ESCAPE MECHANISM
BY CHARLES E. FRITCH
Being a world unto one's self
is lonely. Even the poor amoeba
creature from Venus knew that....
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, April 1955.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
She found herself floating again in that strange half-familiar world of murky fluid where only she existed. The liquid was all around her, pressing gently on all sides with a force that cushioned but did not restrain. It was a pleasant sensation, a calming one; the cares of the outside world were non-existent and therefore meaningless.
She drifted, unhampered by the fluid. There seemed to be no direction but outward. Her thoughts went out and they returned with impressions.
This was her world and she was the center of it. It pleased her to think this. It was an alien pleasure that was mental and without physical counterpart.
There was quiet, stillness, a peace she had never known. The fluid flowed about her like a great silent sea that held no sound, no movement.