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03 - The Hated · Classic Sci-Fi Tales Audio Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Hated by Frederick Pohl. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Reading
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  Speaker 1: by Greg Marguerite, The Hated by Frederick Pohl. After space,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: there was always one more river to cross the far
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: side of hatred and murder. The bar didn't have a name,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: no name of any kind, not even an indication that
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: it had ever had one. All it said on the
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: outside was Cafe Eat Cocktails, which doesn't make a lot
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: of sense, but it was a bar. It had a
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  Speaker 1: big TV set going Yatata yatata, and three glorious colors,
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  Speaker 1: and a jukebox that tried to drown out the TV
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: with that lousy music they play. Anyway, it wasn't a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: kid hang out. I kinda like it, but I wasn't
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  Speaker 1: supposed to be there at all. It's in the contract.
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  Speaker 1: I was supposed to stay in New York and the
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  Speaker 1: New England states. Cafe Eat Cocktails was right across the river.
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  Speaker 1: I think the name of the place was Hoboken, but
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  Speaker 1: I'm not sure. It all had a kind of dreamy
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  Speaker 1: feeling to it. I was well, I couldn't even remember
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  Speaker 1: going there. I remembered one minute I was in downtown
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  Speaker 1: New York looking across the river. I did that a lot,
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  Speaker 1: and then I was there. I don't remember crossing the
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  Speaker 1: river at all. I was drunk, you know, you know
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  Speaker 1: how it is double bourbons and keep them coming, and
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  Speaker 1: after a while the bartender stops bringing me the ginger
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  Speaker 1: ale because gradually I forget to mix them. I got
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  Speaker 1: pretty loaded long before I left New York. I realized that.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I guess I had to get pretty loaded to risk
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  Speaker 1: the pension. And all used to be I didn't drink much,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: but now I I don't know. When I have one drink,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: I get to thinking about Sam and Wally and Chowderhead
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: and Givli and the Captain. If I don't drink, I
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  Speaker 1: think about them too, And then I take a drink
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and that leads to another drink and it all comes
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: out to the same thing. Well, I guess I said
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: it already. I drink a pretty good amount, but you
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: can't blame me. There was a girl. I always get
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a girl someplace. Usually they aren't much, and this one
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  Speaker 1: wasn't either. I mean, she was probably somebody's mother, She
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  Speaker 1: was around thirty five and not so bad. Though she
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: had a long scar under her ear, down along her
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  Speaker 1: throat to the little round spot where her larynx was,
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't ugly. She smelled nice while I could still smell,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: you know, and she didn't talk too much. I like
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that only well, did you ever meet somebody with a
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: nervous cough? Like when you say something funny, a little funny,
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  Speaker 1: not a big yack. They don't laugh, and they don't
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  Speaker 1: stop with just smiling, but they of cough. She did that.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I began to itch. I couldn't help it. I asked
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  Speaker 1: her to stop it. She spilled her drink and looked
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: at me, almost as though she was scared. And I
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  Speaker 1: had tried to say it quietly too, Sorry, she said,
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  Speaker 1: a little angry, a little scared. Sorry, But you don't
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  Speaker 1: have to forget it. Sure, but you asked me to
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: sit down here with you. Remember, if you're going to
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: forget it. I nodded at the bartender and held up
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  Speaker 1: two fingers. You need another drink, I said. The thing is,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I said, give used to do that? What that cough?
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: She looked puzzled. You mean like this? God damn it?
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  Speaker 1: Stop it. Even the bartender looked over at me that time.
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  Speaker 1: Now she was really mad, but I didn't want her
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  Speaker 1: to go away. I said, Givey was a fellow who
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: went to Mars with me, Pat Givey. Oh. She sat
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: down again and leaned across the table low. The bartender
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: brought our drinks and looked at me suspiciously. I said, say, Mac,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: would you mind turning down the air conditioning. My name
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  Speaker 1: is Mac. No have a heart. It's too cold in here. Sorry,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't sound sorry. I was cold. I mean that
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  Speaker 1: kind of weather. It's always cold in those places, you know,
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  Speaker 1: around New York. In August it hits eighty eighty five ninety.
