She could make out stars, now, patterns of light interladen with drifts of nocturnal fog.
"Mrs. Morley," a fussy male voice said.
She opened her eyes, fully awake. Fred Gossim, Tekel Upharsin Kibbutz"s top engineer, walked toward her carrying official papers. "You got your transfer," he told her; he held out the papers and Mary Morley accepted them. "You"re going to a colony settlement on a planet called-" He hesitated, frowning. "Delmar."
"Delmak-O," Mary Morley said, scanning the transfer orders. "Yes-and I"m to go there by noser." She wondered what kind of place Delmak-O was; she had never heard of it. And yet it sounded highly interesting; her curiosity had been stirred up. "Did Seth get a transfer, too?" she asked.
""Seth"?" Gossim raised an eyebrow. "Who"s "Seth"?"
She laughed. "That"s a very good question. I don"t know. I guess it doesn"t matter. I"m so glad to get this transfer-"
"Don"t tell me about it," Gossim said in his usual harsh way. "As far as I"m concerned you"re abandoning your responsibilities to the kibbutz." Turning, he stalked off.
A new life, Mary Morley said to herself. Opportunity and adventure and excitement. Will I like Delmak-O? she wondered. Yes. I know I will.
On light feet she danced toward her living area in the kibbutz"s central building-complex. To begin to pack.
Books by Philip K. d.i.c.k
available from Vintage BooksConfessions of a c.r.a.p Artist
The Divine Invasion
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Galactic Pot-Healer
The Game-Players of t.i.tan
The Man in the High Castle
Now Wait for Last Year
A Scanner Darkly
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
Ubik
VALIS.
We Can Build You
The World Jones Made