Mind Webs - The Meeting

A surreal sci-fi series exploring speculative concepts, dreams, and philosophical what-ifs. Each episode is a cerebral journey into the mind’s deepest questions.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
The Welcome to a half hour of mind webs short

(01:40):
stories from the worlds of speculative fiction. This is Michael Anson.
The mind web story for this half hour was first
published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction November

(02:01):
of nineteen seventy two. This is the Meeting, written by
Frederick Pohle and C. M. Cornblooth. Harry Vladdock was too
large a man for his volksflogging, but he was too
poor a man to trade it in, and as things
were going, he was going to stay that way a
long time. He applied the brakes carefully while he parked

(02:23):
in a neatly graveled lot and squeezed out of the door.
The upsetting telephone call from doctor Nicholson on his mind,
he locked the car up and went into the school building.
The Parent Teachers Association of the Bingham County School for
Exceptional Children was holding its first meeting of the term.
Of the twenty people already there, Vlodick knew only missus Adler,

(02:46):
the principal or head mistress or owner of the school.
She was the one he needed to talk to most,
he thought, would there be any chance to see her privately?
Right now? She sat across the room at her scuffed
golden oak desk and impossible chair, talking in low, rapid
tones of the gray haired woman in a tan suit.
A teacher. She seemed too old to be apparent, although

(03:07):
his wife had told him some of the kids seemed
to be twenty or more. It was eight thirty and
the parents were still driving up to the school, a
converted building that had once been a big country house,
almost a mansion. The living room was full of elegant
reminders of that. Two chandeliers, intricate vine leaf molding on
the plaster above the dropped ceiling, the pink veined white

(03:30):
marble fireplace, unfortunately prominent because of the unsuitable and irons,
too cheap and too small, that now stood in its
golden oaks, sliding double doors to the hall, invisible through them,
a grim fireproof staircase of concrete and steel. They must
Eulodic thought. They must have had to rip out a

(03:50):
beautiful wooden thing to install the fireproof stairs for compliance
of the state's school laws. People kept coming in, single men,
single women occasionally a He wondered how the couples managed
their babysitting problem. The subtitle on the school's letterhead was
an institution for emotionally disturbed and cerebrably damaged children capable

(04:12):
of education. Harry's nine year old Thomas was one of
the emotionally disturbed ones. With a taste of envy, he
wondered if cerebbly damaged children could be babysat by any
reasonably competent grown up. Thomas could not. The Vlottics had
not had an evening not together since he was two,

(04:33):
so that tonight Margaret was holding the fort at home
without worrying herself sick about the call from doctor Nicholson,
while Harry was representing the family at the PTA. As
the room filled up, chairs were getting scarce, A young
couple was standing at the end of a row near him,
looking around for a pair of empty seats. Here, he
said to them, here, I'll move over. The woman smiled

(04:56):
politely and the man said thanks. Emboldened by n ashtray
on the empty seat in front of him, Harry pulled
out his pack of cigarettes and offered it to them,
but it turned out they were non smokers. Harry lit
up anyway, listening to what was going on around him.
Everybody was talking. Harry finally said to the young man
next to him. Uh, my name's Vlodick. I'm Tommy's father.

(05:20):
He's in the beginner's group. That's where ours is, said
the young man. He's burned, six years old, blonde like me.
Maybe you've seen him. Harry did not try very hard
to remember the two or three times he had picked
Tommy up after class. He had not been able to
tell one child from another. In the great bustle of
departure coats, handkerchiefs, hats, one little girl who always hid

(05:43):
in the supply closet, and a little boy who never
wanted to go home and hung on to the teacher.
The young man introduced himself and his wife. They were
named Murray and Celia Logan. Harry leaned over the man
to shake the wife's hand, and she said, aren't you
new here? Yes, Tommy's been in the school a month.
We moved in from Elmira to be near it. Tommy's nine.

(06:07):
But the reason he's in the beginners group is that well,
missus Adler thought it would make the adjustment easier. Logan
pointed to a sun tanned man in the first row.
You see that fellow with the glasses. He moved here
from Texas. Of course he's got money. It must be
a good place. Logan grinned, his expression, a little nervous.

(06:31):
How's your son, bloody cast? Well, that little rascal, you know,
last week I got him another copy of My Fair
Lady album. I guess he's used up four or five
of them already. He goes around singing, you know, loverly, loverly.
But look at you. No, mine doesn't talk, said Harry.

