The Complete Stories_ Volume 1 - Isaac Asimov [200]
'Popular?'
'Certainly. There's a fascination in being frightened when it's part of a game. A baby is born with three instinctive fears: of loud noises, of falling, and of the absence of light. That's why it's considered so funny to jump at someone and shout "Boo!" That's why it's such fun to ride a roller coaster. And that's why that Tunnel of Mystery started cleaning up. People came out of that Darkness shaking, breathless, half dead with fear, but they kept on paying to get in.'
'Wait a while, I remember now. Some people came out dead, didn't they? There were rumors of that after it shut down.'
The psychologist snorted. 'Bah! Two or three died. That was nothing! They paid off the families of the dead ones and argued the Jonglor City Council into forgetting it. After all, they said, if people with weak hearts want to go through the tunnel, it was at their own risk --and besides, it wouldn't happen again. So they put a doctor in the front office and had every customer go through a physical examination before getting into the car. That actually boosted ticket sales.'
'Well, then?'
'But you see, there was something else. People sometimes came out in perfect order, except that they refused to go into buildings --any buildings; including palaces, mansions, apartment houses, tenements, cottages, huts, shacks, lean-tos, and tents.'
Theremon looked shocked. 'You mean they refused to come in out of the open? Where'd they sleep?'
'In the open.'
'They should have forced them inside.'
'Oh, they did, they did. Whereupon these people went into violent hysterics and did their best to bat their brains out against the nearest wall. Once you got them inside, you couldn't keep them there without a strait jacket or a heavy dose of tranquilizer.'
'They must have been crazy.'
'Which is exactly what they were. One person out of every ten who went into that tunnel came out that way. They called in the psychologists, and we did the only thing possible. We closed down the exhibit.' He spread his hands.
'What was the matter with these people?' asked Theremon finally.
'Essentially the same thing that was the matter with you when you thought the walls of the room were crushing in on you in the dark. There is a psychological term for mankind's instinctive fear of the absence of light. We call it "claustrophobia", because the lack of light is always tied up with enclosed places, so that fear of one is fear of the other. You see?'
'And those people of the tunnel?'
'Those people of the tunnel consisted of those unfortunates whose mentality did not quite possess the resiliency to overcome the claustrophobia that overtook them in the Darkness. Fifteen minutes without light is a long time; you only had two or three minutes, and I believe you were fairly upset.
'The people of the tunnel had what is called a "claustrophobic fixation". Their latent fear of Darkness and enclosed places had crystalized and become active, and, as far as we can tell, permanent. That's what fifteen minutes in the dark will do.'
There was a long silence, and Theremon's forehead wrinkled slowly into a frown. 'I don't believe it's that bad.'
'You mean you don't want to believe,' snapped Sheerin. 'You're afraid to believe. Look out the window!'
Theremon did so, and the psychologist continued without pausing. 'Imagine Darkness --everywhere. No light, as far as you can see. The houses, the trees, the fields, the earth, the sky --black! And Stars thrown in, for all I know --whatever they are. Can you conceive it?'
'Yes, I can,' declared Theremon truculently.
And Sheerin slammed his fist down upon the table in sudden passion. 'You lie! You can't conceive that. Your brain wasn't built for the conception any more than it was built for the conception of infinity or of eternity. You can only talk about it. A fraction of the reality upsets you, and when the real thing comes, your brain is going to be presented