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.If she had it with her, it remained in her bag.Although I was restless, I settled down to a morning’s work with her and Seri.Now I knew that fallibility was a virtue, I used it to strategic effect.During lunch the two women spoke quietly together, and it seemed for a moment that Seri had put my request to her.Later, though, Lareen announced that she had work to do in the main building, and left us in the refectory.“Why don’t you go for a swim this afternoon?” Seri said.“Take your mind off all this.”“Are you going to ask her?”“I told you—leave it to me.”So I left her alone and went to the swimming pool.Afterwards, I returned to the chalet but there was no sign of either of them.I felt useless and wasted, so I signed for a pass from one of the security guards and walked down to Collago Town.It was a warm afternoon, and the streets were crowded with people and traffic.I relished the noise and confusion, a bustling, discordant contrast with the solipsism and seclusion of my memories.Seri had told me that Collago was a small island, not densely populated and well off the main shipping routes, yet it seemed in my unpractised life to be the very hub of the world.If this was a sample of modern life, I could not wait to join the rest!I wandered through the streets for a while, then walked down to the harbour.Here I noticed a number of temporary stalls and shops, erected in a position overlooking the water, where patent elixirs could be purchased.I walked slowly along the row, admiring the photographically enlarged letters of testimonial, the exciting claims, the pictures of successful purchasers.The profusion of bottles, pills and other preparations-herbal remedies, powders, salts for drinking water, isometric exercises, thermal garments, royal jelly, meditational tracts, and every other conceivable kind of patent remedy—was such as to make me think, for a moment or two at least, that I had undergone my ordeal unnecessarily.Business along the row was not brisk, yet curiously none of the vendors solicited my business.On the far side of the harbour a large steamer was docking, and I assumed that it was this arrival that had caused the congestion in town.Passengers were disembarking and cargo was being unloaded.I walked as close as I could without crossing the barrier, and watched these people from the world beyond mine as they went through the routines of handing in their tickets and collecting their baggage.I wondered when the ship would be sailing again, and where it was next headed.Would it be to one of the islands Seri had named?Later, when I was walking back to the town, I noticed a small passenger bus loading up by the quay.A sign on the side announced that it belonged to the Lotterie-Collago, and I looked with interest at the people sitting inside.They seemed apprehensive, staring silently through the windows at the activity around them.I wanted to talk to them.Because they came, so to speak, from a world of the mind that existed before the treatment, I saw them as an important link with my own past.Their perception of the world was undoctored, what they took for granted was all that I had lost.If this was consistent with what I had learned, then many of my doubts would be allayed.And for my part, there was much I could suggest to them.I had experienced what they had not.If they knew in advance what the after-effects would be, it might help them to a speedier recovery.I wanted to urge them to use these last few days of individual consciousness to leave some record of themselves, some personal definition or memento by which they might rediscover themselves.I moved in closer, peering in through the windows of the coach.A girl in an attractive, tailored uniform was checking names against a list, while the driver was stowing luggage in the back.A middle-aged man sitting by a window was nearest to me, so I tapped on the glass.He turned, saw me there, then quite deliberately looked away.The girl noticed me, and leaned through the door.“What are you doing?” she called to me.“I can help these people! Let me speak to them!”The girl narrowed her eyes.“You’re from the clinic, aren’t you? Mr… Sinclair.”I said nothing, sensing that she knew my motives and would try to stop me.The driver came round from the back of the vehicle, shouldered past me and climbed up to the driving seat
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