He slipped the name tag over his head and struck out through the
bushes toward the city.
His plan was simple; he had another name tag in his apartment for
emergency purposes, and if Ingrid was in bed he'd have no trouble
getting it, destroying the one he was wearing now, and putting on his
other suit.
Briefly, he wondered what the police would think of finding a body
near a smashed car with no name tag. They'd probably decide it was the
same person that had caused the disturbance at the night club earlier
in the evening.
Charles realized that the lettering on the car had indicated it was a
public, coin-operated vehicle, so the authorities would have no means
of identifying the body.
After awhile it occurred to him that if he should go into hiding
someplace, the body might easily be identified as his own, and he
wouldn't have to worry about what Edwin and the other bosses would do
to him. It probably wouldn't be noticed that the torn and
blood-spattered clothes on the corpse were not thermostatic. But he
shook his head resolutely. Even if he were crazy enough to try it, the
body would be reported missing by somebody or other, so that would
never do.
Eventually, Charles reached a main thoroughfare in the city and hailed
a cab. He climbed in the back, told the driver briefly to take him
home, and then slumped down in the seat and brooded.
He stared out the window, watching the buildings go by, and the
emotional reaction of the evening began to set in. Morbidly, Charles
wondered what they'd do to him if he kept his mouth shut and let the
Industry put the suit into production, and waited for the millions of
ID tags to begin to drop off.
The prospect was so frightening that his apprehension over what would
happen if it was discovered he was wearing somebody else's tag almost
disappeared.
Finally, the cab rolled to a stop. Charles got out and dropped some
coins into the hand protruding from the front seat, and, head low, he
turned and entered the apartment house.
He trudged dismally up the stairs, thinking about his wife. He
wondered what would happen if she were awake and waiting for him. If
she saw that he had on somebody else's name tag.
The door was unlocked.
And the light was on.
He wondered if he could duck into the bedroom without being seen, and
then someone leaped at him and he knew it was too late.
"Oh, James dear!" she cried, throwing her arms around Charles' neck.
"When you walked out of here, I thought you'd never come back to me!"
Charles looked at the marilyn's name tag with slow horror and realized
that in his preoccupation, out of sheer force of habit, he had simply
said to the cab driver, "Take me home," and the driver had looked at
the address on his tag and complied. The apartment building so much
resembled Charles' own that he hadn't known the difference, and he
hadn't bothered to look at the number on the door.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account