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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a8538a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #50844 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50844) diff --git a/old/50844-h.zip b/old/50844-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 786defd..0000000 --- a/old/50844-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/50844-h/50844-h.htm b/old/50844-h/50844-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index b1fc678..0000000 --- a/old/50844-h/50844-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,905 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Proof of the Pudding, by Robert Sheckley. - </title> - - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Proof of the Pudding, by Robert Sheckley - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Proof of the Pudding - -Author: Robert Sheckley - -Release Date: January 4, 2016 [EBook #50844] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROOF OF THE PUDDING *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="363" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>Proof of the Pudding</h1> - -<p>By ROBERT SHECKLEY</p> - -<p>Illustrated by WILLER</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction August 1952.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence<br /> -that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="400" height="332" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>One man's fact is fantasy for another—except<br /> -the man whose fantasies become solid facts!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>His arms were very tired, but he lifted the chisel and mallet again. He -was almost through; only a few more letters and the inscription, cut -deeply into the tough granite, would be finished. He rounded out the -last period and straightened up, dropping his tools carelessly to the -floor of the cave. Proudly he wiped the perspiration from his dirty -stubbled face and read what he had written.</p> - -<blockquote> - -<p>I ROSE FROM THE SLIME OF THE PLANET. NAKED<br /> -AND DEFENSELESS, I FASHIONED TOOLS. I BUILT AND<br /> -DEMOLISHED, CREATED AND DESTROYED. I CREATED A<br /> -THING GREATER THAN MYSELF THAT DESTROYED ME.</p> - -<p>MY NAME IS MAN AND THIS IS MY LAST WORK.</p></blockquote> - -<p>He smiled. What he had written was good. Not literary enough, perhaps, -but a fitting tribute to the human race, written by the last man. He -glanced at the tools at his feet. Having no further use for them, he -dissolved them, and, hungry from his long work, squatted in the rubble -of the cave and created a dinner. He stared at the food for a moment, -wondering what was lacking; then, sheepishly, created a table and -chair, utensils and plates. He was embarrassed. He had forgotten them -again.</p> - -<p>Although there was no need to rush, he ate hurriedly, noting the odd -fact that when he didn't think of anything specific, he always created -hamburger, mashed potatoes, peas, bread and ice cream. Habit, he -decided. Finished, he made the remnants of the meal disappear, and with -them the plates, utensils and table. The chair he retained. Sitting on -it, he stared thoughtfully at the inscription. <i>It's fine</i>, he thought, -<i>but no human other than myself will ever read it.</i></p> - -<p>It was fairly certain that he was the last man alive on the Earth. The -war had been thorough. Thorough as only man, a meticulous animal, could -make it. There had been no neutrals in this war, no middle-of-the-road -policy. You were on one side or the other. Bacteria, gas and radiations -had covered the Earth like a vast cloud. In the first days of that -war, invincible secret weapon had succeeded secret weapon with almost -monotonous regularity. And after the last hand had pushed the last -button, the bombs, automatically guided and impelled, had continued -to rain down. The unhappy Earth was a huge junkyard, without a living -thing, plant or animal, from pole to pole.</p> - -<p>He had watched a good part of it. He had waited until he was fairly -sure the last bomb had been dropped; then he had come down.</p> - -<p><i>Very clever of you</i>, he thought bitterly, looking out the mouth of the -cave at the lava plain his ship rested on, and at the twisted mountains -behind it.</p> - -<p><i>You're a traitor—but who cares?</i></p> - -<p>He had been a captain in the Western Hemisphere Defense. Within two -days of warfare, he had known what the end would be. Filling a cruiser -with canned air, food and water, he had fled. In the confusion and -destruction, he knew that he would never be missed; after a few days -there was no one left to miss him. He had raced the big ship to the -dark side of the Moon, and waited. It was a twelve-day war—he had -guessed it would last fourteen—but he had to wait nearly six months -before the automatic missiles stopped falling. Then he had come down.</p> - -<p>To find himself the only survivor....