THE MAN WHO JAPED

CHAPTER 19

On wednesday morning the first-floor chamber of the housing unit was crammed to bursting. The gossip relay had carried the news to everybody, mostly through the wives. Stale cigarette smoke hung in its cloud and the air conditioning system was making no progress. At the far end was the platform on which the wardens sat, and they were all present.

In a freshly-starched dress, Janet entered slightly ahead of him. She went directly to a vacant table and placed herself before the microphone. The table, by an unverbalized protocol, was purposely untaken; in times of real crisis the wife was expected to aid her husband. To deprive her of that right would have been an affront to Morec.

Last time, no table had been left vacant. Last time had not been a crisis.

"This serious is," Allen said to his wife, stationing himself behind her. "And this long is; this vindictive is; and this going to lose is. So don't get too involved. Don't try to save me, because I can't be saved. As we said last night."

She nodded sightlessly.

"When they start burying their teeth in me," he continued softly, as if humming a tune, "don't spring up and take them all on. This is so rigged it's ready to burst. For example, where's little Mr. Wales?"

The man who had faith in Allen Purcell was not present. And the doors were being closed: he was not coming.

"They probably discovered a loophole in his lease," Allen said. Now Mrs. Birmingham was rising to her feet and ac- cepting the agenda. "Or it turned out that he's the owner of a chain of w--e [sic] houses stretching from Newer York to Orionus."

Janet still continued to face front, with a rigidity he had never before seen. She seemed to have created an exoskeleton for herself, a containing envelope through which nothing entered and nothing escaped. He wondered if she were saving herself for one grand slam. Perhaps it would appear when the ladies read their decision.

"It's dusty in here," Allen said, as the room dwindled into silence. A few persons glanced at him, then looked away. Since he was coasting downhill it was a poor idea to associate themselves with him.

At the end of the room the juveniles were surrendering their tapes. Seven tapes in all. Six, he conjectured, were for him. And one for everybody else.

"We will first undertake the case of Mr. A. P.," Mrs. Birmingham announced.

"Fine," Allen said, relieved. Again heads turned, then swiveled back. A murmur drifted up and joined the haze of cigarette smoke.

In a sardonic way he was amused. The rows of solemn, righteous faces... this was a church, and these were the members of the congregation in pious session. With long strides he made his way to the defendant's stage, hands in his pockets. In the rear, at her table, Janet sat wooden-faced, as stiff and unyielding as a carved stick. He nodded to her, and the session began.

"Mr. A. P.," Mrs. Birmingham said, in her noisy, authoritative voice, "did willingly and knowingly on the afternoon of October 22, 2114, in his place of business and during the working hours of the day, engage in a vile enterprise with a young woman. Further, Mr. A. P. did willingly and knowingly destroy an official monitoring instrument to avoid detection, and to further avoid detection he did strike the face of a Morec citizen, damage private property, and in every possible fashion seek to conceal his actions."

A series of clicks bounced from the loudspeaker, as the voice warmed up. The interconnecting network was in operation: the speaker hummed, buzzed and then spoke.

"Definition. Be specific. Vile enterprise."

Mrs. Birmingham adjusted her glasses and read on. "Mr. A. P. did welcome the young woman—not his lawful wife—into his office at the Committee Telemedia Trust, and there he did lock himself in with her, did take precautions to guarantee that he not be discovered, and, when discovered, was in the act of petting and embracing and sexually fondling the young woman about the shoulder and face, and had so placed his body that it was in contact with that of hers."

"Is this the same Mr. A. P. who was up before us the week before last?" the voice asked.

"It is," Mrs. Birmingham said, without reluctance.

"And this last week he was not present at the meeting?" The voice then declared: "Mr. A. P. is not being judged for his absence last week, and his lapse of the previous week has already been dealt with by this gathering."

The mood of the gathering was now varied. As always, many of the members were curious; some were bored and not particularly concerned. A few appeared unusually interested, and it was those to whom Allen paid attention.

"Mr. A. P.," the voice said. "Was this the first time you had met the young woman?"

