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Love Story

RICHARD HESS

It was in the year 2501 that Cleanthes Philo and his wife, Odessa,
were married. They had sanctioned their living together by filling out
the application and having the clerk put the seal of the state on the
form instead of having a ceremony conducted by the local regent of
civil affairs. Odessa didn't want the latter ceremony because of the
compatibility questions involved. They both reasoned that they must
be compatible since they had come from the same gene store.

For a honeymoon (Cleanthes thought this antiquated custom
should be abolished, but Odessa still retained a certain amount of
feminine vanity for old romantic customs) they took the luxurious
space carrier Celestial-Robe to the honeymooner's paradise on the
planet Venus. There they sat on the veranda of the Spactel Aphrodite
and watched Earth spin on its orbit. They drank moon-weed cocktails
and talked of the child they could have. When they grew tired each
would go to his room, and before taking his morpheus pill, reason
how lucky it was to have such a well constructed mate to go through
space-time with.

They were married under Plan C which allowed them one child
as soon as they could make the necessary payment. Odessa wanted a
girl with features like Cleanthes, and Cleanthes wanted a boy as
beautiful as Odessa. But in all probability Odessa would get her way,
since science had yet to devise means enabling a man to win in any
argument with a woman. The LQ. of their child didn't worry them,
since they knew full well they wouldn't be able to afford more than a
220 on the standard living allowance Cleanthes received.

They had to wait at least fifty years just anticipating the moment
when they would have their very own baby. Odessa, with her motherly
instinct, insisted it would grow up under the best of care, and chose
as her guide Operation Perfection. This called for analysis every week
according to the rules of Doctor Sigfrud Jungler, and mutation shots
to rid it of any defects received during conception.

Regularly, they saved a portion of Cleanthes' living allowance for
the first payment. With the remainder of the allowance they traveled
from planet to planet, or, if they didn't feel like spending a whole day
on a space ship, would take the earth rocket to some out-of-the-way
place where just the two of them could be together. Cleanthes loved
best of all to visit the Afreeka reservation and hire a scootocopter. He

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