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He had expected others to recognize the futility of it, load ships -and flock to the dark side of the Moon also. Evidently there had been -no time, even if there had been the desire. He had thought that there -would be scattered groups of survivors, but he hadn't found any. The -war had been too thorough.</p> - -<p>Landing on the Earth should have killed him, for the air itself was -poisoned. He hadn't cared—and he had lived. He seemed to be immune to -the various kinds of germs and radiations, or perhaps that was part of -his new power. He certainly had encountered enough of both, skipping -around the world in his ship, from the ruins of one city to another, -across blasted valleys and plains, scorched mountains. He had found no -life, but he did discover something.</p> - -<p>He could create. He realized the power on his third day on Earth. -Wistfully, he had wished for a tree in the midst of the melted rock -and metal; a tree had appeared. The rest of the day he experimented, -and found that he could create anything that he had ever seen or heard -about.</p> - -<p>Things he knew best, he could create best. Things he knew just from -books or conversation—palaces, for example—tended to be lopsided -and uncertain, although he could make them nearly perfect by laboring -mentally over the details. Everything he created was three-dimensional. -Even food tasted like food and seemed to nourish him. He could forget -all about one of his creations, go to sleep, and it would still be -there when he awakened. He could also uncreate. A single concentrated -thought and the thing he had made would vanish. The larger the thing, -the longer it took to uncreate.</p> - -<p>Things he <i>hadn't</i> made—valleys and mountains—he could uncreate, too, -but it took longer. It seemed as though matter was easier to handle -once he had shaped it. He could make birds and small animals, or things -that looked like birds and small animals.</p> - -<p>He had never tried to make a human being.</p> - -<p>He wasn't a scientist; he had been a space-pilot. He had a vague -concept of atomic theory and practically no idea of genetics. He -thought that some change must have taken place in his germ-plasm, or -in his brain, or perhaps in the Earth. The "why" of it all didn't -especially bother him. It was a fact and he accepted it.</p> - -<p>He stared at the monument again. Something about it bothered him.</p> - -<p>Of course, he could have created it, but he didn't know if the things -he made would endure after his death. They seemed stable enough, but -they might dissolve with his own dissolution. Therefore he compromised. -He created a chisel and mallet, but selected a granite wall that he -hadn't made. He cut the letters into the inside of the wall of the -cave so they would be safe from the elements, working many hours at a -stretch, sleeping and eating beside the wall.</p> - -<p>From the mouth of the cave, he could see his ship, perched on a level -plain of scorched ground. He was in no rush to get back to it. In six -days the inscription was done, cut deeply and eternally into the rock.</p> - -<p>The thought that had been bothering him as he stared at the gray -granite finally came to the surface. The only people who would come -to read it would be visitors from the stars. How would they decipher -it? He stared at the inscription angrily. He should have written it in -symbols. But what kind of symbols? Mathematics? Of course, but what -would that tell them about Man? And what made him think <i>they</i> would -discover the cave anyway? There was no use for an inscription when -Man's entire history was written over the face of the planet, scorched -into the crust for anyone to see. He cursed his stupidity for wasting -six days working at the useless inscription. He was about to uncreate -it when he turned his head, hearing footsteps at the mouth of the cave.</p> - -<p>He almost fell off the chair getting to his feet.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>A girl was standing there. He blinked rapidly, and she was still there, -a tall, dark-haired girl dressed in a torn, dirty one-piece coverall.</p> - -<p>"Hi," she said, and walked into the cave. "I heard your hammer from the -valley."</p> - -<p>Automatically, he offered her his chair and created another for -himself. She tested it gingerly before she sat down.</p> - -<p>"I saw you do it," she said, "but I still don't believe it. Mirrors?"</p> - -<p>"No," he muttered uncertainly. "I create. That is, I have the power -to—wait a minute! How did you get here?" While he was demanding to -know, he was considering and rejecting possibilities. Hidden in a cave? -On a mountain top? No, there would be only one possible way....</p> - -<p>"I was in your ship, pal." She leaned back in the chair and clasped her -hands around one knee. "When you loaded up that cruiser, I figured you -were going to beat it. I was getting tired of setting fuses eighteen -hours a day, so I stowed away. Anybody else alive?"</p> - -<p>"No. Why didn't I see you, then?" He stared at the ragged, beautiful -girl, and a vague thought crossed his mind. He reached out and touched -her arm. She didn't draw back, but her pretty face grew annoyed.</p> - -<p>"I'm real," she said bluntly. "You must have seen me at the base. -Remember?"