carla before departure. “You will be in charge of the other girls,” she said. “I expect you to maintain order. You will report any disturbance, or any infringement of rules, immediately, and if that is not possible, if I am occupied, you will personally impose order in my name.”

“Yes, Madam.”

“Very well. During the journey the girls will travel together in a compartment of the tube. Talking will be permitted, but no laughter, no childish play. When we arrive at the Scranton home, you will be given rooms with cots. Again you will all comport yourselves with the dignity of the office which you are ordered to fulfill at this time.”

Carla felt excitement mount within her as the girls lined up to take their places along the sides of the casket. They went with it to a closed limousine, where they sat knee to knee, unspeaking, hot, to be taken over smooth highways for an hour to the tube. Madam Westfall had refused to fly in life, and was granted the same rights in death, so her body was to be transported from Wilmington to Scranton by the rocket tube. As soon as the girls had accompanied the casket to its car, and were directed to their own compartment, their voices raised in a babble. It was the first time any of them had left the school grounds since entering them at the age of five.

Ruthie was going to work in the infants’ wards, and she turned faintly pink and soft-looking when she talked about it. Luella was a music apprentice already, having shown skill on the piano at an early age. Lorette preened herself slightly and announced that she had been chosen as a Lover by a gentleman. She would become a Lady one day. Carla stared at her curiously, wondering at her pleased look, wondering if she had not been shown the films yet. Lorette was blue-eyed, with pale hair, much the same build as Carla. Looking at her, Carla could imagine her in soft dresses, with her mouth painted, her hair covered by the other hair that was cloud-soft and shiny.… She looked at the girl’s cheeks flushed with excitement at the thought of her future, and she knew that with or without the paint box, Lorette would be a Lady whose skin would be smooth, whose mouth would be soft.…

“The fuzz is so soft now, the flesh so tender.” She remembered the scent, the softness of the Lady’s hands, the way her skirt moved about her red-clad thighs.

She bit her lip. But she didn’t want to be a Lady. She couldn’t ever think of them again without loathing and disgust. She was chosen to be a Teacher.

They said it is the duty of society to prepare its non-citizens for citizenship but it is recognized that there are those who will not meet the requirements and society itself is not to be blamed for those occasional failures that must accrue.

She took out her notebook and wrote the words in it.

“Did you just remember something else she said?” Lisa asked. She was the youngest of the girls, only ten, and had attended Madam Westfall one time. She seemed to be very tired.

Carla looked over what she had written, and then read it aloud. “It’s from the school rules book,” she said. “Maybe changed a little, but the same meaning. You’ll study it in a year or two.”

Lisa nodded. “You know what she said to me? She said I should go hide in the cave, and never lose my birth certificate. She said I should never tell anyone where the radio is.” She frowned. “Do you know what a cave is? And a radio?”

“You wrote it down, didn’t you? In the notebook?”

Lisa ducked her head. “I forgot again. I remembered it once and then forgot again until now.” She searched through her cloth travel bag for her notebook and when she didn’t find it, she dumped the contents on the floor to search more carefully. The notebook was not there.

“Lisa, when did you have it last?”

“I don’t know. A few days ago. I don’t remember.”

“When Madam Trudeau talked to you the last time, did you have it then?”

“No. I couldn’t find it. She said if I didn’t have it the next time I was called for an interview, she’d whip me. But I can’t find it!” She broke into tears and threw herself down on her small heap of belongings. She beat her fists on them and sobbed. “She’s going to whip me and I can’t find it. I can’t. It’s gone.”

Carla stared at her. She shook her head. “Lisa, stop that crying. You couldn’t have lost it. Where? There’s no place to lose it. You didn’t take it from your cubicle, did you?”

The girl sobbed louder. “No. No. No. I don’t know where it is.”

Carla knelt by her and pulled the child up from the floor to a squatting position. “Lisa, what did you put in the notebook? Did you play with it?”

Lisa turned chalky white and her eyes became very large, then she closed them, no longer weeping.

“So you used it for other things? Is that it? What sort of things?”

Lisa shook her head. “I don’t know. Just things.”

