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Kelly, James Patrick - Chemistry.txt
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Chemistry
by James Patrick Kelly
⌐ 1993 by Davis Publications, Inc. First Published in
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, June, 1993.
"I'm going to fall in love tonight," said Marja, "and
this time you're coming with me."
Lily had been staring without comprehension at Screen 8
of 23/Brain Mechanisms in Mating. It was too hot for
neurobiology; the spex with their heavy displays kept
sliding down her nose. When she pushed them back up,
Screen 8 flickered. "I have to study," she said, trying
to remember the last time she'd heard a man whisper her
name in the dark.
"Face it, Lily, you think too damn much. What your
synapses need is a nice warm norepinephrine bath." Marja
Zoltowski had snuggled into a nest of pillows and tilted
the top of her head backwards against the wall to keep
her spex in place. Her Adam's apple bobbed when she
spoke.
"You Poles are such romantics." Lily shivered the way
she used to when Glenn touched her face. "What is
tonight, anyway?"
"I don't know. Monday?"
Lily blinked at the calendar icon and waited a second
for the spex to retrieve her tickler from memory. "Okay,
tomorrow we have day two of Freddy's virtual autopsy,"
she said, "and Wednesday is the immunology test. We
hardly have time to sleep, much less fall for
strangers."
"Listen to yourself." Marja shook her head. "Do you call
this a life?"
"Nah," said Lily. Screen 9 of 12 was a diagram of the
septo hypothalamic-mesencelphalic continuum. "I call it
med school."
"We could try that new place on Densmore Street. It's
supposed to be grade."
"We? These are your urges, not mine. Why don't you just
program a window shirt to flash available and hang out
at Wally's?"
"This isn't about sex, Lily, it's about feelings.
Believe me, after they crank your hypothalamus you won't
be able tell the difference between neuromance and the
real thing."
"Says you."
"Emotions aren't magic, doctor. They are reproducible
brain states."
This was something Lily knew to be true, but preferred
not to think about -- like the correlation between
cheesecake and adipose tissue. "Anyway," she said, "we
can't afford it."
"Love makes all things possible."
Lily doubted that, but she said nothing.
"I wonder what kind of men go out on a Monday night?"
Marja smirked. "Gourmet cooks. Don't fancy restaurants
close on Mondays?"
Lily set her spex on the kitchen table, mirror side
down, so she wouldn't accidentally catch a glimpse of
herself goofing off. "Weekend weathermen," she said.
"Priests cutting loose after a long Sunday. I need to
study tonight, and so do you." She got up to stretch her
legs, but of course there was no room. She and Marja had
squeezed into an efficiency apartment off campus and
their stuff filled the place to overflowing. Two yard
sale dressers, two futons, a MedNet node, a whiny
refrigerator, a microwave on the kitchen table, two
plastic chairs. They had to wash dishes in the bathroom,
which had once been a closet. The closet was a
clothesline stretched across the west wall. When the
place was picked up she could take four, maybe five
steps without bumping into something, but at the moment
piles of hardcopy booby-trapped the floor like paper
banana peels. There was a word for their lifestyle, she
realized. Squalor.
"How long have we known each other?" said Marja. "Almost
two years and you haven't even breathed on a man.
They're not all Glenns, you know. Look, we can fall in
and out of love and still be back in plenty of time to
weigh old Freddy's nonexistant spleen."
Lily picked up her spex again and held them at arm's
length. From a distance the bright little images on the
displays looked like a pair of shirt buttons. Had it
really been two years? Maybe it was time to unbutton
herself.
A private security rover patrolled Densmore Street; the
servos of its infrared lenses mewled softly as it wove
through the twilight. Most of the stores on the block
were just closing: La Parfumerie, Hawkins Fine Wines, a
World Food boutique and a couple of art galleries. Next
to the Hothouse was the Office Restaurant. Through its
windows Lily could see people in gray suits sitting
alone at stylized desks, eating absently as they tweaked
glowing blue spreadsheets. The neighborhood reeked of
money and there was only fifty-three dollars and sixty
seven cents left on her cash card. She wondered how much
romance that would buy in the caviar part of town.
At street level the Hothouse was as stolid as a bank:
two stories of granite blocks regularly pierced by thin,
dark windows. Higher up, it blossomed into a crystalline
riot of glass and light. They hesitated in front of the
marble threshold.
"I bet they're wearing shoes made of real cow." Lily
tucked her purse under her arm as if she expected some
rampaging doorman to snatch it from her.
"Don't worry." Marja touched Lily's hand. "You look
fine." She had lent Lily a crepe off the shoulder dress
her grandmother had left her. It was too 90's for Lily's
taste, but Marja was the specialist when it came to this
sort of thing.
"You too," said Lily, "but that's not what I mean. Look
where we are. We can't afford this -- unless you don't
mind eating Cheerios for supper until finals."
"Come on. How much could it cost?"
"What's the gross national product of Portugal?"
"I'll ask, okay? I'll just poke my head in the door and
find out."
"No, I'm coming." Lily rammed her purse deeper into her
armpit and clamped it.
Lily had expected flocked wallpaper and leather couches.
Instead there were lots of bright plastic surfaces and a
rug with all the ambiance of sandpaper. The lobby of the
Hothouse was emphatically air-conditioned and
illuminated almost to the point of discomfort. Only two
of the five ticket booths were open. Beyond them was a
bank of sliding doors, textured to look like the trunks
of trees.
"Hi." The cashier was a young woman in an extravagant
foliage print dress. She had jade highlights in her
black hair and an expression as guileless as a pansy.
"Are you together?" The button on her collar said Ju.
"Yes," said Marja.
"No." Lily nudged her. "We came together, but we're not
together together."
Ju smiled. "Whatever."
"We're interested," Marja said, "but we're not really
sure this place is for us. Can you tell us about it?"
"As in, what does it cost?" Lily said.
Ju slid a brochure across the counter toward them; her
fingernails were polished the same green as her hair.
