"Hilda, someday I'm going to get you drunk."

"Want to bet?"

"Never with you. There is mystery about my mother's death. She appears to have been killed accidentally at a relatively young age, for a Howard. Just short of a hundred. I was notified as her purse I.D.'s named me as 'next of kin'-and I bawled like a baby for I had been planning to pay her a visit on her century day, July 4th, 1982. Instead I attended her funeral, flying to Albuquerque two weeks early.

"Nobody there but me. She was living alone under her maiden name, she and my father having separated thirty years earlier. But apparently she hadn't listed her last address change with the Howard Foundation, hadn't notified her other children. Howards are like that; they live so long that kinship is not enough reason to stay in touch. Closed casket and cremation-authorized by stuff in her purse; I never saw her body.

"But there was no doubt as to her I.D.'s and so forth. In my world, 1982 was a time when you couldn't sneeze without carrying a thick pack of cards all, in effect, saying that you were you. I was feeling it because I was seventy later that year and looked thirty-five. Embarrassing. I had plans to drive south from Albuquerque, cross the border, and not come back until I had bought a new passport to match a new name.

"Hilda, it was over two thousand years later, in preparing for my first time trip, that I learned that my mother was not listed in the Archives as dead but simply as 'record missing.'

"The matter troubled me. A few years ago-my time-Laz-Lor took me

back. Didn't ground; a missile chased us and scared Dora silly. But I got a motion picture that seems to show the accident. There is a blur on the frames just before the first one that shows what I think is the corpse. Can you guess the size and shape?"

"Shan't try, Lazarus."

"As near as I can measure on a film a centimeter square, shot with a telephoto lens from too high because Dora was crying and wanting to go home, it is the size of that berth Gay Deceiver is in. Hilda, I think I photographed you rescuing my mother before you did it."

'What? Lazarus, that's-"

"Don't say impossible. The Land of Oz is impossible. You're impossible. I'm impossible. Who invented pantheistic multiperson solipsism? You did."

"I wasn't going to say 'impossible.' Now that you know that I'm pregnant, you will realize why I want to try to rescue your mother right away, before my belly starts growing where the seat belt crosses it. Her name was Marian? Marian Johnson Smith?"

"Maureen Johnson."

"That proves that the real Lazarus Long stood up. It bothered me that there might be a series of analog-Lazarus-Longs like analog-Earths."

"Wouldn't bother me. That's their problem."

"But it would destroy the theory I worked out that would account for my sitting here in a pool of water in a time-travelling flying saucer with a fabulous man-both ways!-when I know he's a fictional character in a book I read years back. That makes me a fictional character, too, but that doesn't trouble me as I can't read a novel with me in it, any more than you could read the one I read about you."

"I came close to doing just that."

"Don't be mysterious, Lazarus."

"I like wild stories. Used to read every one I could find in the Kansas City Public Library. On another time trip I picked up a magazine of a type you may never have seen. Read one installment of a serial. Ridiculous. Four people traveling in space in an airplane. At the end of that installment they are hailed by a flying saucer. Continued next month. Hilda, how do you think Dora was able to be at the right place at the right time when Gay Deceiver popped out of nowhere?"

'Where is that magazine?"

"Down the same destruction oubliette that recently received my best fake Scottish chief costume. If I had not learned long ago to dispose of casual fiction once I had read it, Dora would never be able to lift. Hilda, you explained it yoursel-_"

"Hilda? Do you hear me"-her husband's voice.

Her face lit up. "Yes, Jacob?"

"May I see you? I have a problem."

I barely whispered, "I'll get out," and started to stand up. She pulled me back down. "Of course, Jacob dearest. I'm in the flag cabin. Where are you?"

"In our suite."

"Come straight here." She whispered to me, "Do we have a deal?" I nodded; she stuck out her hand; we shook on it. "Partners," she whispered. "Details later. Maureen first."

Her husband answered, "Hilda, I don't know my way. And it's a private matter."

"Then you must come here, Jacob; this is the only private place in the ship. I've been talking business with Lazarus Long-business so private we had to talk here. No more trouble, dearest man, and we each get what we want. Come join us, we need you."

"Uh... can he hear me?"

"Certainly. We're having a bath together. Come join us. I want you to know all about the deal before we tell the children. I may need support on parts where we traded quid pro quo."

Silence- "I'd better call back later."

I said, "Doctor Burroughs, you want to talk privately with your wife; I will get out. But please understand that social bathing is as commonplace on my world as offering a friend a drink is on yours. I am here because the Commodore invited me and I assure you she is quite unharmed."

Burroughs replied in a pained voice, "I know that custom and have utter faith in Hilda's social judgment. Yes, I do need to speak to her....ut I don't mean to be surly. I'll come up, or down, or across, and say hello. Please don't leave before I get there. I'll ask my way."

"Dora will show you. Step into the corridor and wait. She'll find you."

"Very well, sir."

"Dora, special."

"Yes, Pappy?"

"Find Professor Burroughs. Lead him here. By the longest route. Slow march."

"Aye aye, Pappy."

I said hurriedly to Hilda, "I may know what this is; let me check. Lib?"

"Yes, Lazarus?"

"Are you alone?"

"In my stateroom alone. And lonely." Lib added, "And upset."

"So? Did you put the question to Professor Burroughs?"

"Yes. Lazarus, I had perfect opportunity. The one place Dora can't see or hear. Inside Gay Deceiver's space warp and-"

"Chop it, Lib! Did he turn you down?"

"No. But he didn't say Yes. He's gone to discuss it with his wife. That's why I'm jittery."

"Turn on the soother. I'll call you back. Off."

Hilda asked, "What's the matter with Elizabeth?"

"I'll make it short as even the longest route can't take long. Lib is terribly anxious to have a child by the mathematician-your husband-who formulated the equations for six-dimensional positively-curved space. She thinks- and so do I-that they might produce a mathematician equal to, or even greater, than Lib or your husband. But she should have let Ishtar arrange it. She jumped the gun; I don't know why-"

"I do! Elizabeth!"

Lib was slow in answering. "This is Elizabeth Long."

"Hilda Burroughs here. Elizabeth, you come straight here. Flag cabin."

"Commodore, are you angry with me? I meant no harm."

"Dear, dear! You come to Mama Burroughs' arms and let me pet you and tell you that you're a good girl. Now! How far away are you?"

"Just around the curve. A few meters."

"Drop everything and hurry. Lazarus and I are in the 'fresher. In the pool. Come join us."

"Uh, all right."

"Hurry!"

Hilda asked, "How do I let them in? Run dripping and do it by hand? I noticed that our door lets anyone out but can't be opened from the outside without help." She added, "For that matter how do I get back in?"

"Dora knows you belong here. For the rest- Dora, admit Libby Long and Professor Burroughs."

"Aye aye, Pappy. Lib-here she comes. Dr. Jacob Burroughs I'm fetching. How soon?"

Hilda said, "Two minutes."