Level 7

APRIL 21

A few more marriage announcements were made today. One of the wastage officers, W-297, has married a female administrator, Ad-327. R-287, male, has married a loud-speaker officer, L-267. M-227, a medical doctor, is now the wife of one of the screen-watchers, Sc-167.

Today in the lounge I tried to chat with the nurse I met on my first visit to that room, N-527. I have had little chance to speak to her since that occasion, because E-647, the electrical engineer, has always been around her, while P-867 is always around me. Today, by a happy coincidence, E-647 was missing as well as P-867, who has not shown up in the lounge for the last three days.

N-527 is rather nice. If I marry down here at all, I should like to marry her.

I asked her how her job differed from that of TN-237m, Level 7’s first bride. She said that she was trained to nurse adults, while ‘TN’ indicated a person qualified as kindergarten teacher and nurse for babies and young children.

Then I asked her if she was kept busy. She said no, for there were very few accidents down here, and hardly any sickness so far. I suggested that this might make her life boring. She replied that she spent a lot of time listening to music—to the light tape, not the classical.

Wouldn’t marriage be an additional distraction? I suggested. She answered that she did not feel a need for any additional distraction. “Still, I may marry,” she said. “E-647 proposed to me yesterday, and I promised to give him an answer today, but he hasn’t come.” She looked around the room with a slight air of disappointment.

I did not ask her what her answer would be, but changed the subject. Though I liked her calm, hardly sensitive nature, I did not feel too cut up about the prospect of her marrying E-647. Apparently he cared for her more than I did.

Perhaps E-647 is less unsociable than I.