A horde of gaily dressed mammals surrounded me, their faces and bodies
oddly fuzzy and distorted. Edith's voice was equally fuzzy. There was
something wrong with her centers. I tapped the helmet and checked the
controller just in case it was on our end, but they were functioning
perfectly. There was nothing wrong--merely the fact that ethanol was
disturbing the biocircuits I had implanted in her brain. I swore a
few choice expletives of Low Thalassan and tried to get through by
increasing the power. It did no good.
"I c'n still feel that li'l lizard in m' head," Edith announced. "Gimme
another drink. I wanna wash her out. Darn li'l lizard makes me do
things I dowanna do. It wants me to quit, but I wanna get drunk."
"Take it easy," a fuzzy male face said. "You're loaded. Why does a
nice chick like you hafta be loaded? Whyncha get outa here? I gotta
nice place over in Santa Monica where--"
The face disappeared.
"Hey! Alice! Golly, I almos' din't reckanize you. Howya doin?"
"Better than you, Edith. You're drunk. And from the looks of you,
you're going to be sick if you don't get some fresh air."
"Gotta go spit in the eye of my li'l lizard," Edith said. "Y'wanna
come with me? I got Don's car. We c'n get outa here an' get some fresh
air--an' I c'n tell that li'l lizard what I think of her."
"What are you talking about?"
"You wanna see my li'l lizard. She's got yella eyes, and a li'l tail,
and she turns all kindsa colors, and she lives in a rock with a door
in it, an she makes me do things I dowanna do. It ain't so bad though.
Mosta the time I like it. Not alla time though. That's why I wanna spit
in her eye. She c'n tell me all she wants--but she's gotta leave me'n
Don alone. I love that guy." Edith started sobbing--why, I couldn't
understand.
"She's maudlin," I said to Ven. "No one's going to believe a thing she
is saying. But this should be a warning to us. We'll have to put in
a block against drinking ethanol. I didn't realize how badly it can
affect the biocircuits." I handed the helmet back to Ven. "You can
watch this mess if you want to. I'm going to our quarters."