"Your basic attraction enhancement is $39.95." She
opened it; inside was a map. "Includes admission to all
public areas on the third and fifth floors, all gardens,
three dance floors, both pools, complimentary swimsuits
and towels in the dressing booths. On the fourth floor
are stores and services you'll pay extra for. Sit down
and take-out restaurants, bars, gift shops, lingerie
boutiques, contraception kiosks, simulators and personal
fx galleries."
It's nothing but a mall, Lily thought. I'm twenty-five
years old and still looking for love at the mall.
"We also have fifty-three private encounter rooms," Ju
pointed to the map, "on the sixth floor. We're the
biggest neuromance palace in the city."
Lily watched a little man in a navy blue jacket and gray
slacks approach the other cashier. Her age but not her
type; he looked as if he had just finished eating a memo
salad at the Office Restaurant. "So how do you make
someone fall in love?" she asked.
"Oh, we don't make you fall. We enhance the attraction
response. There's a big difference. See, we trick this
part of your brain called the hypothalamus into ordering
up these special hormones. It's all natural."
"Hormones like LHRH and testosterone?" said Lily.
"Testosterone, right." Ju nodded. "That surprised me
when I first heard it. I mean, you'd think you'd grow a
mustache -- or worse. But it's okay; I've tried it." She
gave them a blissful smile. "Don't know about the one
with letters, they all sound the same. To tell the
truth, they explained this to me once, but it didn't
take. All I know is that whatever we do to you is
approved by the FDA and licensed by the Board of Health.
This card explains ... "
"Give me that." Marja snatched it from Lily. "Believe
me, the procedure is straight out of Wessinger's
neurobiology lab. The less you think about it, the
better you'll feel."
"Whatever." Ju dimpled. "But really, one of the best
parts is that they tickle something called your
vomeronasal organ -- don't ask me how. You'll smell
stuff you've never noticed before. Unbelievable, how
great the food tastes. Try the brownies with brandy
sauce." She kissed her fingers to the air and the man
waiting at the next booth glanced over at them. Lily
thought he might actually be shorter than she was.
"So what if we pay you our forty bucks," she said, "and
go upstairs and find there're no human beings left? I
don't want to fall for an insurance salesman."
"Oh, that's not a problem, believe me. We offer a money
back guarantee, but only a few people ask. See, when
those elevator doors open onto the welcome garden,
you're ... I don't know ... ripe. I can't explain it
exactly, but enhancement makes me realize how cute men
look, how sweet they can be. At least while they're
here. And it's really a grade crowd tonight. Some real
hammers, if you know what I mean. I kind of wish I
wasn't working myself."
An older man who shouldn't have been wearing red
skintights got in line behind them, so they gave Ju
their cash cards. While she debited them, she had them
press thumbs to a blood drawer. She printed two green
buttons that read Lily and Marja and explained that
green was for righties, red for gays. She had them sign
liability waivers and told them they'd need to give a
urine sample and warned them about side effects.
Although enhancement would wear off in four to five
hours, they might have trouble falling asleep
immediately after leaving the Hothouse; there was a
chance their next periods might be a couple of days off
schedule. She grinned, reminded them about the brownies
and ushered them through the booth.
"We're in this together, right?" Lily whispered as the
tree trunk doors opened. "You'll stop me before I do
anything stupid?"
Marja laughed and patted her on the back. "Sort of late
for that now."
Lily rubbed the button-sized swelling on her wrist where
the orderly had poked her with the pressure syringe. Her
purse hung loosely by her side.
"Pulse acelerated." Marja was practically vibrating as
the elevator climbed to the third floor. "Skin
temperature elevated. Apocrine sweat glands -- whew!"
She peered into Lily's left eye, "Doctor, your pupils
are dilated!"
"Stop diagnosing."
"Okay, so how do you feel?"
Lily considered and then giggled. "Like I'm six and it's
Christmas Eve. You're losing your corsage."
Marja repinned the orchid which the orderly had laced
with pheromones synthesized from her urine sample. The
doors slid open.
Fifteen or twenty faces turned, glowing with
expectation. Lily was instantly drawn to them,
understanding their conspicuous need because she shared
it. They had hauled themselves out of the icy datastream
into the warmth of high touch and beautiful feelings. As
the enhancement drugs gripped her, she felt the weight
of her life drop away. Tomorrow they would all go back
to their desks and workshops and counters and she would
ligate the arteries of a cybercorpse named Fred. But
that was far removed from this bright dream of lush and
immediate sensation. She let it fill her lungs and eyes
and ears; she wanted to lick it. A band stood poised to
play. Leaves like green hands waved at her. She itched
to rub her bare feet on the moss rug, shinny up that
palm tree, kiss all three of those men by the fountain
just to find out how they tasted. No, she wasn't going
to ask for her money back. She knew she would find him
here. Someone to love, for a little while at least. His
identity was a mystery only she could solve: Lily
Brewster, girl detective. Maybe he was still lingering
at the marble threshhold on Hope Street, ten thousand
miles below, or already talking to Ju in the lobby. Most
likely he was watching her, one of the happy faces,
which she now noticed were arranged in a kind of loose
formation. She and Marja stepped down into the welcome
garden's central courtyard and smiling people closed
around them.
She smiled back, even after she realized she was going
to have to square dance.
The bass player had a voice as friendly as a milk
commercial.
"All square your sets around the hall,
Four couples to a set, listen to the call."
He chose "The Texas Star," a simple figure dance which
featured constant switching of partners.
Her first was the short man from the lobby; his green
name badge read Steve. She couldn't understand how he
had gotten to the welcome garden before her. Just as the
dance began, he insisted on shaking her hand. "You're
freezing!" Lily said, clasping his cold hand between
hers.
He stared as if he were memorizing her face. "I just
washed up." When the fiddles started, he led her into a
left-faced turn under his arched right arm. "You know,
Lily, your handshake tells a lot about you."
"Meet your partner, pass on by
Pick up your next one on the fly."
Nick, a pale man with a mustache like a caterpillar
said, "I know you! We met at Justin Metaphor's last
image launch." He stared at Lily's corsage as if he
wanted to eat it. "You came as President Garmezy."
"Not me," she said. "I'm a Neurocrat."
"Smalls back out, bigs go in,
Make that Texas Star again."
