"It was unlikely enough to take a chance on it. We felt at the very least you'd be kept on N/P status and then we could work on you some more until you infracted, and got sent to Marscol as a nonconform. Funny, that seems a terrible fate to most people. Actually, it's the only escape. From what I hear of Mars we'll like it there." I was recovering a little now and I dared to say, "If you're there, too, I'll like it. I know that." "Oh, you'll like other things. You'll like everything. And on Mars they'll call you by your present name if you wish, and no one will be at all shocked by it." There was a slight pause and then she said, "In fact, it's a very nice name. I--I wouldn't mind having it myself." "Is that what the pre-atomics called a proposal?" She laughed. "I'm not sure. But at least we have ten weeks to talk it over--" And then the acceleration pressed hard and the gray curtain began to come, and I knew that when it was lifted we would be on our way through space. I thought in that moment of the name that had brought all this about--the unspeakable four letter word that no conformist would ever dare voice, or even think of; the word, the dangerous word inimical to all that the warring, efficient State meant and stood for. The word, I realized, that eventually would destroy all that. I dared to say it now. I spelled it out first, and then I pronounced it. Just loud enough for Lara to hear above the growing roar. "L-O-V-E," I said. "Love." I heard Lara repeat it before the momentary blackout came. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of I, the Unspeakable, by Walt Sheldon