Look for a new job

Gunnar hung up angrily. The gall of the Ubiquitron Corporation! Here he was, the world's only case of RAIP or "second puberty," a condition he could scarcely have anticipated, let alone known how to prevent -- and they had let him go!

It was not so surprising. They'd been grumbling at him from the start, and there was a lot of talk of jobs getting slashed all around. Gunnar's absence simply furnished them with a final excuse.

Gunnar sat on the bed and buried his head in his hands. Now what!?

He felt disgusted with civilization in general. Why was it so impossible to simply recognize a person's genuine passion and allow them to pursue it? Instead, the world was full of petty bosses looking for nothing but silent stupid obedient slaves. Who gave a damn about what the worker himself really wanted?

After a while, Gunnar thought: I tried them once, I'll try them again. He called the Butcher Employment Agency.

"Hello, Butcher Employment, what may we do for you?"

Gunnar was startled by the answer. The speaker had a smoldering delivery, worthy of a phone sex service.

"Ah, I'm Gunnar Hart, I'm in your files -- "

"The RAIP man!" It was odd not to hear it spelled out, but as a rhyme with "grape." "You are quite the celebrity, Mr. Hart!"

"I'm flattered -- but I'm also quite unemployed."

"If you don't mind my saying so, Mr. Hart, Ubiquitron was not altogether appropriate for you. I always thought you could do better."

Gunnar was amazed. What was this!? Butcher was a large agency, with who knew how many hundreds of clients, and he had last dealt with them months ago -- what were the odds that the secretary would automatically know so much about him? He figured she was studying some computer that was updating her. If this was Butcher's new approach, he liked it.