The Bumblebee Flies Anyway Read Online Free PDF Page A

I can do to help.
    The telephone did not ring. Without saying anything and still not looking at Mazzo, Barney pushed Billy the Kidney out of the room and down the corridor. It wasn’t until he arrived at his own room that Barney wondered why Mazzo didn’t simply leave the phone off the hook.

 3 
    DID YOU FUNCTION NORMALLY IN THE PAST 24 HOURS?
    Barney stared at the words, uncertain about how to answer.
    REPEAT.
    REPEAT.
    DID YOU FUNCTION NORMALLY IN THE PAST 24 HOURS?
    Again Barney waited, studying the words on the video screen, wondering what was normal, after all. He knew that the question would be repeated exactly twenty-five times, and if he still didn’t answer, the screen would grow blank, setting off an alarm somewhere, summoning either the Handyman or Bascam or someone else as if a state of emergency had been declared.
    REPEAT.
    REPEAT.
    DID YOU FUNCTION NORMALLY IN THE PAST 24 HOURS?
    What the hell. Barney pressed the button marked YES . There were three buttons that could be pressed in responseto the questions: YES , NO , and one containing a question mark. The Machine, of course, was programmed to ask questions requiring either an affirmative or negative reply. The question mark was for use only when the inquiry wasn’t clear. Then there would be a pause, a humming sound as if the Machine were actually thinking things over, and the question would come back phrased differently. This always gave Barney the shivers, and he’d tell himself that there probably was someone sitting at a keyboard in another part of the Complex typing the questions. The Handyman assured him that this was not the case. The apparatus, he said, was sophisticated enough to carry out its own reprogramming and to modify its approach to the answer it sought. He could also go on at length about the operation of the Machine—the thousands of doodads that meshed together in precise and marvelous sequences—but it was all too complicated for Barney to understand or bother about. All he knew was that each evening at seven he came to this small windowless room, little larger than a closet, and faced the Machine. Next question.
    Barney anticipated what the next question would be, or at least its essence. After all these nights he had learned the sequence, and although the wording was slightly changed, the substance of the questions remained the same.
    DID YOU EXPERIENCE PAIN IN THE PAST 24 HOURS?
    Barney pushed the NO , button.
    DID YOU EXPERIENCE PHYSICAL DISCOMFORT IN THE PAST 24 HOURS?
    Which was another way of asking the pain question again. Or was it? The Handyman was cute about pain, though. He never used the word. He preferred a word like
discomfort
or its many variations.
This may make you uncomfortable for a bit.
Or:
You may feel a twinge from this.
Or:
This may be distressing for a moment or two.
But never
pain.
He let the Machine use the word, but Barney had never heard it on his lips.
    NO , Barney answered again.
    WAS YOUR ROUTINE ALTERED IN THE PAST 24 HOURS?
    This question and its variations always touched off a reaction in Barney, depending on what kind of mood he was in. Sometimes it amused him. What would happen if he answered YES ? Yes, my routine was altered because I only went to the john twice today instead of three times. Could the Machine handle that kind of answer? Billy the Kidney claimed it could. Billy said Barney was lucky because his responses were those of a normal person in good condition. “Take the pain question,” Billy had said. “Answer YES to the pain question and the merry-go-round starts. What kind of pain, and a long list to choose from. The location. How often. How long. The intensity, by degrees. Wow.”
    REPEAT.
    WAS YOUR ROUTINE ALTERED IN THE PAST 24 HOURS?
    Barney was tempted to fool with the answer, to push YES to see what would happen. It would also break the monotony. But the Handyman had warned him at the outset against that kind of stuff. The Handyman had said that anything but the truth