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167
The Status Civilization
·
Robert Sheckley
74
Mutants,
because
of
their
strange
talents,
were
reputed
to
remember
much
more
of
Earth
than
was
possible
for
normal
men
and
women.
Not
only
could
they
remember
Earth
in
general,
but
in
particular
they
could
skren
the
life-thread
of
a
man
backward
through
space
and
time,
pierce
the
wall
of
forgetfulness
and
tell
what
really
had
happened
to
him.
Other
people
believed
that
mutants
had
no
unusual
abilities
at
all.
They
considered
them
clever
rogues
who
lived
off
people's
credulity.
Barrent
decided
to
find
out
for
himself.
Late
one
night,
suitably
cloaked
and
armed,
he
left
his
apartment
and
went
to
the
Mutant
Quarter.
Chapter
Thirteen
Barrent
walked
through
the
narrow,
twisting
streets
of
the
Quarter,
one
hand
never
far
from
his
weapon.
He
walked
among
the
lame
and
the
blind,
past
hydrocephaloid
and
microcephalous
idiots,
past
a
juggler
who
kept
twelve
flaming
torches
in
the
air
with
the
aid
of
a
rudimentary
third
hand
growing
out
of
his
chest.
There
were
vendors
selling
clothing,
charms,
and
jewelry.
There
were
carts
loaded
with
pungent
and
unsanitary-looking
food.
He
walked
past
a
row
of
brightly
painted
brothels.
Girls
crowded
the
windows
and
shrieked
at
him,
and
a
four-armed,
six-legged
woman
told
him
he
was
just
in
time
for
the
Delphian
Rites.
Barrent
turned
away
from
her
and
almost
ran
into
a
monstrously
fat
woman
who
pulled
open
her
blouse
to
reveal
eight
shrunken
breasts.
He
ducked
around
her,
moving
quickly
past
four
linked
Siamese
quadruplets
who
stared
at
him
with
huge
mournful
eyes.
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