Tom Bartlett: "Amalgamated makes almost anything. That"s the puzzle. I dunno--but it must be something big. He has to hit us with something, doesn"t he?"
Belle Bartlett: "Who ever heard of a party without a sell?"
Nancy Stoddard: "Who ever heard of a party going past ten without at least a warm-up pitch? And Betty promised Fred to send both Ben and Bennie to the Clinic for their Medchecks. You know we have the newest, finest diagnosticians--"
Fred Stoddard: "Nancy!"
Nancy Stoddard: "Oh, I"m sorry. I shouldn"t be selling you folks at _their_ party, should I? Come to think, you"re all signed with Fred anyway, aren"t you? Well, about Ben, _I_ think--"
Lucy Wilson: "Sh-h-h! Here they come."
Smiling, charming--and still not an order form in sight--Ben and Betty got back to their guests. Another half hour. Barboy was pa.s.sing around with nightcaps. Lucy Wilson nervously put a reducegar to her sophisticated, peppermint-striped lips.
Quickly Ben Tilman was on his feet. He pulled a small, metal cylinder from his pocket with a flourish and held it out on his open palm toward Lucy. A tiny robot Statue of Liberty climbed from the cylinder, walked across Ben"s hand, smiled, curtsied and reached out to light the reducegar with her torch, piping in a high, thin voice, "Amalgamated reducegars are cooler, lighter, finer."
"Ben! How simply darling!"
"Do you like it? It"s a new thing from Amalgamated NovelDiv. You can program it for up to a hundred selective sell phrases, audio or visio key. Every salesman should have one. Makes a marvelous gift, and surprisingly reasonable."
"So that"s it, Ben. I just love it!"
"Good! It"s yours, compliments of Amalgamated."
"But--then you"re not selling them? Well, what on earth--?"
"d.a.m.n it, Ben," Fred Stoddard broke in, "come on, man, out with it. What in h.e.l.l _are_ you selling? You"ve given us the shakes. What is it? The Barboy set? It"s great. If I can sc.r.a.pe up the down payment, I"ll--"
"_After_ we furnish a nursery with a decent Nana, Fred Stoddard," Nancy snapped, "and get a second soar-kart. Ben isn"t selling Barboys anyway, are you. Ben? It _is_ that sweet, sweet Nana, isn"t it? And I do want one, the whole nursery, Playmate and all, girl-programmed of course, for our Polly."
"_Is_ it the nursery, Betty?" Lucy pitched in her credit"s worth. "Make him tell us, darling. We have enjoyed everything so much, the dinner, the Tri-deo, this whole lovely, lovely place of yours. Certainly the house warming has been perfectly charming."
"And that"s it," said Ben smiling, a sheaf of paper forms suddenly in his hand.
"What? Not--?"
"The house, yes. Amalgamated"s Country Gentleman Estate, complete, everything in it except Bennie, Betty and me. Your equity in your Center co-op can serve as down payment, easy three-generation terms, issue insurance. Actually, I can show you how, counting in your entertainment, vacation, incidental, and living expenses, the Country Gentleman will honestly cost you less."
"Ben!"
"How simply too clever!"
Ben let it rest there. It was enough. Fred Stoddard, after a short scuffle with Scoville Wilson for the pen, signed the contract with a flourish. Sco followed.
"There!"
"There now, Ben," said Betty, holding Bennie a little awkwardly in her arms in the soar-kart. They had moved out so the Stoddards could move right in. Now they were on their way in to their reserved suite at Amalgamated"s Guest-ville. "You were absolutely marvellous. Imagine selling all three of them!"
"There wasn"t anything to it, actually."
"Ben, how can you say that? n.o.body else could have done it. It was a sales masterpiece. And just think. Now salesmen all over the hemisphere are going to follow your sales plan. Doesn"t it make you proud? Happy?
Ben, you aren"t going to be like _that_ again?"
No, of course he wasn"t. He was pleased and proud. Anyway, the Old Man would be, and that, certainly, was something. A man had to feel good about winning the approval of Amalgamated"s grand Old Man. And it did seem to make Betty happy.
But the actual selling of the fool house and even the two other, identical houses on the other side of the hill--he just couldn"t seem to get much of a glow over it. He had done it; and what had he done? It was the insurance and the toothbrushes all over again, and the old nervous, sour feeling inside.
"At least we do have a vacation trip coming out of it, hon. The O.M.
practically promised it yesterday, if our sell sold. We could--"
"--go back to that queer new "Do It Yourself" camp up on the lake you insisted on dragging me to the last week of our vacation last summer.
Ben, really!" He _was_ going to be like that. She knew it.
"Well, even you admitted it was some fun."
"Oh, sort of, I suppose. For a little while. Once you got used to the whole place without one single machine that could think or do even the simplest little thing by itself. So, well, almost like being savages. Do you think it would be safe for Bennie? We can"t watch him all the time, you know."
"People used to manage in the old days. And remember those people, the Burleys, who were staying up there?"
"That queer, crazy bunch who went there for a vacation when the Camp was first opened and then just stayed? Honestly, Ben! Surely you"re not thinking of--"
"Oh, nothing like that. Just a vacation. Only--"
Only those queer, peculiar people, the Burleys had seemed so relaxed and cheerful. Grandma and Ma Burley cleaning, washing, cooking on the ancient electric stove; little Donnie, being a nuisance, poking at the keys on his father"s crude, manual typewriter, a museum piece; Donnie and his brothers wasting away childhood digging and piling sand on the beach, paddling a boat and actually building a play house. It was mad.
People playing robots. And yet, they seemed to have a wonderful time while they were doing it.
"But how do you keep staying here?" he had asked Buck Burley, "Why don"t they put you out?"
"Who?" asked Buck. "How? n.o.body can sell me on leaving. We like it here.
No robot can force us out. Here we are. Here we stay."
They pulled into the Guest-ville ramp. Bennie was fussy; the nursery Nana was strange to him. On impulse, Betty took him in to sleep in their room, ignoring the disapproving stares of both the Nana and the Roboy with their things.
They were tired, let down. They went to bed quietly.
In the morning Betty was already up when Ben stumbled out of bed. "Hi,"
she said, nervously cheerful. "The house Nanas all had overload this morning and I won"t stand for any of those utility components with Bennie. So I"m taking care of him myself."
Bennie chortled and drooled vita-meal at his high-chair, unreprimanded.
Ben mustered a faint smile and turned to go dial a shave, cool shower and dress at Robather.
That done, he had a bite of breakfast. He felt less than top-sale, but better. Last night _had_ gone well. The Old Man would give them a pre-paid vacation clearance to any resort in the world or out. Why gloom?
He rubbed Bennie"s unruly hair, kissed Betty and conveyed over from Guest-ville to office.