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  Speaker 1: All the places have air conditioning, And what they really
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  Speaker 1: want is for you to wear a shirt and tie.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: But I like to walk a lot. You would too,
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  Speaker 1: you know, And you can't walk around much in long
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  Speaker 1: pants in a suit code and all that stuff not
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  Speaker 1: around there, not in August. And so then when I
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: went into a bar, i'd have one of these built
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  Speaker 1: in freezers for the used car salesmen with their dates
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  Speaker 1: or maybe their wives, all dressed up for what But
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  Speaker 1: I froze Mars. The girl breathed, Mars began to itch again.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Want to dance? They don't have a license. She said, Byron,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't know you'd been to Mars. Please tell me
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  Speaker 1: about it. It was all right, I said, that was
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  Speaker 1: a lie. She was interested. She forgot to smile. It
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: made her look nicer. She said, I knew a man,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: my brother in law. He was my husband's brother, I mean,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: my ex husband. I get the idea. He worked for
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: General Atomic in Rockford, Illinois. You know where that is? Sure?
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I couldn't go there, but I knew where Illinois was.
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  Speaker 1: He worked on the first Mars ship, oh, fifteen years ago,
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  Speaker 1: wasn't it. He always wanted to go himself, but he
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: couldn't pass the tests. She stopped and looked at me.
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  Speaker 1: I knew what she was thinking. But I didn't always
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  Speaker 1: look this way. You know, not that there's anything wrong
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  Speaker 1: with me now. I mean, but I couldn't pass the
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  Speaker 1: tests anymore. Nobody can. That's why we're all one trippers.
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  Speaker 1: I said. The only reason I'm shaking like this is
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: because i'm cold. It wasn't true, of course, It was
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  Speaker 1: that cough of Givli's. I didn't like to think about
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  Speaker 1: Givli or Sam or Chowderhead or Wally or the captain.
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  Speaker 1: I didn't like to think about any of them. It
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  Speaker 1: made me shake. You see, we couldn't kill each other.
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  Speaker 1: They wouldn't let us do that. Before we took off,
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  Speaker 1: they did something to our minds to make sure. What
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  Speaker 1: they did it doesn't last forever. It lasts for two years,
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  Speaker 1: and then it wears off. That's long enough, you see,
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  Speaker 1: because that gets you to Mars and back. And it's
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: plenty long enough in another way, because it's like a
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: straight jacket. You know, how to make a baby cry,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: hold his hands. It's the most basic thing there is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: what they did to us so we couldn't kill each other.
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  Speaker 1: It was like being tied up, like having our hands held,
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  Speaker 1: so we couldn't get free. Well, but two years was
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: long enough. Too long. The bartender came over and said, Pal,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. See I turned the air conditioning down. You
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  Speaker 1: all right? You look so, I said, sure, I'm all right.
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  Speaker 1: He sounded worried. I hadn't even heard him come back.
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  Speaker 1: The girl was looking worried too, I guess because I
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: was shaking so hard and I was spilling my drink.
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  Speaker 1: I put some money on the table without even counting it.
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  Speaker 1: It's all right, I said, we were just going. We were.
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  Speaker 1: She looked confused, but she came along with me. They
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  Speaker 1: always do once they find out you've been to Mars.
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  Speaker 1: In the next place, she said, between trips to the
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  Speaker 1: powder room, it must take a lot of carriage to
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  Speaker 1: sign up for something like that. Were you scientifically inclined
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  Speaker 1: in school? Don't you have to know an awful lot
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  Speaker 1: to be a space flyer? Did you ever see any
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  Speaker 1: of those little monkey characters they say lives on Mars?
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  Speaker 1: I read an article about how they lived in little
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  Speaker 1: cities of pup tents or something like that, only they
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: didn't make them, they grew them. Funny, ever see those
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: That trip must have been a real drag. I bet,
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  Speaker 1: what was it nine months? You could have a baby?
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  Speaker 1: Excuse me, say, tell me all that time? How'd you
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  Speaker 1: well manage things? I mean, didn't you ever have to
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  Speaker 1: go to the you know? Or anything? We managed? I said?