“All of it? The whole notebook?”

“I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know what to write down. Madam Westfall said too much. I couldn’t write it all. She wanted to touch me and I was afraid of her and I hid under the chair and she kept calling me, ‘Child, come here, don’t hide, I’m not one of them. Go to the cave and take it with you.’ And she kept reaching for me with her hands. I … They were like chicken claws. She would have ripped me apart with them. She hated me. She said she hated me. She said I should have been killed with the others, why wasn’t I killed with the others.”

Carla, her hands hard on the child’s shoulders, turned away from the fear and despair she saw on the girl’s face.

Ruthie pushed past her and hugged the child. “Hush, hush, Lisa. Don’t cry now. Hush. There, there.”

Carla stood up and backed away. “Lisa, what sort of things did you put in the notebook?”

“Just things that I like. Snowflakes and flowers and designs.”

“All right. Pick up your belongings and sit down. We must be nearly there. It seems like the tube is stopping.”

Again they were shown from a closed compartment to a closed limousine and whisked over countryside that remained invisible to them. There was a drizzly rain falling when they stopped and got out of the car.

The Westfall house was a three-storied, pseudo-Victorian wooden building, with balconies and cupolas, and many chimneys. There was scaffolding about it, and one of the three porches had been torn away and was being replaced as restoration of the house, turning it into a national monument, progressed. The girls accompanied the casket to a gloomy, large room where the air was chilly and damp, and scant lighting cast deep shadows. After the casket had been positioned on the dais which also had accompanied it, the girls followed Madam Trudeau through narrow corridors, up narrow stairs, to the third floor where two large rooms had been prepared for them, each containing seven cots.

Madam Trudeau showed them the bathroom that would serve their needs, told them goodnight, and motioned Carla to follow her. They descended the stairs to a second-floor room that had black, massive furniture: a desk, two straight chairs, a bureau with a wavery mirror over it, and a large canopied bed.

Madam Trudeau paced the black floor silently for several minutes without speaking, then she swung around and said, “Carla, I heard every word that silly little girl said this afternoon. She drew pictures in her notebook! This is the third time the word cave has come up in reports of Madam Westfall’s mutterings. Did she speak to you of caves?”

Carla’s mind was whirling. How had she heard what they had said? Did maturity also bestow magical abilities? She said, “Yes, Madam, she spoke of hiding in a cave.”

“Where is the cave, Carla? Where is it?”

“I don’t know, Madam. She didn’t say.”

Madam Trudeau started to pace once more. Her pale face was drawn in lines of concentration that carved deeply into her flesh, two furrows straight up from the inner brows, other lines at the sides of her nose, straight to her chin, her mouth tight and hard. Suddenly she sat down and leaned back in the chair. “Carla, in the last four or five years Madam Westfall became childishly senile; she was no longer living in the present most of the time, but was reliving incidents in her past. Do you understand what I mean?”

Carla nodded, then said hastily, “Yes, Madam.”

“Yes. Well, it doesn’t matter. You know that I have been commissioned to write the biography of Madam Westfall, to immortalize her writings and her utterances. But there is a gap, Carla. A large gap in our knowledge, and until recently it seemed that the gap never would be filled in. When Madam Westfall was found as a child, wandering in a dazed condition, undernourished, almost dead from exposure, she did not know who she was, where she was from, anything about her past at all. Someone had put an identification bracelet on her arm, a steel bracelet that she could not remove, and that was the only clue there was about her origins. For ten years she received the best medical care and education available, and her intellect sparkled brilliantly, but she never regained her memory.”

Madam Trudeau shifted to look at Carla. A trick of the lighting made her eyes glitter like jewels. “You have studied how she started her first school with eight students, and over the next century developed her teaching methods to the point of perfection that we now employ throughout the nation, in the Males’ school as well as the Females’. Through her efforts Teachers have become the most respected of all citizens and the schools the most powerful of all institutions.” A mirthless smile crossed her face, gone almost as quickly as it formed, leaving the deep shadows, lines, and the glittering eyes. “I honored you more than you yet realize when I chose you for my protégée.”