</p> - -<p>He tried to think back to the time when there had been a -base—centuries ago, it seemed. There <i>had</i> been a dark-haired girl -there, one who had never given him a tumble.</p> - -<p>"I think I froze to death," she was saying. "Or into coma, anyhow, a -few hours after your ship took off. Lousy heating system you have in -that crate!" She shivered reminiscently.</p> - -<p>"Would have used up too much oxygen," he explained. "Just kept the -pilot's compartment heated and aired. Used a suit to drag supplies -forward when I needed them."</p> - -<p>"I'm glad you didn't see me," she laughed. "I must have looked like the -devil, all covered with frost and killed, I bet. Some sleeping beauty I -probably made! Well, I froze. When you opened all the compartments, I -revived. That's the whole story. Guess it took a few days. How come you -didn't see me?"</p> - -<p>"I suppose I never looked back there," he admitted. "Quick enough, -I found I didn't need supplies. Funny, I thought I opened all the -compartments, but I don't really remember—"</p> - -<p>She looked at the inscription on the wall. "What's that?"</p> - -<p>"I thought I'd leave a sort of monument—"</p> - -<p>"Who's going to read it?" she asked practically.</p> - -<p>"No one, probably. It was just a foolish idea." He concentrated on it. -In a few moments the granite wall was bare. "I still don't understand -how you could be alive now," he said puzzled.</p> - -<p>"But I am. I don't see how you do that—" she gestured at the chair and -wall—"But I'll accept the fact that you can. Why don't you accept the -fact that I'm alive?"</p> - -<p>"Don't get me wrong," the man said. "I want company very much, -especially female company. It's just—Turn your back."</p> - -<p>She complied, with a questioning look. Quickly he destroyed the stubble -on his face and created a clean pair of pressed pants and a shirt. -Stepping out of his tattered uniform, he put on the new clothes, -destroyed the rags, and, on an afterthought, created a comb and -straightened his tangled brown hair.</p> - -<p>"All right," he said. "You can turn back now."</p> - -<p>"Not bad," she smiled, looking him over. "Let me use that comb—and -would you please make me a dress? Size twelve, but see that the weight -goes in the right places."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>On the third attempt he had the thing right—he had never realized how -deceptive the shapes of women could be—and then he made a pair of gold -sandals with high heels for her.</p> - -<p>"A little tight," she said, putting them on, "and not too practical -without sidewalks. But thanks much. This trick of yours really solves -the Christmas present problem, doesn't it?" Her dark hair was shiny in -the noon sun, and she looked very lovely and warm and human.</p> - -<p>"See if <i>you</i> can create," he urged, anxious to share his startling new -ability with her.</p> - -<p>"I've already tried," she said. "No go. Still a man's world."</p> - -<p>He frowned. "How can I be absolutely sure you're real?"</p> - -<p>"That again? Do you remember creating me, Master?" she asked mockingly, -bending to loosen the strap on one shoe.</p> - -<p>"I had been thinking—about women," he said grimly. "I might have -created you while I was asleep. Why shouldn't my subconscious mind -have as much power as my conscious mind? I would have equipped you -with a memory, given you a background. You would have been extremely -plausible. And if my subconscious mind <i>did</i> create you, then it would -make certain that my conscious mind would never know."</p> - -<p>"You're ridiculous!"</p> - -<p>"Because if my conscious mind knew," he went on relentlessly, "it -would reject your existence. Your entire function, as a creation of my -subconscious, would be to keep me from knowing. To prove, by any means -in your power, by any logic, that you were—"</p> - -<p>"Let's see you make a woman, then, if your mind is so good!" She -crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair, giving a single sharp -nod.</p> - -<p>"All right." He stared at the cave wall and a woman started to appear. -It took shape sloppily, one arm too short, legs too long. Concentrating -harder, he was able to make its proportions fairly true. But its eyes -were set at an odd angle; its shoulders and back were sloped and -twisted. He had created a shell without brains or internal organs, -an automaton. He commanded it to speak, but only gulps came from the -shapeless mouth; he hadn't given it any vocal apparatus. Shuddering, -he destroyed the nightmare figure.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="347" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"I'm not a sculptor," he said. "Nor am I God."</p> - -<p>"I'm glad you finally realize that."</p> - -<p>"That still doesn't prove," he continued stubbornly, "that <i>you're</i> -real. I don't know what my subconscious mind is capable of."</p> - -<p>"Make something for me," she said abruptly. "I'm tired of listening to -this nonsense."</p> - -<p><i>I've hurt her feelings</i>, he thought. <i>The only other human on Earth -and I've hurt her.