Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 44 — page 126: what you’re looking at

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

ADDICT When he finished the grim task he returned to the room. Lilian Four was cleaning the floor with a rag she had found somewhere. She had somehow managed to rub away some of the foul dirt from a small area. George Three flopped down on the cleaned area. He had long since ceased marvelling at the resourceful girl. For a time he was silent as she pushed a growing mound of dirt toward a far corner. She seemed to do it cheerfully, and not feel the burden of fatigue that pulled at his every muscle. She did not seem to feel the revulsion he felt to- ward this grimy, reeking room. Her wiry yet pleasingly curved body somehow must ignore the myriad small injuries and weaknesses that tortured his. ' But above all, her mind, he thought, was strong. She affirmed the things that so repelled him, the awful room that now gave them shelter, the vermin-ridden clothing that would disguise them, and, before that, the repulsive alleys and passages that led them— where? Where? 125 Was there someplace in the world he was only now begin- ning to know in all its horror where he and this girl could find rest, permanence, love? Love. Love... Lilian Four had not escaped the hundreds of scratches, bruises, and the million stains of the journey here. And yet. she was lovely. Her small, even delicate, features—fea-- tures that, by some magic, combined in a remarkably strong face—surmounted the small injuries and the soil. Her hair—it was tangled and probably dirty—was alive, soft, radiant even in the faint failing light. The girl’s body— the baggy overalls could not conceal its soft, strong love- liness, its vivacity and cool strength. Strength—life. Those were the key words. A sigh es- caped him. He bent his head and thought over the day. A melancholia filled him. He might actually have sobbed, instead he tightened the muscles of his jaw and deter- mined. ... What? A voice within him asked the mocking question. connicloooks.conn