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  Speaker 1: She giggled, and that reminded her, so she went to
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  Speaker 1: the powder room again. I thought about getting up and
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  Speaker 1: leaving while she was gone, but what was the use
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  Speaker 1: of that. I'd only pick up somebody else. It was
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  Speaker 1: nearly midnight, a couple of minutes wouldn't hurt, and I
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  Speaker 1: reached in my pocket for the little box of pills
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  Speaker 1: they give us. It isn't refillable, but we'd get a
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  Speaker 1: new prescription in the mail every month along with the
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  Speaker 1: pension check. The label on the box said caution, use
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  Speaker 1: only as directed by physician. Not to be taken by
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  Speaker 1: persons suffering heart condition, digestive upset, or circulatory disease. Not
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  Speaker 1: to be used in conjunction with alcoholic beverages. I took
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  Speaker 1: three of them. I don't like to start them before midnight,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: but anyway, I stopped shaking, I closed my eyes, and
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: then I was on the ship again. The noise in
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  Speaker 1: the bar became the noise of the rockets and the
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  Speaker 1: air washers and the sludge sluicers. I began to sweat.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Although this place was air conditioned too. I could hear
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  Speaker 1: Wally whistling to himself the way he did, the sound
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  Speaker 1: muffled by his oxygen mask and drowned in the rocket noise,
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  Speaker 1: but still perfectly audible. The tune was sophisticated, lady. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: it was easy to love, and sometimes chasing shadows, but
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  Speaker 1: mostly sophisticated lady. He was from Juilliard. Somebody sneezed and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: it sounded just like Chowderhead sneezing, you know how everybody
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: sneezes according to his own individual style. Chowderhead had a
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  Speaker 1: lady like little sneeze. It went geta real quick all
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  Speaker 1: through the mouth, no nose involved. The Captain went rush,
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  Speaker 1: Wally was and Givli was Pechah. Sam didn't sneeze much,
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  Speaker 1: but he sort of coughed and sprayed, and that was worse.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes I used to think about killing Sam by tying
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  Speaker 1: him down and having Wally and the Captain sneeze him
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  Speaker 1: to death. But that was a kind of joke. Naturally,
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  Speaker 1: when I was feeling good or pretty good, usually I
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  Speaker 1: thought about a knife for Sam. For Cholderhead, it was
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a gun right in the belly, one shot. For Wally
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  Speaker 1: it was a Tommy gun, just stitching him up and down,
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  Speaker 1: you know, back and forth. The captain I would put
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  Speaker 1: in a cage with hungry lions, and gively I'd strangle
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  Speaker 1: with my bare hands. That was probably because of the cough.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I guess she was back. Please tell me about it,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: she begged. I'm so curious. I opened my eyes. You
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: want me to tell you about it, Oh please, about
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: what it's like to fly to Mars on a rocket. Yes,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: all right, I said, it's wonderful what three little white
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: pills will do. I wasn't even shaking. There's six men,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: see in a space the size of a buick, and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: that's all the room. There is two of us in
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the bunks all the time, four of us on watch.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe you want to stay in this sack an extra
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  Speaker 1: ten minutes because it's the only place on the ship
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  Speaker 1: where you can stretch out, you know, the only place
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  Speaker 1: where you can rest without somebody's elbow in your side.
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  Speaker 1: But you can't because by then it's the next man's turn,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: and maybe you don't have elbows in your side while
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: it's your turn. Off watch. But in the starboard bunk
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: there's the air regenerator master valve. I bet I could
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: still show you bruises right around my kidneys. And in
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the port bunk there's the emergency escape hatch handle that
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: gets you in the temple if you turn your head
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  Speaker 1: too fast. And you can't really sleep, I mean not
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: soundly because of the noise that is, when the rockets
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: are going. When they aren't going, then you're in free fall,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: and that's bad too, because you dream about falling. But
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: when they're going, I don't know, I think it's worse.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: It's pretty loud, and even if it weren't for the noise,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: if you sleep too soundly, you might roll over on
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: your oxygen line. Then you dream about drowning. Ever, do that,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: you're strangling and choking and you can't get any air.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: It isn't dangerous, I guess anyway. It always woke me
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: up in time, though, I heard about a fellow in
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: a flight six years ago. Well, so you've always got
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: this oxygen mask on all the time, except if you
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: take it off for a second to talk to somebody.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: You don't do that very often because what is there
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to say. Oh maybe the first couple of weeks. Sure,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: everybody's friends, then you don't even need the mask for
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: that matter, or not very much. Everybody's still pretty clean.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: The place smells, oh, let's see about like the locker
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: room in a gym. You know, you can stand it.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: That's if nobody's got space sickness. Of course we were
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: lucky in that way, but that's about how it's going
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: to get anyway, you know, outside the masks. It's soup.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: It isn't that you smell it so much. You kind
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: of taste it in the back of your mouth and
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: your eyes sting. That's after the first two or three months.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Later on it gets worse, and with the mask on,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: of course, the oxygen mixture is coming in under pressure.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: That's funny. If you're not used to it. Your lungs
