Part 44 (2/2)
”Steve,” she said, in a near whisper.
”Go away,” I told her. ”Haven't you done enough already?”
”Oh, please, Steve. I've got to talk to you.”
I sat on the edge of my bunk and looked at her. She was fully dressed; her light printed silk was of the same general pattern and fit that she preferred. In fact, Catherine looked as I'd always seen her, and as I'd pictured her during the long hopeless weeks of our separation.
”You've got something to add?” I asked her coldly.
”I've got to make you understand, Steve,” she pleaded.
”Understand what?” I snapped. ”I know already. You deliberately set out to marry, or else-how tie some emotional cable onto me. G.o.d knows that you succeeded. If it hadn't been for that accident, I'd have been nailed down tight.”
”That part is true,” she whispered.
”Naturally, you've got justification.”
”Well, I have.”
”So has any burglar.”
She shook her head at me. ”Steve, you don't really understand. If only you could read my mind and know the truth--”
She let this trail off in a helpless awkwardness. It was one of those statements that are meaningless because it can be said by either friend or foe and cannot be checked.
I just looked at her and suddenly remembered something:
This was the first time in my life that I was in a position to do some verbal fencing with a telepath on even terms. I could say 'Yes' and think 'No' with absolute impunity. In fact, I might even have had an edge, since as a poor non-telepath I did have some training in subterfuge, falsehood, and diplomatic maneuver that the telepath couldn't have. Catherine and I, at long last, were in the position of the so-called good old days when boys and girls couldn't really know the truth about one another's real thoughts.
”So what's this truth?” I demanded.
”Steve, answer me truly. Have you ever been put on an odious job, only to find that the job is really pleasant?”
”Yes.”
”Then hear me out. I--in fact, no woman--takes kindly to being directed to do what I did. I was told to meet you, to marry--” Her face looked fl.u.s.tered and it might have been a bit flushed for all I knew. I couldn't see color enough in the dim light to be sure. ”--And then I met you, Steve, and I found out that you were really a very nice sort of guy.”
”Well, thanks.”
”Don't be bitter. Hear the truth. If Otto Mekstrom had not existed, if there were no such thing as Mekstrom's Disease, and I had met you freely and openly as men and women meet, I'd have come to feel the same, Steve.
I must make you understand that my emotional attachment to you was not increased nor decreased by the fact that my physical actions were directed at you. If anything, my job was just rendered pleasantly easier.”
I grunted. ”And so you were made happy.”
”Yes,” she whispered. ”And I was going to marry you and live honestly with you--”
”Heck of a marriage with the wife in the Medical Center for Mekstrom's Disease and our first child--”
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