</i> He nodded, took her by the hand and led her -out of the cave. On the flat plain below he created a city. He had -experimented with it a few days back, and it was much easier this time. -Patterned after pictures and childhood dreams of the Thousand and One -Nights, it towered black and white and rose. The walls were gleaming -ruby, and the gates were of silver-stained ebony. The towers were red -gold, and sapphires glittered in them. A great staircase of milky -ivory climbed to the highest opal spire, set with thousands of steps -of veined marble. There were lagoons of blue water, and little birds -fluttered above them, and silver and gold fish darted through the still -depths.</p> - -<p>They walked through the city, and he created roses for her, white and -yellow and red, and gardens of strange blossoms. Between two domed -and spired buildings he created a vast pool of water; on it he put a -purple-canopied pleasure barge, loading it with every kind of food and -drink he could remember.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>They floated across the lagoon, fanned by the soft breeze he had -created.</p> - -<p>"And all this is false," he reminded her after a little while.</p> - -<p>She smiled. "No it's not. You can touch it. It's real."</p> - -<p>"Will it be here after I die?"</p> - -<p>"Who cares? Besides, if you can do all this, you can cure any sickness. -Perhaps you can even cure old age and death." She plucked a blossom -from an over-hanging bough and sniffed its fragrance. "You could keep -this from fading and dying. You could probably do the same for us, so -where's the problem?"</p> - -<p>"Would you like to go away?" he said, puffing on a newly created -cigarette. "Would you like to find a new planet, untouched by war? -Would you like to start over?"</p> - -<p>"Start over? You mean.... Later perhaps. Now I don't even want to go -near the ship. It reminds me of the war."</p> - -<p>They floated on a little way.</p> - -<p>"Are you sure now that I'm real?" she asked.</p> - -<p>"If you want me to be honest, no," he replied. "But I want very much to -believe it."</p> - -<p>"Then listen to me," she said, leaning toward him. "I'm real." She -slipped her arms around his neck. "I've always been real. I always will -be real. You want proof? Well, I know I'm real. So do you. What more -can you ask?"</p> - -<p>He stared at her for a long moment, felt her warm arms around his neck, -listened to her breathing. He could smell the fragrance of her skin and -hair, the unique essence of an individual.</p> - -<p>Slowly he said, "I believe you. I love you. What—what is your name?"</p> - -<p>She thought for a moment. "Joan."</p> - -<p>"Strange," he said. "I always dreamed of a girl named Joan. What's your -last name?"</p> - -<p>She kissed him.</p> - -<p>Overhead, the swallows he had created—<i>his</i> swallows—wheeled in wide -circles above the lagoon, his fish darted aimlessly to and fro, and his -city stretched, proud and beautiful, to the edge of the twisted lava -mountains.</p> - -<p>"You didn't tell me your last name," he said.</p> - -<p>"Oh, that. A girl's maiden name never matters—she always takes her -husband's."</p> - -<p>"That's an evasion!"</p> - -<p>She smiled. "It is, isn't it?"</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Proof of the Pudding, by Robert Sheckley - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROOF OF THE PUDDING *** - -***** This file should be named 50844-h.htm or 50844-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/4/50844/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Proof of the Pudding - -Author: Robert Sheckley - -Release Date: January 4, 2016 [EBook #50844] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROOF OF THE PUDDING *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Proof of the Pudding - - By ROBERT SHECKLEY - - Illustrated by WILLER - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction August 1952. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - One man's fact is fantasy for another--except - the man whose fantasies become solid facts! - - -His arms were very tired, but he lifted the chisel and mallet again. He -was almost through; only a few more letters and the inscription, cut -deeply into the tough granite, would be finished. He rounded out the -last period and straightened up, dropping his tools carelessly to the -floor of the cave. Proudly he wiped the perspiration from his dirty -stubbled face and read what he had written. - - I ROSE FROM THE SLIME OF THE PLANET. NAKED AND DEFENSELESS, - I FASHIONED TOOLS. I BUILT AND DEMOLISHED, CREATED AND DESTROYED. - I CREATED A THING GREATER THAN MYSELF THAT DESTROYED ME. - - MY NAME IS MAN AND THIS IS MY LAST WORK. - -He smiled. What he had written was good. Not literary enough, perhaps, -but a fitting tribute to the human race, written by the last man. He -glanced at the tools at his feet. Having no further use for them, he -dissolved them, and, hungry from his long work, squatted in the rubble -of the cave and created a dinner. He stared at the food for a moment, -wondering what was lacking; then, sheepishly, created a table and -chair, utensils and plates. He was