(06:53):
Missus Logan said, judiciously, Well, our his talks not to
anybody though, like a wall. Yeah, I know, has has
your vern showed much improvement? You know? With a school
Mary Logan pursed his lips. I would say, yes, the

(07:17):
bead wedding's not too good, you know, but life's a
great deal smoother in some ways, you know. You don't
hope for a dramatic breakthrough, but in little things, day
by day it goes smoother, mostly smoother. Of course, there setbacks.
Harry nodded, thinking of seven years of setbacks in two

(07:39):
years of growing worry and puzzlement. Before that, he said,
Missus Antler told me that, for example, a special outbreak
of destructiveness might mean something like a plateau in speech therapy,
so the child fights it and breaks out in some
other direction. That too, said logan, Yes, but what I meant, Oh,

(08:01):
they're starting. Vlodick nodded, studying out his cigarette and absent
mindedly lighting another. His stomach was not enough. Again, he
wondered at these other parents who seemed so safe and
well untouched. Wasn't it the same with them as with
Margaret and himself, And it had been a long time

(08:22):
since either of them had felt the world comfortable around them,
even without doctor Nicholson. Pressing for a decision, he forced
himself to lean back and look as tranquil as the others.
Missus Adler was tapping her desk for the ruler. I
think everybody who is coming is here, she said, and
leaned against the desk and waited for the room to

(08:44):
quiet down. She was short, dark, plump, and surprisingly pretty.
She did not look at all like a combetant professional.
She looked so unlike her role that, in fact, Harry's
heart had sunk three months ago, when their correspondence about
admitting Tommy had been climaxed by the long trip from
Almira for the interview. He had expected a steel gray

(09:04):
lady with rimless glasses of vultey in a white smock,
like the nurse who had held wriggling, screaming Tommy while
waiting for this suppository to quiet him down. For his
first eg a disheveled old fraud. He didn't know what
anything except this pretty young woman. Another blind alley, he
had thought in despair, another after a hundred too many already.

(09:26):
First was wait for him to outgrow it. He doesn't,
and then we must reconcile ourselves to God's will, but
you don't want to. Then give him the prescription three
times a day for three months and it doesn't work.
Then chase around for six months with a child guidance
clinic to find out it's only letterheads and one circuit

(09:49):
writing doctor who doesn't have time for anything. And then
after four dreary, weepy weeks of soul searching the state
training school and find out it has an eight year
wait list. Then the private custodial school and find there
fifty five hundred dollars a year without medical treatment. And
where do you get fifty five hundred dollars a year?

(10:11):
And all the time everybody warns you as if you
didn't know it hurry, do something, catch it early. This
is the critical stage. DeLay's fatal. And then this soft
looking little woman, how could she do anything? She had
rapidly shown him how she had questioned Margaret and Harry
incisively turned to Tommy rampaging through that same room like

(10:33):
a rogue bull, and turned his rampage into a game.
In three minutes, he was happily experimenting with an indestructible
old wind up cabinet patrolla, and Missus Adler was saying
to the Vlodics, don't count on a miracle cure. There
isn't any but improvements. Yes, and I think we can
help Tommy. Perhaps she had thought Vlodic greekly. Perhaps she

(10:58):
was helping as much as anyone ever could. Meanwhile, Missus
Adler had quickly and pleasantly welcomed the parents, suggested they
remain for coffee and get to know each other, and
introduced the PTA president and Missus rose to all prematurely
gray and very executive. This being the first meeting of
the term, She said, there are no minutes to be read,

(11:21):
so we'll get to the committee work reports. What about
the transportation problem, mister Behar the man who got up
was old more than sixty. Harry wondered what it was
like to have your live crowned with a late retarded child.
He wore all the trappings of success of four hundred
dollars suit and an electronic wrist watch, a large gold

(11:42):
fraternal ring, and in a slight German accent, he said,
I was to the district school board and they are
not cooperating. My lawyer looked it up in the trouble
is all one word of what the law says the
school board may. That is the word may reimburrass parents

(12:03):
have handicapped children for transportation to private schools, Not shall
you understand, but may. They were very frank with me.
They said they just did not want to spend the money.
They have the impression we are all rich people. Here
slight sour laughter around the room. So my lawyer made

(12:27):
an appointment and we appeared before the full board and
presented the case. We don't care reimbursement a school bus, anything,
so we can relieve the transportation burden a little. And
the answer was no. He shrugged and remained standing, looking
at missus Rose, who said, thank you, mister Bhaer. Does

(12:48):
anyone have any suggestions, and one woman said, angrily put
some heat on him. We're all voters. And a man said, publicity,
that's right. The principal's per quickly, Claire. In the law,
a one taxpayer's child is a paused to get the
same service as another taxpayer's child. We ought to write
writers to the papers. Mister Bear said, wait a minute.

