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alienness now, more strongly than at any earlier moment since they had come in.
"Let me help you with a little advice," said Long. "For- get that you're deciding for a world.
Don't try to think of how all the rest will feel. Decide only for yourself. I promise you, what you
sincerely feel, the great and lasting part of
224 Gordon S. Dickson
your people, those who work and marry and have children and endure, will fee! the same."
They turned away from him and went through the screen door into the strong glare of the
sunset. Jim heard the screen door slam quietly behind them.
"Dinner's ready!" called Nancy, from the kitchen.
Incredibly, he actuaHy forgot about it during the general chatter and excitement of dinner. It
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was only later, after Joey had been put to bed and he and Nancy were sitting in the living
room watching television, that it all came back to him. He waited until the western they
happened to be watching came to its noisy climax and then got up from his chair. "I've got
some letters to write," he told Nancy. He went into the extra bedroom, that they called the
office, and shut the door- He sat down in the chair before the card table that did service as a
desk and turned on the lamp. Its light shone warmly at the bookcases and secondhand over-
stuffed chair that had been their first furniture purchase for the apartment he and Nancy had
moved into after their honey- moon. He got out his fountain pen, the notepaper and
envelopes and then took the marble once more from his pocket and laid it on the white
sheet of paper before him. It glowed back up at him, reflecting the lamplight- "I've got to think
this thing out," be told himself. But no thoughts came. Once he closed his hand around the
marble hesitantly, but then let go of it again without using it. He tried to imagine what the
world would be like if he should tell Long and White that his answer was yes. No hospitals,
different kinds of cars, he supposed he was not very good at this kind of imagining. If
everybody had everything they needed, what about money and jobs.
He checked suddenly. Funny it had not occurred to him before. Of course, his own job
would be one of the first to go. Well people wouldn't need medicine. And as for all the rest of
the stuff a drugstore sold, beauty aids and the rest, there would probably be new versions
that would last for a lifetime. Magazines would probably be left, candy, iee cream, toys - . .
What would happen to Nancy and Joey if he had no job? What would eventually happen to
him?
GIFTS 225
But he was forgetting. Under the new set-up they wouldn't want for things they needed. No
need to worry there. But what would he do? He couldn't just sit around for me rest of his life.
Or could he? There were things he'd always wanted to do, like deep-sea fishing and places
he'd always wanted to go. But would that be enough?
On second thought, there would probably be thousands of new jobs opening up. Long and
White obviously belonged to a people who had work to do. Perhaps there would be some-
thing he would like better than pharmacy, something that would give him a feeling of really
getting somewhere, mak- ing progress . . .
After some while, he glanced at his watch, h was almost eleven; he had been sitting here
close to two hours. And nothing was decided. He stood up, feeling the weight and
weariness of his own body. His eyes smarted from staring at tfie light reflected from the
blank white paper before him. He put everything away, turned out the tamp and went to his
and Nancy's bedroom.
Nancy was already in bed and reading the newspaper. She looked up as he came in.
"What time do you go in the morning?" she asked.
"Not until noon," he said. "Dave's opening up tomor- row." He took off his shirt and went
about the business of getting ready for sleep. Nancy put me paper away on the shelf
underneath the night table beside their double bed. She yawned and slid down under the
covers.
"I've got to take Joey shopping tomorrow," she said. "He's just bursting out of his socks."
"Yes," he said. He turned out the light and got into bed. The peaceful darkness washed in
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around him. He. lay there, slowly breathing. There was a movement under the covers and he
felt Nancy's hand touch gently upon his arm.
"What's wrong?" she asked softly.
He sighed, deeply and gustily; and, turning toward her, he told her, the whole story about
White and Long, and all that they had said and done.
Nancy always had been a good listener. She listened now, without interrupting him with
questions, her face a pale blur
226 Gordon R. Dickson
in the little light filtering in around the edges of the window shades. Toward the end of it they
were both sitting up in bed;
and Jim got up to turn on the light and retrieve the marble from his pants' pocket. He
brought it back to her and got into bed again.
She took it from his hand and turned it over in her own fingers. The light from their bedstand
lamp caught and glinted from its surface, making the three colors seem to flow as she turned
it, as if they were being stirred about within a transpar- ent shell. She looked at Jim.
"Could I?" she said. "Do you suppose "
"Go ahead," said Jim.
She closed her fingers about the marble and closed her eyes. A fur stole appeared on the
blanket before them. Nancy opened her eyes again.
"Oh!" she said, on a little intake of breath. She reached and touched the fur with a feather
touch, stroking it almost imperceptibly with the ends of her fingers. She got up sud- denly,
climbing over Jim, who was on me outside of the bed, carrying the stole, and went to the
mirror of her dressing table- She put the stole around her neck and held it there with both
hands, gazing into the mirror- Watching her, standing there in her nightgown with the fur
around her. Jim felt a sudden ridiculous tightening in his throat.
"Nancy," he said.
She turned about and came back to the bed, climbing in again and reaching for the marble.
As her hand closed about it, the fur vanished.
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