"Am I a big or a small?" She crooked her arm into that
of a heavyweight with hair down his neck. Tomasz had
feet as wide as shovels.
"You're a small, my kitten, but plenty big enough for
me." He had a thick Middle European accent; she decided
to leave him for Marja.
"Bigs back out and all circle eight
Circle back to place 'til you get it straight."
The fiddlers stroked their instruments. Was that her
roommate, skipping like a girl scout? Lily was
determined to initiate the next conversation. "This is
probably the silliest damn thing I've ever done," she
said to a red badge named Renfred who smelled of
cigarettes.
"Never done it before." Sweat beaded across his face
like a glass of iced tea. "I'm from Toronto."
"Hand over hand and heel over heel
The more you dance the better you feel."
"I've finally decided who you remind me of." Keith had
green eyes and more teeth than a shark. "One of those
Vermeer women, standing in front of a window." The fat
end of his untied tie dangled in front of his crotch and
the skinny end beat against his pocket as he danced.
"Vermeer, you know, the painter?"
Not a bad line, she thought, but he ruined it by
prompting her. "Keith." She tugged the tie from around
his neck and handed it to him. "Is this yours?"
Her next partner ignored her. "Yes, of course I did." He
spoke over his shoulder to the Asian woman behind Lily.
"She belonged with her parents."
"Tuck in your shirt, pull down your vest
And bow to the one you like the best."
The fiddlers tipped their instruments toward the caller
and the dance ended. Lily might have nodded at Keith,
the Vermeer fan, if he'd been paying attention, but he
was already fawning over an older woman with eyes like
targets. Someone tapped her left shoulder; she turned.
"My name is Steve." The guy with cold hands bowed.
"Lily." She glanced down to see that she hadn't lost her
name badge. "Obviously."
"Lily, do you know that people rarely change their first
impressions?" His eye contact was relentless.
"Is that so?" she said. Steve was as clean-cut as a
Marine recruiter. He had stubby fingers and wide
shoulders. A thread hung loose from the middle
buttonhole of his jacket. "What's yours?" He hadn't
gotten any taller.
He held up open palms, as if to show he was unarmed.
"That you're gorgeous, lonely, nervous and still
shopping. Will you at least let me shake your hand
again?"
"Promise to give it back?" she said. He had a precise
and sincere grip that didn't try to prove anything.
"You've warmed up." Their hands fit together nicely.
"When my palms get sweaty," he said, "I rinse them under
cold water. It's a sales trick: the confident man keeps
a cool hand."
She had never understood why men always said such odd
things to her.
"Here's another," he continued. "Say we're shaking and
you haven't decided whether to trust me. Look where your
hand is, Lily. When we started talking, you kept it
close to your body. Now that I've drawn it toward me
slightly, you've come along with it."
Lily let go of him. She reminded herself that this was a
man with a crew cut who practiced sales tricks. "And
what are you trying to sell me?"
"I don't know yet." His voice was low. "First I have to
find out if I carry what you want."
The elevator doors opened and everyone turned to inspect
the new arrivals. It was Old Man Skintights and a
thirtyish brunette in a caramel-colored suit. As the
dancers moved to welcome them, the fiddlers picked up
their bows.
"Never leave a prospect until you schedule your next
meeting." Steve grinned. "Shall we say, after this
dance?" He strolled away whistling but paused at the
edge of the garden and called to her. "I like you, Lily
Obviously." He disappeared behind a hibiscus covered
with red flowers.
There's a man who knows exactly what he wants, she
thought, and I'm it. She was at once pleased and scared
and slightly let down. Where had he gone so abruptly? To
rinse in cold water?
The caller tapped the belly of his bass. "All square
your sets ..."
Lily had intended to dance again, but that was what he
expected her to do. She thought it better to be
unpredictable, make his hands sweat. She spotted some
people gathered beneath a statue of a satyr groping a
nymph.
"Now you're getting into ideology," a nervous black man
said. "Ask Alice about that."
"About what?" said a woman in a poet's blouse and orange
tights.
"Keith here claims the female orgasm is vestigial. A
leftover, like an appendix."
"Should we kill him now," Betty said to T.J., who had
his arm around her waist, "or hear him out first?"
"Hey, I'm not against anyone's orgasm," Keith said
quickly. "My point is that in evolutionary terms, female
orgasm is irrelevant. Some societies don't even have a
word for it."
"We should make one up for them," said Lily. "How about
shimmer? Or leap?
"Oh yes, baby, yes, I'm rippling."
Alice shook her head. "Maybe you ripple, honey, but I
surge."
All the women laughed.
Keith wasn't giving up. "Women reproduce whether they
climax or not. With us, orgasm is everything. If we
don't come, there's no ball game."
"Ball game?" Betty rubbed against T.J. "Why is it that
whenever we try to talk about love, men change the
subject to sports?"
"It's because we take pleasure differently," said Alice.
"A man gets off on objects. He sees tits and an ass and
he doesn't care who they're attached to. We need
intimacy and tenderness to enjoy ourselves. We don't
give a damn how the his cock is; we want to know the
size of his feelings."
"All men want is sex." Maya sighed. "We want love."
"Ah, bullshit," said T.J "I want to dance."
"Look, someone's imprinting."
The band broke into the ceremonial "Only You Tonight"
and dancers closed in a circle around a couple, clapping
and cheering them on. Lily strained to see who it was.
Big Tomasz with the shovel feet -- and Marja! "Wait!" As
Lily raced across the courtyard, Marja pulled Tomasz
down to her. He buried his nose in her corsage. The
orderly had explained that once a two people imprinted
themselves with each others' pheromones, they would be
inseparable the rest of the night. When Tomasz came up,
his eyes were gleaming.
Lily waved frantically at her but Marja paid no
attention. Tomasz offered her the chocolate the Hothouse
staff had impregnated with his own musky androstenols.
It was wrapped in gold foil; she unpeeled it
lasciviously, pressed it between her lips and chewed,
her jaws working around a cheek-stretching smile.