The air in the room was too close and dank, smelled of moldering wood and unopened places. Carla continued to watch Madam Trudeau, but she was feeling lightheaded and exhausted and the words seemed interminable to her. The glittering eyes held her gaze and she said nothing. The thought occurred to her that Madam Trudeau would take Madam Westfall’s place as head of the school now.

“Encourage the girls to talk, Carla. Let them go on as much as they want about what Madam Westfall said, lead them into it if they stray from the point. Written reports have been sadly deficient.” She stopped and looked questioningly at the girl. “Yes? What is it?”

“Then … I mean after they talk, are they to write …? Or should I try to remember and write it all down?”

“There will be no need for that,” Madam Trudeau said. “Simply let them talk as much as they want.”

“Yes, Madam.”

“Very well. Here is a schedule for the coming days. Two girls on duty in the Viewing Room at all times from dawn until dark, yard exercise in the enclosed garden behind the building if the weather permits, kitchen duty, and so on. Study it, and direct the girls to their duties. On Saturday afternoon everyone will attend the burial, and on Sunday we return to the school. Now go.”

Carla bowed, and turned to leave. Madam Trudeau’s voice stopped her once more. “Wait, Carla. Come here. You may brush my hair before you leave.”

Carla took the brush in numb fingers and walked obediently behind Madam Trudeau, who was loosening hair clasps that restrained her heavy black hair. It fell down her back like a dead snake, uncoiling slowly. Carla started to brush it.

“Harder, girl. Are you so weak that you can’t brush hair?”

She plied the brush harder until her arm became heavy and then Madam Trudeau said, “Enough. You are a clumsy girl, awkward and stupid. Must I teach you everything, even how to brush one’s hair properly?” She yanked the brush from Carla’s hand and now there were two spots of color on her cheeks and her eyes were flashing. “Get out. Go! Leave me! On Saturday immediately following the funeral you will administer punishment to Lisa for scribbling in her notebook. Afterward report to me. And now get out of here!”

Carla snatched up the schedule and backed across the room, terrified of the Teacher who seemed demoniacal suddenly. She bumped into the other chair and nearly fell down. Madam Trudeau laughed shortly and cried, “Clumsy, awkward! You would be a Lady! You?”

Carla groped behind her for the doorknob and finally escaped into the hallway, where she leaned against the wall, trembling too hard to move on. Something crashed into the door behind her and she stifled a scream and ran. The brush. Madam had thrown the brush against the door.

· · · · ·

Madam Westfall’s ghost roamed all night, chasing shadows in and out of rooms, making the floors creak with her passage, echoes of her voice drifting in and out of the dorm where Carla tossed restlessly. Twice she sat upright in fear, listening intently, not knowing why. Once Lisa cried out and she went to her and held her hand until the child quieted again. When dawn lighted the room Carla was awake and standing at the windows looking at the ring of mountains that encircled the city. Black shadows against the lesser black of the sky, they darkened, and suddenly caught fire from the sun striking their tips. The fire spread downward, went out, and became merely light on the leaves that were turning red and gold. Carla turned from the view, unable to explain the pain that filled her. She awakened the first two girls who were to be on duty with Madam Westfall and after their quiet departure, returned to the window. The sun was all the way up now, but its morning light was soft; there were no hard outlines anywhere. The trees were a blend of colors with no individual boundaries, and rocks and earth melted together and were one. Birds were singing with the desperation of summer’s end and winter’s approach.

“Carla?” Lisa touched her arm and looked up at her with wide, fearful eyes. “Is she going to whip me?”

“You will be punished after the funeral,” Carla said, stiffly. “And I should report you for touching me, you know.”

The child drew back, looking down at the black border on Carla’s skirt. “I forgot.” She hung her head. “I’m … I’m so scared.”

“It’s time for breakfast, and after that we’ll have a walk in the gardens. You’ll feel better after you get out in the sunshine and fresh air.”

“Chrysanthemums, dahlias, marigolds. No, the small ones there, with the brown fringes …” Luella pointed out the various flowers to the other girls. Carla walked in the rear, hardly listening, trying to keep her eye on Lisa, who also trailed behind. She was worried about the child. Lisa had not slept well, had eaten no breakfast, and was so pale and wan that she didn’t look strong enough to take the short garden walk with them.

