Free Keep The Giraffe Burning by John Sladek Page B

ground beneath him seemed to go translucent, like the smoke of the cigarette he had just refused. George could almost make out words beneath the world.
    Finally Dave was cast up on a desert island. Though only a few yards in diameter, it featured a single palm tree against which he could rest, while he waited.

A G AME OF J UMP *
     
    Bill was in love with another woman, so he put an end to Clara, and to their two children, Dot and Eddie. Eddie had on a blue cap at the time and Dot had her doll with the red hair. Bill did not like to do this to them, but he had to. Dot and Eddie saw him do it to Clara, and there was nothing Bill could do about that, then.
    Bill put the blue cap on the back seat of his car, and he would not let Ann, the other woman, take it out. There was no way for Ann to ask him if the police would find out about this, and if she did ask him, Bill would only say no. Ann said nothing.
    They went to the farm, where Ann saw a black horse and a white cow. When she saw a pig, she said, I saw a pig make it with another pig once, and it was not very nice. I don’t like pigs. Could I have some milk?
    Bill went to ask the farm man for a cup of milk. When he had left her on her own, Ann said, I know, he did not do this thing for me. Nothing is any good any more.
    Here is your milk, said Bill, all at once right next to her. What was it you said just now?
    Nothing, dear. I wish we could go away to some other place, some new place, where we have never been before.
    We can, we can. Only I have to be back at work in a day two. The man I work for would not like it if I went away for a long time.
    They got back into the car and went to Ann’s place. A man from the police was by the door. Did you see a little boy? he asked. With a round head?
    No, said Bill, we did not. If we do, we will let you know.
    Do that, said the man, who was black. Do just that. Tell the police at once.
    We will, we will.
    Bill and Ann went into the house. Ann made them a drink, and then they went to bed.
    On the bus, Felix said to the woman he was sitting just back of, Do you see this?
    Yes, said Granada. She did not look so old in black.
    This is no toy. It don’t use caps. It says danger. I want you to get off the bus when I do, and don’t try any games. Come with me.
    Are you with the police?
    All of us are with the police, these days. Just do what I tell you, or it will be the end.
    Do you want me, is that it? All right, get it over with, she said.
    Nothing like that. I want to talk to you, that is all. You do what I say, now.
    It was all a game of jump, said Bill. I was in this new road, where all the men and every woman was new. I went to eat a rabbit egg, and all at once, it was a big, big apple cap. My lost love would call out to me from the window of the police station, but I had to learn how to get in to her.
    Then Daddy was at the window of the three o’clock train, saying danger, danger. The train fell from a new tree, and I saw it was Dot, my Dot She was my father, my train, see? That year the letters were big as dinner box picture, and today the wish woman came three times to ask my toy bus a Christmas day. It was only a baby now, and the door would not open. I did open the book of Ask-Me, and then I had to learn which Mummy to sing the time name thing to. All at once I went up, up, up.
    So you think, said Ann. We can get up now.
    They got out of bed and went out to buy a new car. It was green, and the old one was blue. They went to a café.
    The thing. is, Bill said, when they had sat down at a table by the window, many men do these things, and no one thinks a thing about it. I don’t talk of Clara and the children, but many a man, many a man had made his life over in one way or another. The sun is very hot at this table.
    It is always very hot, she said. Tell me, do you love me?
    More tea? said Bill. Or how about some apple jam?
    I feel like an egg.
    So do I. I am an egg, a rabbit egg, found under a tree.
    Stop. This is not the