The crowd's rhythmic clapping punctuated the impromptu
ceremony. "Let's congratulate the new couple," said the
caller from behind his bass. Now that they had
imprinted, their badges changed to a color which only
they shared. It was the purple of venous blood. "Seal it
with a kiss!" the caller cried.
The crowd whooped.
"Isn't he grade?" Marja was glowing. "Am I lucky or
what? This is Lily, my roommate. Tomasz is a lion tamer,
can you believe that?" Lily could smell the chocolate on
her breath.
"Moj Boze, Marja, ja cie kocham."
"Aren't lions extinct?" Lily said.
He didn't hear her; he and Marja were kissing again. By
the time they finished, Lily assumed he had forgotten
the question, so she asked again.
"In the wild, yes." He kept one massive arm clasped
around Marja's shoulder as if she were a trophy he had
just won. "I work with the New World cats mostly,
cougars and jaguars. We have one leopard." He feinted at
her with his free hand and grinned when she recoiled.
"All strong enough to kill you."
"I didn't even know the circus was in town."
"They leave Wednesday," said Marja. "Which is why we're
going to the fifth floor right now and find a quiet
place and tell each other our life stories. Maybe later
we can swim."
"I want an olive pizza," said Tomasz, "and a liter of
kava."
"Okay, kava and pizza." She nestled up to him. "What
else do you want?"
He had a laugh that could worry a cougar.
"So Marja," said Lily, "maybe we should set a time to
meet?"
"No, no, I'll get home on my own." She gave Lily a look
like a bedroom door closing. "Don't wait up. I'll see
you at Freddy's tomorrow."
"Freddy?" said Tomasz.
"He's nobody," she said as she steered her prize away.
Lily filled with doubts as she watched her friend go.
They had promised not to let each other do anything
stupid. Did falling for a lion tamer qualify? Now that
she'd been abandoned, she wished she were home studying.
Coming to the Hothouse made sense in the romantic
abstract, but the men here were all annoyingly specific.
She wasn't attracted to anyone and even if she were, how
could she trust her feelings? They'd pumped her so full
of hormones she could probably fall for a vacuum cleaner
if it smelled right. She decided she didn't much like
being enhanced, although she understood that there was
no difference between the brain chemistry of neuromance
and actually falling in love. Despite her B+ in
Wessinger's class, Lily was reluctant to accept a
mechanistic view of her inner life. She didn't like
being reminded that love, hope and joy were merely
outputs of her limbic system. What she ought to do was
march right down for a refund, go home and stare into
her spex until she had memorized the immunoglobulins.
The idea was oddly comforting: maybe the enhancement was
wearing off. Marja had warned her that thinking too much
about it might spoil the effect.
"You didn't dance."
She moaned. "Oh, shit." She couldn't help herself. Steve
had taken off the navy blue jacket; he was wearing a
white shirt and a red striped tie. "I'm sorry. Look,
this has nothing to do with you. You seem nice enough.
It's just ... I'm probably going to leave. Get my money
back."
"Why?"
"Because I don't like being programmed. I mean, I
realized that's what would happen when I walked in, but
I thought somehow it would fool me. Now I know better.
This just doesn't feel like love. It's a chemistry
experiment."
"You've been in love before, Lily?"
"Of course." He wouldn't take a hint; she'd probably
have to be rude.
"What's it like?"
"Oh, come on." She watched him watching her, his pupils
like black buttons. "You know."
"No. I've never been in love."
"What, you grew up in a monastery?"
The sarcasm seemed to bounce off him. "I thought I was
in love once." He paused, as if deciding how much to
tell her. "We worked in the same office. She was older.
Married. When her husband found out, she broke it off.
She said she didn't love me and that I didn't really
love her."
"And you believed her?" Lily didn't know why she was
encouraging him. He nodded. "She was right. The sex was
great but it wasn't love. I got all excited because she
was beautiful, smart, rich, powerful, what I thought I
wanted. But we never talked, except about the business
or the weather or what hotel to meet at. The day we
broke up she told me she was a Catholic and went to
church every Sunday. She said she'd felt really guilty
about what we'd been doing. It wasn't a secret, I just
never asked."
The elevator doors opened again and a bald Hispanic
woman blinked in astonishment at the welcome garden.
"I realized that if I hadn't loved her, then I'd never
loved anyone."
The musicians were ready. "Hell of a thing to find out
about yourself," she said.
"Something I'd like to fix, Lily."
This was her chance; she could escape into the next
dance. She wouldn't have to hurt him -- not that she
cared. Afterward she could sneak away. She didn't need a
man with another woman's footprints up his back. But if
she left now, who was going to make sure Marja didn't
run off with the circus?
"What happened to your jacket?" she said. "Your name
badge?"
"I went to find a place where we could be alone. I left
them to hold our spot."
The bass player announced a new dance called "Swing or
Cheat" and sets began forming around them.
"It's really pretty," Steve said. "There's a stream and
a bush with tiny oranges on it and white flowers that
smell like honey."
Lily was getting used to the way he made eye contact.
Whatever Steve's other faults, she believed he was
sincere. Glenn had always looked away when he lied to
her.
"You just left your jacket there?" she said. "I hope no
one takes it."
He led her down a slate path past the eight foot wide
sheet of falling water which drowned the shrilling of
the fiddles. They turned into one of the garden's many
little clearings. The bench was wrought iron; it sat low
on a lawn of lemon thyme. The stream burbled in front of
them and the air hung heavy and sweet. Steve's jacket
was folded over the armrest.
"Calamondin oranges." She slid her purse under the
bench. "They're sour, just barely edible. They make good
marmalade, though."
"How do you know so much about plants?"
"My dad's hobby, actually. He had a greenhouse. I
remember in the winter, it was always so bright and
warm. Like going on vacation. The pots were all on
wheels; when he was away I used to move plants around
and build myself a jungle. He was away a lot. He was a
doctor too."
"Is he still alive?"
"No, my parents are both dead." She let one of her shoes
drop off. "He always said he liked flowers so much he
had one for a daughter." She tickled her foot in the
thyme. This clearing reminded her of one of her jungles.
"My father is an engineer on an oil tanker," Steve said.
