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BY THE FALLS

Harry Harrison

It was the rich damp grass, slippery as soap, covering the
path, that caused .Carter to keep slipping and falling, not
the steepness of the hill. The front of his raincoat was wet
'and his knees were muddy long before be reached the
summit. And with each step forward and upward the
continuous roar of sound grew louder. He was hot and
tired by the time he reached the top of the ridge--yet he
instantly forgot his discomfort as he looked out across
the wide bay.
Like everyone else he had heard about The Falls since
childhood 'and had seen countless photographs and films
of them 'on television. AU this preparation had not readied
him for the impact of reality.
He saw a falling ocean, a vertical river--how many
millions of gallons a second did people say came down?
The Falls stretched out across the bay, their farthest
reaches obscured by the clouds of floating spray. The 'bay
seethed and boiled with the impact of that falling weight,
raising foam-capped waves that crashed against the rocks
below. Carter could feel the impact of the water on the
solid 'stone as a vibration in ~he ground but all sound
was swallowed up in the greater roar of The Falls. This
was a reverberation so outrageous and overpowering that
his ears could not become accustomed to it. They soon
felt numbed from the ceaseless impact but the very bones
of the skull carried the sound to his brain, shivering and
battering it. When he put his bands over 'his ears he was
horrified to discover that The Falls were still as loud as
ever. As he stood swaying and wide-eyed one of the con-
stantly changing air currents that formed 'about the base
of The Falls shifted suddenly and swept a wall of spray
down upon him. The inundation lasted scant seconds but
was heavier than any rainfall he bad ever experienced,
had ever believed possible. When it passed he was gasping
for air, so dense had been the falling water.
Quivering with sensations he had never before expe-
rienced, Canter turned and looked along the ridge toward
the gray and waiter-blackened granite of the cliff and the
house that huddled at its base like a stony blister. It was
built of the same granite as the cliff and appeared no less
solid. Running and slipping, 'his hands still over 'his ears,
Carter hurried toward the house.
For a short 'time the spray was blown across the bay
and out to sea, so that golden afternoon sunlight poured
down 'on the house, starting streamers of vapor from its
sharply sloping roof. It was a no-nonsense building, as
solid as the rock against which it pressed. Only two win-
dows penetrated the blankness of 'the front that faced
The Falls--tiny and deep, they were like little suspicious
eyes. No door existed here but Carter saw that a path of
stone flags led around the corner.
He followed it and found set into the wall 'on the far
side, away from The Falls--a small and deep-set entry. It
had no arch but was shielded by a great stone lintel a
good two feet in diameter. Carter stepped into the opening
that framed the door and looked in vain for a knocker on
the heavy, iron-bolted timbers. The unceasing, world-
filling, thunder of The Falls made thinking almost impos-
sible and it was only after he had pressed uselessly against
the sealed portal that he realized that no knocker, even
one 'as loud as cannon, could be heard within 'these walls
above that sound. He lowered his bands and tried to force
his mind to coherence.
There had to be some way of announcing his presence.
When be stepped back out of 'the alcove he noticed that
a rusty iron knob was set into the wall a few feet away.
He seized and twisted it but it would not turn. However,
when he pulled on it, although it resisted, 'he was able
to draw it slowly away from the wall to disclose a length
of chain. The chain was heavily greased and in good
conditional fair omen. He continued to pull until a yard
of chain emerged from the opening and then, no matter
how hard he pulled, no more would come. He released
the handle and it bounced against the rough stone of the
wall. For some instants it hung there. Then with a jerky
mechanical motion, the chain was drawn back into the
wall until the knob once more rested in place.
5r
Whatever device this odd mechanism activated seemed
to perform its desired function. In less than a minute the
heavy door swung open and a man appeared in the open-
ing. He examined his visitor wordlessly.
The man was much like the building and the cliffs be-
hind it solid, no-nonsense, worn, lined and graying. But
he had resisted the years even as he showed 'their marks
upon him. His back was as straight as any young man's
and his knob-knuckled hands bad a look of determined
strength. Blue were his eyes and very much the color of
the water falling endlessly, thunderously, on the far side
of the building. He wore knee-high fisherman's boots,
plain corduroy pants and a soiled gray sweater. His face
did not change expression as he waved Carter into the
building.
When the thick door had 'been swung shut and the
many sealing bars shoved back into place the silence in
the house took on a quality of its own. Carter had known
absence of sound elsewhere here was a positive state-
ment of no-sound, a bubble of peace pushed right up
against the very base of the all-sound of The Falls. He
was momentarily deafened and he knew it. But he was
not so deaf that he did not know that the hammering
thunder of The Falls bad 'been shut 'outside. The other
man must have sensed how 'his visitor felt. He nodded in
a reassuring manner as he took Carter's coat, then painted
to a comfortable chair set by the deal table near the fire.
