* * * * *
She didn't answer; she kept her eyes straight ahead and I saw the faint
spot of color on her cheek.
I had a sudden impulse to ask her to meet me after hours at one
of the rec centers. If it had been my danger alone, I might have,
but I couldn't very well ask her to risk discovery of a haphazard,
unauthorized arrangement like that and the possibility of going to the
psycho-scan.
We came to a turn in the corridor and something happened; I'm not sure
just how it happened. I keep telling myself that my movements were not
actually deliberate. I was to the right of her. The turn was to the
left. She turned quickly, and I didn't, so that I bumped into her,
knocking her off balance. I grabbed her to keep her from falling.
For a moment we stood there, face to face, touching each other lightly.
I held her by the arms. I felt the primitive warmth of her breath. Our
eyes held together ... proton ... electron ... I felt her tremble.
She broke from my grip suddenly and started off again.
After that she was very business-like.
We came finally to the controls of Bank 29 and she stood before them
and began to press button combinations. I watched her work; I watched
her move. I had almost forgotten why I'd come here. The lights blinked
on and off and the typers clacked softly as the machine sorted out
information.
She had a long printed sheet from the roll presently. She frowned at
it and turned to me. "You can take this along and study it," she said,
"but I'm afraid what you have in mind may be--a little difficult."
She must have guessed what I had in mind. I said, "I didn't think it
would be easy."
"It seems that the only agency authorized to change a State Serial
under any circumstances is Opsych."
"Opsych?" You can't keep up with all these departments.
"The Office of Psychological Adjustment. They can change you if you go
from a lower to higher E.A.C."
"I don't get it, exactly."
As she spoke I had the idea that there was sympathy in her voice. Just
an overtone. "Well," she said, "as you know, the post a person is
qualified to hold often depends largely on his Emotional Adjustment
Category. Now if he improves and passes from, let us say, Grade 3 to
Grade 4, he will probably change his place of work. In order to protect
him from any associative maladjustments developed under the old E.A.C,
he is permitted a new number."