Lovett* * * *Illustrated by Mark Evans* * * *First contact is likely to require special skills—and not necessarily the ones you might think!* * * *Billy Whilmer wasn't sure when he realized there really were thoughts better left unthunk. Not that he believed in thought police waiting to get him. There were just some ideas that, once planted, rattled around your head until your only option was to test them. Either that, or go mad, wondering. Which, he supposed, is why there really would be thought police if anyone ever came up with a way to do it.Not that Billy was all that philosophical. He just liked to play with ideas.Whenever his epiphany came, it was after the gelatin incident. He'd been noodling around, doing nothing in particular, when the idea was handed to him in a news story. Some girl had sneaked in at night and dumped a gazillion pounds of gelatin into a high school swimming pool. The next day, she'd gotten to the locker room early so she could be there when the first victim ran out, jumped in .
What do You think about Analog SFF, September 2010?
