Businessmen -- Fiction; Commuters -- Fiction; Games -- Fiction; Hunting -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
When Day is Done
By ARNOLD CASTLE
_If there is a bit of the jungle
in every man--why not put every
man into a bit of the jungle?_
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, May 1960.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
It was three in the afternoon and quitting time at Utopian Appliances,
Inc. Bertram J. Bernard, the firm's stocky, thick-jawed president,
waited discreetly at his desk for a few minutes, then closed the file
he had been studying, bid his secretary a pleasant evening, and strode
calmly out of the office.
He did not want to appear eager, and succeeded superbly in that.
Joining several junior executives, he conversed genially with them
as they descended to the rapid-transit floor. Three of the bright,
confident young men decided to stop for a quick one at the building's
plush saloon. Well, that was okay--Bernard had been a late-runner in
his youth. But now, well into middle age, he had learned that life had
other demands and pleasures.
"Have a good run, B. B.," said Watkins, the treasurer, at the rap-tran
gate. "Gloria's coming in on the three-thirty and we're going to dinner
and then some musical or other she's been dying to see."
So Bernard entered the rap-tran alone, though surrounded by scores of
pushing, jabbering strangers. Finding a seat on the aisle, next to a
electronics company vice-president whom he knew slightly, he engaged
in trade conversation during the five minutes it took the monorail to
reach his stop. He and the electronics executive got off, as did about
half of the rap-trans passengers, mostly middle-aged men like himself.
Early-runners.
The escalator from the monorail stop descended directly into the
Jungle Station beneath. In the large lobby the crowd dispersed and
Bernard was again alone when he reached the dressing rooms. This was
not surprising, he reflected; not many members of his Jungle Station
could afford the elaborate private locker unique to this wing of the
building. He pressed his thumbprint to the lock and the door slid back.
Inside, he undressed completely, noting with critical satisfaction the
strength and color of his body in the full-length mirror at one end of
the locker. He quickly packed his clothes, shoes, and briefcase into a
small suitcase, with delivery instructions on the top. Then he climbed
into his jungle suit--knee-length shorts, sweat shirt, rubber-soled
shoes, and hip holster.
He checked the frequency setting on the sonic pistol, adjusting it to
the panthers who were reported in ascendancy. As a last thought, merely
a whim, he glanced down at the station emblem on his sweat shirt, just
to enjoy the sense of pride he derived from the large red "U-F" above
it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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