I remember how once when I was a child they took me up on the Accumulating Tower. At the very top I bent over the glass railing of an opening in the Tower. Below people seemed like dots; my heart contracted sweetly. “What if.⁠ ⁠…” On that occasion I only clenched my hands around the railing; now I jumped over.

“So you desire⁠ ⁠… being perfectly aware that⁠ ⁠…”

Her eyes were closed as if the sun were beating straight into her face. A wet, shining smile!

“Yes, yes! I want it!”

Quickly I took out the pink check of the other from under the manuscript and down I went to the controller on duty. O-90 caught my hand, screamed out something, but what it was I understood only later, when I returned.

She was sitting on the edge of the bed, hands firmly clasped about the knees.