having his life run
by the clock and book.
It was also apparent that Agenda's arrangements were
progressive. First they had an informal meal together. Then
Man from Mundania
22
they had a formal one. Then they went on a date: a G-rated
movie, where they held hands. Then they kissed. Then
she set an appointment for him to meet her parents.
He realized that he was on a well-organized treadmill
to marriage and a completely mundane life. He liked
Agenda, but he wasn't ready to make that commitment
yet. He was trying to break the mundane traces, and that
would be impossible with her.
"Damn!" he muttered under his breath.
YOU HAVE A PROBLEM? the computer screen inquired.
The machine was always on, now; the first time he tried
to turn it off after installing the Worm program, the screen
had protested with such logic that he had backed off and
left it on. Grey was barely average in gumption too, it
seemed.
"Well, yes," he confessed. "I've got this girlfriend,
and she's nice, but she's so organized I can't stand it, and
now—"
YOU WISH TO HAVE A DIFFERENT GIRL?
"Well, I hate to say it, but—"
CHOOSE: ALIMONY, ANOREXIA, BEZOAR, BULIMIA, CA-
THARTIC, CONNIPTION—
"Anorexia!" he cut in. He knew better than to take up
with a girl called Alimony! Of course the name might not
mean anything, but why takes chances? Anorexia sounded
like a good name.
GO TO THE APARTMENT ACROSS THE HALL.
"But that's where Agenda is!" he protested. "If I go
there, I just know she'll have things so organized that I'll
never get away.''
YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER.
Grey sighed. He'd just have to show the machine!
He opened his door and crossed the hall. He knocked
on the door.
It opened. There stood a strange, thin girl.
"Uh—" Grey said, amazed.
"You don't think I'm too fat, do you?" the girl inquired
anxiously. "I'm on a diet, but—"
"Uh, no, you're fine! Uh, I thought Agenda—"
Man from Mundania
23
"She moved out this morning. She said this place was
too disorganized, or something. I'm Anorexia Nervosa."
Moved out this morning? He had never suspected! What
a coincidence! "I'm Grey. Uh, you don't believe in orga-
nization?"
"Oh, no, I'm very disorganized! No discipline at all. I
keep getting fat. You don't think—"
Grey took a solid look at her. She was coat hanger thin.
"If you were any thinner, you'd look like a boy," he said.
She laughed nervously. "Oh, you're just saying that!
I'm so fat, I hate it! I thought if I lived alone, maybe I
could reduce, and look pretty."
As it turned out, this was no innocent ploy. Anorexia
truly believed she was fat, and continually dieted to make
herself thinner. It was awkward eating with her, because
she barely pecked at her food, leaving most of it on the
plate though she looked as if she were starving. He tried
to reassure her, but she simply would not believe she was
thin enough.
"I'm afraid she's going to keel over any moment from
hunger!" Grey exclaimed in the privacy of his apartment.
"Then they'll think that I'm somehow to blame."
YOU WISH A DIFFERENT GIRL?
"I guess so."
CHOOSE: ALIMONY, BEZOAR, BULIMIA, CATHARTIC,
CHLAMYDIA, CONNIPTION—
"No, no, wait!" Grey cried. He had done a smidgeon
of research in the interim, because of his association with
Anorexia, and so had a notion what to expect from Bu-
limia, Bezoar, Conniption, or Cathartic.
DYSLEXIA, EMETIC, EMPHYSEMA, ENIGMA, EUPHORIA—
"Dyslexia!" he cried, realizing that the computer would
not stop until he made a choice.
GO TO THE—
"I know!" He opened his door, crossed the hall, and
knocked.
Sure enough, a new girl was there. She was a blue-eyed
blonde, and looked neither fat nor thin. "Oh, you must
be the nice young man across the hall!" she exclaimed.
"Anorexia told me—"
24
Man from