I Am Crying All Inside and Other Stories by Clifford D. Simak Page B
Authors: Clifford D. Simak
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with the stalks until I could use them to operate the ship.
You clowns out there, I said, better start right now to dig those burrows deeper because, so help me, Iâm coming back to get you. There couldnât no one do what theyâd done to me and get away with it.
I moved over a bit to get into the hatch and I found there was no way to get into the hatch. I was just a bit too big. Not very much, just a bit too big. I pushed and shoved. I twisted and turned every way I could. No matter what I did, the body was too big.
Planned, I thought. They never missed a lick. They hadnât overlooked a thing. Theyâd made me without arms and had the hatch all measured and made me just too bigânot too much too big, but just a shade too big. They had led me on and now they were rolling in their burrows laughing and the day would come when Iâd make them smart for that.
But that was an empty thought and I knew it was. There was no way that I could make them smart.
I wasnât going anywhere and I wasnât doing anything. I wasnât going to get into the ship and if I couldnât get into the ship, I wouldnât leave the planet. I hadnât any arms and I hadnât any head and since I didnât have a head, I hadnât any mouth. Without a mouth, how was a man to eat? Had they condemned me not only to being trapped upon this planet, but dying of starvation?
I climbed down to the ground, so shaken with fear and anger that I was extra careful in my climbing down for fear that I might slip and fall.
Once down I crouched beside the ship and tried to lay it all out in a row so I could have a look at it.
I wasnât human any more. Still human in my mind, of course, but certainly not in body. I was trapped upon the planet and would not be going back to the human race again. And even if I could, thereâd be a lot of things I couldnât do. Iâd never take a babe to bed again. Iâd never eat a steak. Iâd never have a drink. And my own people would either laugh at me or be scared of me and I couldnât quite make out which would be the worse.
It seemed incredible, on the face of it, that the lobsters would be able to do a thing like this. It didnât quite make sense that a tribe of prairie dogs that looked like something youâd expect upon your dinner plate could take a piece of brain and from it construct a new and living being. There was about them nothing that suggested such ability and knowledge, no trappings to indicate they were other than what they appeared to be, a species of creatures that had developed some intelligence, but had made no great cultural advances.
But appearances were wrong; there was no doubt of that. They had a culture and an ability and knowledgeâfar more of both of them than my psych testing had even hinted at. And that, of course, would be the way with a race like them. I hadnât based my conclusions upon fact, but on data they had fed me.
If they had this kind of culture, why were they hiding it? Why live in burrows? Why use a drill to start a fire? Why not a city? Why not a road? Why couldnât the crummy little stinkers at least act civilized?
The answer wasnât hard to find. If you act civilized, you stick out like a bandaged thumb. But if you lay doggo and act stupid, you got the edge. Anything that comes along will underestimate you and then you are in a good position to let them have it, right between the eyes. Maybe I hadnât been the first planet hunter to show up. Maybe there had been other planet hunters in the past. Maybe through the years these vicious little lobsters had figured out exactly how to deal with them.
Although what I couldnât figure out was why they didnât do it simple. Why all the fancy frills? When they killed a planet hunter why not let it go at that? Why did they have to bring him back to life and play silly games with him?
I crouched on the ground and looked across the
You clowns out there, I said, better start right now to dig those burrows deeper because, so help me, Iâm coming back to get you. There couldnât no one do what theyâd done to me and get away with it.
I moved over a bit to get into the hatch and I found there was no way to get into the hatch. I was just a bit too big. Not very much, just a bit too big. I pushed and shoved. I twisted and turned every way I could. No matter what I did, the body was too big.
Planned, I thought. They never missed a lick. They hadnât overlooked a thing. Theyâd made me without arms and had the hatch all measured and made me just too bigânot too much too big, but just a shade too big. They had led me on and now they were rolling in their burrows laughing and the day would come when Iâd make them smart for that.
But that was an empty thought and I knew it was. There was no way that I could make them smart.
I wasnât going anywhere and I wasnât doing anything. I wasnât going to get into the ship and if I couldnât get into the ship, I wouldnât leave the planet. I hadnât any arms and I hadnât any head and since I didnât have a head, I hadnât any mouth. Without a mouth, how was a man to eat? Had they condemned me not only to being trapped upon this planet, but dying of starvation?
I climbed down to the ground, so shaken with fear and anger that I was extra careful in my climbing down for fear that I might slip and fall.
Once down I crouched beside the ship and tried to lay it all out in a row so I could have a look at it.
I wasnât human any more. Still human in my mind, of course, but certainly not in body. I was trapped upon the planet and would not be going back to the human race again. And even if I could, thereâd be a lot of things I couldnât do. Iâd never take a babe to bed again. Iâd never eat a steak. Iâd never have a drink. And my own people would either laugh at me or be scared of me and I couldnât quite make out which would be the worse.
It seemed incredible, on the face of it, that the lobsters would be able to do a thing like this. It didnât quite make sense that a tribe of prairie dogs that looked like something youâd expect upon your dinner plate could take a piece of brain and from it construct a new and living being. There was about them nothing that suggested such ability and knowledge, no trappings to indicate they were other than what they appeared to be, a species of creatures that had developed some intelligence, but had made no great cultural advances.
But appearances were wrong; there was no doubt of that. They had a culture and an ability and knowledgeâfar more of both of them than my psych testing had even hinted at. And that, of course, would be the way with a race like them. I hadnât based my conclusions upon fact, but on data they had fed me.
If they had this kind of culture, why were they hiding it? Why live in burrows? Why use a drill to start a fire? Why not a city? Why not a road? Why couldnât the crummy little stinkers at least act civilized?
The answer wasnât hard to find. If you act civilized, you stick out like a bandaged thumb. But if you lay doggo and act stupid, you got the edge. Anything that comes along will underestimate you and then you are in a good position to let them have it, right between the eyes. Maybe I hadnât been the first planet hunter to show up. Maybe there had been other planet hunters in the past. Maybe through the years these vicious little lobsters had figured out exactly how to deal with them.
Although what I couldnât figure out was why they didnât do it simple. Why all the fancy frills? When they killed a planet hunter why not let it go at that? Why did they have to bring him back to life and play silly games with him?
I crouched on the ground and looked across the
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