Sally Lou was no dummy. She was quick to recognize Frobisher’s obsession with her and equally quick to recognize his desperation. It wasn’t that she was such a manipulative person. She just prioritized her needs at least as high or higher than his needs. In the end, it probably worked out just as well as they both got what they wanted.
Sally felt trapped in the Pink Collar Ghetto. After nine and a half years, she had only risen to the level of a clerk typist in a large corporation. It wasn’t that she wasn’t good at her work. She was creative and enthusiastic. But, whereas the Peter Principle may move men up the ladder to their highest level of incompetence, it keeps women several stories below theirs.
What really attracted Sally to Frobisher was his easy going style when it came to money. She was tired of just scraping by.
“Fro, what do you say we go to a movie tonight?”
“Ok.”
“And, how about dinner, too?”
“Where to?”
She decided it was really the little things in life that mattered anyway. Love, for her, was certainly not in that category.
* * * * * * *
Upon his return, Lucifer Christoferson realized two things. One was that home wasn’t such a bad place, and the other was that he still didn’t have a job.
In a job search training class, he met Brenda who was a follower of the Reverend Adol. She was heavy into the Reverend’s beliefs and living full time at his commune outside of town.
After a lunch date, Lucifer was struck by Brenda’s clarity and peace of mind. Feeling short on both, he accepted a dinner date with her at the commune for the following day.
* * * * * * *
It wasn’t that the mood was wrong. Alfer Centurie knew that part was right. It was more the concept of the day that wasn’t getting him anywhere.
Since his treatments had started, his nightmare had changed in some way he couldn’t quite put his finger on. It wasn’t that he was remembering more parts. He wasn’t. It wasn’t that he knew any more clearly what his role was. He didn’t. It was more like a level of feeling had been breached that he hadn’t known before.
When he woke up from a nightmare, instead of shaking violently from his head to his toes and focusing on his Planet, he felt a sense of déjà vu. He would start to shake as he woke up. Then, he had a feeling like he had been here before. (Not the shaking part, but the part in the dream before that.) He felt there was a common part in the dream before he woke up. It was a feeling he had lived before. Even though he couldn’t remember the details, he felt some kind of yearning to live that life again.
“Well, that tears it,” he thought. “This dream material treatment just isn’t getting me any where but more confused.” He was tempted to stop the therapy altogether, but a mental cyst would harm to his work in a tangible way. He resolved to continue the therapy until the cyst started to collapse and drain, “but not a second longer than that."