Read Online Something Magic This Way Comes by Sarah A. Hoyt - Free Book Online

milled about idly and uneasily, their work done, or rather, left forever unfinished.
    They didn’t look at each other, or if they did, they spoke briefly and then parted, as if embarrassed by the one metaphor that had occurred to them all.
    In front of one of the old blast bunkers, a young woman and a middle-aged man sat feeding a milling band of cats from a small bag of treats.
    “Had this party once,” the man said. “We catered this six-foot sandwich with everything, nobody there keeping kosher, you know, and the only place to put it was on this table that had to be illuminated by this one spotlight recessed into the ceiling, no other lamps nearby. And just as I’m thinking, jeez this is creepy, somebody says, hey, everybody, come look at the spread. So they come in, and just naturally form a line and walk past. The viewing of the sandwich. No flowers, please, donations can be made to Subway.”
    “Well, it is a funeral, of course,” the woman said.
    She looked down quickly, as if searching for a distraction.
    A huge black cat batted and hissed to either side, and jumped for the bag.
    “Hey, greedy gut, there’s enough for everybody.”
    She looked at the assembly of cats. “Well, maybe not.” There were at least two dozen cats converging on them from all directions, some circling warily around the rocket; black, white, orange, gray, calico, tortoiseshell, long hairs, short hairs. They strutted with great aplomb, and there was no telling the long-feral from those who were only recently lost or abandoned.
    “Where do you think they all came from?” the man asked.
    She shook her blond head. “Nobody really knows. Dogs are just wolves that’ve got used to cadging meals, but cats were obviously developed, deliberately and carefully bred. But from what, we don’t know. Or why.” She handed the bag of treats to the man and pulled the big tomcat onto her lap. The cat made it clear he would have preferred to follow the treats.
    “The Egyptians did it, that’s the old story, though it’s doubtful it happened recently. There’s something knowing about cats, and something—lost, exiled.” She stroked the black cat’s muzzle, to approving purrs.
    “As if they remember who created them, and why, and only people have forgotten.”
    The man leaned a bit too far forward during this, listed just a bit too raptly. “I meant these cats in particular,” he said, smiling.
    She laughed in embarrassment. “From ship’s cats, if you’re to believe the locals. Unwanted kittens tossed out onto the docks after voyages, no more cats needed here, thank you. Spread out and went to work on the rats amid the docks. Moved into the gantries when they started launching rockets here. They seem to know the routine. You never find dead cats around the launch pads after the takeoffs.”
    “They’ll be even safer from now on,” the man said quietly. “And lots of rats to eat. It’ll look like some damned J. G. Ballard story, with the jungle growing in over the wreck of the space age.”
    “Might have been different if the space age hadn’t been run by governments. Leave the risks to anyone willing to take them, the rewards to anyone—”
    “Couldn’t have that, my dear.” He was smiling, rather bitterly. “Daddy knows best. Daddy blows up cities, Daddy culls our paycheck. If we didn’t fight for our liberty to explore, we didn’t deserve it.” He looked out over the water. “You can’t get home by the old highway. It’s falling into the ocean. There isn’t a major infrastructure that isn’t rotting. All our money gets taken to build weapons with nobody to use them against. Money to keep people from working. To keep farmers from growing cheap food. To keep kids from learning how to read.” There was now fear in his voice. “Tens of millions of people are waiting for their welfare checks, and soon some of those checks aren’t going to get written.”
    They watched the rocket slowly inch into the enormous hangar