They went back to the mansion through the twilight, and established
themselves in one of the rooms. The soft curtains were drawn, the Bed
was large, the sheets were silky and creamy. She reclined on her back,
and the mattress moulded itself perfectly to her form.
He lay down beside her, and caressed her. She clasped him tight to
her breast. And he was clasped also by an invisible but very palpable
field of energy, that directed his movements and charged him with an
inexhaustible and ceaseless power. He held her tight, and the force
entwined them. They were one throbbing ecstasy, and only at the very
last endurable moment were they given release.
Then the Bed slowly soothed them, massaged them, and invigorated them
once again. Throughout the night it continued, activity and repose,
until toward the dawn he fell into a dead sleep, which lasted until the
following morning.
He did not know that he dreamed. He did not consciously remember any
of it. He only knew, as he ate his ample breakfast, that he was not so
thoroughly at peace as he should have been. And he knew that it was
useless to ask the Woman, or one of the Girls.
But the Woman's androids did well by her, it seemed. Maybe he had better
go home to Meg.
"What the square, anyhow?" he said to himself. A little more rest in his
familiar surroundings, and he would be all right. A Bed always took a
lot out of a man. He arose to go.
"Goodbye, dear," the Woman said, as he came to the head of the main
path. She was serene and smiling.
He adjusted his tunic, and smiled in reply. Yes sir, the old world was
in good shape, just like always. He signaled for a Car. The bright ocean
again passed by him, and the broad sands, and he dozed.
* * * * *
The dreams were more importunate, this time. When he awoke, with a blank
start, the Car was cruising aimlessly. He looked around, and broke into
a sweat. There was a button he had to push, somewhere, there was a
handle he had to take hold of. He stammered out "Stop--now!" and stepped
onto the curb. The car sped away, to another summons. He was before an
Emporium, but he did not enter. Instead, he did an unprecedented thing:
he went for a walk, through the streets of the City. This was not done,
and none of the occupants of the passing cars observed him.
He was really wondering, now. Could something be wrong? This
possibility, with all its full horror, had never entered his mind
before; indeed, he did not even have the conceptions of rightness
and wrongness, and yet there was the inescapable word, "wrong". His
agitation increased. He found himself with the hardly formulated idea
that a school was a place where one learned something, and he did not
know what this could mean.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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