this game. She wanted to draw him into her world of likes and dislikes, of her interests, but there were other things that drew his mind. He wrinkled his nose. He answered flatly, "The only thing I can smell is Indian curry. The cooking show is overwhelming."
   "Off - Scent." Meri instructed interVision. "Now?" She asked again.
   William leaned forward tentatively. He sniffed. "Oh, yes. You smell pleasant."
   "Pleasant!" Meri snapped back at him. "I'd expect my husband to say more - like enticing, alluring, exotic or erotic. Astral, at forty solars per ounce, is more than merely pleasant."
   William realized he should have expected this. She wanted things that he didn't know how to give. "I'm sorry that you dislike my choice in words. I agree with the words you have suggested. Next time I'll use exotic or erotic."
   Meri crossed her arms. "Your choice of words reflects your manner of thinking. Banal, prosaic, barely beyond boring." She fixed him in her gaze. "And look at you. We have to be at the party in an hour. Your hair is wet; you're in your underclothes. You're not ready!"

   "No, not yet." William plopped into the stuffed armchair.   He reached onto the floor under the chair's seat, retrieving his compupad. "We've totally recovered from the dry years. Do you realize that Baltimore has received forty-six and one-half inches of precipitation already this year? And it's only the end of May! At this rate we'll beat the record!"
   Meri looked at him, her eyes wide. "Beat the record. You make that sound good! I'm getting more patients at the clinic every day. And that's due to declining sanitation standards. So much rain is beyond our capacity to keep up with it. Do you know what Jack Bressler told me today?"    Without waiting for his response, she went on. "That the upstream ponds, with all their accumulated pollutants, are being flushed into the main stream. The water quality in the Patapsco is declining so fast that he swears we'll never return to the quality measured in the centennial environmental census."
   William looked up.
   "He's right! You're right! I'm not arguing that. Of course, all this rain is causing problems. Don't I know it too! Laurel McCormick, you remember her?"
   Seeing the blank look on Meri's face, he explained. "She's