Alone Again Or | Page 4

months rehabilitating our teles. Years sometimes. We don't let them go until they are just as educated as someone going to one of The Mayor's Free Universities. They're all also taught how to be good spouses. So what kind of a spouse are you looking for? Female? Male? We have a few mixed?"
"I told you before I wanted a wife," Syd said. He was starting to feel like he'd made a mistake. He'd met and even known very well some people who were educated at the free universities supplied by the city. They usually ended up police officers. ?
"So they all take the same classes? They don't get to choose at all? You don't know what their personal taste is?" Syd said.
The man laughed quickly and let his feet fall to the floor. He leaned forward and stared into Syd's eyes.
"Are you for real? Are you a sleeper?"
Syd was caught by surprise, and he knew the truth shown in his face for a moment before he was back under control. He lied anyway.
"No. I see Doctor Winterborne three times a week, just as it says in my file."
Syd never saw Doctor Winterborne, except twice a month to deliver a few hundred spoons of foc free of charge. In return the doctor lied about seeing Syd to the authorities and provided him with the proper paperwork. Although the man behind the desk didn't know the particulars, Syd knew the man probably had a guess at the kind of doctor Winterborne was.
The man looked un-impressed. He held his hands out, palms out, in a gesture of indifference.?
"I don't care; we get lots of your types here. Your wife won't know what a sleeper is; you'll have to explain to her why society will down on the both of you. Her education of course did not concern the dark side of Steeple City. I'm sure you'll be a good teacher, honest and forthright with her always. As to whether or not she likes Chopin more than Orlando, you're going to have to ask her because we don't keep personality profiles. I'm sure it's not what most important to you anyway. So what's it going to be? A nice blonde, perhaps?"
The man smiled again and Syd felt his stomach turn over.?
The thought of an instant wife held Syd in his seat. Someone to love him and for him to love, and he wouldn't have to wait for her to appear any longer. It made him want to cry in happiness.?
"No. I want a girl with light red hair, light skin, no freckles, and within my age by a year either way."
Syd watched the man type notes into a pull out console on the other side of the metal expanse. The man looked up.
"Done, done, done, and done," the man said, "now please sign the touchpad in the pull out console in front of you."
Syd felt for the drawer like tablet arm and pulled it out from underneath the desk. A page of digital text shined up from the screen; he read the page, then placed the stylus on the scroll down button in the lower right hand corner of the page. Once the page started scrolling, he didn't stop it, leaving over nine tenths of the contract for marriage unread.?
He signed in the appropriate place.?
Syd looked up at the man who was still nameless to him. The man was playing with one of his canine teeth. When he realized Syd was done, he extended the same hand.?
With hesitation Syd shook the man's hand.
"Now, down at the end of the hall there is a bathroom with a full shower if you'd like to clean yourself up," he said, indicating a doorway other than the one Syd had entered through. "We recommend it. She's in room 501C. Just tell the man at the elevator. He'll take you right to her. Good day."
Syd left and made his way down the institutional halls until he found the bathroom with the picture of the faceless figure wearing pants.?
The shower had more pressure than the shower in his apartment, and he luxuriated in it, procrastinating the meeting. His hands shook. Vomit rose up his throat, but he kept it down.?
Outside of the shower after toweling off Syd looked in the mirror and began to feel worse.?
She'll fucking probably cry when she sees me, he thought, when she sees who she has to go home with.?
He dried his hair with the provided white towel and hung it next to the sink. He smoothed his hair down to the best of his ability with his hands and went into the hallway. Turning his back on the elevator Syd walked down the hallway away from the elevator into the man's office.
The man sat with his wingtips on the desk, talking to a large