"He'd be at sea for three months and then with us for
two. I missed him when he was away, but once he got home
I couldn't wait for him to ship out again. He was too
strict and he yelled at Mom. Since they divorced, I
haven't seen him much. Now Mom -- she's great. She
worked twenty eight years at Sears, wherever they needed
her. She could talk you into a tent or towels or a
thinkmate, no problem. I was a shy boy, if you can
believe that, but she kept pushing me. She said I had to
go out and show the world what a great son she had."
As he spoke, Lily folded and unfolded her hands. She
didn't want to hear about Steve's family problems and
now she was embarrassed to have shared memories of her
father with a stranger. "What are we doing here?"
"I don't know about you, Lily, but I'm enjoying the
view." He leaned back and looked her up and down with
obvious approval "Pretty flowers, great company -- hey,
ssh!"
He held a finger to his lips. There were muffled voices,
then footsteps on the path. The foliage hid the
strollers but as they approached Lily heard a man
declaiming with the grandiloquence of a longtime
Shakespeare abuser. "She walks in beauty, like the night
of cloudless climes and starry skies; and all that's
best of dark and bright, meet in her aspect and her eyes
...."
Lily held in her laughter until they were safely past,
then she burst. After a second, Steve roared too,
although she suspected that it was only because he was
relieved that she was finally unwinding.
"So you can laugh," he said. "What an improvement!"
"It's just ... the old Byron trick." She couldn't catch
her breath. "The corniest, the lamest ...." She started
to dissolve again.
"This Byron writes poems?"
"Lord Byron, you dope." It didn't seem to help. "Hey,
even I know Byron and I took hackers' English in
college."
He leaned forward and reached between his feet for a
sprig of thyme. He said nothing.
"I can't believe anyone over eighteen would fall for a
line like that."
He started defoliating the thyme. "Maybe she likes
poetry."
"But don't you see, that's the whole problem! Tired old
poems work, dumb songs work, honesty works, lies work,
every trick in the book works. There's no choice
involved, we're practically defenseless here."
"You know what the problem is, Lily?" He looked unhappy.
"You're too busy thinking to enjoy yourself."
She was surprised at how much his disapproval stung.
"Excuse me?" He was nobody, a pushy salesman she hardly
knew. "Using your head isn't exactly a handicap, you
know." She waited for him to apologize, explain himself,
make her feel better, but he let the silence stretch.
The dumb little bastard. He wasn't going to get away
with hurting her; she could retaliate. "So Steve, what
was your major in college?" She already knew the answer.
"Didn't have one."
"Oh come on, everyone ..."
"Didn't go."
The stream babbled through another long silence. She
thought of twelve different things to say, but couldn't
speak because she was too ashamed of herself for
humiliating him. What a snob she was! If this was
neuromance then she could do without it; she'd had more
conflicting feelings in the past half hour than she'd
had in six months. Steve stood up, put on his jacket,
sat down again. She watched him, an emptiness growing
within her. Maybe she couldn't fall anymore, maybe the
parts of her brain that loved had atrophied.
"You never answered my question, Lily," he said.
"What was it?"
"You were going to tell me what it's like to be in
love."
"It stinks, actually." She didn't hesitate. "You lose
everything, your friends, your freedom. Your bathroom.
He kicks you awake at three in the morning but if he's
not there you can't sleep. He never wants the vid you
want and he doesn't eat fish and he can't wait to tell
you when you're wrong. And when you're fighting, it
feels like you're getting an appendectomy without
anesthesia."
"You call that a sales pitch?" There was a hint of a
smile on his lips. "If it's so horrible, why come here?"
"I don't know why I came here." Another silence that she
didn't want loomed. "I'm sorry, Steve."
"Hey, you said my name! That's the first time you said
my name."
"I figured it was time, since you've said mine a hundred
times already." She gave a dry chuckle. "What is that,
anyway, another sales trick?"
"You know studies show only twenty percent of
communication is verbal." He slid slowly across the
bench toward her. "The other eighty percent depends on
non-verbal cues." He kept coming. "Facial expressions,
posture, tone of voice." When he stopped, they were six
inches apart. "I'm in your personal space now. We're not
touching but you can feel me, can't you?"
"Yes." She liked the feeling. It was like coming out of
an ice storm and standing next to a crackling fire.
"Sales tricks are based on the way people are, Lily.
They connect with real feelings. Sure, some people use
them to sell bad products or unnecessary ones, but I
don't. I just try to give the prospect what she wants."
Lily watched his mouth as he spoke. For some reason, the
way his lips moved fascinated her. She could see his
teeth and the tip of his tongue.
"But you don't know what you want, do you?"
"I want to be happy."
"But you don't want to fall in love?" He leaned and
brushed his shoulder against her. "Lose your freedom?
Everything?"
"Maybe it's too late." She was surprised to hear herself
say it aloud, although she had known it for some time.
"I wonder what would happen if I sniffed my own
corsage?" She touched it absently. "Probably spend the
night crouching by the stream, admiring myself."
"I'd like to spend the night admiring you, Lily.
Obviously."
She laughed and then she kissed him. When she closed her
eyes, he smelled like chocolate. It had to be some kind
of trick, she thought before she stopped thinking. When
she finished with him, she saw her own smile reflected
on his lips.
"I'm hungry." Lily slipped her hand into his pocket. "Do
you have anything to eat?" She trapped the candy against
his taut abdominal muscles.
He squirmed as if he were ticklish. "Can we do this in
private?"
As far as she was concerned, the rest of the Hothouse
was nothing but rumors and mist. "We can do whatever we
want."
She expected some kind of cortisol and epinephrine boost
when she ate the chocolate but all she felt was the
lingering warmth of his kiss. It was only when he
lowered his head slowly, deliberately, to her corsage,
that her blood began to pound. He filled his lungs with
her scent. "Nice," he said, "but I prefer the real
thing."
"Hey look," she said, "our badges have already changed
...."
He covered her mouth with his, filling her world in all
directions. He certainly knew how to sell a kiss. She
brushed her fingertips across his cheek and he pulled
back and rubbed his cheek against hers. "You like to
hear me say your name." He nuzzled her ear. "Don't you?"
He was whispering. "Lily?"
