In the days that passed, Guy noted a tendency to show him deference. He
could not understand, though he tried, why they would single him out
above the others. When he needed a tool, and his actions showed that he
was in search, a mere question brought immediate--not only results--but
delivery to his bench.
They stood aside as he approached narrow passageways, and in a tight
corridor they would back up all the way without a word. His own offer
of retreat went unwanted; the other party retreated and waited with
a smile until Guy decided that they had reached an impasse and went
himself since the other obviously had no intention of moving.
He found this same condition prevailed throughout the city, too. They
spoke to him seldom, yet he found himself with the best meals, the
better seats, the quieter rooms, and the clearest path.
It took about twenty days of that to get Guy worried.
And since he became dead certain that they suspected him of being
different, Guy left the city at night, and gave only a short note of
thanks to Jerimick. He explained that his search required that he seek
new fields. His only concession to Terran training was the night he
selected. It was the night after payday, and it increased his tiny
store of funds to a more reasonable value.
Guy took a night-flier and went halfway across the continent. It still
followed him, for the stewardess gave him more than his share of
attention.
Guy was not vain. No more, that is, than any other normal man. He knew
that his figure was well-proportioned and did not require any apology
in the abbreviated Ertinian costume. His features were regular, and
though his thirty years was still considered young, the lines on his
face gave him character. He'd been shaving within an inch of his life
each morning and before dinner each night, and he knew that his beard
was light enough to escape detection as long as he maintained that
schedule.
This attention he was getting bothered him. He was not ready for
attention yet. He'd prefer a couple of years to establish some sort of
false foundation by skipping around from place to place, and losing his
past in the maze of data.
What was worse, he could pin nothing down definitely. He wondered
whether he might be guiltily self-conscious. That might be. But he'd
been honestly critical and knew that Ertene was singling him out for
something.
It was not the kind of attention that accompanied suspicion or
notoriety. It was a universal will to help him, to offer him the best,
to accord him some sort of deference.
But why?
His discussions with others were nonproductive. They spoke in vague
terms until they heard his viewpoint and then agreed with him, and
it was only with difficulty that he learned their true views were
calculable only by the magnitude of their agreement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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