Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 72 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION | a high alcoholic content. By the time the floor show started both Frank and the friendly shadow had passed the critical stage. They watched, owl-eyed, as five tall superbly-built young women cavorted on the floor, the fluorescent paint they were wearing limning their bodies with coloured flame. “*Nice.”? Frank reached for his glass, missed, and suddenly felt irritated. ‘““Damn joint! Let’s get out of here.” ““Where ?” ‘““Anywhere. This place gives me the creeps.” He slipped from the stool. “Coming?” Together they weaved to- | wards the door. The friendly shadow had a name, Miles Whayland. He had a job, assistant professor at the local university. He held a degree in social engin- eering, another in psychology, and wanted to write a book. He told Frank all about it over a normal slug of Scotch in a bar which tried to emulate those common during the roaring forties. It did a good 26 job, too; the plastic really looked like wood, the cut glass and stacked bottles ap- peared to be the real thing, and the bartenders even wore side-burns and moustaches. The hostesses, on the other hand, strained the imagina- tion. They wore fabrics un- known two hundred years ago and their figures betrayed the use of cosmo-surgery. ““Make-believe.”’ Miles ges- tured around the saloon. *““That’s the trouble with the world nowadays; everyone goes in for make-believe.’’ He helped himself to more Scotch. “You know why?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “‘Bored, that’s why. Bored and afraid.” “Who’s afraid?” Frank wasn’t looking for trouble. Alcohol usually made him genial, but he was irritated and conscious of trouble to come. “I’m not afraid.” “Didn’t say you were. Society is, civilisation is, the world is.”” Miles caught him- self and shook his head. ““Man, the room’s rocking!”’ “Take a pill.” Frank held out a dish full of the little white sobup tablets. Miles waved them aside. conmicloooksscom