Ching Witch!
By Ross Rocklynne
A
science fiction short story in the
anthology Again, Dangerous Visions edited by
Harlan Ellison, ca. 1972.
The story is about a mostly-
human, part-
cat military type who flees
Earth the day before the inhabitants blow it to
smithereens. His
faster than light ship takes him to planet
Zephyrus, a shunned but worshipful
former colony, where he plans
to
live it up for the few years before
evidence of Earth's
demise arrives.
An interesting passage early on goes thus:
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"Hi hi" she said. "Ips!"
"Ips!" said Chug.
"Rightly. What we want to know, we the
teeming teenagers of our worshipping planet,
what we want to know is,
what does it on Earth?"
"What - uh -
does it?"
"Yah. Flickly. What's the
WORD?"
"The word," said Chug. "Hah! The
WORD!?? Ah." Out of his
intuition, he desperately selected the answer. "
Ching- that's the word!"
"Ching!" she screamed on sudden
tip-toe, then clapping her hand over her mouth. "Halla-hoo! I'm sorry!" she said to the assembled
officials who nonetheless watched her and listened to her with what seemed a supreme
indulgence. She raised her voice again, however, and she had
one of those healthy, tingly, musical female voices that could knock over fences.
"Hah, all
witches," she shouted. "Ching's the
WORD! That's what does it!"
The
bewinged television screens flipped and sailed and a myriad
thin screams sounded.
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Rather a
prophetic passage, that.