"That's right. There she is now."
A uniformed officer was gently helping a pale little old woman sit
down before the camera, as if she were more an object of pity than of
fear. Hart relaxed.
"--caught red-handed with the incriminating papers," shouted an
offstage announcer. "Handbills asserting objects declared obsolescent
could actually last indefinitely!"
"What do you have to say for yourself?" the officer asked gently. "You
must realize, of course, that such irreligious behavior precludes your
moving in general society for a long time to come."
"I don't know what came over me," she sobbed in a tired voice.
"Curiosity. Yes, curiosity, that's what it was. I saw these sheets of
paper in the street and they said we should stop working so hard at
compulsory tasks and start working to expand our own interests and
personalities."
"Self-contradictory nonsense!" said the voice.
"Yes, I know that. But it made me curious and I took it home to read,
and it said our compulsory tasks were artificially manufactured and,
if you didn't believe that, look at the pile that reactivated itself
the other day." She stopped, reorganizing her thoughts. "Of course,
though, that thing in the Plaza was unique, you know. I don't think it
could mean a thing ... unless it happened a few times. And the fact is
it won't ever happen again."
"Well, that much makes very good sense," said Marie. "You said the
same thing, Wendell. I don't think that poor woman knew what she was
doing--just a dupe for subversive propaganda."
"--a dupe for subversive propaganda," the announcer was saying.
"See, exactly what I said."
"Yes, dear."
How swiftly the decentralized underground was working! Hart could not
tell whether the old woman was an active member or just a passive
responder, but it did not matter. She was now spreading the seeds for
future doubt across the land.
Two old men were brought in and they mumbled the same disconnected
story as their sister.
"We have intensively interrogated these prisoners," boomed the
announcer, "and know there is nothing more to the rumored anti-social
plot than this stupid chatter. Remain vigilant and you have nothing to
fear!"
"You are sentenced to five years isolation from general society," said
the officer, in a voice dulcet enough to sell advance orders for
replacement products that had not yet been made. "Our intention is to
protect you from bad influences. Our hope is that others will take
your lesson to heart."
"God bless you," said the woman and her brothers joined in effusive
thanks.
"Makes you proud to be a human being," Marie said. "I was getting some
stupid doubts myself, dear. I must admit it. But that's all past. I
can hardly wait for the Highest Holy Day."
"Neither can I," sighed her husband.