"No," he said. "I'd seen her before." It was a trap, practiced as a matter of routine: if his reply was that yes, this was the first time, he was open for the charge of promiscuity. Sexual misconduct was better understood if it was confined to one partner; Miss J. E. had been cleared by that point, and he intended to use it, too.

"Often?" the voice asked, infinitely toneless.

"Not in excess. We were good friends. We still are. I think a great deal of Miss G. M. I have the highest respect for her, and so does my wife."

"Your wife knows her?" the voice asked. It answered its own question: "He just said so."

Allen said: "Let me make this clear. Miss G. M. is a responsible woman, and I have absolute faith in her moral integrity. Otherwise I wouldn't have admitted her to my office." His job was a matter of public knowledge, so he took the plunge. "In my position as Director of Telemedia, I must be highly careful of my choice of friends. Therefore—"

"How long have you been director?"

He hesitated. "Monday was my first day."

"And that was the day this young woman appeared?"

"People streamed in and out all day. Bundles of ‘flowers' arrived; you're familiar with the protocol of congratulation. I was besieged by well-wishers. Miss G.M. was one of them. She dropped by to wish me luck."

The voice said: "A great deal of luck." Several persons smirked knowingly. "You locked the door, did you? You ripped out the intercom? You phoned for a Getabout to pick the two of you up as soon as possible?"

To his knowledge this information wasn't available on the official report. He felt uneasy. "I locked the door because people had been barging in all day. I was nervous and irritable. Frankly, I was a little overwhelmed by the job, and I didn't care to see anybody. As to the intercom—" He lied shamelessly, without conscience. Under the system there was no choice. "Being unfamiliar with my new office I inadvertently tripped over the wires. The wires broke. Anybody in business is aware that such things happen frequently—and at exactly such times."

"Indeed," the voice said.

"Miss G.M.,, [sic] " Allen went on, "stayed about ten minutes. When the monitoring device entered, I was saying goodbye to her. As she left she asked if she could kiss me, as a token of congratulation. Before I could say no, she had done so. That was what happened, and that was what the monitor saw."

"You tried to destroy the monitor."

"Miss G.M. screamed; she was taken unawares. It had entered by the window and neither of us noticed it. To be honest, we both imagined it was some sort of menace. I'm not clear now as to exactly what I thought it was. I heard Miss G.M. scream; I saw a blur of motion. Instinctively I kicked out, and my foot connected with it."

"This man you hit."

"At Miss G.M.'s scream the door was forced and a number of hysterical people burst in. There was bedlam for a time, which is reported. A man ran up and started to grab at Miss G.M. I thought it was an attack aimed at Miss G.M., and I had no choice but to defend her. As a gentleman it was incumbent on me."

"Does the record bear that out?" the voice asked.

Mrs. Birmingham consulted. "The individual who was struck was attempting physically to apprehend the young woman." She turned a page. "However, it is stated that Mr A.P. had instructed the woman to flee the scene."

"Naturally," Allen said. "Since I feared an attack on her I wanted her to escape to safety. Consider the situation. Miss G.M. enters my office to wish me—"

"This is the same Miss G.M.," the voice interrupted, "with whom you spent four days and nights on an inter-S ship? The same Miss G.M. who registered under a phony name in order to conceal her identity? Is this not the same Miss G.M. with whom you have committed adultery at a number of times, in a number of places? Is it not true that all this has been concealed from your wife and that in reality your wife has never met this woman and could not possibly have any opinion of her except the normal opinion of a wife toward her husband's mistress?"

General pandemonium.

Allen waited for the noise to die down. "I have never committed adultery with anybody. I have no romantic relationship with Miss G.M. I have never—"

"You fondled her; you kissed her; don't you call that romantic?"

"Any man," Allen said, "who is capable of sexual activity during his first day at a new job is an unusual man."

Appreciative laughter. And a scatter of applause.

"Is Miss G.M. pretty?" This, in all probability, was a wife. The planted questioner, with extra information at his disposal, had temporarily retired.

