You Too Can Be A Millionaire — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
You Too Can Be A Millionaire
John Stuart Mill · en
Inside, she amazed him by springing out of the chair and standing quite
steadily. She was small and she wasn't as old and wrinkled as he had
thought. "You get in the chair," she said. "I'll push you. I need the
exercise."
A minute later she was pushing him briskly along the street while Mark
sat, still half dazed, in the wicker chair, her old red shawl was across
his lap.
"Get cramps in my legs, to say nothing of my bottom," she observed,
"sitting there all day." She saw him stiffen. "Oh, you needn't be
shocked. After all, I'm old enough to be your grandmother. I was born in
1940, you know."
"Nineteen-forty," Mark repeated, wonderingly. "Gee, that was back in the
days when everybody worked. I wish _I_ could work."
"Well, it's a changed world," she observed. "In those days, you _had_ to
work."
At that instant Mark heard the ominous slapping footsteps. He looked
ahead, and there was Conley, easily noticeable because of the type N hat
a head above everybody else, coming toward them. Mark snatched up the
red shawl and wrapped it around his face to the nose and pulled his hat
low over his eyes. He watched from under the type L brim while Conley
approached. He held his breath while Conley fixed his deep eyes on him
for a moment, but Conley went by, and once more he was safe.
The old lady trotted briskly along. They passed a few people who stared
at them, but Mark was thinking. "This is 2021," he observed. "You're
eighty-one years old. You must know all about things."
"I'm quite spry," she pointed out, "though I must say I am working up a
sweat right now. No, no--" She pushed Mark back into the chair. "It's
good for me. Don't get enough exercise any more. Now you just sit there.
You're in a bad way. Anybody who'd fall for such a phony act and release
thirty-five thousand points without even an argument--well, of course,"
she said archly, "I do have a well-turned ankle."
But the enormity of Mark's debit with Central when the old lady should
turn in his slip, began to worry him. He wondered if he could get it
back from her. He wasn't happy with the world, and things were all
wrong, and all that, but still--well, he did have to live in it.
Thirty-five thousand points. He began to worry. He wished he knew what
the penalty would be. He wondered if the old lady knew. What were these
points all about anyway? "You must know," he said, "how the world got
into this mess."
She chuckled, "For thirty-five thousand points, I guess you've got a
right to the story." She turned into the archway of a standard type B
apartment house.
He wondered what she would do with all those points. What did anybody do
with them? Everybody had about the same living quarters. Food was
furnished by automatic vendors at the Hydroponic Farms. Clothes were
provided, ready-made; all you had to do was put your credit card in a
machine, punch the buttons for your measurements, and a suit would drop
down the chute.