The Past Through Tomorrow

The guard's expression was not encouraging. The prisoner looked grieved. 'Why, Lefty,' he said, 'I thought you would jump at a chance to do a little pure charity like that.' He waited for a moment, then added, 'Tell you what-you do it, and I'll show you how to work that puzzle about "How old is A

'Show me first.'

'It would take too long. I'll write it out and give it to you.'

When the guard returned, MacKi

'David MacKi

'Fader. It isn't,' he explained with a grin, 'the name my mother gave me. It's more a professional tribute to my shy and unobtrusive nature.'

MacKi

Magee looked pained. 'Why, Dave,' he said, 'I didn't ask you that. However,' he went on, 'it's probably the same as yours-self-preservation.'

Magee was a sympathetic listener, and MacKi

'But what happens to my belongings?'

'They auction them off to pay the duty.'

'I wonder how much there will be left for me?'

Magee stared at him. 'Left over? There won't be anything left over. You'll probably have to pay a deficiency judgment.'

'Huh? What's that?'

'It's a device whereby the condemned pays for the execution,' Magee explained succinctly, if somewhat obscurely. 'What it means to you is that when your ten days is up, you'll still be in debt to the court. Then it's the chain gang for you, my lad-you'll work it off at a dollar a day.'

'Fader-you're kidding me.'

'Wait and see. You've got a lot to learn, Dave.'

Coventry was an even more complex place than MacKi

'This place is heaven itself compared with the Free State,' Magee maintained. 'I've been there-' The Free State was an absolute dictatorship; the head man of the ruling clique was designated the 'Liberator'. Their watchwords were Duty and Obedience; an arbitrary discipline was enforced with a severity that left no room for any freedom of opinion. Governmental theory was vaguely derived from the old functionalist doctrines. The state was thought of as a single organism with a single head, a single brain, and a single purpose. Anything not compulsory was forbidden. 'Honest so help me,' claimed Magee, 'you can't go to bed in that place without finding one of their damned secret police between the sheets.'

'But at that,' he continued, 'it's an easier place to live than with the Angels.'

'The Angels?'

'Sure. We still got 'em. Must have been two or three thousand die-hards that chose to go to Coventry after the Revolution-you know that. There's still a colony up in the hills to the north, complete with Prophet Incarnate and the works. They aren't bad hombres, but they'll pray you into heaven even if it kills you.'

All three states had one curious characteristic in common-each one claimed to be the only legal government of the entire United States, and each looked forward to some future day when they would reclaim the 'unredeemed' portion; i.e., outside Coventry. To the Angels, this was an event which would occur when the First Prophet returned to earth to lead them again. In New America it was hardly more than a convenient campaign plank, to be forgotten after each election. But in the Free State it was a fixed policy.

Pursuant to this purpose there had been a whole series of wars between the Free State and New America. The Liberator held, quite logically, that New America was an unredeemed section, and that is was necessary to bring it under the rule of the Free State before the advantages of their culture could be extended to the outside.

Magee's words demolished MacKi

'No-'considered Fader, 'no... not unless you took to the hills and hid. Then you 'ud be all right, as long as you steered clear of the Angels. But it would be pretty slim pickin's, living off the country. Ever tried it?'

'No... not exactly-but I've read all the classics: Zane Grey, and Emerson Hough, and so forth.'

'Well... maybe you could do it. But if you really want to go off and be a hermit, you 'ud do better to try it on the Outside, where there aren't so many objections to it.'

'No'-MacKi

'I see,' agreed Fader, nodding, 'you want to go to Coventry, but you don't want the Barrier to shut you off from the rest of the world.'

'No, that's not quite fair... Well, maybe, in a way. Say, you don't think I'm not fit to associate with, do you?'

'You look all right to me,' Magee reassured him, with a grin, 'but I'm in Coventry too, remember. Maybe I'm no judge.'

'You don't talk as if you liked it much. Why are you here?'

Magee held up a gently admonishing finger. 'Tut! Tut! That is the one question you must never ask a man here. You must assume that he came here because he knew how swell everything is here.'

'Still... you don't seem to like it.'

'I didn't say I didn't like it. I do like it; it has flavor. Its little incongruities are a source of i

MacKi

'Huh? Oh. I didn't mean weather control-there isn't any of that here, except what leaks over from outside. I was just using an old figure of speech.'

'What does it mean?'

Magee smiled to himself. 'You'll find out.'

After supper-bread, stew in a metal dish, a small apple-Magee introduced MacKi

'Hardly-Why?'

'I suggest that we check out.'

'A good idea, but how?'

'That's what I've been thinking about. Do you suppose you could take another poke on that battered phiz of yours, in a good cause?'

MacKi

'That's mother's little man! Now listen-this guard, Lefty, in addition to being kind o' unbright, is sensitive about his appearance. When they turn out the lights, you -'