“Didn’t I hear somewhere that Trix is a secret subsidiary of Micro?” Gusterson demanded, rearing up from his ancient electric typewriter. “No, you’re not stopping me writing, Fay—it’s the gut of evening. If I do any more I won’t have any juice to start with tomorrow. I got another of my insanity thrillers moving. A real id-teaser. In this one not only all the characters are crazy but the robot psychiatrist too.”
“The vending machines are jumping with insanity novels,” Fay commented. “Odd they’re so popular.”
Gusterson chortled. “The only way you outer-directed moles will accept individuality any more even in a fictional character, without your superegos getting seasick, is for them to be crazy. Hey, Daisy! Lemme see that beauty mask!”
But his wife, backing out of the room, hugged the package to her bosom and solemnly shook her head.
“A hell of a thing,” Gusterson complained, “not even to be able to see what my stolen ideas look like.”
“I got a present for you too,” Fay said. “Something you might think of as a royalty on all the inventions someone thought of a little ahead of you. Fifty dollars by your own evaluation.” He held out the smaller package. “Your tickler.”
“My what?” Gusterson demanded suspiciously.
“Your tickler. The mech reminder you wanted. It turns out that the file a secretary keeps to remind her boss to do certain things at certain times is called a tickler file. So we named this a tickler. Here.”
Gusterson still didn’t touch the package. “You mean you actually put your invention team to work on that nonsense?”
“Well, what do you think? Don’t be scared of it. Here, I’ll show you.”