The Green Millennium — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Green Millennium
John Stuart Mill · en
The inner door closed. Phil let Juno steer him through the other. He
felt way down in the minuses. So much so that he almost didn't notice
the odd couple coming down the corridor toward them. The man looked
saintly, yet sprightly. He was very sun-burned and he wore orange shoes
and an orange beret. The woman looked like a youngish witch, but with
the nose and chin already seeking each other. A little red hat was
attached by twenty long hatpins to her coarse dark hair, and she had
a red skirt stiff and thick as a carpet. Both of them were wearing
black turtlenecked sweaters. Phil noted them numbly, lost in his own
distress, but was vaguely aware that they were pointedly ignoring the
giantess at his side.
"You'll find your little tin hero back there shooting mice," she
snarled at them as they passed. The woman merely snooted her witchy
nose, but then the sun-burned man looked around with elfin eyes and a
benign smile. "Joy, Juno," he admonished lightly. "Nothing but joy."
The giantess looked after them glumly for a moment, then went on.
"Couple of Jack's intelleckchul fans," she confided bitterly. "Poets,
religious nuts, and all that goes with it. Completely turned his head,
the stinkers."
They reached the corner. Old Rubberarm waggled the tip of a fingerless
hand and muttered, "No loitering," but Juno silenced him with a weary,
"Shut up!"
"Now get along home, son," she told Phil. "I don't know as I'd visit
that analyzer of Jack's. Probably some fancy guy he got put onto by the
Akeleys--those two intelleckchul jerks you just saw. But maybe some
kind of psycher would be a good idea." She patted his shoulder and
grinned, showing a scar inside her lip. "I'm sorry about what happened
back there--that lousy husband of mine. Anytime you feel like it, drop
in on me. Old Rubberarm's got your voice pattern. Just ask for Juno
Jones. Only one thing, son--no more green cats."
III
Through half closed lids, whose lashes blurred everything, Phil watched
the ghostly pale yellow circle of the window, which was all the
illumination he could bear now. He hadn't put on any lights when the
sun had set and the sodium mirror above the stratosphere made the only
light, and minutes ago he'd switched off the TV screen although the
girl's voice still crooned a sex song and he still wore the fat mitten
of the handie. But the pressure of her fingers, holding a hydraulically
compartmented artificial hand and transmitting over the airwaves an
electric signal to change pressures of the hydraulic compartments
of the handie, began to feel like that of a skeleton wearing rubber
gloves. Phil jerked off the handie, switched off the voice, lit a
cigarette, and was back with his problem.