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.Now Ty was a blunt overmuscledguy who laughed like a hyena.He didn't laugh now. It was a rush to judgment, one of the other boys said. Tyler didn't harm a single Cousin.It was free expression. He could just as easily have blown a hole in the dome, said Erno. Do they need any more justification for force? Page 34 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlTy stopped rowing and turned toward Erno.Where he had sweated through thefabric, the Bang! on his shirt had turned blood red. Maybe it will come toforce.We do as much work, and we're second class citizens. He started rowingagain, pulled furiously at the machine, fifty reps a minute, drawing quickbreaths. That Durden has a pair, doesn't he? Sid said.Sid was a popular stud-boy.His thick chestnut hair dipped below one eye. You should have seen the lookon Rebecca's face when that explosion went off. I hear, if they catch him, the council's not going to stop at invisibility, Erno said. They'll kick him out. Stories For Men by John Kessel67 Invisibility won't slow Tyler down, Ty said. Would you obey the decree? heasked Sid. Me? I'm too beautiful to let myself get booted.If TylerDurden likes masculinists so much, let him go to one of the other colonies, orto earth.I'm getting laid too often. Erno's gut tightened. They will kick him out.My mother would vote for it ina second. Let em try, Ty grunted, still rowing. Is that why you're working out so much lately, Ty? Sid said. Planning tomove to earth? No.I'm just planning to bust your ass. I suspect it's not busting you want to do to my ass. Yeah.Your ass has better uses. My mother says Tyler's broken the social contract, Erno said. Does your mother Ty said, still rowing, keep your balls under herpillow? Sid laughed.Erno wanted to grab Ty and tell him, I was there.I helped him do it!But he said nothing.He pulled on the machine.His face burned.After a minute Erno picked up his towel and went to the weight machine.No onepaid him any attention.Twenty minutes later he hit the sauna.Sweating in theheat, sullen, resentful.He had been there, had taken a bigger risk than anyof these fan-boys.Coming out of the sauna he saw Sid heading for the sex rooms, where any womanwho was interested could find a male partner who was willing.Erno consideredpostingStories For Men by John Kessel68himself to one of the rooms.But he wasn't a stud; he was just an anonymousminor male.He had no following.It would be humiliating to sit there waitingfor someone, or worse, to be selected by some old bag.A day later Erno got himself one of the T-shirts.Wearing it didn't make himfeel any better.It came to him that maybe this was the test Tyler intended: not whether Ernowould tell about the Philosopher'sStone before it happened, but whether he would admit he'd helped set it afterhe saw the uproar it caused in the colony.If that was the test, Erno was failing.He thought about calling Tyler'sPage 35 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlapartment, but the constables were sure to be monitoring that number.A newrumor had it Tyler had been captured and was being held in protectivecustody threats had been made against his life until the Board of Matronscould decide when and how to impose the invisibility.Erno imagined Tyler insome bare white room, his brain injected with nanoprobes, his neck fitted witha collar.At biotech Erno became aware of something he had never noticed before: how thewomen assumed first pick of the desserts in the cafeteria.Then, later, whenhe walked by their table, four women burst into laughter.He turned and staredat them, but they never glanced at him.Another day he was talking with a group of engineers on break: three women,another man, and Erno.Hana from materials told a joke: What do you have whenyou have two little balls in your hand? The other women grinned.Erno watched the other man.He stood as if on a trapdoor, a tentative smile on his face.Stories For Men by John Kessel69The man was getting ready to laugh, because that was what you did when peopletold jokes, whether or not they were funny.It was part of the socialcontract somebody went into joke-telling mode, and you went intojoke-listening mode. A man's undivided attention, Hana said.The women laughed.The man grinned. How can you tell when a man is aroused? Pearl said. He's breathing. That isn't funny, Erno said. Really? I think it is, Hana said
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