Level 7

APRIL 20

At lunch today TN-237m—the additional symbol was attached to her identity badge—told us some details about the marriage ceremony.

It was performed (to the visible disappointment of some of the people, mostly women, who were listening to her) in the little room where we take our laundry, a tiny closet like place about five feet square. Only she and AS-167 were present, but evidently they must have been on the screen of the mistress-of-ceremonies, for they were told over a loudspeaker not to face each other, as they initially did, but to face the wall opposite the door. Presumably this enabled the loudspeaker-lady to see them better.

Then they were asked the questions and gave the answers which we all heard over the general loudspeaker system, and as the mistress-of-ceremonies was congratulating them two little letters ‘m’ rattled down the chute which returns the bundles of clean laundry. On the back each read: “Fix this to your identity badge.” (TN-237m turned hers round, and we all read the instruction on the back.)

“And that was all,” she concluded, looking as disappointed as any of us.

Somebody murmured that this all sounded very interesting, but he said it in such a way that it was clear he did not believe his own words. Then someone else remarked that the marriage ceremony was only a symbol: the essence of marriage, he said, lay in its essence.

Nobody contradicted this statement and the topic was dropped as the band on the table started moving and our meal glided to a stop before us. We ate without saying much until, just as we were on the point of concluding our lunch with three pills and a drink, somebody had the good or the bad idea of taking one of the pills between his thumb and forefinger and lifting it the way a glass of wine is lifted for a toast. “To TN-237m,” he proposed, bowing slightly to her, “and may she enjoy many happy years with AS-167m.”

“TN-237m,” we all mumbled, solemnly raising our pills before popping them into our mouths; and she, deciding that our gesture was well-meaning, looked a little bashful and replied: “Thank you.”