User:DoctorWho42/Halfway House

"Halfway House" is a short story by American author Robert Silverberg. It was first published in the November 1966 issue of If.

Background
It is told in the third-person.

Publication history
"Halfway House" was first published in the November 1966 issue of If. It was republished in The Cube Root of Uncertainty (1970), Dimension Thirteen (1969), and The Songs of Summer (1979).

Plot summary
Franco Afieri has throat cancer. He goes to the Fold for help. A technician instructs him. Alfieri grips the furry yellow railing. Twenty years ago, Alfieri was an engineer in Milan. He left engineering to found an industrial empire. Alfieri could pay to go through the Fold and go somewhere he could be cured. Alfieri was fifty with thinning hair. Vuor welcomes him to the Halfway House. The alien has a blank face with ropy limbs and slits for eyes and a mouth. Alfieri hurts from his throat cancer. Halfway House is just a screening point. Alfieri argues his case to Vuor. He runs Alfieri S.A. which has many employees. Alfieri considers himself a business genius. His company first opened the Fold. He needs ten years or he will die. The walls became opaque. Vuor accepts his application. He will be cured of throat cancer on Hinnerang and will work as administrator for five years. Alfieri accepts. The Fold was an intersection for universes. Halfway House facilitates travel. There were infinite universes but two dozen really mattered. Alfieri arrives to Hinnerang. The Hinnerangi were small, auburn, and had fibrous fingers. They whispered Italian to Alfieri. A Hinnerangi surgeon repairs his throat. He recuperates and returns to Halfway House. Vuor shows him his office, a pink oval room. Halfway House is about the size of an office building. Much of it is power generators. Fifty kinds of beings worked there. They return to his office. Vuor tells him he will interview Halfway House applicants. Alfieri shakes. He does not look forward to it. Vuor was administrator for five years. Alfieri senses his pain. He accepts the burden. Alfieri learns to adjust. He sees applicants. Alfieri could refuse or accept any or all of them. The latter would upset applicants. It would make him feel bad. One of the applicants was Hinnerangi. Alfieri thought it was the surgeon who cured him but was mistaken. The applicant is Tomrik Horiman. He grows houses but his business fails. Horiman will sell houses to Melknor. Alfieri notes the lack of a housing shortage. Horiman's family faces financial ruin. He might have to destroy himself from bankruptcy. Alfieri refuses the application. He waits for his reaction. Horiman looks back and feels pity. This wounds Alfieri. Horiman asks about his job. Alfieri responds he was condemned to it. He threw the switch that sent Tomrik Horiman away.

Reception
In 1971, SF Commentary's Barry Gillam notes "[h]ere Silverberg deals with a force that appears again and again in his work: the companion to dark visions – guilt. This is a turning point: the exterior, superficial dangers yield to the more terrible traps of one's own mind." In 1972, Vector's John Bowles decided "[i]t's a bleak outlook, 180 degrees removed from the usual pulp conventions which say that if you mean well you'll luck out, however stupid you may be otherwise."