(13:11):
Letters I don't think mean anything, but I've got the
public relations firm, and I'll tell them to take a
little time off my food specialties and use it for
the school. They can use their own know how how
to do it. They're experts. This was moved, seconded, and passed,
while Murray Logan whispered to Vlodig, he's a Mary Jane

(13:34):
garlic mayonnaise. He had a twelve year old girl in
very bad shape that missus Adler helped in her old
private class. He bought this building for her, along with
a couple of other parents. Mary Vlotdick was musing over
how it felt to be a parent who could buy
a building for a school that would help your child
while the committee reports continued. Sometime later, to Harry's dismay,

(13:55):
the business turned to financing and there was a vote
to hold a fund raising theater party, for which each
couple with a child in the school would have to
sell at least five pairs of orchestra septs at sixty
dollars a pair. Now, let's get this string out right now,
he thought, and put up his hand. My name's Harry Vlottick,
and well I'm brand new here in the school and

(14:18):
in the county. I work for a big insurance company
and I was lucky enough to get a transfer here
so my boy can go to the school. But look,
I just don't know anybody yet that I can sell
tickets to for sixty dollars. It's an awful lot of
money for my kind of people, missus Rose told him,
it's an awful lot of money for most of us.

(14:39):
You can get rid of your tickets, so we've got to.
It doesn't matter if you try one hundred people in
ninety five say no, just as long as the others
say yes. Vlodick sat down already calculating, Well, there's mister
crime at the office. He was a bachelor. He did
go to the theater, maybe work up an office raffle
for another pair or two pairs, And then there was
let's see the real the state dealer who had sold

(15:01):
them the house. There was a lawyer they'd used for
the closing. Well, it had been explained to him that
the tuition well decidedly not nominal, eighteen hundred dollars a year,
in fact, did not cover the cost per child. Somebody
had to pay for the speech therapist, the dance therapist,
the full time psychologist, and the part time psychiatrist and

(15:21):
all the others. And it might as well be mister
Crin at the office and the lawyer. And half an
hour later, Missus Rose looked at the agenda, checked off
an it him and said, that seems to be all
for tonight. Mister and missus Perry brought us some very
nice cookies, and we all know that Missus Howe's coffee
is out of this world. There in the Beginner's room,
and we hope you'll all stay to get acquainted. The

(15:44):
meeting is adjourned. Harry and the Logans joined the polite
surge to the Beginner's room, where Tommy spent his mornings.
There's miss Hackett, said Celia Logan. That was the beginner's teacher.
She saw them and came over smiling, Harry had seen
her only in a tent like smock, her armor against
chocolate milk Flinger paints in the sudden jets from the

(16:06):
water play corner of the room. Without it, she was
handsomely middle aged in a green pantsuit. I'm glad you
parents have met, she said. I wanted to tell you
that your little boys are getting along very nicely. They're
forming a sort of conspiracy against the others in the class.
Burns wipes their toys, He gives them the Tommy he does,

(16:28):
cried Logan. Yes, indeed, I think he's beginning to relate.
And mister Vladik, Tommy's taken his thumb out of his
mouth for minutes at a time, at least half a
dozen times this morning without my saying a word. You know,
I thought I noticed he was sort of tapering off.
I couldn't be sure, you're positive about that absolutely, And

(16:48):
I bluffed him into drawing a face. He gave me
that glare of his when the others were drawing, So
I started to take the paper away. He grabbed it
back and scribbled a kind of picasso ish face in
one second flat. I wanted to save it for missus
Bloddeck and you. But Tommy got it and shredded it
in that methodical way he has. I wish, I wish

(17:09):
I could have seen it. Well, there'll be others. I
can see the prospect of real improvement in your boys.
I have a private case afternoons. That's really tricky. A
nine year old boy like you were. Tommy, he's not
bad except for one thing. He thinks Donald Duck is
not to get him. His parents somehow managed to convince
themselves for two years that he was kidding them, in

(17:30):
spite of three broken TV picture tubes. Then they went
to a psychiatrist and learned the score. Oh excuse me,
I want to talk to missus. Adler Logan shook his
head and said, you know, I guess we could be
worse off lotock Vern giving something to another boy. How
do you like that? And did you hear about that