Carter sank gratefully into the cushions. His host turned
away and vanished, to return a moment later with a tray
bearing a decanter and two glasses. He poured a measure
of wine into each glass and set one down before Carter,
who nodded and seized it 'in both hands to steady their
shaking. After a first large gulp he sipped at it while the
tremors died and his hearing slowly returned. His host
moved about the room on various tasks and presently
Carter found himself much recovered. He looked up.
"I must thank you for your hospitality. When I came
in I was shaken."
"How are you now? Has the wine helped?" the man
said loudly, almost shouting, and Carter realized that his
own words bad not 'been heard. Of course, the man must
be hard of hearing. It was a wonder he was not stone deaf.
"Very good, thank you," Carter shouted back. "Very
kind of you indeed. My name is Carter, I'm a reporter,
which is why I have come to see you."
The man nodded, smiling slightly.
"My name is Bodum. You must know that 'if you have
come here to talk to me. You write for the newspaper?"
"I was sent here." Carter coughed the shouting was
irritating his throat. "And I of course know you, Mr.
Bodum--that is I know you by reputation. You're the
Man by The Falls."
"Forty-three years now," Bodum said with solid pride,
"I've lived here and have never been away for a single
night. Not that it has been easy. When 'the wind is wrong
the spray is blown over the house for days and it is hard
to breathe--even the fire goes out. I built the chimney
myself--there is a bend part way up with baffles and
doors. The smoke goes up but if water comes down the
baffles stop it and its weight opens the doors and it drains
away through a pipe to the outside. I can show you Where
it drains--black with soot the wall is there."
While Bodum talked Carter looked 'around the room at
the dim furniture shapes barely seen in the wavering light
from the fire and at the two windows set into the wall.
"Those windows," he said. "You put them in yourself?
May I look out?"
"Took a year apiece, each one. Stand 'on that bench.
It will bring you to the right level. They're armored glass,
specially made, 'solid as the wall around 'them now that
I have them anchored well. Don't be afraid. Go right up
to it. The window's safe. Look how 'the glass is anchored."
Carter was not looking at the glass but at The Falls
outside. He had not realized how close the building was
to 'the falling water. It was perched on the very edge of
the diff and nothing was to be seen from this vantage
point except the wall of blackened wet granite to his right
and the foaming maelstrom of the bay far below. And
before him, above him, filling space, The Falls. All the
thickness of wall and glass could not cut out their sound
completely and when he touched the heavy pane with his
fingertips he could feel The vibration of the waiter's impact.
The window did not lessen the effect The Falls had
upon him but it enabled him to stand and watch 'and
think, as he had been unable to do on the outside. It
was very much like 'a peephole into a holocaust of water
a window into a cold hell. He could watch without being
destroyed--but the fear of what was on the other side did
not lessen. Something black flickered in the falling water
and was gone.
"There--did you see that," he called out. "Something
came down The Falls. What could it possibly 'be?"
Bodum nodded wisely. "Over forty years I have been
here and I can show you what comes down The Falls."
He thrust a splint into the fire and lit a lamp from it.
Then, picking up the lamp, he waved Carter after ham.
They crossed tube room and he held the light to a large
glass 'bell jar.
"Must be twenty years ago it washed up 'on the .shore.
Every bone in its body 'broke too. Stuffed and mounted
it myself."
Carter pressed close, looking at the staring shoe-button
eyes and the gaping jaws 'and pointed teeth. The .limbs
were 'stiff and unnatural, the body under 'the fur 'bulging
in the wrong places. Bodum was by no means a skillful
taxidermist. Yet, perhaps 'by accident, he had captured a
look of terror in the animal's expression and stance.
"It's a dog," Carter said. "Very much Ike other dogs."
Bodum was offended, his voice as cold as shout can
be. "Like them, perhaps, but not of them. 'Every 'bone
broken I told you. How else could a dog have appeared
here in this bay?"
"I'm sorry, I did not mean to suggest for an instant
Down The Falls, of course. I just meant it is so much
like the dogs we have that perhaps there is a whole new
world up there. Dogs and everything, just like ours."
"I never speculate," Bodum said, mollified. "I'll make
some coffee."
He took the lamp to the stove and Carter, left 'alone in
the partial darkness went back to 'the window. It drew
him. "I must ask you some questions for my article," he
said but did not speak loudly enough for Bodum to hear.
Everything he bad meant to do here seemed irrelevant as
he looked out at The Falls. The wind shifted. The spray
was briefly blown clear and The Falls were once more a
mighty river coming down from the sky. When he canted
his head he .saw exactly as if he were looking across a
river.
