Fire // Machine — Barry N. Malzberg

FIRE Al Coleman comes back from the Vietnam War filled with a rage he doesn't understand, and an impotence born of humiliation and regret. His fiancé rejects him. His supervisor at the sex toy factory where he works sets him up with a large-breasted woman named Betty. But the evening is a bust. So Coleman takes what money he has saved and holes up in a New York apartment and broods. And drinks. And eventually takes his anger to a Harlem prostitute named Cynthia. It's time he proved something to himself. But Cynthia is a surprise to him, a woman who cares, and together they discover they have more in common than either would have thought.MACHINEMike Jennings is 40 years old, and figures he has one chance at success left. So he takes all his money, moves to Syracuse, buys 15 pinball machines and sets up in business. Syracuse is a university town, and it's not long before he finds a willing coed to spend his off hours with. Sandra doesn't ask for much, and seems willing to put up with his moods. But then a couple of cops drop by-just a friendly warning-and tell him that there is going to be a bust very soon. The city is cracking down on the machines, and by cracking down they mean removing and destroying. As if that weren't enough to deal with, now his ex-wife Charlotte is in town...