Before the VUE, Clasper Fallcaster, Bewick's
mother-in-law, had always been very sensitive to naturally-occuring forms of
electricity. Brushing her air
could produce sparks that illuminated her bedroom, and she reluctantly entered
any building that was not protected by a lightning-conductor. The VUE had
magnified this sensitivity, and Clasper was now allergic to large expanses of
water. She kept away
from the coast, inland lakes and large rivers, and she was apprehensive of
open-air swimming-pools. Clasper's sense of direction became phenomenal,
although family car-rides now had to be planned to avoid bridges over water,
and, in England, to especially avoid the towns of Bath,
Leamington,
Harrogate and
Tunbridge
Wells.
The city of Clasper's nightmares was Venice.
Clasper's sensitivity to the Earth's
electric field was very favourably compared to that of night-flying migrational
birds that could accurately navigate without the aid of the moon and the stars.
