The Project Gutenberg EBook of Warm, by Robert Sheckley

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Title: Warm

Author: Robert Sheckley

Illustrator: Ed Emshwiller

Release Date: July 25, 2009 [EBook #29509]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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warm

By ROBERT SHECKLEY

_It was a joyous journey Anders
set out on ... to reach his goal
... but look where he wound up!_

Illustrated by EMSH

Anders lay on his bed, fully dressed except for his shoes and black bow
tie, contemplating, with a certain uneasiness, the evening before him.
In twenty minutes he would pick up Judy at her apartment, and that was
the uneasy part of it.

He had realized, only seconds ago, that he was in love with her.

Well, he'd tell her. The evening would be memorable. He would propose,
there would be kisses, and the seal of acceptance would, figuratively
speaking, be stamped across his forehead.

Not too pleasant an outlook, he decided. It really would be much more
comfortable not to be in love. What had done it? A look, a touch, a
thought? It didn't take much, he knew, and stretched his arms for a
thorough yawn.

"Help me!" a voice said.

His muscles spasmed, cutting off the yawn in mid-moment. He sat upright
on the bed, then grinned and lay back again.

"You must help me!" the voice insisted.

Anders sat up, reached for a polished shoe and fitted it on, giving his
full attention to the tying of the laces.

"Can you hear me?" the voice asked. "You can, can't you?"

That did it. "Yes, I can hear you," Anders said, still in a high good
humor. "Don't tell me you're my guilty subconscious, attacking me for a
childhood trauma I never bothered to resolve. I suppose you want me to
join a monastery."

"I don't know what you're talking about," the voice said. "I'm no one's
subconscious. I'm _me_. Will you help me?"

Anders believed in voices as much as anyone; that is, he didn't believe
in them at all, until he heard them. Swiftly he catalogued the
possibilities. Schizophrenia was the best answer, of course, and on