After supper he put the record on. When it had been playing for a while he got up and, as he often did, began to improvise dance steps to the music. It was great fun and the record was half over before he noticed the words had been subtly changing.
"House built on a rock foundation will not stand, oh no, oh no,"
You must join the Organization, now now, now now...."
He snapped off the hi-fi. But the chanting went on in his mind. You must join the Organization, you must join the Organization....
He put on his coat and went out for a walk. When he got back he didn't feel like reading so he turned on the television set. There was a very serious play on. He settled back to watch it. It was about a young man who lived all alone in the city and of his groping toward a better life.
"If I could only belong someplace," the young man said to the girl during the second act. "I've never belonged anywhere."
"Everybody should belong," the girl said.
The young man nodded and groped with his hands. "Or else they'll be like Henry Westing," he mumbled.
Mr. Westing got up and turned off the set. He rotated it and looked at the back. There was a little box screwed in one corner.
"Very clever," he said. He tore the box off and went to bed.