And there, upstream, a ship appeared, a large liner with
rows of portholes. It sailed the surface of .the river faster
than ship had ever sailed before and he had to jerk his
bead to follow its motion. When it passed, no more than
a few hundred yards away, for one instant he could see
it clearly. The people aboard it were banging to the rails,
some with their mouths open as though shouting in fear.
Then it was gone and there was only the water, rushing
endlessly by.
"Did you see it?" Carter shouted, spinning about.
"The coffee will be ready soon."
"There, out there," Carter cried, taking Bodum by the
arm. "In The Falls. It was a ship, I swear it was, falling
from up above. With people on it. There must be a whole
world up there that we know nothing about."
Bodum reached up to the shelf for a cup, breaking
Carter's grip with the powerful movement of his arm.
"My dog came down The Falls. I found it and stuffed
it myself."
"Your dog, of course, I'll not deny that. But there were
people on that ship and I'll swear--I'm not mad--that
their skins were a different color from ours."
"Skin is skin, just skin color."
"I know. That is what we have. But it must be possible
for skims to be other colors, even if we don't know about
it."
"Sugar?"
"Yes, please. Two."
Carter sipped at the coffee-it was strong and warm. In
spite of himself he was drawn back to the window. He
looked out and sipped at the coffee--and started when
something black and formless came down. And other
things. He could not tell what they were because the spray
was blowing toward the house again. He tasted grounds
at the bottom of 'his cup 'and left the last sips. He put 'the
cup carefully aside.
Again the eddying wind currents shifted the screen of
spray to one side just in time for him to see another of
the objects go by.
"That was a house! I saw it as clearly as I see this one.
But wood perhaps, not stone, and smaller. And black as
though it had been partially burned. Come look, there
may be more."
Bodum banged the pot as he rinsed it out in the sink.
"What do your newspapers want to know about me?
Over forty years here--there are a lot of things I can tell
you about."
"What is up there above The Falls--on top of the cliff?
Do people live up 'there? Can there be a whole world up
there of which we live 'in total ignorance?"
Bodum hesitated, frowned in thought before he an-
swered.
"I believe they have do~ up there."
"Yes," Carter answered, hammering Ms fist on 'the
window ledge, not knowing whether to smile or cry. The
water fell by; the floor and walls shook with the power of
it.
"There--more and more things going by." He spoke
quietly, to himself. "I can't tell what they are. That--that
could have 'been a tree 'and that a bit of fence. The smaller
ones may be bodies--animals, logs, anything. There is a
different world above The Falls and in that world some-
thing terrible is happening. And we don't even know
about it. We don't even know that world is there."
He struck again and again on the stone until his fist
hunt.
The sun 'shone on the water 'and he saw the change,
just here and there at first, an altering and shifting.
"Why--the water seems to be changing color. Pink it
is--no, red. More and more of it. There, for an instant, it
was all red. The color of blood."
He spun about to face the dim room and tried to smile
but his lips were drawn back hard from his teeth when he
did.
"Blood? Impossible. There can't be that much blood in
the whole world. What is happening up there? What is
happening?"
His scream did not disturb Bodum, who only nodded
has head in agreement.
"111 show you something,"' he said. "But only if you
promise not to write about it. People might laugh at me.
I've been here over forty years and that is nothing to
laugh about."
"My word of honor, not a word. Just show me. Perhaps
it has something to do with what is happening."
Bodum took down a heavy bible and opened it on the
table next to the lamp. It was set in very black type,
serious and impressive. He turned pages until he came to
a piece of very ordinary paper.
"I found this on the shore. During the winter. No one
had been here for months. It may have come over The
Falls. Now I'm not saying it did--but it is possible. You
will agree it is possible?"
"Oh, yes--quite possible. How else could it have come
here?" Carter reached out and touched it. "I agree, or-
dinary paper. Torn on one edge, wrinkled where it was
wet and then dried." He turned it over. "There is lettering
on the other 'aide."
"Yes. But it is meaningless. It is no word I know."
"Nor I, and I speak four languages. Could it have a
meaning?"
"Impossible. A word like that."
"No human language." He shaped his lips 'and spoke
the letters aloud. "Aich--Eee--Ell--Pea."
"What could HELP mean," Bodum shouted, louder
than ever. "A child scribbled it. Meaningless." He seized
the paper and crumpled it and threw it into the fire.
"You'll want to write a story about me," he said proud-
ly. "I have 'been here over forty years, and if there is one
man in the entire world who is an authority on The Falls
it is me.
"I know everything that there is to know about them."