Part 36 (1/2)
”It's a terrible disgrace.”
”It happened to me, too. When he told me to sit down I had to do it. I was helpless.”
”But you fought! You overcame it.”
Frank Corson smiled wryly. ”No, I didn't. It was just that he'd had little time to work on me. It was a single mental blow, so to speak, that laid me out. Like one punch in the ring. Gradually, I came out of it.”
”I think I _tried_ to fight.”
”Of course, you did. The disgrace was mine. I acted like a child. I should have realized that something extraordinary had happened. But I nursed my miserable little ego like a three-year-old.”
”How could you know? My cruelty to you--”
”Don't talk like that! I knew about the ninth android, and I met the tenth one in front of your apartment that second morning. I should have a.s.sociated. Brent Taber did, otherwise we might both be dead.”
”It's all over now. It doesn't make any difference.”
”No, it doesn't make any difference.”
She looked at him in silence for several moments. ”You've changed, Frank.”
”Yes, I guess I have. I guess we all grow up eventually. We all face reality and live with it.”
”Frank--I think I'm going to cry.”
He could not turn his eyes in her direction. He looked straight ahead but his voice was soft. ”Go ahead, Rhoda. I understand.”
They were silent for a time, then Rhoda began to cry quietly into her handkerchief. After a while even that sound was stilled.
He turned to look at her. She was standing beside the bed. He almost reached out and took her hand, but drew his own back at the last minute.
”How soon will you be leaving?” she asked.
”The wound was superficial. I really didn't need to be hospitalized. I'm being released tomorrow morning. I'll probably leave immediately.”
”You'll make a fine doctor, Frank.”
”Thank you, I'll try.”
”Good-bye, Frank.”
”Good-bye--darling.”
She turned and fled.
And judging by the deep sadness in his soul, he knew he had hit bottom.
There was no place to go but up.
Brent Taber's phone rang.