again; I had forgotten my first name. Mullane briskly scrawled “41” and his initials on my assignment, and hurried off without lending me five dollars. I didn’t chase him. “I’m Mrs. Horrocks, the housing officer,” a woman said sweetly to me. “Welcome to the Chlorella family, Mr. Groby. I hope you’ll spend many happy years with us. And now to work. Mr. Mullane told you this draft of crumbs-that is, the present group of contractees- will be housed on the forty-third tier, I think. It’s my job to see that you’re located with a congenial group of fellow-employees.” Her face reminded me faintly of a tarantula as she went on: “We have one vacant bunk in Dorm Seven. Lots of nice, young men in Dorm Seven. Perhaps you’d like it there. It means so much to be among one’s own kind of people.” I got what she was driving at and told her I didn’t want to be in Dorm Seven. She went on brightly: “Then there’s Dorm Twelve. It’s a rather rough crowd, I’m afraid, but beggars can’t be choosers, can they? They’d like to get a nice young man like you in Dorm Twelve. My, yes! But you could carry a knife or something. Shall I put you down for Dorm Twelve, Mr. Groby?” ‘Wo, ” I said. “What else have you got? And by the way, I wonder if you could lend me five dollars until payday?” “I’ll put you down for Dorm Ten,” she said, scribbling. “And of course I’ll lend you some money. Ten dollars? Just sign and thumb-print this assignment, Mr. Groby. Thank you.” She hurried off in search of the next sucker. A red-faced fat man gripped my hand and said hoarsely: “Brother, I want to welcome you to the ranks of the United Slime-Mold Protein Workers of Panamerica, Unaffiliated, Chlorella Costa Rica Local. This pamphlet will explain how the U.S.M.P.W.P. protects workers in the field from the innumable petty rackets and abuses that useta plague the innustry. Yer inishiashun and dues are checked off automatically but this valuable pamphlet is an extra.” I asked him: “Brother, what’s the worst that can happen to me if I don’t buy it?” “It’s a long drop,” he said simply. He lent me five dollars to buy the pamphlet. I didn’t have to climb to Dorm Ten on the forty-third tier. There were no elevators for Class 2 people, but there was an endless cargo net we could grab hold of. It took a little daring to jump on and off,
and clearance was negligible. If your rump stuck out you were likely to lose it. The dorm was jammed with about sixty bunks, three high. Since production went on only during the daylight hours, the hotbed system wasn’t in use. My bunk was all mine, twenty-four hours a day. Big deal. A sour-faced old man was sweeping the central aisle lackadaisically when I came in. “You a new crumb?” he asked, and looked at my ticket. “There’s your bunk. I’m Pine. Room orderly. You know how to skim?” “No,” I said. “Look, Mr. Pine, how do I make a phone call out of here?” “Dayroom,” he said, jerking his thumb. I went to the dayroom adjoining. There was a phone and a biggish hypnoteleset and readers and spools and magazines. I ground my teeth as the cover of Taunton ‘s Weekly sparkled at me from the rack. The phone was a pay phone, of course. I dashed back into the dorm. “Mr. Pine,” I said, “can you lend me about twenty dollars in coin? I have to make a long-distance call.” “Twenty-five for twenty?” he asked shrewdly. “Sure. Anything you say.” He slowly scrawled out an assignment slip and I signed and printed it. Then he carefully counted out the money from his baggy pockets. I wanted to call Kathy, but didn’t dare. She might be at her apartment, she might be at the hospital. I might miss her. I dialed the fifteen digits of the Fowler Schocken Associates number after I deposited a clanging stream of coins. I waited for the switchboard to say: “Fowler Schocken Associates; good afternoon; it’s always a good afternoon for Fowler Schocken Associates and their clients. May I help you?” But that isn’t what I heard. The phone said: “Su numero de pri-ondad, par favor?” Priority number for long-distance calls. I didn’t have one. A firm had to be rated a billion and fast pay before it could get a longdistance priority number in four figures. So jammed were the world’s long lines that an individual priority in any number of figures was unthinkable. Naturally all that had never worried me when I made long-distance calls from Fowler Schocken, on the Fowler