embarrassed. He had forgotten them -again. - -Although there was no need to rush, he ate hurriedly, noting the odd -fact that when he didn't think of anything specific, he always created -hamburger, mashed potatoes, peas, bread and ice cream. Habit, he -decided. Finished, he made the remnants of the meal disappear, and with -them the plates, utensils and table. The chair he retained. Sitting on -it, he stared thoughtfully at the inscription. _It's fine_, he thought, -_but no human other than myself will ever read it._ - -It was fairly certain that he was the last man alive on the Earth. The -war had been thorough. Thorough as only man, a meticulous animal, could -make it. There had been no neutrals in this war, no middle-of-the-road -policy. You were on one side or the other. Bacteria, gas and radiations -had covered the Earth like a vast cloud. In the first days of that -war, invincible secret weapon had succeeded secret weapon with almost -monotonous regularity. And after the last hand had pushed the last -button, the bombs, automatically guided and impelled, had continued -to rain down. The unhappy Earth was a huge junkyard, without a living -thing, plant or animal, from pole to pole. - -He had watched a good part of it. He had waited until he was fairly -sure the last bomb had been dropped; then he had come down. - -_Very clever of you_, he thought bitterly, looking out the mouth of the -cave at the lava plain his ship rested on, and at the twisted mountains -behind it. - -_You're a traitor--but who cares?_ - -He had been a captain in the Western Hemisphere Defense. Within two -days of warfare, he had known what the end would be. Filling a cruiser -with canned air, food and water, he had fled. In the confusion and -destruction, he knew that he would never be missed; after a few days -there was no one left to miss him. He had raced the big ship to the -dark side of the Moon, and waited. It was a twelve-day war--he had -guessed it would last fourteen--but he had to wait nearly six months -before the automatic missiles stopped falling. Then he had come down. - -To find himself the only survivor.... - - * * * * * - -He had expected others to recognize the futility of it, load ships -and flock to the dark side of the Moon also. Evidently there had been -no time, even if there had been the desire. He had thought that there -would be scattered groups of survivors, but he hadn't found any. The -war had been too thorough. - -Landing on the Earth should have killed him, for the air itself was -poisoned. He hadn't cared--and he had lived. He seemed to be immune to -the various kinds of germs and radiations, or perhaps that was part of -his new power. He certainly had encountered enough of both, skipping -around the world in his ship, from the ruins of one city to another, -across blasted valleys and plains, scorched mountains. He had found no -life, but he did discover something. - -He could create. He realized the power on his third day on Earth. -Wistfully, he had wished for a tree in the midst of the melted rock -and metal; a tree had appeared. The rest of the day he experimented, -and found that he could create anything that he had ever seen or heard -about. - -Things he knew best, he could create best. Things he knew just from -books or conversation--palaces, for example--tended to be lopsided -and uncertain, although he could make them nearly perfect by laboring -mentally over the details. Everything he created was three-dimensional. -Even food tasted like food and seemed to nourish him. He could forget -all about one of his creations, go to sleep, and it would still be -there when he awakened. He could also uncreate. A single concentrated -thought and the thing he had made would vanish. The larger the thing, -the longer it took to uncreate. - -Things he _hadn't_ made--valleys and mountains--he could uncreate, too, -but it took longer. It seemed as though matter was easier to handle -once he had shaped it. He could make birds and small animals, or things -that looked like birds and small animals. - -He had never tried to make a human being. - -He wasn't a scientist; he had been a space-pilot. He had a vague -concept of atomic theory and practically no idea of genetics. He -thought that some change must have taken place in his germ-plasm, or -in his brain, or perhaps in the Earth. The "why" of it all didn't -especially bother him. It was a fact and he accepted it. - -He stared at the monument again. Something about it bothered him. - -Of course, he could have created it, but he didn't know if the things -he made would endure after his death. They seemed stable enough, but -they might dissolve with his own dissolution. Therefore he compromised. -He created a chisel and mallet, but selected a granite wall that he -hadn't made. He cut the letters into the inside of the wall of the -cave so they would be safe from the elements, working many hours at a -stretch, sleeping and eating beside the wall. - -From the mouth of the cave, he could see his ship, perched on a level -plain of scorched ground. He was in no rush to get back to it. In six -days the inscription was done, cut deeply and eternally