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: have to work a little bit harder to get rid
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: of it, especially when you're asleep. So after a while
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: the muscles get sore, and then they get sourer, and
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: then well, before we take off, the Psyche people give
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: us a long doda that keeps us from killing each other,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: but they can't stop us from thinking about it. And afterward,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: after we're back on earth. This is what you won't
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: read about in the articles. They keep us apart. You
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: know how they work it. We get a pension naturally,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I mean there's got to be a pension, otherwise there
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: isn't enough money in the world to make anybody go.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: But in the contract it says to get the pension,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: we have to stay in our own area. The whole
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: country's marked off six sections. Each has at least one
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: big city in it. I was lucky. I got a
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: lot of them. They try to keep it so every
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: man's hometown is in his own section. But well, like
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: with us, chout Head and the Captain both happened to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: come from Santa Monica. I think it was Chowderhead that
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: got California, Nevada, all that southwest area. It was the
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: luck of the draw. God knows what the captain got.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Maybe New Jersey, I said, and took another white pill.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: We went on to another place, and she said, suddenly
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: I figured something out the way you keep looking around.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: What did you figure out? Well, part of it was
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: what you said about the other fellow getting New Jersey.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: This is New Jersey. You don't belong in this section,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: right right, I said, after a minute, So why are
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you here? I know why you're here? Because you're looking
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: for somebody, That's right, she said, triumphantly. You want to
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: find that other fellow from your crew. You want to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: fight him. I couldn't help shaking white pills or no
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: white pills, but I had to correct her. No, I
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: want to kill him. How do you know he's here?
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: He's got a lot of states to roam around him too,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: does six New Jersey Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, all the way
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: down to Washington. Then, how do you know he'll be here?
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: I didn't have to tell her how I knew. But
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: I knew. I wasn't the only one who spent his
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: time at the border of his assigned area, looking across
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the river, or staring across a state line, knowing that
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: somebody was on the other side. I knew. You fight
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: a war, and you don't have to guess that the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: enemy might have his troops a thousand miles away from
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the battle line. You know where his troops will be.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: You know he wants to fight too. Etta, Petta. I
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: spilled my drink. I looked at her. You you didn't?
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: She looked frightened. What's the matter? Did you just sneeze?
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Sneeze me? Did I? I said something quick and nasty.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know what. No, it hadn't been her. I
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: knew it. It was Chotterhead's sneeze. Chowterhead Marvin T. Roebuck
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: his name, was five feet eight inches tall, dark complexed,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: with a cast in one eye, spoke with a Midwest
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: kind of accent, even though he came from California. Shriek
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: for shriek horror for horror like that. It drove me
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: crazy after a while. Maybe that gives you an idea
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: what he talked about mostly a skunk, a thorough going,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: deep rooted, mother murdering skunk. I kicked over my chair
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and roared, roebuck, where are you, damn you? The bar
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: was all at once silent, only the jukebox kept going.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I know you're here, I screamed, come out and get it,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you lust. I told you i'd get you for calling
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: me a liar the day while he sneaked a smoke, silence,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: everybody looking at me. Then the door of the men's
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: room opened. He came out. He looked, lousy, eyes, all
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: red rimmed and his hair falling out. The poor crumb
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: couldn't have been over twenty nine. He shrieked you. He
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: called me up a million names. He said, you thieving rat.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I'll teach you to cheat me out of my candy ration.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: He had a knife. I didn't care. I didn't have anything,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: and that was stupid, but it didn't matter. I got
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: a bottle of beer from the next table and smashed
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: it against the back of the chair. It made a
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: good weapon, you know, I'd take that against a knife
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: any time. I ran toward him, and he came all
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: staggering and lurching toward me, looking crazy and desperate, mumbling
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: and raving. I could hardly hear him because I was
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: talking too. Nobody tried to stop us. Somebody went out
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: the door, and I figured it was to call the cops.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: But that was all right. Once I took care of Chowderhead,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: I didn't care what the cops did. I went for
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the face. He cut me first. I felt the knife
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: slide up along my left arm, but you know, it
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: didn't even hurt, only kind of stung a little. I
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: didn't care about that. I got him in the face,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and the bottle came away, and it was all like
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: gray and white jelly, and then blood began to spring out.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: He screamed, Ah, that scream. I never heard anything like
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: that scream. It was what I had been waiting all
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: my life for. I kicked him as he staggered back,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and he fell and I was on top of him
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: with the bottle, and I was careful to stay away
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: from the heart or the throat because that was too quick.
