Zelazny discovery - missing story "Checkup"

[ckovacs]

I discovered that UNICEF NEWS, a quarterly magazine, was planning a special issue in 1975 that would include several short short stories from notable sf authors, stories that were supposed to deal with children's health 100 years in the future. They'd written to Zelazny to request a story from him. In August 1975, Zelazny reported to his agent that he'd written the story "Checkup", 1500 words in total, and that UNICEF had already paid him for it (and he was forwarding his agent's portion of that fee with that letter). He'd noted that UNICEF NEWS hadn't told him which forthcoming issue this would be in.

I was able to check all of the UNICEF NEWS back issues from 1975 onwards, and the story did not appear in any issue between 1975 and 1981.

I'm presuming that the story was never published and is lost, but if anyone knows of any additional information about the fate of this story, please let me know. When I found that letter, I was hoping I would find that story, but it may no longer exist.

Chris