Protective daily page
The last thought gave me a notion.Could we have shrunk so were inside his body? Or he grown so we’re floating in his liver? On the range road a few feet away, a convoy of trucks carrying another recruit company to the ranges farther down the line, suddenly spluttered and came to a stop as their engines, died. Only a very few knew that the Society was anex officio branch of the government itself. Not until the rescue of James Chien was an accomplished fact, not until there was physical, logical proof that the man was still alive would the government take official action. "Take me," Monica was screaming. The creature was trying to shake her loose, but she held on with long fingers. Then I heard her scream. There was silence then for nearly half an hour. Now I know what one of those laboratories looks like, I can imagine the sexiatrist taking him round, telling him to peer into a microscope and see tiny microbes swiveling about in plasma, showing him charts of the amino acids, the blood-types, the cell-types, the skin-types, etcetera, pulling out samples for quick-fire experiments, and showing him a few easily digested examples of living tissues artificially made for various purposes. Then the door opened and in they came. Off they went to the ocean. The water was chilly but welcoming. They swam and splashed. Monica, lips wetter than ever, got hungry and thirsty. Jay, dripping puddles, pushed back his hair. He peed. Last year I saw Oxford. I went to England, for a World Science Fiction Convention. (Brian Aldiss was guest of honor.) Dont know when he’ll get home, she said. “Maybe not until morning. If he comes early, you can go home to sleep and I’ll give you your dime anyway. The boogs! Oh, the boogs are just everywhere. Dont you have em, sweetheart? I don’t know what to do. I try to keep a decent house, God knows— She lifted her rheumy eyes to heaven, testifying. —but I don’t know what to do.” She leaned forward, confidingly. “You won’t believe this, sweetheart, but last night ...” A cockroach began to climb out of the limp strands of hair straggling down into the woman’s eyes. “... they got into bed with us! Would you believe it? There must have been a hundred of em. I said to Osip, I said—What’s wrong, sweetheart?” "Quiet," he said. Im trying to get to the end of the street without bumping into the walls, tripping on something, or some other catastrophe. If we get through the next five minutes all right, Ill worry about the next five years." He began whistling again. Tyburn, looking at him, felt a chill run down his spine as icy as wind off a glacier. What is this, about an eighty-cent fare? the man in the brown suit asked his companion, who had a wart between his eyes, as he peered at the passing street signs. That day at work, he idly went to a desk where there was an adding machine. He punched numbers on the machine and pulled out slips of paper. And there were numbers all added up correctly. He remembered how he had never been able to do anything like that in the little red school-house. Just think of it, he had been whammed and whipped because he had not been able to add. And look at that machine. It added and never made a mistake. The Pacifist looked at the other warily. Idiot, said the Mayor, look what youve done! The other four have flipped their lids and flown the crypt!” Never entered my head. Thats a great idea, Arv. Charlie paused. I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he went on. “Why don’t you come up to the apartment to meet Fay? I’ve told her about you. You’d like her, I know. We could have a couple of drinks and just relax for awhile.” And what did you do, I ask, what? said Tom, in a tired voice, looking ahead. The same as you always did, just the same, no different at all. You shouldve seen yourself.”.