"Yes," she said. "Oh, yes."
She told him about getting an A- in Professor Graves
Anatomy class where twenty students failed and he told
her about the time he'd hit a grand slam off Chico
Moran, who was now the number two starter for the
Dodgers. She'd done her pre-med at Michigan State and
he'd played shortstop for a season and a half with the
Red Sox's farm team in New Britain, Connecticut before
blowing out his knee sliding into third. It was the
worst moment of his life; hers was when her father died.
He was twenty-six, she was twenty-five. She warned him
she wouldn't eat artichokes or buffalo or anything with
peanut butter in it. He'd never had an artichoke. He
bragged about the time his mother sold a watch to Vice
President Blaine and made the six o'clock news. Her
mother had never worked, she'd stayed home to take care
of Lily and her two sisters and drink blush wine. Lily
was the youngest, Steve was an only child. She
complained about Marja's shoes. He hardly ever saw his
best friend because he caught for the Colorado Rockies.
He made her tell him about Glenn who was at Johns
Hopkins now studying gerontology because that was where
the money was. They'd lived together off-campus their
senior year in East Lansing; Glenn had a four handicap
in golf and wanted her to wear stupid hats when he was
in the mood for sex. He told her a little more about
Marsha, how she'd taught him how to sell and how she
apologized for her Caesarian scar the first time they'd
made love. He said the best times together were when she
let him drive her Porsche 717 and Lily laughed and said
Glenn had a Mazda Magic which he had never let her drive
but that once when he went home for his grandmother's
funeral she had swiped his keys and cranked it to 110 on
I 96 and had never told anyone until now so they pressed
their bodies hard against each other and kissed until
their lips were numb and Lily wondered what it cost to
rent an encounter room on the sixth floor.
By eleven the clearing was too small for them. It was
time to see if their newfound infatuation was portable.
They started strolling hand in hand up the slate path
before she realized she had left her purse behind.
Almost everybody had in the welcome garden paired up and
dispersed; there were only enough dancers to make two
sets. Lily thought she detected a note of desperation in
the music. As the dancers promenaded, the caller warned
them:
Hurry up strangers, don't be slow,
You'll never fall in love unless you do-si-do.
Maybe the band was ready to pack up. As she watched Old
Man Skintights bravely circling the floor, she wondered
what it would feel like to get enhanced and then not
find anyone to fall for. A refund wouldn't really cover
the cost of being iced out at a neuromance palace. She
remembered her first glimpse of the welcome garden, when
it had bubbled with exotic possibilities. Now it seemed
as flat as yesterday's champagne.
"They gave us four or five hours," she said. "At
midnight we all turn into pumpkins."
Steve had zero tolerance for melancholy. "This way." He
aimed her at the elevators.
"No," she said, "let's walk up."
"Two flights?"
"Oh, we have to peek at shops on the fourth floor," she
said. He looked doubtful. "Maybe get something to eat?"
"I'm not hungry."
"Well, what if I am?"
He colored; it was the first time she had seen him
embarrassed. "Sorry." He turned reluctantly toward the
stairs but when he tugged at her to follow, she let him
go.
"Steve, what's the matter?"
"I don't know." He shrugged. "Maybe it's just that I
hate being sold things I don't need." She sensed that he
wanted to say something else -- but he didn't.
"I'll swallow my cash card, okay?" Lily said. He reached
out for her and she came to him. "I'll be good.
Promise."
Where the third floor had been a hot, dark blur, the
fourth was a place to lounge and consume conspicuously.
With its open sight lines, it flaunted the true size of
the Hothouse. The shops and restaurants ringed an
enormous irregularly-shaped pool. Its bays and
pennisulas were landscaped with bougainvillea. There
were sandy beaches and ten foot bluffs. They saw couples
sprawled on checked tableclothes beside wicker picnic
baskets: the picnickers drank wine from bottles with
broad shoulders and broke long sticks of french bread.
"We can swim," said Lily. "That's free."
"Sure." When he gave her a forlorn smile, she worried
that he was relieved to be getting away from her.
The dressing booths were between the Honey Bun Bakery
and the Intimate Moment, a lingerie store. The bakery
breathed the yeasty aroma of warm bread onto them.
Lily's mouth watered but she said nothing. Instead she
kissed Steve and he brightened. They went through
separate doors.
Her booth was a four foot square; its only furnishing
was a shelf-like seat. The far wall was a screen on
which appeared her image, larger than life. She winked
at herself and then giggled because she was certain that
she had just discovered Steve's secret character flaw:
he was cheap. Somehow that reassured her, perhaps
because it was so curable. It wasn't as if he were a
womanizer or a drunk or a golfer. Lily believed she
understood thrift since she practiced it of necessity
herself. Someday, when she was a rich gynecologist, they
would come here and she would buy him something from
every shop.
Suddenly the little booth seemed very chilly. The
enhancement that had helped her fall for Steve would
wear off in a couple of hours and then what would be
left of her feelings for him? Maybe there wasn't going
to be any someday with Steve.
"Welcome to the Hothouse." When the booth spoke to her,
it was her own image that appeared to be talking. "This
is a dressing booth. Occupancy is strictly limited to
one. For those couples requiring privacy, may we suggest
our encounter rooms on the six floor?"
"Oh?" She leered at herself. "And how much would they
cost?"
Eight windows opened down the left hand side of the
screen. "Encounter rooms range from $20 to $110." Each
window showed a differently priced room. Twenty dollars
bought a closet with a bed in it; the suite with a
chandelier and the flocked wallpaper cost a hundred.
"Shall I make a reservation for you now?"
"No, make me a bathing suit."
The rooms disappeared. "Swimdress, tank, two piece or
bikini?"
"Bikini."
She whimpered when saw herself on the screen in a
generic black bikini. There had to be some perverse
glitch in the booth's software; her skin was the color
of cement and her knees looked like doorknobs.
"Would you prefer a bandeau, halter or athletic top?"
"Bandeau."
"Underwire, sculptex, pump, or natural?"
"Pump?"
She watched in horror as her breasts rose like popovers
baking on fast-forward. If they'd been lifted any higher
they would have been pointing at the moon.
