"Why I'm going to get loopin', stoopin' drunk? I'll tell you why,
head-shrinker. Because I want to, that's why. Because I like it. I'm
doing something I like because I like it. I'm not doing it because of
the inversion of this concealed repression as expressed in the involuted
feelings my childhood developed in my attitude toward the sex-life of
beavers, see, couch-catechizer old boy? I like it and that's why."
"I knew a man who went to bed with old shoes because he liked it," said
Paresi coldly.
The Captain drank again and laughed harshly. "Nothing can change you,
can it, Nick?"
Paresi looked around him almost fearfully. "I can change," he whispered.
"Ives is gone. Give me the bottle."
Something clattered to the deck at the hem of the black curtain.
"'S another hallucination," said the Captain. "Go pick up the
hallucination, Nicky-boy."
"Not my hallucination," said Paresi. "Pick it up yourself."
"Sure," said the Captain good-naturedly. He waited while Paresi drank,
took back the bottle, tilted it sharply over his mouth. He wiped his
lips with the back of his hand, exhaled heavily, and went to the
blackness across the cabin.
"Well, what do you know," he breathed.
"What is it this time?"
[Illustration: Spaceman in melting room.]
Anderson held the thing up. "A trophy, that's what." He peered at it.
"_All-American, 2675._ Little statue of a guy holding up a victory
wreath. Nice going, little guy." He strode to Paresi and snatched away
the bottle. He poured liquor on the head of the figurine. "Have a drink,
little guy."
"Let me see that."
Paresi took it, held it, turned it over. Suddenly he dropped it as if it
were a red-hot coal. "Oh, dear God...."
"'Smatter, Nick?" The Captain picked up the statuette and peered at it.
"Put it down, put it down," said the doctor in a choked voice.
"It's--Johnny...."
"Oh it is, it is," breathed the Captain. He put down the statuette
gingerly on the table, hesitated, then turned its face away from them.
With abrupt animation he swung to Paresi. "Hey! You didn't say it looked
like Johnny. You said it _was_ Johnny!"
"Did I?"
"Yup." He grinned wolfishly. "Not bad for a psychologist. What a
peephole you opened up! Graven images, huh?"
"Shut up, Anderson," said Paresi tiredly. "I told you I'm not going to
let you needle me."
"Aw now, it's all in fun," said the Captain. He plumped down and threw a
heavy arm across Anderson's shoulders. "Le's be friends. Le's sing a
song."