into the rock. - -The thought that had been bothering him as he stared at the gray -granite finally came to the surface. The only people who would come -to read it would be visitors from the stars. How would they decipher -it? He stared at the inscription angrily. He should have written it in -symbols. But what kind of symbols? Mathematics? Of course, but what -would that tell them about Man? And what made him think _they_ would -discover the cave anyway? There was no use for an inscription when -Man's entire history was written over the face of the planet, scorched -into the crust for anyone to see. He cursed his stupidity for wasting -six days working at the useless inscription. He was about to uncreate -it when he turned his head, hearing footsteps at the mouth of the cave. - -He almost fell off the chair getting to his feet. - - * * * * * - -A girl was standing there. He blinked rapidly, and she was still there, -a tall, dark-haired girl dressed in a torn, dirty one-piece coverall. - -"Hi," she said, and walked into the cave. "I heard your hammer from the -valley." - -Automatically, he offered her his chair and created another for -himself. She tested it gingerly before she sat down. - -"I saw you do it," she said, "but I still don't believe it. Mirrors?" - -"No," he muttered uncertainly. "I create. That is, I have the power -to--wait a minute! How did you get here?" While he was demanding to -know, he was considering and rejecting possibilities. Hidden in a cave? -On a mountain top? No, there would be only one possible way.... - -"I was in your ship, pal." She leaned back in the chair and clasped her -hands around one knee. "When you loaded up that cruiser, I figured you -were going to beat it. I was getting tired of setting fuses eighteen -hours a day, so I stowed away. Anybody else alive?" - -"No. Why didn't I see you, then?" He stared at the ragged, beautiful -girl, and a vague thought crossed his mind. He reached out and touched -her arm. She didn't draw back, but her pretty face grew annoyed. - -"I'm real," she said bluntly. "You must have seen me at the base. -Remember?" - -He tried to think back to the time when there had been a -base--centuries ago, it seemed. There _had_ been a dark-haired girl -there, one who had never given him a tumble. - -"I think I froze to death," she was saying. "Or into coma, anyhow, a -few hours after your ship took off. Lousy heating system you have in -that crate!" She shivered reminiscently. - -"Would have used up too much oxygen," he explained. "Just kept the -pilot's compartment heated and aired. Used a suit to drag supplies -forward when I needed them." - -"I'm glad you didn't see me," she laughed. "I must have looked like the -devil, all covered with frost and killed, I bet. Some sleeping beauty I -probably made! Well, I froze. When you opened all the compartments, I -revived. That's the whole story. Guess it took a few days. How come you -didn't see me?" - -"I suppose I never looked back there," he admitted. "Quick enough, -I found I didn't need supplies. Funny, I thought I opened all the -compartments, but I don't really remember--" - -She looked at the inscription on the wall. "What's that?" - -"I thought I'd leave a sort of monument--" - -"Who's going to read it?" she asked practically. - -"No one, probably. It was just a foolish idea." He concentrated on it. -In a few moments the granite wall was bare. "I still don't understand -how you could be alive now," he said puzzled. - -"But I am. I don't see how you do that--" she gestured at the chair and -wall--"But I'll accept the fact that you can. Why don't you accept the -fact that I'm alive?" - -"Don't get me wrong," the man said. "I want company very much, -especially female company. It's just--Turn your back." - -She complied, with a questioning look. Quickly he destroyed the stubble -on his face and created a clean pair of pressed pants and a shirt. -Stepping out of his tattered uniform, he put on the new clothes, -destroyed the rags, and, on an afterthought, created a comb and -straightened his tangled brown hair. - -"All right," he said. "You can turn back now." - -"Not bad," she smiled, looking him over. "Let me use that comb--and -would you please make me a dress? Size twelve, but see that the weight -goes in the right places." - - * * * * * - -On the third attempt he had the thing right--he had never realized how -deceptive the shapes of women could be--and then he made a pair of gold -sandals with high heels for her. - -"A little tight," she said, putting them on, "and not too practical -without sidewalks. But thanks much. This trick of yours really solves -the Christmas present problem, doesn't it?" Her dark hair was shiny in -the noon sun, and she looked very lovely and warm and human. - -"See if _you_ can create," he urged, anxious to share his startling new -ability with her. - -"I've already tried," she said. "No go. Still a man's world." - -He frowned. "How can I be absolutely sure you're real?" - -"That again? Do you remember creating me, Master?" she asked mockingly, -bending to loosen the strap on one shoe. - -"I had been thinking--about women," he said grimly. "I might