Eminent personages came and went in the gloomy old house and huddled together to speak in lowered voices. Carla paid little attention to them. “I can change it after I have some authority,” she said to a still inner self who listened and made no reply. “What can I do now? I’m property. I belong to the state, to Madam Trudeau and the school. What good if I disobey and am also whipped? Would that help any? I won’t hit her hard.” The inner self said nothing, but she thought she could hear a mocking laugh come from the mummy that was being honored.

They had all those empty schools, miles and miles of school halls where no feet walked, desks where no students sat, books that no students scribbled up, and they put the children in them and they could see immediately who couldn’t keep up, couldn’t learn the new ways, and they got rid of them. Smart. Smart of them. They were smart and had the goods and the money and the hatred. My God, they hated. That’s who wins, who hates most. And is more afraid. Every time.

Carla forced her arms not to move, her hands to remain locked before her, forced her head to stay bowed. The voice now went on and on and she couldn’t get away from it.

… rained every day cold freezing rain and Daddy didn’t come back and Mama said, hide child, hide in the cave where it’s warm, and don’t move no matter what happens, don’t move. Let me put it on your arm, don’t take it off, never take it off show it to them if they find you show them make them look.…

Her relief came and Carla left. In the wide hallway that led to the back steps she was stopped by a rough hand on her arm. “Damme, here’s a likely one. Come here, girl. Let’s have a look at you.” She was spun around and the hand grasped her chin and lifted her head. “Did I say it! I could spot her all the way down the hall, now couldn’t I? Can’t hide what she’s got with long skirts and that skinny hairdo, now can you? Didn’t I spot her!” He laughed and turned Carla’s head to the side and looked at her in profile, then laughed even louder.

She could see only that he was red-faced, with bushy eyebrows and thick grey hair. His hand holding her chin hurt, digging into her jaws at each side of her neck.

“Victor, turn her loose,” the cool voice of a female said then. “She’s been chosen already. An apprentice Teacher.”

He pushed Carla from him, still holding her chin, and he looked down at the skirts with the broad black band at the bottom. He gave her a shove that sent her into the opposite wall. She clutched at it for support.

“Whose pet is she?” he said darkly.

“Trudeau’s.”

He turned and stamped away, not looking at Carla again. He wore the blue and white of a Doctor of Law. The female was a Lady in pink and black.

“Carla. Go upstairs.” Madam Trudeau moved from an open doorway and stood before Carla. She looked up and down the shaking girl. “Now do you understand why I apprenticed you before this trip? For your own protection.”

They walked to the cemetery on Saturday, a bright, warm day with golden light and the odor of burning leaves. Speeches were made, Madam Westfall’s favorite music was played, and the services ended. Carla dreaded returning to the dormitory. She kept a close watch on Lisa, who seemed but a shadow of herself. Three times during the night she had held the girl until her nightmares subsided, and each time she had stroked her fine hair and soft cheeks and murmured to her quieting words, and she knew it was only her own cowardice that prevented her saying that it was she who would administer the whipping. The first shovelful of earth was thrown on top of the casket and everyone turned to leave the place, when suddenly the air was filled with raucous laughter, obscene chants, and wild music. It ended almost as quickly as it started, but the group was frozen until the mountain air became unnaturally still. Not even the birds were making a sound following the maniacal outburst.

Carla had been unable to stop the involuntary look that she cast about her at the woods that circled the cemetery. Who? Who would dare? Only a leaf or two stirred, floating downward on the gentle air effortlessly. Far in the distance a bird began to sing again, as if the evil spirits that had flown past were now gone.

· · · · ·

“Madam Trudeau sent this up for you,” Luella said nervously, handing Carla the rod. It was plastic, three feet long, thin, flexible. Carla looked at it and turned slowly to Lisa. The girl seemed to be swaying back and forth.

“I am to administer the whipping,” Carla said. “You will undress now.”

