“I’m not really hurting you, am I? I’m barely inside.”
“Don’t go any further! Stop!”
“Lady, believe me,” Frank said earnestly, “this is no time to stop!”
“You’re not supposed to do that until the actual experiment,” Mercy protested.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be able to do it again for the experiment. You don’t have to worry on that score.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about!” Mercy pushed him away. “But you’1l ruin the whole purpose behind the experiment if you don’t stop now.” She pushed back on the bed, retreating from him as far as she could.
“Then let’s get to the damn experiment!” Frank said impatiently.
“All right,” Mercy agreed.
A few minutes later they were in the “experiment” room, all wired up and ready to begin. Frank wasted no time doing just that, and now Mercy raised no protest. All the years she’d waited for this moment exploded with a frenzy of wild abandon. All the months Frank had denied himself did likewise. Now moments of building ecstasy claimed them both. And then-—
“Ouch!” Mercy cried.
“What’s the ma— Oh! You didn’t tell me you were a— How come they let a—” Frank was torn between confusion and his still eager passion.
“Never mind. It’s over now,” Mercy panted. “It’s done. Don’t stop! Please don’t stop!”
Frank didn’t stop. He continued. She continued. Then they rested. Then they resumed again. Another rest. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera . . .
It was no less than five etceteras and quite a while later that the experiment was finally concluded. Tenderly, Frank helped Mercy remove the wires. Looking at him, her face was filled with wonder as they dressed.
“That was wonderful!” Finally she just had to say it.
“Terrific!” Frank agreed sincerely. “Too good to just let it go at this. Can’t we arrange to see each other again? On the outside, I mean.”
“Oh, no!” Mercy was shocked at the idea. “That’s expressly against the rules!”
“The hell with the rules!”
“It’s impossible!” Mercy finished dressing quickly. “Thank you for a very nice time.” She held out her hand to him.
He took it and held it a moment. “You really don’t want to see me again?” he asked.
“Oh, I do! But I can’t! I just can’t!” Confused and distressed, Mercy fled the room.
Frank finished dressing and went in to see Professor Woocheck. He had a bone to pick with him. “I thought I told you no virgins!” he said indignantly.
“So you did, Mr. Pollener. And the staff has been instructed to take all precautions necessary to comply. Why are you so upset?”
“I just participated in one of your experiments.”
“And it wasn’t pleasurable? I’m sorry.”
“It was pleasurable! It was more pleasurable than I ever remember it being before! But that’s not the point. The point is that the girl who participated with me was a virgin!”
“Surely you must be mistaken. As a gynecologist, I can tell you that such errors—”
“I am not mistaken!” Frank insisted. “If you’ll summon the young lady, I’m sure she’ll verify what I’ve said.”
“That’s impossible,” Professor Woocheck told him firmly. “In the first place she’s probably already left the premises. And in the second, our most stringent rule is that subjects should meet nowhere but in the experiment room. Not even here. It’s really necessary,” he explained, “to protect those who proffer their services to us.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Frank admitted. “But what happens if two subjects meet by accident?”
“They should ignore each other. They must act as if they never met. It’s the only fair thing to do.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Frank granted. “Too bad. I really did dig that girl. More so than any other girl I can think of. . . .”
“He was more of a man than any I’ve ever known, or dreamed about,” Mercy was telling Dr. Peerloin.
“Don’t you think you’re letting yourself be carried away?” the older woman counseled. “After all, this has been your first experience.”
“Maybe. But I just can’t tell you how he made me feel. Just thinking about it—” Mercy hugged herself. “Oh, I’m still up in the clouds.”
“I think you’d better take the rest of the day off,” Dr. Peerloin suggested.
“Oh, thanks. I think I will. I just want to go home— and remember.”
Mercy went back to her own office then. She powdered her nose, fixed her hair and studied her reflection in the mirror. Her face was still flushed. Natural, she decided. Still, it should be gone by now. It was really a dead giveaway. Would people be able to tell by looking at her? she wondered. She put the thought out of her mind, slung her shoulder-bag pocketbook over her shoulder, locked her office and started for the bank of elevators at the other end of the hall.
A moment later Frank emerged from Professor Woocheck’s office. “A virgin!” He couldn’t get the thought out of his mind. It just went to prove that the Swami Rhee Va was right. Always there was the danger of the most thoroughly considered action having its result altered by a circumstance which the one taking the action could not possibly have anticipated. What the eventual result of his action would be in the light of the unexpected virginity which had intruded on it, Frank couldn’t even guess. All he knew was that he agreed with the Swami Rhee Va: The unexpected was a constant threat to the most devoted disciple of Causocratic Effectivism.
It wasn’t until much later that Frank would begin to truly appreciate that truth. Yet the beginnings of that appreciation awaited him at the very moment that he started for the elevator. A crowded car had just stopped; its doors were opened; Frank made a dash for it.
He just made it. The elevator doors closing behind him squashed him against the other passengers, facing the rear. His eyes met those of the others, facing front. Automatically, he dropped them.
That was when Frank first realized that he was standing nose-to-nose with the girl to whom he’d just made love. Their bodies were pressed tightly together. Their eyes met.
Mercy gasped inaudibly and quickly gazed over Frank’s shoulder. Frank shifted his eyes to the left, then furtively shifted them back. Remembering the Professor’s admonition, he too tried to behave as if they were strangers. Still, it was hard to ignore Mercy, with her body pressed so warmly against his and reminding them both of their recent intimacy. Mercy blushed a furious red. Frank felt his own face becoming very warm.
When the doors opened at the ground floor, Frank bolted blindly out of the elevator. He braked to a halt when he came up against a blank wall. He realized he must have turned the wrong way. He reversed his direction.
By that time, Mercy was outside the doors of the Observatory. That the closeness in the elevator had been traumatic for her was attested to by the weakness of her knees. Feeling that she just had to sit down and catch her breath for a moment, she turned into a drug store, found a chair at the counter, and ordered a Coke. She was dawdling over it when a slightly shaky voice from directly behind her asked the counterman for an Alka Seltzer. Mercy swiveled around. “Oh, no!” Once again she was face-to-face with Frank.
“Oh, no!” Frank echoed her sentiments. Hastily, he reached over her shoulder to retrieve his attache case from the counter where he’d just set it down.
At the same moment, Mercy, also anxious to end the encounter, grabbed her shoulder-bag up from the counter. The straps became entangled with Frank’s attaché case. For a moment that seemed an eternity, they both tugged, each frantically trying to disentangle and flee the scene.
“Whoa!” It was the counterman. Nimbly, he leaned across the counter and untangled the shoulder-bag from the attache case. “People!” He shook his head as both customers hurried out of the store by different exits.