have -created you while I was asleep. Why shouldn't my subconscious mind -have as much power as my conscious mind? I would have equipped you -with a memory, given you a background. You would have been extremely -plausible. And if my subconscious mind _did_ create you, then it would -make certain that my conscious mind would never know." - -"You're ridiculous!" - -"Because if my conscious mind knew," he went on relentlessly, "it -would reject your existence. Your entire function, as a creation of my -subconscious, would be to keep me from knowing. To prove, by any means -in your power, by any logic, that you were--" - -"Let's see you make a woman, then, if your mind is so good!" She -crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair, giving a single sharp -nod. - -"All right." He stared at the cave wall and a woman started to appear. -It took shape sloppily, one arm too short, legs too long. Concentrating -harder, he was able to make its proportions fairly true. But its eyes -were set at an odd angle; its shoulders and back were sloped and -twisted. He had created a shell without brains or internal organs, -an automaton. He commanded it to speak, but only gulps came from the -shapeless mouth; he hadn't given it any vocal apparatus. Shuddering, -he destroyed the nightmare figure. - -"I'm not a sculptor," he said. "Nor am I God." - -"I'm glad you finally realize that." - -"That still doesn't prove," he continued stubbornly, "that _you're_ -real. I don't know what my subconscious mind is capable of." - -"Make something for me," she said abruptly. "I'm tired of listening to -this nonsense." - -_I've hurt her feelings_, he thought. _The only other human on Earth -and I've hurt her._ He nodded, took her by the hand and led her -out of the cave. On the flat plain below he created a city. He had -experimented with it a few days back, and it was much easier this time. -Patterned after pictures and childhood dreams of the Thousand and One -Nights, it towered black and white and rose. The walls were gleaming -ruby, and the gates were of silver-stained ebony. The towers were red -gold, and sapphires glittered in them. A great staircase of milky -ivory climbed to the highest opal spire, set with thousands of steps -of veined marble. There were lagoons of blue water, and little birds -fluttered above them, and silver and gold fish darted through the still -depths. - -They walked through the city, and he created roses for her, white and -yellow and red, and gardens of strange blossoms. Between two domed -and spired buildings he created a vast pool of water; on it he put a -purple-canopied pleasure barge, loading it with every kind of food and -drink he could remember. - - * * * * * - -They floated across the lagoon, fanned by the soft breeze he had -created. - -"And all this is false," he reminded her after a little while. - -She smiled. "No it's not. You can touch it. It's real." - -"Will it be here after I die?" - -"Who cares? Besides, if you can do all this, you can cure any sickness. -Perhaps you can even cure old age and death." She plucked a blossom -from an over-hanging bough and sniffed its fragrance. "You could keep -this from fading and dying. You could probably do the same for us, so -where's the problem?" - -"Would you like to go away?" he said, puffing on a newly created -cigarette. "Would you like to find a new planet, untouched by war? -Would you like to start over?" - -"Start over? You mean.... Later perhaps. Now I don't even want to go -near the ship. It reminds me of the war." - -They floated on a little way. - -"Are you sure now that I'm real?" she asked. - -"If you want me to be honest, no," he replied. "But I want very much to -believe it." - -"Then listen to me," she said, leaning toward him. "I'm real." She -slipped her arms around his neck. "I've always been real. I always will -be real. You want proof? Well, I know I'm real. So do you. What more -can you ask?" - -He stared at her for a long moment, felt her warm arms around his neck, -listened to her breathing. He could smell the fragrance of her skin and -hair, the unique essence of an individual. - -Slowly he said, "I believe you. I love you. What--what is your name?" - -She thought for a moment. "Joan." - -"Strange," he said. "I always dreamed of a girl named Joan. What's your -last name?" - -She kissed him. - -Overhead, the swallows he had created--_his_ swallows--wheeled in wide -circles above the lagoon, his fish darted aimlessly to and fro, and his -city stretched, proud and beautiful, to the edge of the twisted lava -mountains. - -"You didn't tell me your last name," he said. - -"Oh, that. A girl's maiden name never matters--she always takes her -husband's." - -"That's an evasion!" - -She smiled. "It is, isn't it?" - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Proof of the Pudding, by Robert Sheckley - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PROOF OF THE PUDDING *** - -***** This file should be named 50844.txt or 50844.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/0/8/4/50844/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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