Phyllis Hanson put the cover over her typewriter and locked the
correspondence drawer. Another day was done, another evening about to
begin.
She filed into the washroom with the other girls and carefully redid
her face. It was getting hard to disguise the worry lines, to paint
away the faint crow's-feet around her eyes.
She wasn't, she admitted to herself for the thousandth time, what you
would call beautiful. She inspected herself carefully in her compact
mirror. In a sudden flash of honesty, she had to admit that she wasn't
even what you would call pretty. Her face was too broad, her nose a
fraction too long, and her hair was dull. Not homely, exactly--but not
pretty, either.
Conversation hummed around her, most of it from the little group in the
corner, where the extreme few who were married sat as practically a
race apart. Their advice was sought, their suggestions avidly followed.
"Going out tonight, Phyl?"
She hesitated a moment, then slowly painted on the rest of her mouth.
The question was technically a privacy violator, but she thought she
would sidestep it this time, instead of refusing to answer point-blank.
"I thought I'd stay home tonight. Have a few things I want to rinse
out."
The black-haired girl next to her nodded sympathetically. "Sure, Phyl,
I know what you mean. Just like the rest of us--waiting for the phone
to ring."
Phyllis finished washing up and then left the office, carefully noting
the girl who was waiting for the boss. The girl was beautiful in a hard
sort of way, a platinum blonde with an entertainer's busty figure.
Waiting for a plump, middle-aged man like a stagestruck kid outside a
theatre.
At home, in her small two-room bachelor-girl apartment, she stripped
and took a hot, sudsing shower, then stepped out and toweled herself in
front of a mirror. She frowned slightly. You didn't know whether you
should keep yourself in trim just on some off-chance, or give up and
let yourself go.
She fixed dinner, took a moderately long time doing the dishes, and
went through the standard routine of getting a book and curling up on
the sofa. It was a good book of the boot-legged variety--scientifically
written with enough surplus heroes and heroines and lushly described
love affairs to hold anybody's interest.
It held hers for ten pages and then she threw the book across the room,
getting a savage delight at the way the pages ripped and fluttered to
the floor.
What was the use of kidding herself any longer, of trying to live
vicariously and hoping that some day she would have a home and a
husband? She was thirty now; the phone hadn't rung in the last three
years. She might as well spend this evening as she had spent so many
others--call up the girls for a bridge game and a little gossip, though
heaven knew you always ended up envying the people you were gossiping
about.
Perhaps she should have joined one of the organizations at the office
that did something like that seven nights out of every seven. A bridge
game or a benefit for some school or a talk on art. Or she could have
joined the Lecture of the Week club, or the YWCA, or any one of the
other government-sponsored clubs designed to fill the void in a woman's
life.
But bridge games and benefits and lectures didn't take the place of a
husband and family. She was kidding herself again.
She got up and retrieved the battered book, then went over to the mail
slot. She hadn't had time to open her mail that morning; most of the
time it wasn't worth the effort. Advertisements for book clubs, lecture
clubs, how to win at bridge and canasta....
Her fingers sprang the metal tabs on a large envelope and she took out
the contents and spread it wide.
She gasped. It was a large poster, about a yard square. A man was on
it, straddling a tiny city and a small panorama of farms and forests
at his feet. He was a handsome specimen, with wavy blond hair and blue
eyes and a curly mat on his bare chest that was just enough to be
attractive without being apelike. He held an axe in his hands and was
eyeing her with a clearly inviting look of brazen self-confidence.
_It was definitely a privacy violator and she should notify the
authorities immediately!_
Bright lettering at the top of the poster shrieked: "Come to the
Colonies, the Planets of Romance!"
_Whoever had mailed it should be arrested and imprisoned! Preying
on...._
The smaller print at the bottom was mostly full of facts and figures.
The need for women out on the colony planets, the percentage of men to
women--a startling disproportion--the comfortable cities that weren't
nearly as primitive as people had imagined, and the recently reduced
qualifications.
She caught herself admiring the man on the poster. Naturally, it was an
artist's conception, but even so....
And the cities were far in advance of the frontier settlements, where
you had to battle disease and dirty savages.
It was all a dream. She had never done anything like this and she
wouldn't think of doing it now. And had any of her friends seen the
poster? Of course, they probably wouldn't tell her even if they had.
_But the poster was a violation of privacy. Whoever had sent it had
taken advantage of information that was none of their business. It was
up to her to notify the authorities!_
* * * * *
She took another look at the poster.
The letter she finally finished writing was very short. She addressed
it to the box number in the upper left-hand corner of the plain
wrapper that the poster had come in.