"Not exactly, married to a woman who overdoes it. I mean, after all, when you've been married ten years, you don't expect a woman to sit on your lap for two hours every evening, call you at work twelve times a day and talk baby talk. And it seems to me that in the last month she's gotten worse. I wonder if perhaps she isn't just a little simple-minded?"
"Ah, Smith, always the conservative. Well, here's my house. Now, would you like to know my secret? How I made it out this evening?"
"Will you really tell?"
"Look up, there!" said Braling.
They both stared up through the dark air.
In the window above them, on the second floor, a shade was raised. A man about thirty-five years old, with a touch of gray at either temple, sad gray eyes, and a small thin mustache looked down at them.
"Why, that'syou!" cried Smith.
"Sh-h-h, not so loud!" Braling waved upward. The man in the window gestured significantly and vanished.
"I must be insane," said Smith.
"Hold on a moment." They waited.
The street door of the apartment opened and the tall spare gentleman with the mustache and the grieved eyes came out to meet them.
"Hello, Braling," he said.
"Hello, Braling," said Braling.
They were identical.
Smith stared. "Is this your twin brother? I never knew--"
"No, no," said Braling quietly. "Bend close. Put your ear to Braling Two's chest."
Smith hesitated and then leaned forward to place his head against the uncomplaining ribs.
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
"Oh no! Itcan't be!"
"It is."
"Let me listen again."
Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick.
Smith staggered back and fluttered his eyelids, appalled. He reached out and touched the warm hands and the cheeks of the thing.
"Where'd you get him?"
"Isn't he excellently fashioned?"
"Incredible. Where?"
"Give the man your card, Braling Two."
Braling Two did a magic trick and produced a white card:
MARIONETTES, INC.
Duplicate self or friends; new humanoid plastic 1990 models, guaranteed against all physical wear. From $7,600 to our $15,000 de luxe model.