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: But I worked over the face and I felt his
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: knife get me a couple of times more, and and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and I woke up, you know, and there was doctor
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: Santley over me with a hypodermic needle that he'd just
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: taken out of my arm, and four male nurses in
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: fatigues holding me down. And I was drenched with sweat.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: For a minute, I didn't know where I was. It
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: was a horrible queasy, falling sensation, as though the bar
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: and the fight and the world were all dissolving into
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: smoke around me. Then I knew where I was. It
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: was almost worse. I stopped yelling and just lay there
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: looking up at them. Doctor Santley said, trying to keep
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: his face friendly and noncommittal. You're doing much better, Byron boy,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: much better. I didn't say anything. He said, you worked
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: through the whole thing in two hours and eight minutes.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Remember the first time you were sixteen hours killing him,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Captain van Wick. It was that time. Remember who was
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: it this time, chowder Head. I looked at the male nurses.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Doubtfully they let go of my arms and legs. Chowter Head,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: said Doctor Santley. Oh, roebuck, that boy, he said mournfully,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: his expression saddened. He's not coming along nearly as well
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: as you. Nearly. He can't run through a cycle in
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: less than five hours, and that's peculiar. It's usually you.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: He well, I better not say that, shall I No
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: sense in setting up a counter impression when your pores
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: are all open, so to speak. He smiled at me,
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: but was a little worried in back of the smile.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: I sat up. Anybody got a cigarette? Give him a cigarette, Johnson,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the doctor ordered the male nurse. Standing alongside my right foot,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Johnson did, I fired up? You're coming along splendidly, Doctor
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Santley said. He was one of these sight guys that
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: thinks if you say it so it makes it so,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: you know that kind We'll have you down under an
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: hour before the end of the week. That's marvelous progress.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Then we can work on the conscious level. You're doing
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: extremely well, whether you know it or not. Why in
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: six months, say in eight months? Because I like to
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: be conservative, he twinkled at me. We'll have you out
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: of here. You'll be the first of your crew to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: be discharged. You know that. That's nice, I said. The
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: others aren't doing so well, no, not at all, well,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: most of them, particularly doctor Givley. The run throughs leave
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: him in terrible shape. I don't mind admitting I'm worried
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: about him. That's nice, I said, and this time I
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: meant it. He looked at me thoughtfully, but all he
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: did was say to the male nurses, he's all right,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: now help him off the table. It was hard standing up.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I had to hold onto the rail around the table
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: for a minute. I said, my set little speech, Doctor Santley,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you again how grateful I am
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: for this. I was reconciled to living the rest of
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: my life confined to one part of the country the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: way the other crews always did. But this is much better.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it. I'm sure the others do too. Of course, boy,
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: of course, he took out a fountain pen and made
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: a note on my chart. I couldn't see what it was,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: but he looked gratified. It's no more than you have
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: coming to you, Byron, he said. I'm grateful that I
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: could be the one to make it come to pass.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: He glanced conspiratorily at the male nurses. You know how
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: important this is to me. It's the triumph of a
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: whole new approach to psychic rehabilitation. I mean to say,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: our heroes of space travel are entitled to freedom when
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: they come back home to Earth, aren't they? Definitely, I said,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: scrubbing some of the sweat off my face on to
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: my sleeve. So we've got to end this system of
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: designated areas. We can't avoid the tensions that accompany space travel. No,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: but if we can help you to eliminate harmful tensions
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: with a few run throughs, why it's not too high
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a price to pay? Is it not a bit? I
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: mean to say? He said, warming up? You can look
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: forward to the time when you'll be able to mingle
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: with your old friends from the rocket, free and easy,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: without any need for restraint. That's a lot to look
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: forward to, isn't it it is? I said, I look
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: forward to it very much, I said, And I know
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: exactly what I'm going to do the first time I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: meet one. I mean, without any restraints, as you say,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I said, And it was true I did. Only it
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be a broken beer bottle that I would do
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: it with. I had much more elaborate ideas than that.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: And of the hated by Frederick Pohle,