Mark laughed and brushed his lips against her shoulder. "I'm pretty hard to shock. Especially by you."
"See?" she replied archly. "You're just as anti-social as I am."
Mark's face clouded. "It's nothing to brag about, though."
"I'm not bragging." She sighed again, and resumed her fruit. Eying it speculatively, she said, "I guess I'm just bored with life, that's all. Sometimes things seem so silly. Like all the times you have to get a new body. You'd think the manufacturers were giving them away free."
"Yeah. Not like it used to be. Guess business is pretty good."
"Something ought to be done about it."
Mark grinned mischievously. "What do you suggest? Build another factory?"
"Oh, you know you can't do that. Somebody is always blowing it up."
"Well, don't worry. In another hundred years or so, people will start dying off again. These protobodies aren't as serviceable as the manufactured kind."
"Yes, but if they keep producing new people in the Decanting Centers, what good is that going to do?"