Lafferty, R A - Continued on the Next Rock

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CONTINUED ON NEXT ROCK

R. A. Lafferty

Up in the Big Lime country there is an upthrust, a

chimney rock that is half fallen against a newer hill. It is

formed of what is sometimes called Dawson Sandstone

and is interlaced with tough shell. It was formed during

the glacial and recent ages in the bottomlands of Crow

Creek and Green River when these streams (at least five

times) were mighty rivers.

"The chimney rock is only a little older than mankind,

only a little younger than grass. Its formation had been

upthrust and then eroded away again, all but such harder

parts as itself and other chimneys and blocks.

A party of five persons came to this place where .the

chimney rock had fallen against a newer hill. The people

of the party did not care about the deep limestone below:

they were not geologists. They did care about the newer

hill (it was man-made) and they did care a little about

the rock chimney; they were archeologists.

Here was time heaped up, bulging out in casing and

accumulation, and not in line sequence. And here also

was striated and banded time, grown tail, and then shat-

tered and broken.

The five party members came to the site early in the

afternoon, bringing the working trailer down a dry creek

bed. They unloaded many things and made a camp there.

It wasn't really necessary to make a camp on the ground.

There was a good motel two miles away on the highway;

there was a road along the ridge above. They could have

lived in comfort and made the trip to the site in five

minutes every morning. Terrence Burdock, however, be-

lieved that one could not get the feel of a digging unless

he lived on the ground with it day and night.

The five persons were Terrence Burdock, his wife

Ethyl, Robert Derby, and Howard Steinleser: four beauti-

ful and balanced people. And Magdalen Mobley who

was neither beautiful nor .balanced. But she was electric;

she was special. They rouched around in the formations a

little after they had made camp and while there was still

light. All of them had seen the formations before and had

guessed that there was promise in them.

"That peculiar fluting in the broken chimney is almost

like a core sample," Terrence said, "and it differs from

the rest of it. It's like a lightning bolt through the whole

length. 'It's already exposed for us. I believe we will re-

move the chimney entirely. It covers the perfect access

for the slash in the mound, and it is the mound in which

we are really interested. But we'll study the chimney first.

It is so available for study."

"Oh, I can tell you everything that's in the chimney,"

Magdalen said crossly. "I can tell you everything that's

in the mound too."

'P wonder why we take the trouble to dig if you already

know what we will find," Ethyl sounded archly.

"I wonder too," Magdalen grumbled. "But we will need

the evidence and the artifacts to show. You can't get ap-

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file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/R.A.%20Lafferty%20-%20Continued%20on%20the%20Next%20Rock.txt

propriations without evidence and artifacts. Robert, go

kill that deer in the brush about forty yards northeast of

the chimney. We may as well have deer meat if we're

living primitive."

"This isn't deer season," Robert Derby objected. "And

there isn't any deer there. Or, if there is, it's down in the

draw where you couldn't see it. And if there's 'one there,

it's probably a doe."

"No, Robert, it is a two-year-old buck and a very big'

one. Of course it's in the draw where I can't see it.

Forty yards northeast of the chimney would have to be

in the draw. If I could see it, the rest of you could see it

too. Now go kill it! Are you a man or a mus microtus?

Howard, cut poles and set up a tripod to string and dress

the deer on."

"You had better try the thing, Robert," Ethyl Burdock

said, "or we'll have no peace this evening."

Robert Derby took a carbine and went northeastward

of the chimney, descending into the draw at forty yards.

There was the high ping of the carbine shot. And after

some moments, Robert returned with a curious grin.

"You didn't miss him, Robert, you killed him," Mag-

dalen called loudly. "You got him with a good shot

through the throat and up into the brain when he tossed

his head high like they do. Why didn't you bring him?

Go back and get him!"

"Get him? I couldn't even lift the thing. Terrence and

Howard, come with me and we'll slash it to a pole and get

it here somehow."

"Oh Robert, you're out of your beautiful mind," Mag-

dalen abided. "It only weighs a hundred 'and ninety

pounds. Oh, I'll get it."

Magdalen Mobley went and got the big buck. She

brought it back, carrying it listlessly across her shoulders

and getting herself bloodied, stopping sometimes to ex-

amine rocks and kick them with her foot, coming on

easily with her load. It looked as if it might weigh two

hundred and fifty pounds; but if Magdalen said it weighed

a hundred and ninety, that is what it weighed.

Howard Steinleser had out poles 'and made a tripod.

He knew better 'than not to. They strung 'the buck up,

skinned it off, ripped up its belly, drew lit, and worked

it over in an almost professional manner.

"Cook it. Ethyl," Magdalen said.

Later, as they sat on the ground around the fire and

it had turned dark. Ethyl brought the buck's brains to

Magdalen, messy and not half cooked, believing that she

was playing an evil trick. And Magdalen ate them avidly.

They were her due. She had discovered the buck.

If you wonder how Magdalen knew what invisible

things were where, so did the other members of the party

always wonder.

"It bedevils me sometimes why I am the only one to

notice the analogy between historical geology and depth

psychology," Terrence Burdock mused .as they grew lightly

profound around the campfire. "The isostatic principle

applies to the mind and the under-mind as well as it

does to the surface and undersurface of the earth. The

mind has its erosions and weatherings going on along with

its deposits and accumulations. It also has its upthrusts

and its stresses. It floats on a similar magma. In extreme

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