Star Science Fiction No 2 by Frederik Pohl (ed.)

Author:Frederik Pohl (ed.)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi Anthology
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 1953-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Broderick shook his head this time, again seeming to read Henry’s mind. “It’ll cost every cent you have, Henry. You’ll have to move to a new town where nobody knows you, get yourself a new apartment and a new job—a job, not a position until you can earn one. And no robots. Absolutely nothing from this life. There are new techniques, but they’re risky and imperfect. All psychiatry is imperfect. You may find differences.”

“For Maryl-” Henry began slowly.

Broderick cut him off. “No, for Jimmy. Because all I can promise is that we won’t permit anything which will ruin his future. We want you and Maryl to be happy, but we don’t demand it. And if anything goes wrong, you’ll be the one to suffer for it. Well?”

“When?” he asked.

“Whenever you’re ready, Henry. We’ll have finished what we can do before you can find your job and set yourself up with reasonable conveniences.”

He thought it over, looking for the trick. Maybe, if they made it hard enough for him, they could force him to take some job which would prove a blind alley, where he could never earn enough to support a wife and son. They could put Maryl away with her robot and bring Jimmy up with their cold and logical scientific ideas. Once they got him away, he could never fall back on Personal Privilege laws. And his therapy would be the slow adjustment of a man in a routine job, looking forward with dimming hopes to a future that always was one step away.

He’d been muttering to himself, but Broderick must have heard some of it. The psychiatrist grimaced. “No, Henry. You’ll have some money left—enough to set yourself up. And you’re too good an accountant to pigeonhole in any small job, even if you are rusty. There’s an opening for you, wherever you go.”

There had to be some catch, or they’d have tried it long ago. And yet it sounded like more than humoring him. He considered it, but he already knew his decision. “There’s a plane leaving in an hour for Seattle,” he remembered aloud.

Broderick lifted the receiver and began dialing for a heli-cab. “Sooner than you think, Henry,” he promised.

He kept his promise. It was less than two weeks later that Henry stood at the airport in Seattle, watching a boy of six and a hesitatingly smiling Maryl get off the plane and head toward him.

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