Lisa stared at her in disbelief, and then suddenly she ran across the room and threw herself on Carla, hugging her hard, sobbing. “Thank you, Carla. Thank you so much. I was so afraid, you don’t know how afraid. Thank you. How did you make her let you do it? Will you be punished too? I love you so much, Carla.” She was incoherent in her relief and she flung off her gown and underwear and turned around.

Her skin was pale and soft, rounded buttocks, dimpled just above the fullness. She had no waist yet, no breasts, no hair on her baby body. Like a baby she had whimpered in the night, clinging tightly to Carla, burying her head in the curve of Carla’s breasts.

Carla raised the rod and brought it down, as easily as she could. Anything was too hard. There was a red welt. The girl bowed her head lower, but didn’t whimper. She was holding the back of a chair and it jerked when the rod struck.

It would be worse if Madam Trudeau was doing it, Carla thought. She would try to hurt, would draw blood. Why? Why? The rod was hanging limply, and she knew it would be harder on both of them if she didn’t finish it quickly. She raised it and again felt the rod bite into flesh, sending the vibration into her arm, through her body.

Again. The girl cried out, and a spot of blood appeared on her back. Carla stared at it in fascination and despair. She couldn’t help it. Her arm wielded the rod too hard, and she couldn’t help it. She closed her eyes a moment, raised the rod and struck again. Better. But the vibrations that had begun with the first flow increased, and she felt dizzy, and couldn’t keep her eyes off the spot of blood that was trailing down the girl’s back. Lisa was weeping now, her body was shaking. Carla felt a responsive tremor start within her.

Eight, nine. The excitement that stirred her was unnameable, unknowable, never before felt like this. Suddenly she thought of the Lady who had chosen her once, and scenes of the film she had been forced to watch flashed through her mind.… remake them in our image. She looked about in that moment frozen in time, and she saw the excitement on some of the faces, on others fear, disgust and revulsion. Her gaze stopped on Helga, who had her eyes closed, whose body was moving rhythmically. She raised the rod and brought it down as hard as she could, hitting the chair with a noise that brought everyone out of his own kind of trance. A sharp, cracking noise that was a finish.

“Ten!” she cried and threw the rod across the room.

Lisa turned and through brimming eyes, red, swollen, ugly with crying, said, “Thank you, Carla. It wasn’t so bad.”

Looking at her, Carla knew hatred. It burned through her, distorted the image of what she saw. Inside her body the excitement found no outlet, and it flushed her face, made her hands numb, and filled her with hatred. She turned and fled.

Before Madam Trudeau’s door, she stopped a moment, took a deep breath, and knocked. After several moments the door opened and Madam Trudeau came out. Her eyes were glittering more than ever, and there were two spots of color on her pasty cheeks.

“It is done? Let me look at you.” Her fingers were cold and moist when she lifted Carla’s chin. “Yes, I see. I see. I am busy now. Come back in half an hour. You will tell me all about it. Half an hour.” Carla never had seen a genuine smile on the Teacher’s face before, and now when it came, it was more frightening than her frown was. Carla didn’t move, but she felt as if every cell in her body had tried to pull back.

She bowed and turned to leave. Madam Trudeau followed her a step and said in a low vibrant voice, “You felt it, didn’t you? You know now, don’t you?”

“Madam Trudeau, are you coming back?” The door behind her opened, and one of the Doctors of Law appeared there.

“Yes, of course.” She turned and went back to the room.

Carla let herself into the small enclosed area between the second and third floors, then stopped. She could hear the voices of girls coming down the stairs, going on duty in the kitchen, or outside for evening exercises. She stopped to wait for them to pass, and she leaned against the wall tiredly. This space was two and a half feet square perhaps. It was very dank and hot. From here she could hear every sound made by the girls on the stairs. Probably that was why the second door had been added, to muffle the noise of those going up and down. The girls had stopped on the steps and were discussing the laughter and obscenities they had heard in the cemetery.

Carla knew that it was her duty to confront them, to order them to their duties, to impose proper silence on them in public places, but she closed her eyes and pressed her hand hard on the wood behind her for support and wished they would finish their childish prattle and go on. The wood behind her started to slide.

