But already, within less than a week, he was more rethan he had been for many years past, forgetting to worry about the future. Yes, that was it: the necessity kept slipping his mind.
He shook his head. Stretched out on a long lounge opposite him, Celia glanced up. “Is something the matshe inquired.
“Nothing,” Flamen said in a tone of vague surprise. He went on looking at her. She had been here for two days now; she had simply arrived, unannounced, with all her baggage from Prior’s place, and settled back into her own home as if there had been no discontinuity. She was completely free of the aftereffects of the drugs she had been given at the Ginsberg, as far as Flamen could tell, except that a certain tension had gone from her behavior; there was no hint of the snappishness which had colored her voice and expression for months on end before her hospitalization. Also they had had more pleain bed than he could recall at any previous time.
She seemed, in a word, happy.
Maybe it was just as well, Flamen told himself, that his plan to dislodge Mogshack from his position of inhad run aground on the weird confusion of last weekend. What had happened? Everything had been such a fantastic muddle of hard verifiable fact-like the news of the Gottschalks’ new data-processing equipment and the unaccountable reference to “Robert” Gottschalk-with sheer unmitigated nonsense. But because of it, he had abandoned his intention of having Celia padded to Conroy’s parameters, and it looked as though that was very lucky for him. No one could deny that Celia was better now than she had been for ages, perhaps better than during their entire married life.
He gave a contented little sigh. To have avoided making a fool of himself was something to be grateful for, of course, but to have Celia back, more than just cured, was still better.
A chime sounded from the vuset facing him, and he realized with a start that it was midday. The set had been fixed to switch itself on automatically and play his show, and he hadn’t canceled the instruction because this was the first time he’d been home at noon since the Gottschalks bought the network; he’d been tied up in the office on all the previous days, sorting out the loose ends and making half-hearted inquiries about alternative employment.
Come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure what use the new directorate was making of his vacant slot. He stared at the screen as it lit, and was astonished beyond meato see a dark familiar face appear: Pedro Diablo.
“What in the world?” He was half on his feet. Counterthe impulse with an effort, he sank back.
What could possibly underlie Diablo’s taking over? Ready to be angry all over again, he waited while the station ID played through, and the introductory commercial for imported skimmers.
“This week,” a sugary voice said over, “our noontide deep probe into the planet Earth is conducted by guest spoolpigeon Pedro Diablo!”
Crazy! Fantastic! Flamen’s mouth finned into a bitline. But Diablo was saying, “Friday, friends, and my last guest spot on this slot-next week back to your regular host, with whom I hope to have the privilege of collaborating for a while at least. So for the last solo time, here’s your view of the world through kneeblank eyes.”
Flick-flick, and on the screen the familiar fortress-like shape of the Ginsberg. Diablo over: “What lies behind the forced resignation of New York State Mental Hygiene Director Dr. Elias Mogshack?”
What?
And Mogshack, in his office, rock-still, eyes closed, a specimen of classic catatonia, every muscle frozen.
“Why, taking too seriously his own injunction about being an individual, it would seem,” Diablo said in a tone of slashing irony. Flick-flick and reconstructed scenes, as good as any Flamen himself had ever mounted-reluctant professional admiration began to drive away his resentment, his bewilderment at the passing reference to the slot being “back to normal” next week, and the shock of the news about Mogshack’s forced resignation. The director was seen and heard with Reedeth, screamover a comweb that there was a plot to unseat him, threatening dismissal because Reedeth had allowed XaviConroy to enter the hospital.