(17:51):
other boy? Poor kid? When I hear something like that.
And then there was the bear girl. I always think
it's worse when it's a little girl, because you know,
you worry with little girls that somebody will take advantage.
But our boys will make out. Bloddock. You heard what
miss Hackett said. Harry was suddenly impatient to get home
to his wife. I don't think I'll stay for coffee

(18:15):
or do they expect you to no, no leave when
you like I have a half hour drive. And he
went through the golden oak doors, past the ugly but
fireproof staircase, out into the graveled parking lot. His real
reason was that he wanted very much to get home
before Margaret fell asleep, so he could tell her about

(18:36):
the thumb sucking. Things were happening, definite things after only
a month, and Tommy, Tommy drew a face, and Miss
Hackett said he stopped in the middle of the lot.
He had remembered about Dr Nicholson. And besides, what was
it exactly that Miss Hackett had said? Anything about a
normal life, not anything about a cure, real improvement, she

(18:58):
had said, but improvement? How far? He lit a cigarette,
turned and plowed his way back through the parents to
missus Odler. Missus Odler, may I see you just for
a moment? She came with him, immediately out of your
shot of the others. Did you enjoy the meeting, mister Vladdok? Oh, yeah,
but what I wanted to see you about is that well,

(19:21):
I have to make a decision. I don't know what
to do. I don't know who to go to. It
would help a lot if you could tell me, well,
what are Tommy's chances? She waited a moment before she responded,
are you considering committing in, mister Vladdock. No, it's not
that exactly. It's well, what can you tell me, missus Odler?

(19:44):
I know a month isn't much, but is he ever
going to be like everybody else? He could see from
her face that she had done this before and hated it,
She said, patiently. Everybody else, mis Vladik, includes some terrible
people who just don't happen technically to be handicapped. Our

(20:05):
objective is not to make Tommy like everybody else. It's
just to help him become the best and most rewarding
Tommy Vlodik. He can, yes, but what's going to happen
later on? I mean if Margaret and I, if anything
happens to us, there's simply no way to know, mister Vlodoc.
I wouldn't give up hope, but I can't tell you

(20:27):
to expect miracles. Margaret was not asleep. She was waiting

(20:50):
up for him in the small living room of the
small new house. How was he, Vlotti asked, as each
of them had asked the other in return, I mean
home for seven years. She looked as though she had
been crying, but she was calm enough and said, oh,
not too bad. I had to lie down with him
to get him to go to bed. He took his

(21:10):
gland gunk well though he licked the spoon. That's good.
And he told her about the drawing of the face,
about the conspiracy with little Vernon Logan, and about the
thumb sucking. He could see how pleased she was, but
she only said. Doctor Nicholson called again. I told him

(21:31):
not to bother you. He didn't bother me, Harry. He
was very nice. I promised him that you'd call back.
It's eleven o'clock, Margaret, ah sees, I'll call him in
the morning. No, I said, tonight, no matter what time.
He's waiting, and he said to be sure and reverse
the charges. I wish I'd never answered the son of
a Bitch's letter, Margaret, is there any coffee? I didn't

(21:52):
stay for it at the school. She had put the
water on the boil when she heard the car whine
into the driveway, and the instant coffee was ready in
the cup. She poured it and said, you have to
talk to Mary. He has to know tonight, no tonight,
no to night. What do you want me to do, Margaret?
How do I make a decision like this today? I

(22:12):
picked up the phone and called the company psychologist, and
when a secretary anstey, I said I had the wrong number.
I didn't know what to say to him. I'm not
trying to press you, Harry, but he has to know.
Vlodig put down the cup and lit his fiftieth cigarette
of the day. The little dining room, it wasn't that
it was half breakfast alcohol off the tiny kitchen, but

(22:34):
they called it a dining room, even to each other.
The little dining room was full of Tommy. The new
paint on the wall where Tommy had peeled off the
cups and spoons, wallpaper, but tommy proof latch on the stove,
the one odd aqua seat that didn't match the others
on the kitchen chairs, where Tommy had methodically gouged it
with the handle of his spoon. He said, I know,

(22:57):
I know what my mother would tell me. Talked to
the priest. You know, maybe I should, but we never
we never been to mass here. Margaret sat down and
helped herself to one of his cigarettes. She was still
a good looking woman. She hadn't gained a pound since
Tommy was born, although she usually looked tired. She said,
carefully and straightforwardly. We agreed, Harry. We agreed. You said

