Carefully avoiding brass plates, Dan made his way along an avenue of
shops devoted to exercise and physical fitness. He came to Runfast
Blvd. and located 6140, which looked like the apartment houses he had
seen earlier.
He tried the outer door; it was locked. When someone came out, Dan
caught the door and stepped in. As the door shut, he tried it and found
it was locked again. He stood for a moment trying to understand it, but
his sleeplessness of the night before was catching up with him. He gave
up and went inside.
There were no elevators on the ground floor. Dan had his choice of six
ropes, two ladders and a circular staircase. He went up the staircase
to the third floor, where he saw a single elevator. He rode it up to
the sixth, got off and found that there was a bank of four elevators on
this floor.
He looked at the elevators a minute, felt himself getting dizzy, and
walked off to locate apartment 6B.
A powerfully built gray-haired man of middle height answered his
knock. Dan introduced himself and explained why he had come.
Mr. Milbun beamed and his right hand shot forward. Dan felt like a man
with his hand caught in an airlock.
"Lerna!" called Milbun. "Lerna! Mavis! We have a guest for vacation!"
Dan became aware of a rhythmical clinking somewhere in the back of the
apartment. Then a big, strong-looking woman, obviously fresh from the
kitchen, hurried in, smiling. If she had been ill, she was clearly
recovered now.
"Ah, how are you?" she cried. "We're so happy to have you!" She gripped
his hand and called, "_Mavis!_"
The clinking stopped. A beautifully proportioned girl came in, wearing
a sweatshirt and shorts. "Mother, I simply have to get off another
pound or so--Oh!" She stared at Dan.
"Mavis," said Mr. Milbun, "this is Mr. Dan Redman. Devisement, my
daughter Mavis."
"You're going with us!" she said happily. "How wonderful!"
"Now," said Mr. Milbun, "I imagine his Devisement wants to get a little
rest before he goes down to the gym." He glanced at Dan. "We have a
splendid gym here."
"Oh," said Mavis eagerly, "and you can use my weights."
"Thanks," said Dan.
"We're leaving tomorrow," Milbun told him. "The birth rate's still
rising here, and last night the charge correction went up again. A
little more and it'll take two of us to get a door open. It won't
inconvenience you to leave tomorrow?"
"Not at all," said Dan.
"Splendid." Milbun turned to his wife. "Lerna, perhaps our guest would
like a little something to eat."
* * * * *
The food was plain, good and plentiful. Afterward, Mavis showed Dan to
his room. He sank down gratefully on a firm, comfortable bed. He closed
his eyes....
Someone was shaking him gently.
"Don't you want to go down to the gym?" asked Mr. Milbun. "Remember,
we're leaving tomorrow."
"Of course," said Dan.
Feeling that his brain was functioning in a vacuum, Dan followed the
Milbuns into the hall, climbed down six stories on a ladder, then into
the basement on a rope. He found himself in a room with a stony dirt
track around the wall, ropes festooning the ceiling, an irregularly
shaped pool, and artificial shrubs and foliage from behind which sprang
mechanical monsters. The Milbuns promptly vanished behind imitation
vine-covered doors and came out again in gym clothes.
Dan went through the doorway Mr. Milbun had come out of and discovered
that the Save-Your-Life Co. had a machine inside which dispensed
washed, pressed and sterilized gym clothes for a small fee. The machine
worked by turning a selector dial to the proper size, pressing a lever,
and then depositing the correct fee in an open box on the wall nearby.
Dan studied this a moment in puzzlement, guessed his proper size and
put the correct payment in the box.
He put on the gym clothes and went outside.
For forty-five minutes, mechanical creatures of odd and various shapes
sprang at him from behind shrubbery, gripped him when he passed holes
in the floor and wound themselves around his legs as he tried to swim
in the pool.
His temper worsened. He stopped to look at Mavis as she swayed,
laughing, on a rope above two things like mobile giant clamshells.