"No, natural."
They receded. She turned sideways and eyed her figure
hopelessly. She experimented with a high-cut brief but
the edges of her glutei maximi hung out of it like
mocking fleshy grins. The booth could fabricate the suit
in any of three thousand prints or 1.2 million solids.
With a sigh, she chose something in the mid-cyan range.
Letting him see her in a swimsuit on the first date --
what had she been thinking of? A drawer slid open with
the suit and towel in a sealed plastic bag.
"After pressing your thumb to the printreader, deposit
your belongings in the drawer for later retrieval." Lily
could not help but think of Steve's cool hands as she
started unbuttoning the front of her dress.
She came out of the dressing booth and immediately
panicked: Steve wasn't waiting. The door to his booth
was open! Her first thought was that he was mad at her
and had left. Her skin felt tight. Maybe he'd gone back
to the welcome garden to try his luck again, or left the
Hothouse altogether. Oh God, what had she been thinking
of? They should've taken the damn elevator; she didn't
really care about swimming and she couldn't afford to
shop. She had to find him, apologise -- but should she
get dressed first or ransack the Hothouse in her bikini?
While she was trying to decide, he came out of the men's
room. The sight of him made her eyes burn. This was
love, yes, it had already reduced her to a dithering
adolescent.
"Lily, are you all right?" he said.
She swooped into his embrace. "Fine now." She didn't
know why it had bothered her before that he was short.
She put her arms around his compact athlete's body and
realized that a larger man wouldn't be quite so
huggable. She noticed that he was slightly lopsided,
right deltoids and biceps bigger than the left. All
those throws to first base. "I just missed you."
"Look at you." He peeled her away from him. "You're
beautiful. Fantastic."
They kissed again and she ran her fingertips across his
back and felt his skin warming hers. She knew exactly
what had happened: the fear of losing him had hit her in
the adrenal glands. Hard. Hormones had seeped and
messenger chemicals had washed into the deepest parts of
her brain but the chemistry didn't matter to her
anymore. She wanted him. It wasn't only lust; she wanted
to ease his pain over losing baseball, to thank him for
listening to her whine about Glenn, to show him what
love might be. They would be so good for one another,
only she didn't have the $20. She tried to think of a
way to get him to split the cost of a room without
aggravating him about the money.
"Lily," he murmured. "There's something I have to tell
you."
She shuddered -- she hated the way men confessed! They
didn't know how and besides, whenever they were sorry,
it was always for the wrong thing. Lily wasn't
interested in what he had to say She wanted to tell him
to shut up. But she didn't have to.
"Lily!" Someone was waving.
"Over here. Lily." Marja stood, hands raised, on a red
checked tablecloth on the beach. Tomasz lolled at her
feet like a sleepy tiger.
"Just wave back," said Steve, "we really need to talk."
"She's my best friend. She'll strangle me if I don't
introduce you."
Marja was wearing a purple maillot that had a cookie
sized transparency sprite roving across its surface,
exposing pale skin. That might have explained why her
cheeks were so red, but Lily doubted it. Tomasz sat up
as they approached and rubbed his eyes. There was a
half-full bottle of kava in the picnic basket. Someone
had kicked white sand into an empty pizza carton.
"And who is this?" Marja said.
"Steve." Lily said. "My God, Steve, you haven't told me
your last name yet."
"Beauchamp."
"Nice to meet you." They shook hands; Lily watched and
wondered what he discovered about her. "I was just about
to swim," said Marja. "You two interested in a quick
dip?"
"Sure," said Lily. She glanced over at Steve; he was
pouting. "Steve?"
He shook his head.
"Good. Let the ladies go." Tomasz rolled toward the
kava. "We'll work the bottle."
The two women waded into the tepid water. When it lapped
at her waist, Marja sank backwards with a weary moan. "A
pretty little one you picked," she said.
"I think so," Lily said. "So, did you do anything stupid
yet?"
"I let him talk me into this damn bathing suit. Bad
enough people can see my thighs but random nudity ...."
She snorted in disgust. "My synapses don't snap for
Tomasz the way they used to, but it was grade while it
lasted."
"How was the sixth floor?"
"What, am I still flushed? For a while I thought my face
had caught fire." She ducked underwater and came up
spluttering laughter. "He's one of the hammers -- isn't
that what the receptionist called them? Wasn't much of a
talker, but he communicated, wow. Got that from his
cats, I guess. Funny to be talking about him in the past
tense already." She splashed Lily. "So did you have an
encounter?"
"We've talked a lot, that's all. He's very ... I don't
know ... decisive. From the moment we met he seemed so
sure that he wanted me. Eventually I started wanting
him. A lot." She laughed. "Whatever they gave us must
have worked overtime because I ... I think really love
him, Marja. I don't want this to be over in an hour."
She did a few backstrokes away from the shore, where
Steve was gesturing at Tomasz with the bottle of kava.
"Is that supposed to happen?"
"Hey, maybe you talked too much, roomie. You're not in
the market for a keeper. Besides, where would you put
him?"
"He can stay at his place; I just want to borrow him
once in awhile. Anyway, right before we spotted you he
said he had something important to tell me, which is
probably that he's emigrating to Uzbekistan next
Wednesday." When Lily waved to him, Steve got up and
walked edge of the water. "I should get back," she said.
"Tomasz and I are about done, Lily." Marja looked
worried. "Maybe we should both call it a night? Get his
number. If you're still hot in the morning, you can call
him."
She treaded water, not listening. "Ever hear of a
baseball player named Chico Moran?"
Flowers had overrun the fifth floor. They marched down
crushed stone paths and spread across parterres and
perennial borders. This was a strolling floor, not as
private as the third, nor as public as the fourth. The
oak benches tucked beside the flower beds were clearly
visible from the paths. The only privacy was that
afforded by politeness. Lily and Steve passed blindly
past two laughing gay men and an elderly couple who had
fallen asleep. She, however, could not help but gape at
the impossible couple of Alice the feminist and Keith
the lizard, entwining passionately
Finally they chanced upon an empty bench which faced a
drift of impatiens swarming around the legs of burgundy
roses. She leaned over to smell one and then covered a
yawn with the back of her hand. It was almost one. Time
for him to stop talking and get back to kissing.
