《Teddy Roosevelt Light that Blinds, the Claws that 》作者： - Mike Resn...

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The Light that Blinds, the Claws that Catch by Mike Resnick _"And when my heart's dearest died, the light went from my life for ever."_ --Theodore Roosevelt _In Memory of my Darling Wife_ (1884) _"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!_ _The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"_ --Lewis Carroll _Through the Looking-Glass_ (1872) * * * * The date is February 14, 1884. Theodore Roosevelt holds Alice in his arms, cradling her head against his massive chest. The house is cursed, no doubt about it, and he resolves to sell it as soon as Death has claimed yet another victim. His mother lies in her bed down the hall. She has been dead for almost eight hours. Three rooms away his two-day-old daughter wails mournfully. The doctors have done all they can for Alice, and now they sit in the parlor and wait while the 26-year-old State Assemblyman spends his last few moments with his wife, tears running down his cheeks and falling onto her honey-colored hair. The undertaker arrives for his mother, and looks into the room. He decides that perhaps he should stay, and he joins the doctors downstairs. How can this be happening, wonders Roosevelt. Have I come