his chair with a chuckle, reached for a cigarette from the box on Hanson's desk, and puffed at it with relish.

"How do you feel?" asked the doctor.

"Like a million," said Maculay.

"Good. Come back in one year. I'll have my girl make an appointment. For now, we're all finished."

Doctor Hanson stood and watched Maculay head for the door; the physicist's step had a certain bounce, curtailed by the fact that the unused muscles of his body were not used to the catlike stride of the completely balanced, healthy man. A few days of that sort of bounce and Maculay would have it. The door closed exuberantly and Cliff was on his way to a one-year binge.

He paused once outside of the doctor's office. Ava Longacre was bent over some notes, and Cliff viewed her contemplatively. She stood up and smiled at him. It was a sort of professional smile, the kind she gave all of the doctor's visitors; it made no difference to Ava whether the visitor were seventy or seventeen. She gave each of them the same dry smile.

Cliff crossed the office in a quick stride and put both hands on her shoulders. He drew her forward, felt her instant stiffening relax; with a cheerful upsurge of spirit he put an arm around her, tilted her face upward with his free hand and kissed her. He felt her yield to him, press against him softly, then respond.

Cliff knew he could have her, but in that moment he also knew that he really did not want her. Ava was a bit over thirty; she had a quiet, mature quality—good-looking, but far past the radiant flush of youth. A hard-working woman, efficient, intelligent, Hanson's nurse, medical aide, and receptionist, did not offer the fun and frivolity that Cliff Maculay sought.

He stepped back and smiled down at her. "Nice," he said with a chuckle. Then he kissed her again, lightly on the mouth, turned, and left the office.

Her cheeks burning, Ava Longacre stamped into Hanson's office.

"What goes on?" she demanded. "What on earth did you do to that man?"

"Why?"

"He came in here like the proverbial absent-minded professor, his eyes blank and sort of muttering to himself about radiation mechanics or the like. He didn't even look at me."

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