She jerked away. A sliding door? She felt it and ran her finger along the smooth paneling to the edge where there was now a six-inch opening as high as she could reach and down to the floor. She pushed the door again and it slid easily, going between the two walls. When the opening was wide enough she stepped through it. The cave! She knew it was the cave that Madam Westfall had talked about incessantly.

The space was no more than two feet wide, and very dark. She felt the inside door and there was a knob on it, low enough for children to reach. The door slid as smoothly from the inside as it had from the outside. She slid it almost closed and the voices were cut off, but she could hear other voices, from the room on the other side of the passage. They were not clear. She felt her way farther, and almost fell over a box. She held her breath as she realized that she was hearing Madam Trudeau’s voice:

“… be there. Too many independent reports of the old fool’s babbling about it for there not to be something to it. Your men are incompetent.”

“Trudeau, shut up. You scare the living hell out of the kids, but you don’t scare me. Just shut up and accept the report. We’ve been over every inch of the hills for miles, and there’s no cave. It was over a hundred years ago. Maybe there was one that the kids played in, but it’s gone now. Probably collapsed.”

“We have to be certain, absolutely certain.”

“What’s so important about it anyway? Maybe if you would give us more to go on we could make more progress.”

“The reports state that when the militia came here, they found only Martha Westfall. They executed her on the spot without questioning her first. Fools! When they searched the house, they discovered that it was stripped. No jewels, no silver, diaries, papers. Nothing. Steve Westfall was dead. Dr. Westfall dead. Martha. No one has ever found the articles that were hidden, and when the child again appeared, she had true amnesia that never yielded to attempts to penetrate it.”

“So, a few records, diaries. What are they to you?” There was silence, then he laughed. “The money! He took all his money out of the bank, didn’t he?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I want records, that’s all. There’s a complete ham radio, complete. Dr. Westfall was an electronics engineer as well as a teacher. No one could begin to guess how much equipment he hid before he was killed.”

Carla ran her hand over the box, felt behind it. More boxes.

“Yeah yeah. I read the reports, too. All the more reason to keep the search nearby. For a year before the end a close watch was kept on the house. They had to walk to wherever they hid the stuff. And I can just say again that there’s no cave around here. It fell in.”

“I hope so,” Madam Trudeau said.

Someone knocked on the door, and Madam Trudeau called, “Come in.”

“Yes, what is it? Speak up, girl.”

“It is my duty to report, Madam, that Carla did not administer the full punishment ordered by you.”

Carla’s fists clenched hard. Helga.

“Explain,” Madam Trudeau said sharply.

“She only struck Lisa nine times, Madam. The last time she hit the chair.”

“I see. Return to your room.”

The man laughed when the girl closed the door once more. “Carla is the golden one, Trudeau? The one who wears a single black band?”

“The one you manhandled earlier, yes.”

“Insubordination in the ranks, Trudeau? Tut, tut. And your reports all state that you never have any rebellion. Never.”

Very slowly Madam Trudeau said, “I have never had a student who didn’t abandon any thoughts of rebellion under my guidance. Carla will be obedient. And one day she will be an excellent Teacher. I know the signs.”

· · · · ·

Carla stood before the Teacher with her head bowed and her hands clasped together. Madam Trudeau walked around her without touching her, then sat down and said, “You will whip Lisa every day for a week, beginning tomorrow.”

Carla didn’t reply.

“Don’t stand mute before me, Carla. Signify your obedience immediately.”

“I … I can’t, Madam.”

“Carla, any day that you do not whip Lisa, I will. And I will also whip you double her allotment. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Madam.”

“You will inform Lisa that she is to be whipped every day, by one or the other of us. Immediately.”

“Madam, please …”

“You speak out of turn, Carla!”

“I … Madam, please don’t do this. Don’t make me do this. She is too weak.…”

“She will beg you to do it, won’t she, Carla? Beg you with tears flowing to be the one, not me. And you will feel the excitement and the hate and every day you will feel it grow strong. You will want to hurt her, want to see blood spot her bare back. And your hate will grow until you won’t be able to look at her without being blinded by your own hatred. You see, I know, Carla. I know all of it.”

