typewriter.

It was, she thought, as though everyone and everything in the world were waiting, waiting for the great white hot scream to explode in the night, the great awakening, the blinding hot flash of awakening that comes before the end. But Alice didn't feel afraid at all of an air-raid as she walked up onto Master Kelsey's porch and rang the bell. There had been so many false alarms, she wondered sometimes if there was any real threat at all. The war—a vague thing far away, never here, always somewhere else, but always supposed to be getting nearer. The war with the Asians—it just went on and on, you heard about it, and saw it on Tevee if you weren't afraid to look at the newscasts, but it never seemed to happen here.

His footsteps behind the door. The door opening. His shadow there, the pink lounge suit, the wavy hair with streaks of brown in the Viking yellow, the face sleepy from Tevee coming awake as he saw the beautiful woman standing there smiling. He smiled. Their smiles met.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Anita Starre. I'm looking for 16-03074 Carnegie Way."

"You're lost?"

"I seem to be lost, yes."

The great hope dawned in her as he smiled at her in a way no robot had ever been smiled at. A tender calm moved over her. The machinery that made her go, the sparks that made her live, all seemed to jump and tremble under the beautiful shell that had been created by the hands of Julian.

The great joy filled her, surged inside her. She could be near, so near him, now that she had the right look and the right smile. She could tell him and show him how she loved to be near him—No, she would not have to tell him that; he would know. Real love you just knew about. You didn't have to say it. She would just kiss him and kiss him and never have to tell him—

"This is Carnegie Way," Kelsey was saying. His eyes were fixed on her face, then his eyes were brightening as they looked at her height and her slim rich curves. "But it's five blocks from the address you're looking for." He pointed to the left and told her how to get to 16-03074. His eyes continued to explore her figure with just the right degree of polite interest.

She stepped closer until she was almost inside the hallway. She could feel the warmth of him. "Why," she said suddenly, "you're Mr. Kelsey!"

His smile broadened with some hungry 

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