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sometimes. Hurt to
avoid hurt, unavoidable," he said. "Ergo, implode within.
Better, because safer."
    We'd had a friend in the trade; after graduation she was
implanted with finger-razors which, commanded, sprang
from undernail that with them she might lunge and slash.
One afternoon while she was grating cheese for dinner they
unexpectedly emerged, freezing in extremis. At her operative time, years before, such gear was bonegrafted direct;
only through amputation could she have been loosed of her
superfluous knives. Still, Dryco found her retainable for special use; in time such acts as turning doorknobs again came
naturally to her. Upon regooding's instilling she foresaw her
unavoidable obsolescence; the edict passed, and a week
passed, and then one night she lay full-uniformed in her
tub; resting there for a time, she must have made motions as if to adjust her collar. John once loved her, before our meet;
I never jealoused. Love was love, however manifest.

    "John-"
    "It'll remake us. I'll exemplarize, and protect sans harm.
The change'll come, over there," he said. I clasped his shimmer, fearing-his words notwithstanding-he was lost to us
both, if not till endtime, at least for our present. Curling
inward, feeling mouse-size, small and dark and bottled
within smooth walls, I stared out into a wide white world.
"Peace yourself meantime with dreams, Iz. Sleepaway."
    Once sex netted us tight, giving life, renewing our souls as
Godness so hoped; our love was Godness. Now I fancied that
John thought if we were to swive he'd only shoot into me
unneeded poison, embodying me overmuch with a readjusted virus. He shivered: I rubbed his stomach, felt his
muscles and the curls of his hair, and held his penis in my
hand. He never told me how he'd lost the tip.
    The TVC switched on again. "E," the desparate called
throughout our rooms; their pleas rebounded soft against
my ears as I lay there, unswived, unsaved. "Return to us.
Cleanse. Renew. We beg."
    E would return to them, if and when we found his double
in the shadow world; if our mission accomplished, and we
stole that world's E away, bringing him into ours where he
was so wanted, Dryco would present him returned anew, its
soothing gift for its regooded world. Some at Dryco
wanted-needed, in truth-E more than any of his believers
ever had.
    I wanted John so much; I couldn't say how much I still
needed him. Avoiding my eyes, he looked elsewhere now.
One suicidal stares at death to see who'll soonest blink. Too
soon, morningshade eked through our bamboo curtains,
and so I ascended. Mayhap, heavenbound, my husband
could ride me.

     

2

    "New always overcomes old," Judy said, sounding the words
as if to convince not me, but herself. Judy, I called her; that
was her name, and that was how I'd known her. Most of
Dryco were familiared with her chosen pseudonym; as befit
corporate etiquette, none save Mister O'Malley officially
called her anything other than Madam. "New throttles old
groundward, sighs and shudders, and tramps a remapped
path. Nature's way, irregardless of old's needs." She drew in
air as if each breath stung her throat; with pencil-thin fingers she smoothed her hair's gray cap. "John'll readjust or
he won't, Iz. If he doesn't, you will."
    "There's great unfairness in that," I said.
    "Great unfairness in all," she said. "Regooding essentials
that those in Security must readjust, if regooding is to effect.
Cruelty no longer satisfies Dryco's intent. So says Seamus, at
Leverett's request."
    Through Judy's wallwide windows I watched pigeons and
sparrows descending through clouds, swooping sillward, shelterbound. At touchdown they burst into blue bubbles;
their leavings feathered the air.

    "Since regooding underwayed John's gone holloweyed
and withery," I said. "He'd have exed himself by now if we
hadn't volunteered."
    "He was awared of Security's needs at time of hire," Judy
said. "Such deliberate positioning infers