Free The Steam-Driven Boy by John Sladek

Traju-dee-ee-ee.
     
    The song went on to articulate how Jim Gunn wanted more than anything in the worl’ to buy an eye operation for his girl, who wished to admire his kustom kar. So he drove to a store and held it up, but someonerecognized his kar. The police shot him, but:
     
He kissed his Marya one last time;
    The policeman shot her, too.
    But she said, ‘I can see your kustom, Jim!
    It’s pretty gold and bloo!’
    He smiled and died embracing her,
    Happy that she could see.
    Kust’mized Traju—dee.
     
    Of course, in real life, Marya could see very well, Jim had no kar, and there were no policemen. But it was true for them, nevertheless. In some sense they could not express, they felt their love was a tragedy.
    Knowing Jim felt lonesome and bloo, Marya walked over and kissed his ear. She lay down beside him, and at once they were asleep.
    M EDCENTRAL’S audit showed a population of 250 million in N ORTHAMER , stabilized. Other than a few incubator failures, and one vatt of accidentally-infected embryos, progress was as predicted, with birth and death rates equal. The norm had shifted once more toward the asocial, and UTERINE CONTROL showed 90.2% adult admission at both major hospitals.
    Trenchant abnormals were being regressed through adolescence, there being no other completely satisfactory method of normalizing them without shock therapy, with its attendant contraindications.
    Lloyd pulled his pocket watch from the bib of his plaid overalls. The hands of Chicken Licken pointed straight up, meaning there was just time to fetch the mail before Farm Kartoons on TV. On impulse, Lloyd popped the watch into his mouth and chewed. It was delicious, but it gave him little pleasure. Everything was too easy, too soft. He wanted exciting things to happen to him, like the time on Farm Kartoons when Black Angus tried to kill the hero, Lloyd White by breaking up his Machine, and Lloyd White had stabbed him with a pitchfork syringe and sent him off to the hospital.
    Mechanical Joe, knowing it was time to fetch the mail, came running out of the house. He wagged his tail and whined impatiently. It didn’t make any difference that he wasn’t a real dog, Lloyd thought as they strolled toward the mailbox. Joe still liked it when you scratched his ears. You could tell, just by the look in his eyes. He was livelier and a lot more fun than the first Joe.
    Lloyd paused a moment, remembering how sad he’d been when Joe died. It was a pleasantly melancholy thought, but now mechanical Joe was dancing around him and barking anxiously. They continued.
    The mailbox was chock-full of mail. There was a new komik, called L LOYD F ARMER AND J OE , and a whole big box of new toys.
    Yet later, when Lloyd had read the komik and watched Farm Kartoonand played awhile with his building set, he still felt somehow heavy, depressed. It was no good being alone all the time, he decided. Maybe he should go to New York and see Jim and Marya. Maybe the Machines there were different, not so bossy.
    For the first time, another, stranger thought came to him. Maybe he should go
live
in New York.
    ‘D EAR D ELPHINIA, ’ Dave printed. ‘T HIS IS GOING TO BE MY LAST LETTER TO YOU, AS I DONT LOVE YOU ANY MORE. I KNOW NOW WHAT HAS BEEN MAKING ME FEEL BAD, AND IT IS YOU. Y OU ARE REALLY MY MASHINE, ARENT YOU HA HA I’ LL BET YOU DIDNT THINK I NEW .
    ‘N OW I LOVE H ELENA MORE THAN YOU AND WE ARE GOING AWAY TO NEW YORK AND SEE LOTS OF FRIENDS AND GO TO LOTS OF PARTYS AND HAVE LOTS OF FUN AND I DONT CARE IF I DONT SEE YOU NO MORE.
    ‘L OVE, AND BEST OF LUCK TO A SWELL KID,
    ‘D AVE W.’
    After an earthquake destroyed 17 million occupants of the western hospital, M EDCENTRAL ordered the rest moved at once to the east. All abnormals not living near the east hospital were also persuaded to evacuate to New York. Persuasion was as follows:
    Gradually, humidity and pressure were increased to .9 discomfort, while subliminally, pictures of New York were flashed on all