Steve waved for her to sit beside him. "Because good
salesmen don't lie, Lily." He put his arm around her.
"We have to buy before we can sell. First I have to
believe that my product is the best for you, otherwise I
can't get you interested in it. And I do, Lily. Maybe
you still have some doubts, but I know I'd be good for
you."
"No, I'm sure too." She was delighted that it was still
true. Marja was no doubt already home in bed; Lily's
enhancement must have worn off by now. This wasn't
neuromance anymore; she was on her own.
"This isn't easy, okay? A salesman never brings up his
own negatives. That's anti-selling. If a client has a
problem or complaint, I acknowledge it and try to work
it out. But if I start telling you what I think is wrong
with me, not only could I lose you, I might even stop
believing in myself."
"I'm sorry; I should've listened before." She leaned her
head on his shoulder. "So tell me now."
"Okay, start at the beginning. Ever heard of the new
produce?"
"Isn't that the pricey stuff they sell at those food
boutiques?"
He nodded. "Here in America we rely on just twenty-four
crops for most of what we eat. But there are over 20,000
edible plants. Oca from South America. Arracacha, it's a
cross between celery and carrot. Mamey from Cuba. I've
spent a lot of time learning the new produce. It's a
specialty market now but it has tremendous potential for
breakout. I developed contacts all over the country."
"This has something to do with us?"
His voice was tight. "You remember Marsha, the one who
taught me about selling? Well, her husband Bill owned
the company I worked for. Not only did he fire me, but
the son of a bitch is still working overtime to keep me
from catching on somewhere else. Like this evening, I
stopped by World Food across the street. I used to take
the manager there out to the stadium -- on my tab. But
tonight my good friend informs me that his headquarters
says I'm nobody and there's nothing he can do for me."
He choked back his outrage. "I'm going to beat these
guys, Lily, and soon. Only ...."
"You're out of work?" She sat up, giddy with relief.
"You poor thing, that's terrible." It was hard to keep
from laughing. "How long?"
"Eight months."
"Steve, you're only twenty-six. It's not like you're
Willie Loman. You can find something else to sell."
"Willie Loman? Who's he, some fancy marketing professor?
What the hell does Willie Loman know about selling
glasswort to Piggly Wiggly?"
"Nothing." She slipped her hand onto his knee and
squeezed. "Forget it." She didn't want him angry at her,
too.
"I gave up my life once, Lily," he said firmly. "What I
learned from that is I never want to do it again. But
now you know that the real reason I didn't want to go to
the fourth floor was that I couldn't afford to. Believe
me, if I had money to spend, you'd see all of it. When
we were down by the stream, I kept thinking how it would
be to take you upstairs to one of the rooms." He reached
into his pocket. "Problem is my cash card flamed out two
weeks ago." He pulled a crumpled two dollar bill taut,
smoothed it against his leg and offered it to her. "My
life savings."
"You have no money at all? Then why come to a place like
this? How'd you even get in?"
"Because the most important sales trick of all has
nothing to do with the prospect. See, a salesman has to
keep up his own self image. When everyone else is
beating him down, he has to treat himself like a winner.
Maybe I'm broke, but I'm not nobody, damn it! I'm Steve
Beauchamp; I go where I want, when I want." He
straightened. "Anyway, I talked my way into a discount
because I didn't get enhanced. Even so, they took almost
everything I had at the door."
"You didn't get enhanced!"
"Didn't need to." He took her hand; his palm was moist.
"I know this sounds strange, but when I came out of
World Food and saw you with your friend, something
happened. I can't explain it, but I thought, there's a
woman I need to meet. So I followed you in. Believe me,
Lily, I've never done anything like this before. When I
saw you again in the lobby, I knew I was right. So what
if the cost of admission flattened me? By then I was
already falling in love."
"You were not." She pulled away from him. "You didn't
even know me."
"I do now." He smiled.
"My God, Steve, this doesn't make any sense." She wasn't
sure how she was supposed to react; it was like her
recurring nightmare of sitting down to a final she
hadn't studied for. This man she wanted was either a
phony or a pathological romantic. "Just what did you
think was going to happen after my enhancement wore off?
Most couples leave this place in separate cars, you
know."
"Sure, I knew that was a possibility." He shrugged. "But
I had confidence in myself. And you. The way I figure
it, there must be something about me you really like
because I couldn't afford a treated chocolate." He
sifted her hair through his fingers. "Actually, I've
been waiting all night for the drugs you took to wear
off. I want us to fall in love for real, not because our
hormones are boiling over. We need a clear heads for
something as important as this. That's why you should
never close in a bar, unless you're prepared to wake up
with a sour head and a sour deal."
"You really think we're in love?"
He paused to consider. "Maybe I don't know enough about
love to recognize it, but this is what I hoped it would
feel like."
She turned her face toward him and closed her eyes "Sell
it to me," she said.
He obliged. Time passed, clothing got rearranged,
buttons were unbuttoned. The bench wasn't big enough for
them to lie on, but they were approaching horizontality
when a rover disguised as a sunflower crunched down the
gravel path, aimed its enormous yellow blossom at them
and said politely, "For those couples requiring privacy,
may we suggest our encounter rooms on the sixth floor?"
"We could leave," Lily said breathlessly. "Go to your
place."
"I don't have a place. Actually I've been living out of
my car. It's parked about ten blocks from here and it's
out of gas and I don't get my unemployment check until
...."
"Ssh!" She put a finger to his lips. "Keep bringing up
negatives and you'll lose the sale." Lily stood, reached
both hands down to him and pulled him up beside her. "My
place then." She wasn't sure exactly what she was going
to do when they got there. Tack a sheet to the ceiling
between her futon and Marja's? Not a simple project at
two in the morning -- and what if Steve snored?
Lily pushed her doubts away. What had Marja said? Love
makes all things possible. She knew she was taking a
risk with this intense little man but she'd been smart
and lonely for so long. She had to laugh at herself as
they stepped into the elevator.
It was time to try something stupid.