Carla stared at her in horror. “I won’t do it. I won’t.”

“I will.”

They were old and full of hatred for the shiny young faces, the bright hair, the straight backs and strong legs and arms. They said: let us remake them in our image and they did.

Carla repeated Madam Trudeau’s words to the girls gathered in the two sleeping rooms on the third floor. Lisa swayed and was supported by Ruthie. Helga smiled.

That evening Ruthie tried to run away and was caught by two of the blue-clad Males. The girls were lined up and watched as Ruthie was stoned. They buried her without a service on the hill where she had been caught.

After dark, lying on the cot open-eyed, tense, Carla heard Lisa’s whisper close to her ear. “I don’t care if you hit me, Carla. It won’t hurt like it does when she hits me.”

“Go to bed, Lisa. Go to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep. I keep seeing Ruthie. I should have gone with her. I wanted to, but she wouldn’t let me. She was afraid there would be Males on the hill watching. She said if she didn’t get caught, then I should try to follow her at night.” The child’s voice was flat, as if shock had dulled her sensibilities.

Carla kept seeing Ruthie too. Over and over she repeated to herself: I should have tried it. I’m cleverer that she was. I might have escaped. I should have been the one. She knew it was too late now. They would be watching too closely.

An eternity later she crept from her bed and dressed quietly. Soundlessly she gathered her own belongings, and then collected the notebooks of the other girls, and the pens, and she left the room. There were dim lights on throughout the house as she made her way silently down stairs and through corridors. She left a pen by one of the outside doors, and very cautiously made her way back to the tiny space between the floors. She slid the door open and deposited everything else she carried inside the cave. She tried to get to the kitchen for food, but stopped when she saw one of the Officers of Law. She returned soundlessly to the attic rooms and tiptoed among the beds to Lisa’s cot. She placed one hand over the girl’s mouth and shook her awake with the other.

Lisa bolted upright, terrified, her body stiffened convulsively. With her mouth against the girl’s ear Carla whispered, “Don’t make a sound. Come on.” She half led, half carried the girl to the doorway, down the stairs, and into the cave and closed the door.

“You can’t talk here, either,” she whispered. “They can hear.” She spread out the extra garments she had collected and they lay down together, her arms tight about the girl’s shoulders. “Try to sleep,” she whispered. “I don’t think they’ll find us here. And after they leave, we’ll creep out and live in the woods. We’ll eat nuts and berries …”

The first day they were jubilant at their success and they giggled and muffled the noise with their skirts. They could hear all the orders being issued by Madam Trudeau: guards in all the halls, on the stairs, at the door to the dorm to keep other girls from trying to escape also. They could hear all the interrogations, of the girls, the guards who had not seen the escapees. They heard the mocking voice of the Doctor of Law deriding Madam Trudeau’s boasts of absolute control.

The second day Carla tried to steal food for them, and, more important, water. There were blue-clad Males everywhere. She returned emptyhanded. During the night Lisa whimpered in her sleep and Carla had to stay awake to quiet the child, who was slightly feverish.

“You won’t let her get me, will you?” she begged over and over.

The third day Lisa became too quiet. She didn’t want Carla to move from her side at all. She held Carla’s hand in her hot, dry hand and now and then tried to raise it to her face, but she was too weak now. Carla stroked her forehead.

When the child slept Carla wrote in the notebooks, in the dark, not knowing if she wrote over other words or on blank pages. She wrote her life story, and then made up other things to say. She wrote her name over and over, and wept because she had no last name. She wrote nonsense words and rhymed them with other nonsense words. She wrote of the savages who had laughed at the funeral and she hoped they wouldn’t all die over the winter months. She thought that probably they would. She wrote of the golden light through green-black pine trees and of birds’ songs and moss underfoot. She wrote of Lisa lying peacefully now at the far end of the cave amidst riches that neither of them could ever have comprehended. When she could no longer write, she drifted in and out of the golden light in the forest, listening to the birds’ songs, hearing the raucous laughter that now sounded so beautiful.

The End

First published in Again, Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison. Copyright © Kate Wilhelm 1979.

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