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Bayview Apartments. Too much thinking is the first sign of losing touch with reality. It s a big problem
everywhere with kids. There are some pills that will get him back up to a normal level of hype.
 Thanks, but I m sure I can manage fine without, Kenny said hastily.
 Don t keep thanking people, Arnie complained.  It ain t good manners. It sounds like people are
doing you favors or something . . . as if they re nobodies trying to get liked.
 Well that god-awful music you play in there won t get you anyplace, Beth said to Kenny. She turned
toward Ella and Stan.  You know the kind of stuff I mean no beat or feel to it all, just noise.
 The kids across the street from us are always playing it out the window, Stan said, nodding.  It s
primitive, not even electronic. I went over there one night and set fire to their rose bushes.
 What s that place you were talking about the other week? Arnie asked Kenny.  Beat Heaven or
something? I mean, what s it all about, huh? Where in hell is Beat Heaven supposed to be?
 Beethoven, Kenny said with a sigh.
 Same difference. So where in hell is that?
 Is that where they wear all the freaky clothes, Kenny? Ella asked, giggling and waving her hand at his
general appearance.
 They don t say anything, kid, Stan told him.  Are you ashamed to be yourself? Is that what it is, huh?
He gestured down at his own crotch-hugging white pants with scarlet side-stripes, tucked into calf-length
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astronavigator boots, officer s belt with Alpha Centauri Squadron buckle, and navy, white-trimmed
blouse, complete with Strikefleet shoulder patch.  See. You should try to find yourself, and then tell the
world who you are like a starship admiral, for instance. It s easy once you find yourself and make the
effort to fit in.
 But I never lost myself, Kenny said.  And I m not a starship admiral.
 You have to be something sooner or later, Ella insisted.  You can t spend your whole life staring at
books and listening to crazy music. You have to get involved eventually. It ain t all gonna change to suit
you.
There was short pause. Then Beth lowered her eyes and said dismally, in the voice of someone finally
revealing a long-concealed secret of congenital madness in the family,  He says he wants to be some kind
of scientist. She looked at Arnie.  What was it, a fizzy-something?
 Physicist, Kenny supplied. Arnie looked away to hide his shame.
 But that kind of thing is for nobodies, like schoolteachers, technical waddyacallits, or people who make
things, Ella protested.  Why would anyone wanna do something like that?
Arnie showed his empty palms.  That s the way they are, Ella. They want to work, and learn things.
They say it shouldn t be the government s job to keep them. Something to do with  ethics and that kind
of crap. . . . I don t know.
Kenny looked around and shook his head. For the first time his expression betrayed rising exasperation.
He pointed at the screen.  Look . . . that idiot behind the desk is telling you how the U.S. is more
respected in the world today because of the way we ve strengthened our strategic forces, right? But they
only voted the appropriation a year ago. They haven t actually spent any money yet. They re still only
talking about what to spend it on. And even if they had spent it, it couldn t have made any difference on
that kind of time scale. It would be ten years at least before any new weapons ordered through last
year s budgets could be produced and deployed. But they re talking as if it had all already happened,
and taking the credit for it.
 Can t you see what s happening? Things in the real world don t happen fast enough to be entertaining
any more. So the media have created a make-believe world that runs at several times the speed of real
time, with a crisis every half hour and always an instant solution.
 It s the same with all the other  crises that they invent and then say they ve solved. How could a crime
wave of  epidemic proportions that nobody had heard of before suddenly materialize in two months, just
before Ed Callones ran for governor and with a program already worked out to fight it? . . . And then
have been  successfully eliminated in just as short a time after he was elected? It couldn t have. Things
don t change that quickly. The  economic recoveries that somebody or other is always supposed to be
masterminding every six months are from slumps that never happened. The  environmental catastrophes [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]