-authorized permit to
be there." Mark turned astonished eyes on her. "What else could I do?"

"Oh, but you _know_ I wouldn't do anything to harm your place."

"Aw, Jennette," Mark said uncomfortably, "of course you would. Anybody
would. If people started acting like that, the whole balance would be
upset."

She gently stroked his arm where the fruit juice had dried. Her face
crinkled up and she giggled. "Maybe you just don't know me."

"Let's talk about something else," Mark suggested.

"What's the matter? Do I shock you?"

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?"

"I dunno. Blow up the Decanting Centers, maybe."

"Maybe," Jennette said, glancing impishly at the man beside her, "we
ought to just stop wearing these silly old manufactured bodies
entirely."

"Yes?" Mark tasted a pomegranate, made a face, and tried another.
"Just what do you suggest people wear?"

"They could go around in their protobodies."

"What?" Mark looked swiftly and searchingly at her, alarm on his face.

"Why Mark," she laughed disarmingly. "You're such a righteous beast,
aren't you?"

"Great Atoms, Jennette," he said, gazing intently at her
golden-flecked eyes, wondering what strange things went on inside that
lovely head. "You mean go around all the time as if we were savages?
Why that's illegal, immoral, and besides--besides, it's dangerous.
Suppose somebody took a shot at you? You've only got one protobody,
you know."

"A clever fighter like you shouldn't ha