BRAMBLE BUSH
BY ALAN E. NOURSE
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, August 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Dr. David Lessing found Jack Dorffman and the boy waiting in his officewhen he arrived at the Hoffman Center that morning. Dorffman looked asthough he'd been running all night. There were dark pouches under hiseyes; his heavy unshaven face seemed to sag at every crease. Lessingglanced sharply at his Field Director and sank down behind his deskwith a sigh. "All right, Jack—what's wrong?"
"This kid is driving me nuts," said Dorffman through clenched teeth."He's gone completely hay-wire. Nobody's been able to get near himfor three weeks, and now at six o'clock this morning he decides he'sleaving the Farm. I talk to him, I sweat him down, I do everything buttie him to the bed, and I waste my time. He's leaving the Farm. Period."
"So you bring him down here," said Lessing sourly. "The worst place hecould be, if something's really wrong." He looked across at the boy."Tommy? Come over and sit down."
There was nothing singular about the boy's appearance. He was thin,with a pale freckled face and the guileless expression of any normaleight-year-old as he blinked across the desk at Lessing. The awkwardgrey monitor-helmet concealed a shock of sandy hair. He sat with a muteappeal in his large grey eyes as Lessing flipped the reader-switch andblinked in alarm at the wildly thrashing pattern on the tape.
The boy was terrorized. He was literally pulsating with fear.
Lessing sat back slowly. "Tell me about it, Tommy," he said gently.
"I don't want to go back to the Farm," said the boy.
"Why?"
"I just don't. I hate it there."
"Are you frightened?"
The boy bit his lip and nodded slowly.
"Of me? Of Dr. Dorffman?"
"No. Oh, no!"
"Then what?"
Again the mute appeal in the boy's eyes. He groped for words, and nonecame. Finally he said, "If I could only take this off—" He fingeredthe grey plastic helmet.
"You think that would make you feel better?"
"It would, I know it would."
Lessing shook his head. "I don't think so, Tommy. You know what themonitor is for, don't you?"
"It stops things from going out."
"That's right. And it stops things from going in. It's an insulator.You need it badly. It would hurt you a great deal if you took it off,away from the Farm."
The boy fought back tears. "But I don't want to go back there—" Thefear-pattern was alive again on the tape. "I don't feel good there. Inever want to go back."
"Well, we'll see. You can stay here for a while." Lessing nodded atDorffman and stepped into an adjoining room with him. "You say this hasbeen going on for three weeks?"
"I'm afraid so. We thought it was just a temporary pattern—we see somuch of that up there."
"I know, I know." Lessing chewed his lip. "I don't like it. We'd betterset up a battery on him and try t