"Robert F. Young - The Worlds of Robert F. Young" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

popcorn any time you want without missing a single one of your programs!"
Henry was aghast. "You can't be serious!"
"Maybe not, but I'm getting awful sick of burned popcorn and picture trouble! And besides, who'd
ever give us a million dollars anyway!"
тАЬWe'll look around again tomorrow afternoon," Henry said. "There must be other makes of sets
besides Baal that have inbuilt popcorn poppers. Maybe we'll find one if we look long enough."
But they didn't. They started looking as soon as they got through work in the pants-stretcher factory,
but the only sets they found with inbuilt popcorn poppers were stamped unmistakably with the name
BAAL, and stood in the new electrical appliance stores that had sprung up, seemingly overnight, along
with Mr. KrullтАЩs.
"I can't understand it," said the last orthodox dealer they visited. "You're the fiftieth couple to come in
here today looking for a TV set with a popcorn window and an inbuilt popcorn popper. Why, I never
heard of such a thing!"
"You will," Henry said.
They walked home disconsolately. A truck whizzed by in the street. They read the big red letters on
its sideтАФBAAL ENTERPRISESтАФand they saw the three new TV consoles jouncing on the truckbed,
and the three little popcorn windows twinkling in the slimmer sunshine.
They looked at each other, then looked quickly away. . . .
The truck was parked in front of their apartment building when they got home. Two of the sets had
already been delivered and the third was being trundled down the nearby alley to the freight elevator.
When they reached their floor they saw the set being pushed down the hall, and they lingered in their
doorway long enough to learn its destination.
"Betty and Herb!" Janice gasped. "Why, I never thought they'dтАФ"
"Humph!" Henry said. "Shows what their values amount to."
They went in, and Janice fixed supper. While they were eating they heard a noise outside the door,
and when they looked out they saw another Baal set being delivered across the hall.
Next morning, three more were delivered on the same floor, and when Janice looked out the window
after fixing breakfast, she saw two Baal trucks in the street and half a dozen consoles being trundled into
the alley that led to the freight elevator. She beckoned to Henry, and he came over and stood beside
her.
She pointed down at the trucks. "I'll bet we're the only people left on the whole block who still pop
popcorn in their kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. NeanderthalтАФthat's us!"
"But at least we can still call our souls our own," Henry said, without much conviction.
"I suppose you're right. But it would be so nice to pop popcorn in the living room for a change. And
such good popcorn too. . . ."
They put in a miserable day at the pants-stretcher factory. On the way home they passed Mr. Krull's
store. There was a long line of people standing in front of it, and a new sign graced the window where the
dummy come-on sets still stood: GOING OUT OF BUSINESS-THIS MAY BE YOUR LAST
CHANCE TO OWN A TV-POPCORN CONSOLE!
Janice sighed. "We'll be the only ones," she said. "The only ones in the whole city who pop popcorn
in the kitchen and watch their favorite programs on a stone-age TV set!"
When Henry didn't answer, she turned toward where she thought he was. But he wasn't there any
more. He was standing at the end of the line and waving to her to join him.

Mr. Krull was beaming. He pointed to the two little dotted lines, and Henry and Janice signed their
names with eager fingers. Then Henry wrote down their street and number in the space marked
ADDRESS and handed the contract back to Mr. Krull.
Mr. Krull glanced at it, then turned toward the back of the store. "Henry and Janice Smith, sir," he
called. "111 Ibid Street, Local"
They noticed the tall man then. He was standing at the back of the store, jotting down something in a