Whirligig [Kek Huuygens 02] by Robert L. Fish

Author:Robert L. Fish [Fish, Robert L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It was not until the final morning of their voyage that Lisa raised any question regarding the Big Scheme—as she had come to think of it—and in so doing she demonstrated a certain nervousness that surprised Kek. He had come to consider his wide-eyed, fluffy blond Lisa as being almost beyond nerves, and certainly a lot tougher than he had suspected during their courting days and the first months of their marriage. True, at night when they retired, any masterfulness on her part disappeared completely under the fierce driving force of her passion, demanding domination, exhibiting submission as being both essential and delightful to her. But a subdued Lisa in the bright light of dawn was something else again. As they completed their final packing she paused to stare at him.

“Kek, darling?”

“Yes, sweet?”

“There’s just one thing …”

“Yes?”

“This matter of all those different names,” Lisa said in a worried tone. “Are they all really necessary?” She pushed aside the suitcase she had been packing and dropped onto the unmade bed, frowning up at him with concern. “How will you possibly arrange that many sets of identification papers?”

For a moment Kek just stared at her, and then he laughed.

“My darling Lisa,” he said, “America is not Europe, as you will quickly come to discover. It’s really an amazing place, by continental standards. If one is too old to register for conscription in the army; or if one isn’t required by the circumstances of his job to have a social security number—which is a type of old-age pension—then he can easily pass his entire life without any official identification whatsoever. In fact, if he has no desire to travel abroad, he needs no passport, and if he doesn’t want to drive an automobile, he needs no license. He can truly pass his life with no papers of any kind.”

Lisa stared at him in disbelief.

“No police card? No carnet?”

“Exactly. Remarkable, isn’t it? And if this lack of official recognition bothers one, it’s the easiest thing in the world to arrange whatever documentation one’s little heart desires. Or that one’s ego demands. There are Diners Club cards, gasoline credit cards, hotel credit cards—” He grinned. “I could go on until we docked, sweet, but then you’d still have your packing to finish.”

Lisa refused to be put off.

“But without a police card, how does one—?”

“To begin with, sweet, there are no police cards in America. Strange but true,” Kek said. “The only thing you require to establish a name for yourself”—he smiled at the phrase—“is merely an address, and this you arrange by renting a postal box at any postal substation. If they insist on a home address, you merely point out you are moving and between addresses. The post office sends the bill for the box rent to the box itself, and if you pay it on time and do not allow mail to accumulate too long, you are completely safe. And once you have post office box numbers as addresses, you are free to open bank accounts—as long as you have the money, of course,” he added with a grin.

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