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magazine or look at an eclipse or a new orbiting station or fetch the kids from school or buy Daisy a
bunch of flowers or whatever it is. It's got to be something that's always with me, not something I have
to go and consult or that I can get sick of and put down somewhere. And it's got to remind me forcibly
enough so that I take notice and don't just shrug it aside, like I sometimes do even when Daisy reminds
me of things. That's what your stupid team can invent for me! If they do a good job, I'll pay them as
much as fifty dollars!"
That doesn't sound like anything so very original to me, Fay commented cooly, leaning back from the
wagging finger. I think all senior executives have something of that sort. At least, their secretary keeps
some kind of file..."
I'm not looking for something with spiked falsies and nylons up to the neck, interjected Gusterson,
whose ideas about secretaries were a trifle lurid. I just want a mech reminder that's all!"
Well, I'll keep the idea in mind, Fay assured him, along with the bubble homes and beauty masks. If
we ever develop anything along those lines, I'll let you know. If it's a beauty mask, I'll bring Daisy a
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pilot model to use to scare strange kids. He put his watch to his ear. Good lord, I'm going to have to
cut to make it underground before the main doors close. Just ten minutes to Second Curfew! Bye, Gus.
Bye, Daze."
Two minutes later, living room lights out, they watched Fay's foreshortened antlike figure scurrying
across the balding ill-lit park toward the nearest escalator.
Gusterson said, Weird to think of that big bright space-poor glamor basement stretching around
everywhere underneath. Did you remind Smitty to put a new bulb in the elevator?"
The Smiths moved out this morning, Daisy said tonelessly. They went underneath."
Like cockroaches, Gusterson said. Cockroaches leavin a sinkin apartment building. Next the
ghosts'll be retreatin to the shelters."
Anyhow, from now on we're our own janitors, Daisy said.
He nodded. Just leaves three families besides us loyal to this glass death trap. Not countin ghosts. He
sighed. Then, You like to move below, Daisy? he asked softly, putting his arm lightly across her
shoulders. Get a woozy eyeful of the bright lights and all for a change? Be a rat for a while? Maybe
we're getting too old to be bats. I could scrounge me a company job and have a thinking closet all to
myself and two secretaries with stainless steel breasts. Life'd be easier for you and a lot cleaner. And
you'd sleep safer."
That's true, she answered and paused. She ran her fingertip slowly across the murky glass, its violet
tint barely perceptible against a cold dim light across the park. But somehow, she said, snaking her
arm around his waist, I don't think I'd sleep happier or one bit excited."
II
Three weeks later Fay, dropping in again, handed to Daisy the larger of two rather small packages he
was carrying.
It's a so-called beauty mask, he told her, complete with wig, eyelashes, and wettable velvet lips. It
even breathes pinholed elastiskin with a static adherence-charge. But Micro Systems had nothing to do
with it, thank God. Beauty Trix put it on the market ten days ago and it's already started a teen-age craze.
Some boys are wearing them too, and the police are yipping at Trix for encouraging transvestism with
psychic repercussions."
Didn't I hear somewhere that Trix is a secret subsidiary of Micro? Gusterson demanded, rearing up
from his ancient electric typewriter. No, you're not stopping me writing, Fay it's the gut of evening. If
I do any more I won't have any juice to start with tomorrow. I got another of my insanity thrillers
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moving. A real id-teaser. In this one not only all the characters are crazy but the robot psychiatrist too."
The vending machines are jumping with insanity novels, Fay commented. Odd they're so popular."
Gusterson chortled. The only way you outer-directed moles will accept individuality any more even in
a fictional character, without your superegos getting seasick, is for them to be crazy. Hey, Daisy!
Lemme see that beauty mask!"
But his wife, backing out of the room, hugged the package to her bosom and solemnly shook her head.
A hell of a thing, Gusterson complained, not even to be able to see what my stolen ideas look like."
I got a present for you too, Fay said. Something you might think of as a royalty on all the inventions
someone thought of a little ahead of you. Fifty dollars by your own evaluation. He held out the smaller
package. Your tickler."
Mywhat? Gusterson demanded suspiciously.
Your tickler. The mech reminder you wanted. It turns out that the file a secretary keeps to remind her
boss to do certain things at certain times is called a tickler file. So we named this a tickler. Here."
Gusterson still didn't touch the package. You mean you actually put your invention team to work on
that nonsense?"
Well, what do you think? Don't be scared of it. Here, I'll show you."
As he unwrapped the package, Fay said, It hasn't been decided yet whether we'll manufacture it
commercially. If we do, I'll put through a voucher for you for development consultation or something
like that. Sorry no royalty's possible. Davidson's squad had started to work up the identical idea three
years ago, but it got shelved. I found it on a snoop through the closets. There! Looks Georgian-silver
rich, doesn't it?"
On the scarred black tabletop was a dully gleaming object about the size and shape of a cupped hand
with fingers merging. A tiny pellet on a short near-invisible wire led off from it. On the back was a
punctured area suggesting the face of a microphone; there was also a window with a date and time in
hours and minutes showing through, and next to that four little buttons in a row. The concave underside
of the silvery hand was smooth except for a central area where what looked like two rollers came
through.
It goes on your shoulder under your shirt, Fay explained, and you tuck the pellet in your ear. We
might work up bone conduction on a commercial model. Inside is an ultra-slow fine-wire recorder
holding a spool that runs for a week. The clock lets you go to any place on the seven-day wire and
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