Schizophrenic

By NOEL LOOMIS

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Thrilling Wonder Stories December 1948. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Tommie Bassford was concerned over the steady frown on his father's forehead and a little bit hurt because his father hadn't noticed him for at least an hour. At the age of three, Tommie didn't understand a lot of things, although sometimes he felt them very keenly. Sometimes a person's unpleasant mood would be more painful to him than a spanking—well, that is to say, an ordinary spanking.

He had heard his father say only last night, "It's a chance to make a million—if I can trust him. And it won't take but a month," he had said wistfully. "We could move up to the mountains or down to the seashore. You wouldn't have to worry about Tommie getting picked on by the big boys next door, and you wouldn't have to quit playing bridge to come home when you lose your five dollars." His father had looked at mother fondly. Then he had sobered. "The only thing is—if Pickens isn't on the level, then we can lose what little business we have, just as fast."

Tommie thought maybe he could help his father. He gathered up his whole sun-energy set from the center of the big front window where he liked best to play. He pulled it across the floor in quantum jerks, moving backward in a sitting position, pushing himself by digging his heels into the floor and then straightening his legs. That way he could make it all in one trip, hugging the sun-energy set to his stomach until he jammed his back against his father's chair.

He was disappointed that his father did not look down at him and perhaps pat him on the head. It was most unusual. But Tommie set up his blocks and then pressed the button and watched the reactions start all over again. He watched carbon 12 go into nitrogen and then into oxygen and then into nitrogen 15. Up to that point it went very well, but when those four hydrogen nuclei, represented by four glowing green balls, were supposed to combine into one helium nucleus, something went wrong. They didn't combine right. They smacked into each other with a violent report and disappeared.

At this moment Tommie's father came to life with a startled jump. He said a word that Tommie, at his age, had never yet dared to say except to himself, because even though he was a prodigy, his mother didn't allow him to say da— he caught it just in 

  P 1/10 next