Up for Renewal
By LUCIUS DANIEL
Illustrated by DOCKTOR
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Galaxy Science Fiction November 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
"I'd give a year off my life to...." Idle
talk now, but it was ghastly reality to Kent!
Howard Kent looked at his young and beautiful wife and felt the weightof the years rest on his shoulders. In her eyes he saw his heavilylined face and sagging, stooped shoulders.
They stood just inside the long, narrow reception room of the HumanRejuvenation Plant. Potted palms and formal chairs reminded one of aHuman Disposal unit.
"I have a confession to make, darling," he said.
"Oh, no, Howard. Not now. I take for granted you've done the usualthings in your youth."
"But...."
"And we needn't have hurried so, as you can see. Now we'll probablyhave to wait hours in this perfectly dismal place."
She looked as young and fresh as he looked old and dusty, he thought,so out of place in this kind of establishment.
He had always loved small women. Leah was small and vivacious anddressed a year ahead of styles. No matter what happened, he'd neverregret having married her.
"But this is something I should have told you before," he said.
She put her hand on his arm. "I've been perfectly happy these past sixmonths. Whatever it was, I forgive you."
"It's not that. I'm talking about my age. I didn't think you'd marryme if you knew how old I really was. I put off telling you and figuredyou'd see my birth certificate at the wedding ceremony."
"I never even looked at the silly old thing."
"Well, darling, I looked at yours and felt a little guilty in marryinga young girl of twenty-three. But the fact is I'm sixty-five. I've beenrejuvenated before."
"I rather suspected it when you started aging so suddenly last week,"she said. "Before that you didn't look a day over thirty. But itdoesn't matter."
"It's worse than that, Leah." His face worked convulsively. "I've beenhere twice before. This is my third trip."
"I'm too modern to act shocked, Howard. If you didn't want to tell mebefore, dear, it's perfectly all right."
"Look, darling!" Perspiration stood on his forehead. "You don't seemto understand. But then you never could add or subtract. Now listencarefully. Each trip clips five years off your life span."
"Everyone knows that, of course. But it's better to be young...."
"It's better to be alive than dead," he said harshly.
"But your doctors have given you a longevity span to the age ofninety."
"Suppose it was eighty, instead of ninety?"
"Oh, dear, you worry too much," she said. "Doctors don't make suchmistakes."
"They can't give me a guarantee. You see, three of my ancestorsdied from accidents. The prediction of ninety years is based on theassumption that they would have lived a normal life-time."
"They make few guarantees. You know, all of you men are such babies ata time like this."
"Yes, but if it is eighty—then, I'll come out not a rejuvenated man,but just a handful of dust."
"Oh, that can't happen."
"Look at it this way." He paused a moment while taking in her youthfulappearance. "From now on I wouldn't look much older. Just a littlegrayer and perhaps more stooped. Then, I'll have what's left of mylongevity plus the five years this rejuvenation would clip off."