Methuselah's Children Read Online Free PDF

on Earth since then. I like to move around."
    Her eyes lit up. "Oh, tell me about it! I've never been out in deep space. Just Luna City, once."
    "Sure," he agreed. "Sometime. But I want to hear more about this matter of your appearance. Girl, you sure don't look your age."
    "I suppose not. Or, rather, of course I don't. As to how it's done, I can't tell you much. Hormones and symbiotics and gland therapy and some psychotherapy-things like that. What it adds up to is that, for members of the Families, senility is postponed and that senescence can be arrested at least cosmetically." She brooded for a moment. "Once they thought they were on the track of the secret of immortality, the true Fountain of Youth. But it was a mistake. Senility is simply postponed . . . and shortened. About ninety days from the first clear warning-then death from old age." She shivered. "Of course, most of our cousins don't wait-a couple of weeks to make certain of the diagnosis, then euthanasia."
    "The hell you say! Well, I won't go that way. When the Old Boy comes to get me , he'll have to drag me-and I'll be kicking and gouging eyes every step of the way!"
    She smiled lopsidedly. "It does me good to hear you talk that way. Lazarus, I wouldn't let my guards down this way with anyone younger than myself. But your example gives me courage."
    "We'll outlast the lot of 'em, Mary, never you fear. But about the meeting tonight: I haven't paid any attention to the news and I've only recently come earthside-does this chap Ralph Schultz know what he is talking about?"
    "I think he must. His grandfather was a brilliant man and so is his father."
    "I take it you know Ralph."
    "Slightly. He is one of my grandchildren."
    "That's amusing. He looks older than you do."
    "Ralph found it suited him to arrest his appearance at about forty, that's all. His father was my twenty-seventh child. Ralph must be-let me see-oh, eighty or ninety years younger than I am, at least. At that, he is older than some of my children."
    "You've done well by the Families, Mary."
    "I suppose so. But they've done well by me, too. I've enjoyed having children and the trust benefits for my thirty-odd come to quite a lot. I have every luxury one could want." She shivered again. "I suppose that's why I'm in such a funk-I enjoy life."
    "Stop it! I thought my sterling example and boyish grin had cured you of that nonsense."
    "Well . . . you've helped."
    "Mmm . . . look, Mary, why don't you marry again and have some more squally brats? Keep you too busy to fret."
    "What? At my age? Now, really, Lazarus!"
    "Nothing wrong with your age. You're younger than I am."
    She studied him for a moment. "Lazarus, are you proposing a contract? If so, I wish you would speak more plainly."
    His mouth opened and he gulped. "Hey, wait a minute! Take it easy! I was speaking in general terms . . . I'm not the domestic type. Why, every time I've married my wife has grown sick of the sight of me inside of a few years. Not but what I-well, I mean you're a very pretty girl and a man ought to-"
    She shut him off by leaning forward and putting a hand over his mouth, while grinning impishly. "I didn't mean to panic you, cousin. Or perhaps I did-men are so funny when they think they are about to be trapped."
    "Well-" he said glumly.
    "Forget it, dear. Tell me, what plan do you think they will settle on?"
    "That bunch tonight?"
    "Yes."
    "None, of course. They won't get anywhere. Mary, a committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain. But presently somebody with a mind of his own will bulldoze them into accepting his plan. I don't know what it will be."
    "Well . . . what course of action do you favor?"
    "Me? Why, none. Mary, if there is any one thing I have learned in the past couple of centuries, it's this: These things pass. Wars and depressions and Prophets and Covenants-they pass. The trick is to stay alive through them."
    She nodded thoughtfully. "I think you are right."
    "Sure I'm right. It