"I am happy to inform you," he said, "that the position is that of
press secretary to President Gouverneur Allison."
* * * * *
"My, you're home early," Mae said, giving me a kiss.
It wasn't a big, fat, oh-I'm-so-glad-to-see-you're-safe kiss. Not at
all. I looked at my watch: it was a little after 3 P.M. Early? Here it
was Sunday. Mae hadn't seen me since Thursday night and she said I was
home early. Had the Monolithians played a trick with time? Was it only
Friday afternoon?
"Listen, Mae," I said. "Did you watch your story today? What happened
after this girl with the amnesia walked into Dr. Kindfellow's office,
not realizing he was the very one she had fled a thousand miles to
avoid?" Mae watches this television serial come hell or high water.
It's one of her few vices.
"Silly," Mae said. "You know it's not on on Sunday. I thought you
wouldn't be home till six. We were just going to take our nap."
"You thought I wasn't going to be home till six? Is that what I told
you?" I was feeling my way, full of inklings and forebodings.
"Well, you usually get home at six when you're on the day shift--or is
it five-thirty on week ends when you drive right in? Anyway, you're
early. I'm glad. I guess we can skip our nap. Do you want to eat early?"
All I wanted to do was get to the bottom of this. It was beginning to
be obvious that this double of me that the Monolithians whipped up
actually had been living in my house as well as doing my job. I wanted
to ask a dozen questions--but I couldn't without either giving Mae a
terrific shock or making her think I was out of my mind.
"No, I'll eat whenever it's ready. Listen, Mae--have I been acting
strange lately? I mean in the last couple days?"
"I've got some nice lamb chops for supper. Strange? Well, no stranger
than usual, Sam. I mean, you've been a little bit nutty ever since the
spacemen came. Naturally I've made allowances. I guess it's a pretty
big story and a person has to take sides the way you did on that TV
show."
"Oh, you saw that, did you?"
"Well, of course I did! You said only last night how the check will pay
for the play pen and the bathinette. Surely you remember that?"
"Sure I do," I lied. "It wasn't awfully much, I guess."
"Fifty dollars is what you said it was. It helps."
"Sure. What else did I say?"
"When?"
"Last night."
"You said--honestly, Sam, are you sure you're all right?--you said we'd
take an early vacation next year and go to Bermuda, all three of us."
"Sure, Bermuda," I said. "Sure I'm all right. I'm sorry, Mae; I've been
a little confused ever since I got my new job."
"What new job? You didn't tell me that."
"No, I guess I didn't. It wasn't set until today. I'm leaving World
Wide. I'm going to be press secretary to the President."
Mae did a double take--or at least a double blink--and said without
more than a second's hesitation: "Isn't that wonderful!"
"I guess so," I said.
"What do you mean you guess so? It's marvelous! Of course you did say
once you didn't think much of Gov. I think you said he doesn't have a
brain in his head. Isn't that the way you put it?"
"I may have made some such remark," I said. "Such a thought has crossed
my mind. But now I'm in a position to help him. I may even be able to
put a thought or two _into_ his head. I'll be the chief factotum of
the White House mimeograph machines--the disseminator, if not molder,
of executive policy. Then there's the big old unsneezable fact that it
pays a fast eighteen thousand a year."
Mae's eyes went sort of glazy and I could see her trying to divide that
mentally by 52. "That's a lot, isn't it?" she said finally. "Now we can
afford to replace that storm window that fell out last winter and maybe
repaper the nursery."
"We can take care of the storm window, anyway. It's the least we can do
for whoever rents the place when we move to Washington."
"Oh--of course. I forgot we'd have to move to Washington."
"I don't see any way out of it. It's a little too far for commuting."