Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 114: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ADDICT very young and enthusiastic then. Numbers had interested him, and he had eagerly soaked up all of that nonsense. He remembered not one whit of it now, but then he had taken long walks with the buggy old professor, and had actually worked on special extra-curricular problems... Why the absurd old man had bothered, George Three did not know. He had never any use for the numbers. He had been transferred to the City shortly after they took the oldmanaway to the booby hatch or somewhere. At 2100 George Three’s alarm clock jangled into ac- tion. He had been: dozing. Reluctantly he arose from the reclining chair and turned it off. The alarm was to remind him of bedtime Tab. He found the characteristic envelope on the dresser by the clock. He broke open the heavy brown paper and rolled one of the pink pills onto his hand. He was not bound to take it tonight, he knew. The extra tablet he had taken in the factory clinic made up a good minimum daily dose. 113 Still, it was better to do so. The 2100 dosage was a half tablet. It would cause him trouble, but not so much as a full one. Besides, it did make him sleep better once the sneezing had subsided. It cut down on his dreams, for example. And it made things easier the next morning. He broke the tablet in two roughly equal parts with his thumb nail and placed the larger fragment back into the envelope. Awkwardly holding the other piece in the cup of his right hand he crossed the room and poured water into the dirty syncafé glass. It was difficult. He spilled some of the water onto the small bedside table. In correcting this his right hand turned and dropped the piece of pill. It hit the bare floor and rolled under the bed. It was exasperating. George Three had a slight headache from watching the viewer. Disconcerted by his awkward- ness and pained by the head- ache, he fumbled around with his hands. A sliver of wood found its way up his fingernail. Choking back a _ sob, he lowered himself to the floor Ccomiclooks.comn ~