Man From Mundania Read Online Free PDF Page A

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—"
     
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    Man from