One record finished, and in the interval a shrill voice said: ‘Well we’re practically related. My ex married his ex’s first husband’s widow — only I guess they split up lass week…’
One of the groom’s coarse cousins, naturally; there was relief among the bride’s friends when the disc- jockey slipped another record into the silence.
One or two couples started dancing on the patio; Allbright and Dora waltzed smoothly into the library and out again, their steps not noticeably slowed by the added weight of several first editions.
‘Hey Allbright!’ It was Lyle Tate, keeping his birthmark in shadow as he came past the disc-jockey’s glass booth. ‘Jeez, and Dora — you two are the only people I know here. Who is this mob? Who is everybody?’
Allbright shrugged, shifting books. ‘Everybody.’
‘No but I mean Jane Hannah’s not here, Jack Tarr’s not here—’
‘Tarr? I thought you hated his guts.’
‘Yeah but only when he was around. Guess he hasn’t got the guts to go anywhere today, there’s a story going around that he’s been cheating on some psychic research stuff. They say he got a pigeon to be clairvoyant something like a hundred times, pushing the right button in a Skinner box, you know? A hundred times. Only trouble was the pigeon was dead at the time, biggest damn miracle since Lazarus — speaking of which, Allbright you don’t look so great. What’s that, dried blood on your face, bruises or dirt?’
‘We fall over from time to time,’ Allbright said. ‘We fall. One of the privileges of the C-charged brain…’
‘We? You mean—?’ Lyle looked to Dora, who nodded.
‘Rodin,’ said a shrill voice somewhere. ‘Yas yas yas.’
Dora said, ‘I guess I’m doomed anyway. Might as well go down the toilet with Allbright as by myself.’
‘Doomed, what do you mean doomed? Down the—?’
‘We’re all doomed,’ said Allbright. ‘Jesus it’s obvious enough; everybody goes around worrying about machines taking over, shit, they took over long ago, isn’t that obvious?’
‘But no, listen, what happened to your plan for—?’
‘Between computer poetry and vibrator love people don’t get a hell of a lot of room to manoeuvre, isn’t that obvious?’
‘No but your plan for ripping off bank computers, what happened to that? You said a friend in the nut-house steered you—’
‘The steersman, yes, aren’t we all — but you mean Dan, good old Dan. Well you know I went back to see him, tell him how great it was after they fry your brains, burn out a few pink and blue lights you feel a lot better. I did, I know. I did. I felt better. Not stupider, just happier, that’s what I told him.
‘Only for him it wasn’t like that. They had to burn out more pink and blue lights I guess. Jesus they fried him right back into diapers. I mean, whatever lights he had going for him, they sure as hell went out for good.’
Someone proposed a toast to the happy couple; Jim and the Dean of Persons looked pleased and bashful. The toast was only slightly marred by a shrill voice saying, ‘Yas, Rodin. Don’t you just love his Thinker?’
Lyle said, ‘Maybe he’ll get better, though. He won’t stay in diapers—’
‘Oh, he’s better already. They let him out weekends to work his job, even. Fact he’s right over there in that glass box, our esteemed disc-jockey.’
‘No kidding? That’s good, isn’t it? He can—’
‘He can find the hole in the middle of each record, sure. He can even talk, you notice? Every now and then he says, “Here’s another record.”’
XXVI
Roderick awoke in jail again, watching Sheriff Benson watch
‘I wouldn’t have believed it,’ said the doctor. ‘Really amazing. Course, I nearly flunked medical electronics myself, never could learn to make a good solder joint — but this is really amazing. Mind if I test him?’
‘Ask him,’ Ma said. ‘Son, how are you?’
‘Fine I guess.’ Roderick allowed the doctor to look into his eyes and ears, to tap his knee and hold up fingers for him to count. ‘Guess you’re okay too, Doc?’
‘Shh!’ said the Sheriff. ‘Just gettin’ to the end of
‘Pretty lucky there. After they hanged you some of the boys got so excited — well, Jake Mcllvaney shot himself in the foot. You know how Doc Welby is about coming out on call, so they had to let me take care of him. Got him in an intensive care unit now, over at Buford.’
‘Intensive care?’
‘Yup, and there he stays until he runs up a nice fat bill. Anyway I fooled around with him until the highway patrol came and broke things up.’
‘They probably wouldn’t have done anything to me anyway,’ said the doctor, when he had swallowed a handful of bright pills. ‘Nope, not after you. Kinda put them off the whole idea, seeing your head come off like that.’
‘My head came off?’
Ma nodded. ‘I managed to get you home and fixed up.’
De’Ath said, ‘Amazing work. Boy if I could do that for a real patient — well, some day. Your Ma is a wonder, boy.’
Ma cleared his throat. ‘I did have some help. Er, asked one of the maintenance men from the factory to give me a hand with the tricky parts.’ He held up a mirror for Roderick. ‘What do you think?’
‘Fine.’
‘Fine, is that all?’
‘Well it’s — very symmetrical — aw heck, Ma, you know I don’t know how to talk about art. It’s — it’s a very symmetrical head. I like it fine.’
They sat and talked as the sky beyond the Venetian blinds began to turn grey, then orange, and as the sheriff watched
‘Guess I’ll drive over to Buford and see my patient,’ said the doctor, after taking his own blood-pressure. ‘On my way home, anyway.’
‘You’re leaving?’
‘Got everything I need, now. Airtight case against Katrat Fun Foods. Well. Uh, good luck, boy.’ He offered Roderick his hand.
‘Good luck to you too, Doctor.’
‘I’m glad I did that, shook your hand. You know?’
Roderick didn’t know.
‘Well it’s just that I — last night when your head came off and I saw all the wires — I was really pissed off. The idea of being strung up in the company of a sonofabitching
Roderick nodded, feeling stiffness in his new neck. ‘That’s okay. See I’m not so crazy about human beings, either. But good luck anyway, Doc.’
‘Wish you boys would pipe down,’ said Benson. ‘This here is the one I been waiting for,