"I suppose," Allen said. "Now that I think of it. Yes, she was attractive. Some men would think so."

"When did you first meet her?"

"Oh, about—" And then he broke off. He had almost fallen on that one. Two weeks was the wrong answer. No friendship of two weeks included a hug and kiss, in the Morec world. "I'll have to think back," he said, as if it were decades. "Let's see, when I first met her I was working for..." He let his voice trail off, until the questioner became impatient and asked:

"How did you meet her?"

In the back of his mind Allen sensed that the enemy was closing in. There were many questions he couldn't answer, questions for which no evasion would work. This was one of them.

"I don't remember," he said, and saw the floor open to receive him. "Some mutual friends, maybe."

"Where does she work?"

"I don't know."

"Why did you take a four-day trip with her?"

"Prove that I did." He had the way out of that, at least. "Is that in the report?"

Mrs. Birmingham searched, and shook her head no.

"Mr. A.P.," the voice said, "I'd like to ask you this." He couldn't tell if this were the same accuser; warily, he assumed it was. "Two weeks ago, when you arrived home drunk. Had you been with this woman?"

"No," he said, which was true.

"Are you positive? You had been alone at your office; you took a sliver to Hokkaido; you showed up several hours later clearly having had—"

"I didn't even know her then," he said. And realized his utter and final mistake. But now, alas, it was too late.

"You met her less than two weeks ago?"

"I had seen her before." His voice came out insect-frail, weak with awareness of defeat. "But I didn't know her well."

"What happened between you and her during the last two weeks? Was that when the relationship grew?"

Allen reflected at length. No matter how he answered, the situation was hopeless. But it was bound to end this way. "I'm not aware," he said at last, half-idly, "that it ever grew, then or any other time."

"To you a relationship with a young woman not your wife that involves petting and fondling and the juxtaposition of bodies—"

"To a diseased mind any relationship is foul," Allen said. He got to his feet and faced the people below him. "I'd like to see who I'm talking to. Come on out from under your rock; let's see what you look like."

The impersonal voice went on: "Are you in the habit of putting your hands on the bodies of young women with whom you happen, during the course of the day, to come in contact? Do you use your job as a means by which—"

"I tell you what," Allen said. "If you'll identify yourself I'll knock the living Jesus out of you. I'm fed-up with this faceless accusation. Obscene, sadistic minds are using these meetings to pry out all the sordid details, tainting every harmless act by pawing over it, reading filth and guilt into every normal human relationship. Before I step off this stage I have one general, theoretical statement to make. The world would be a lot better place if there was no morbid in- quisition like this. More harm is done in one of these sessions than in all the copulation between man and woman since the creation of the world."

He reseated himself. No sound was audible anywhere. The room was totally silent. Presently Mrs. Birmingham said: "Unless anybody wishes to make any further statements, the Council will prepare its decision."

There was no response from the impersonal voice of "justice." Allen, hunched over, realized that it had said not one word in his defense. Janet still sat like a stick of wood. Possibly she agreed with the accusations. At the moment it didn't really matter to him.

The council of ladies conferred for a period that seemed to him unnecessarily long. After all, the decision was foregone. He plucked at a thread on his sleeve, coughed, twisted restlessly on the chair. At last Mrs. Birmingham stood.

"The block-neighbors of Mr. A.P.," she stated, "regret that they are required to find Mr. A.P. to be an undesirable tenant. This exceptionally unfortunate is, since Mr. A.P. has been an exemplary tenant in this housing unit for many years, and his family before him. Mr. A.P., in point of fact, was born in the apartment he now holds. Therefore it is with deep reluctance that the Council, speaking for Mr. A.P.'s block-neighbors, declares his lease to be void as of the sixth day of November, 2114, and with even deeper reluctance petitions Mr. A.P. to remove his person, family, and possessions from these premises by that date." Mrs. Birmingham was silent a moment and then concluded: "It is also hoped that Mr. A.P. will understand that given the circumstances the Council and his block-neighbors had no choice in the matter, and that they wish him the best of personal luck. In addition, the Council wishes to make clear its conviction that Mr. A.P. is a man of greatest fortitude and perseverance, and it is the Council's belief that Mr. A.P. will surmount this temporary difficulty." Allen laughed out loud.

