Prime Difference

The story opens with a weary office worker who feels trapped in a loveless marriage. His wife Marge is relentless in her complaints, and the new divorce laws and social penalties of the late 1960s make leaving virtually impossible. He watches enviously as a coworker slips away for a weekend tryst, and the tension between duty and desire sharpens his desperation.

Enter the whispered promise of an “Ego Prime”—a black‑market procedure that could erase the part of him that feels trapped. A colleague offers the illicit fix with a grin, while a striking new secretary arrives, turning the protagonist’s fantasies into something almost tangible. The narrative balances biting satire of bureaucratic overreach with a personal, almost comic, crisis of identity as he weighs the cost of a quick, illegal escape.