Avon Fantasy Reader No. 13 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

Ihe pte: ae ait Os Scientists | (ai eA. t.. . Science has solved most of the problems of daily living: housing, food, health. But what has been done to solve | the problems of the lonely, of the unloved? That seems to : be a subject men of the laboratories shy away from—it is surrounded by too many taboos. Yet surely they could « _ find an answer? Frank Belknap Long thinks there is an | answer and in this rather piquant story, he presents it. But he also sees another side—science may have an an- swer, but will people stand for it? What if a misunder- stood husband finds a scientific solution to his problem, will the wife tolerate the solution? Will a husband per- ceive the excellence of science’s answer to the lonely housewife’s problem? AY-BRONZED and dripping, Gland Surgeon V67 emerged from the sun pool, and flicked the water from his hair and eyebrows. Then he stooped, and thrust a sturdy, muscular arm into the pale green water. The arm was seized by slim hands, and a voice said: “Help me out, darling.” ‘V67 raised from the water an adorable form. His face was aglow with boyish rapture as he set it down beside him on the edge of the pool. | Mechanical Companion GH§8 looked up at him. Her lips were parted in a smile, and the disk in her bosom said: “It is lovely up here in the sun. Kiss me canine” = : | V67 bent, and implanted a fervent, lingering kiss on the soft, pneumatic ) lips of Mechanical Companion GH8. GH8 sighed, and her arms crept about | the dripping shoulders of her very human and warm-blooded escort. For a moment they embraced in silence. Then V67 gently untangled her arms, and asked: “Cold, my sweet?” . | a Mechanical Companion GH§8 said nothing. The disk was exhausted. V67 | pe debated for a moment with himself. Supervisor of Emotion T74 had supplied | Companion GH8 with only one reply disk. He knew that if he rewound the record mechanism and set GH8 back in the pool she would swim and splash about and begin to talk to him again. But he was by no means certain that | the glamor and enchantment would survive a second trial. Besides, there was | ‘a chill wind blowing, and his flesh was breaking out in goose-pimples, | 3 book = a (C©)