Stereotype was he! The gall of the guy. Ed Wonder had worked his way up the hard way. He had accomplished practically straight “C”s in high school, even a few “B”s in such subjects as dramatics and gym. Sufficient grades to get him easily into college. It had been a rough row to hoe. The government subsidies had hardly covered his expenses. He’d had to drive a used car, eat at the university cafeteria, keep the same clothes until they all but showed signs of wear. Yes, Ed Wonder had obtained his education the hard way. Four years of such tough subjects as Dramatics, Debating, The Dance, Sex Techniques, and Togetherness.
Then the long years, fighting his way up. Not for Edward Wonder to go immediately from school onto the unemployment benefits. No, sir. He took temporary compensation while actually looking for employment. For ten years he had been on list at the theatres, the studios, the stations, trying to find parts. Of course, temporary compensaion paid off better than straight unemployment insurance. It meant that you were actually trying to find a job, which was enough to show, right there, that Ed Wonder was no stereotype. The very fact that he bothered to look branded him a kook in some eyes.
Then finally the switch over to radio and TV. He’d finally, through luck, a minimum of bribery, and the romancing of the fat wife of a studio executive, made his entry into the show business of the air.
Stereotype, eh? Then how had he finally got to the point of having his own program, the Far Out Hour?
He’d show them who was a stereotype.
Stereotype!
He’d shaved off his mustache, hadn’t he?
In the morning, Ed Wonder went on back to his auto-kitchen and dialed breakfast. He should bave been feeling off from his disappointment of the night before, but he wasn’t. He didn’t know why he wasn’t but there you were. The fact of the matter was, he felt all set to go. Somewhere. He didn’t know exactly where.
After he’d finished eating he threw the dishes into the disposal chute and went back into the living room.
He dialed the Unemployment Bureau, listed himself as temporarily unemployed, listed himself as available for work as a program director for TV or radio, applied for temporary compensation to be deposited directly to his account.
Then he dialed the Universal Credit Administration and applied for moritorium on all installment payments. Even as he did so, Ed Wonder reflected that whatever egghead economist had dreamed up the idea of moritorium had plugged one of the biggest potential holes in the workings of the affluent society. As never-never buying had pyramided, the powers that were had suffered increasingly sleepless nights over the possible consequences of even a fairly mild recession. Had foreclosures ever begun on a grand scale, the whole thing would have avalanched, and as used products flooded the markets, factories would have closed down all over the place, aggravating the recession still more. Yes, whoever had dreamed up credit moritorium had avoided that pitfall of classical capitalism. Of course, so long as you were on moritorium, you couldn’t run up any fresh installment credit, but you can’t have everything, even under the Welfare State.
Business finished with, he leaned back and considered matters. He was out of work. If the automated machinery of the Welfare State’s employment bureau found a potential position for him, he would be notified. Meanwhile, there was nothing to do. No point in going about haunting studios, or stations. They’d think he was a twitch if he went traipsing around on his own.
Well, you had to kill time some way. He reached out and flicked on the TV screen.
For the moment, he had forgotten. The screen was a horror of the abstract. He hurriedly cut it off again. Evidently, the stations were still trying. They simply weren’t getting through.
Just for the exercise, he went on down to the corner drugstore to pick up a paper. They were all gone. Happily, the manager had a copy of his own in a back room and let Ed take it.
There were still crowds around the magazine and paperback stands.
Ed said to the other, “Business in comic books still good, eh?”
“Oh, no,” the manager shook his head, beaming. “We’re fresh out of comic books, already. There’s no more in town. The agents say the presses are turning night and day, putting out extra editions, but for the time, we’re out. Now they’re buying paperbacks and magazines. Even all the more popular magazines are gone. There’s not a detective paperback left, either, and no westerns.” The smile left his face. “Good business, this emergency, but it sure is a horror to go home to the missus at night. We got nothing to do but yell at each other, and the kids go batty with nothing to watch.”
Ed Wonder took the paper back to his apartment before opening it.
The newspapers were evidently staging a comeback, and enjoying every minute of it. With TV and radio news off the airwaves, it was back to reading again.
The heads went:
He began to read the details and was interrupted almost immediately by the phone.
Buzz De Kemp’s face, stogie asmoke, filled the screen. “Hi, Little Ed. The great mystery has been solved.”
For a moment Ed Wonder thought he meant… but no. He said, “What mystery?”
“Where Zeke and Nefertiti disappeared to.”
“Oh,” Ed leaned forward.
Buzz drew it out. “I really gave it the works. Everything but the F.B.I. I checked…”
“All right, all right,” Ed snapped. “Let’s have it.”
“They moved up the river to the next town, Saugerties, and set up their tent again. Old Zeke is continuing his lecture tour.”
Ed closed his eyes wearily. He’d had a mental picture of Ezekiel Joshua Tubber escaping by stowing away on a ship to Brazil, or possibly fleeing to the Soviet Complex Embassy and requesting political refuge, or possibly going to earth somewhere and hiding out.
Instead, the offbeat evangelist was a few miles up the river, continuing as though nothing had happened.
6
Ed Wonder said, “Well, great. I’ll pick you up.”
“Hold on, chum,” the reporter took the stogie from his mouth to use as a pointer. “Maybe that old coot might be a little sore at you, but he’s really down on me. I was the one that sounded off and laughed at him. It was mostly me, on the program, who got him speaking in wrath, or however his daughter puts it. I think it might be better if just you show your cheerful face, at first.”
“Oh great. We’ll use me for baiting the tiger, eh?”
“It was your idea to find him again. You said you were in it from the beginning. Brave man. Stout fella.”
Ed growled, “You mentioned you were in it from the beginning too.”
“I was, and I’m going to keep in it, but from a distance, chum, from a distance. Now look, I haven’t even dared bring this up with Old Ulcers, the city ed, but you get the story on this exclusive for me and the
It only came home to Ed Wonder at that moment what a really big story it was. His mind flicked over into