Mrs. Birmingham glanced at him quizzically, then folded up her statement and stepped back. Allen walked from the stage, down the steps and across the crowded room to the table at which his wife sat.

"Come on," he said to her. "We might as, well leave."

As the two of them pushed outside they heard Mrs. Birmingham droning into the next indictment.

"We will now undertake the case of R.P., a boy, age nine, who did willingly and knowingly on the morning of October 21, 2114, scrawl certain pornographic words on the wall of the community bathroom of the second floor of this housing unit."

"Well," Allen said to his wife, as the door was locked after them, "that's that."

She nodded.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"It seems so unreal."

"It's real. We have two weeks to get out. Temporary difficulty." He shook his head. "What a travesty."

Loitering in the corridor was Mr. Wales, a folded newspaper under his arm. As soon as he saw Allen and Janet he walked hesitantly forward. "Mr. Purcell."

Allen halted. "Hello, Mr. Wales. We missed you."

"I wasn't in there." Mr. Wales seemed both apologetic and animated. "Mr. Purcell, my new lease came through. That's why I wasn't there; I'm not part of this unit any more."

"Oh," Allen said. So they hadn't eased him out; they had bought up a superior lease and presented it to him. Presumably Mr. Wales was ignorant of the purpose of his good fortune; after all, he had his own problems.

"What was it like in there?" Mr. Wales asked. "Somebody told me you were up again."

"I was," Allen admitted.

"Serious?" Mr. Wales was concerned.

"Not too serious." Allen patted the little fellow on the arm. "It's all over now."

"I hope because I wasn't—"

"Made no difference at all. But thanks anyhow."

They shook hands. "Drop by and see us," Mr. Wales said. "My wife and I. We'd be glad to have you."

"Okay," Allen said, "we'll do that. When we're in the neighborhood."

After returning Janet to the apartment, Allen walked the long way to Telemedia and his new office. His staff was subdued; they greeted him and swiftly returned to their work. His two-hour absence testified to a block meeting; they all knew where he had been.

In his office he examined a summary of the day's schedule. The tree packet was in process, and for that he was glad. He called a few T-M officials in, discussed technical problems, then sat alone for awhile, smoking and meditating.

At eleven-thirty Mrs. Sue Frost, in a long coat, looking handsome and efficient, bustled cheerfully in to pay a visit.

"I won't take up much of your time," she announced. "I realize how busy you are."

"Just sitting here," he murmured. But she went on:

"We were wondering if you and your wife are free, tonight. I'm having a little Juggle get-together at my place, just a few people; we'd particularly like you two to be there. Mavis will be there, so will Mrs. Hoyt and perhaps—"

He interrupted: "You want my resignation? Is that it?"

Flushing, she said: "As long as we're going to be getting together I thought it might be a good opportunity to discuss further some of the—"

"Let's have a direct answer," he said.

"All right," she said. In a tight, controlled voice she said, "We'd like your written resignation."

"When?"

"As soon as possible."

He said, "You mean now?"

With almost perfect composure Sue Frost said, "Yes. If it's convenient."

"What if it isn't?"

For a moment she did not seem to understand.

"I mean," he said, "what if I refuse to resign?"

"Then," she said, facing him calmly, "you'll be discharged."

"As of when?"

Now, for the first time, she floundered. "Mrs. Hoyt will have to approve. As a matter of fact—"

"As a matter of fact," he said, "it takes full Committee action. My lease is good until the sixth and it'll be at least that long before you can legally get me out of T-M. Meanwhile I'm still Director. If you want me you can call me here at my office."

"You're serious?" she said, in a strained voice.

"I am," Allen said. "Has this ever happened before?"

"N-no."

"I didn't think so." He picked up some papers from his desk and began to study them; in the time he had left there was a great deal of work to be done.