"Jerry Davis - Justification" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

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JUSTIFICATION
┬й 1996 by Jerry J. Davis

Previously Published in Aboriginal Science Fiction Magazine


Dale Bently shuffled out of his apartment in his robe and slippers, squinting in the pale fall
sunlight, heading toward the mailbox and the letter that would tell him his life was over. In
one week it would be his fortieth birthday, and while he had that vaguely in mind, he had
forgotten about what it meant. He had forgotten a lot within the past five years, his life
becoming a pale blur of featureless days.
He opened the mailbox with his thumbprint and pulled out the small bundle of junk mail,
not even seeing the envelope from the Bureau of the Census. He carried it back to his
apartment and shuffled inside, the end of his daily trip into the world. He shut the door and
locked it, and threw the mail down on the coffee table that separated the couch from the
television. As the letters spread out he saw the bright red envelope and it caught his attention.
He'd seen that envelope before.
It was easy when Dale Bently was five years old; he was a child in good health and was
getting good grades in school. Children of his age were rarely judged poorly. It was the same
when he was ten years old. By the time he was fifteen he'd developed into a bit of a
disciplinary problem, but that was normal for a teenager and there was still no real worry.
When he was 20 he was in college and getting good grades again.
By the time he was 25 Dale was making a good living as a apprentice engineer with
Lagrange 5 Corp. It was the first time he'd seen the Census as a threat, but as he was actively
working for the good of mankind and producing more than his share, he passed. The same
when he was 30 and 35 years old. But then there was the accident, and the hospitals, and the
lawsuit which gave him enough money to compensate him for not ever being able to work in
high orbit again.
The money, officially, was for him to be able to reeducate and enter a new career, but as
it turned out it was enough for him to comfortably survive without working for a
considerably long time. He grew inward, reclusive, living for his daily and nightly television
favorites. It never occurred to him, never at all, that he was dooming his very existence.
He opened the red envelope and held its contents in his hands. The Census! he thought.
The damned Census!




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Bureau of the Census
Dept. of Life Evaluation
Division of Judgment
Los Angeles, CA 90039-3278-34