This Perfect Day

"In the lounge," Chip said. "I went back there after Photography Club—I'd left my pen there—and I suddenly got very tired. From being late on my treatment, I guess. I sat down to rest and"—he smiled—"all of a sudden it's morning." Bob looked at him, still anxiously, and after a moment shook his head. "I checked the lounge," he said. "And Mary KK's room, and the gym, and the bottom of the pool."

"You must have missed me," Chip said. "I was in the corner behind—"

"I checked the lounge, Li," Bob said. He pressed closed his coveralls and shook his head despairingly. Chip moved from the door, walked a slow away-from-Bob curve toward the bathroom. "I've got to ure," he said. He went into the bathroom and opened his coveralls and urined, trying to find the extra mental clarity he had had before, trying to think of an explanation that would satisfy Bob or at worst seem like only a one-night aberration. Why had Bob come there anyway? How long had he been there?

"I called at eleven-thirty," Bob said, "and there was no answer. Where have you been between then and now?" He closed his coveralls. "I was walking around," he said—loudly, to reach Bob in the room. "Without touching scanners?" Bob said. Christ and Wei.

"1 must have forgot," he said, and turned on the water and rinsed his fingers. "It's this toothache," he said. "It's gotten worse. The whole side of my head aches." He wiped his fingers, looking in the mirror at Bob on the bed looking back at him. "It was keeping me awake," he said, "so I went out and walked around. I told you that story about the lounge because I know I should have gone right down to the—"

"It was keeping me awake too," Bob said, "that 'toothache' of yours. I saw you during TV and you looked tense and abnormal. So finally I pulled the nameber of the dental-appointment clerk. You were offered a Friday appointment but you said your treatment was on Saturday."

Chip put the towel down and turned and stood facing Bob in the doorway. The first chime sounded, and "One Mighty Family" began to play.

Bob said, "It was all an act, wasn't it, Li—the slowdown last spring, the sleepiness and overtreatedness." After a moment Chip nodded. "Oh, brother," Bob said. "What have you been doing?" Chip didn't say anything.

"Oh, brother," Bob said, and bent over and switched his telecomp off. He closed its cover and snapped the catches. "Are you going to forgive me?" he asked. He stood the telecomp on end and steadied the handle between the fingers of both hands, trying to get it to stay standing up. "I'll tell you something funny," he said. "I have a streak of vanity in me. I do. Correction, I did. I thought I was one of the two or three best advisers in the house. In the house, hate; in the city. Alert, observant, sensitive... 'Comes the rude awakening.'" He had the handle standing, and slapped it down and smiled drily at Chip. "So you're not the only sick one," he said, "if that's any consolation."

"I'm not sick, Bob," Chip said. "I'm healthier than I've been in my entire life."

Still smiling, Bob said, "That's kind of contrary to the evidence, isn't it?" He picked up the telecomp and stood up. "You can't see the evidence," Chip said. "You've been dulled by your treatments." Bob beckoned with his head and moved toward the door. "Come on," he said, "let's go get you fixed up." Chip stayed where he was. Bob opened the door and stopped, looking back. Chip said, "I'm perfectly healthy."

Bob held out his hand sympathetically. "Come on, Li," he said.

After a moment Chip went to him. Bob took his arm and they went out into the hallway. Doors were open and members were about, talking quietly, walking. Four or five were gathered at the bulletin board, reading the day's notices. "Bob," Chip said, "I want you to listen to what I'm going to say to you."

"Don't I always listen?" Bob said.

"I want you to try to open your mind," Chip said. "Because you're not a stupid member, you're bright, and you're good-hearted and you want to help me."

Mary KK came toward them from the escalators, holding a pack of coveralls with a bar of soap on top of it. She smiled and said, "Hi," and to Chip, "Where were you?"

"He was in the lounge," Bob said. "In the middle of the night?" Mary said. Chip nodded and Bob said, "Yes," and they went on to the escalators, Bob keeping his hand lightly on Chip's arm.

They rode down.

"I know you think your mind is open already," Chip said, "but will you try to open it even more, to listen and think for a few minutes as if I'm just as healthy as I say I am?"

"All right, Li, I will," Bob said.

"Bob," Chip said, "we're not free. None of us is. Not one member of the Family."

"How can I listen as if you're healthy," Bob said, "when you say something like that? Of course we're free. We're free of war and want and hunger, free of crime, violence, aggressiveness, sel—"