(23:19):
you would talk to missus Adler, and you've done that.
We said if she didn't think Tommy whatever straighten out,
that we would talk to doctor Nicholson. I know it's
hard on you, and I know I'm not much help,
but I don't know what to do, and I have
to let you decide. Harry looked at his wife lovingly
and hopelessly, and at that moment the phone rang. It was,
of course, doctor Nicholson. I haven't made a decision. You're

(23:44):
rushing me, doctor Nicholson. No, mister Vlodick, it's not me
that's rushing you. The other boy's heart gave out an
hour ago. That's what's rushing you. You mean he's dead.
He's on the heart machine, mister l We can hold
him for at least eighteen hours, maybe twenty four. The
brain is all right. We're getting very good waves on

(24:06):
the oscilloscope. The tissue match with your boy. Satisfactory, better
than satisfactory. There's a flight out of JFK at six
fifteen in the morning, and I've reserved space for you,
your wife and Tommy if we met at the airport,
and you can be here by noon, so we have time,
only just time, mister Blotdock. It's up to you now.

(24:27):
I can't decide that, doctor. Don't you understand. I don't
know how I do understand, mister Bloddock. I have a suggestion.
Would you like to come down anyhow? I think it
might help you to see the other boy and you
can talk to his parents. They feel they owe you something,
even for going this far, and they want to thank you.
Oh no, all they want is for their boy to

(24:51):
have a life. We don't expect anything but that. They'll
give you custody of the child, Your child, yours and theirs.
He's a very fine little boy, mister blod eight years old,
reads beautifully makes model airplanes. They let him ride his
bike because he was so sensible and reliable, and the
accident wasn't his fault. The truck came right up on
the sidewalk and hit him. That's like giving me a bribe.

(25:15):
That's telling me I can trade Tommy in for somebody
smarter and nicer. I didn't mean it that way, mister Vlodok.
I only wanted you to know the kind of boy
you can save. You don't even know the operation's going
to work. No, no, not positively. I can tell you

(25:36):
that we've transplanted animals, including climates and human cadavers, and
one pair of terminal cases. But you're right, mister Vladik,
we've never had a transplant into a well body. I've
shown you all the records. We went over them with
your own doctor when we first talked about this possibility
five months ago. This is the first case since then,
when the match was close and there was a real

(25:57):
hope for success. But you're right, it's still unproved unless
you help us prove it for what it's worth. I
think it will work, but no one can be sure.
Margaret had left the kitchen, but Vladik knew where she
was from the scratchy click in the airpiece in the bedroom.
Listening on the extension phone, he said, at last, look,

(26:18):
I can't say now, doctor Nicholson. I'll call you back
in half an hour. I really can't do any more
than that. Right now, that's a very great deal, mister
black I'll be waiting right here for your call. Harry
sat down and drank the rest of his coffee. You
had to be an expert and a lot of things
to get along. He was thinking, what did he know

(26:40):
about brain transplants in one way? A lot. He knew
that the surgery part was supposed to be straightforward, but
the tissue rejection was the problem. But doctor Nicholson thought
he had that licked. He knew that every doctor he
had talked to, and he had now talked to seven
of them, had agreed that medically it was probably sound enough,
and that every one of them had carefully clammed up

(27:01):
when he got the conversation around to whether it was right.
It was his decision, not theirs, they all said, sometimes
just by their silence. But who was he to decide?
Margaret appeared in the doorway and said, Harry, let's go
upstairs and look at Tommy. Is that supposed to make
it easier for me to murder my son? We talked

(27:23):
that out, Harry, and we agreed it isn't murder whatever
it is. I only think that Tommy ought to be
with us when we decide, even if he doesn't know
what we're deciding. The two of them stood next to
the outsized crib that held the son, looking in the
night light at the long, fair lashes against the chubby
cheeks and the potted lips around the thumb, reading model

(27:46):
airplanes riding a bike against a quick sketch of a face,
and the occasional cherish, tempestuous, bruising flurry of kisses. Flotti
stayed there full Flower, then, as he had promised, went
back to the kitchen, picked up the phone and began

(28:07):
to dial You've heard the Meeting by Frederick Poland c

(29:36):
and Cornbloth was first published in the Magazine of Fantasy
and Science Fiction for November nineteen seventy two. This is
Michael Hanson. A technical production for this program by Rich
Brody and Steve Gordon. Mind Webbs is a production of
Wycha Radio and Madison, the service of the University of
Wisconsin Extension. You Can't