I looked out the window. There was no doubt that the fame of the
Brain-Finder by now would be all over town. Within a week we'd be
flooded with work--high-priced work. We'd take only the very best
cases, the highest priced, the least messy. We'd pay the rent. We'd eat
in restaurants instead of carrying sandwiches. In another three months
we'd be rolling in money--and almost without work. If we wanted to work
hard with the Brain-Finder, we'd make millions. I could maybe find
myself the right kind of girl to marry.
* * * * *
I looked back at the screen. I had just settled myself in the seat of
the roller-coaster car. A pink dress came into my field of vision on
the right. Yes, sir, this demonstration would do it. This, and those
to follow. Whatever Judge Monday might say, there would be an appeal,
and we'd have to take the thing to the Supreme Court, and how could any
judge ignore it if Slim could show the judge himself working on his pet
corn the night before? We were about to be what is vulgarly but happily
known as "in the bucks."
What would happen to Swanberg? I remembered how I'd always pictured
his wife as unattractive, and all of a sudden it made me feel kind of
ashamed. He had certainly shown good taste in his choice of a wife.
Well, pretty quick now I could afford to travel in that kind of company.
I wondered what would happen when Swanberg saw his wife throwing her
arms around me on the roller coaster. I guessed maybe he wouldn't
be cold; he'd be jealous. Well, a man with a young and beautiful
wife--somehow it kind of got me. I mean that sort of calf-like
happiness. He loved her and he felt secure in the knowledge that she
loved him, and--well, you know how it is.
Gosh, how I wanted that money. Here it was within our reach--the thing
we'd worked so hard for, the reason I'd crawled under pullman cars and
gone through the sidewalk and sneaked in to evade the landlord--all so
Slim could keep working on the Brain-Finder. He had it now. Slim didn't
know how to duplicate it, but one was all we needed. That one was worth
a fortune.
I looked back at the Swanbergs, sitting there so close together.
Swanberg hadn't really been tough with us. In fact, he'd been lenient.
Three months was a lot to be behind. No, I guess the only thing I
hadn't really liked about him was the fact that he was always so
perfectly dressed and so cool while I had to go through the sidewalk on
a hot day in August and then press the sweat out of my clothes with a
flat-iron.
I looked at the girl. She was nice. She hadn't been doing anything out
of the way that night. She certainly hadn't made any sort of pass at
me. And they were in love.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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