Laura was standing there naked, close to Kane. "We're having our
wedding at five," she whispered.
"Who?" Kane said, startled.
"Ben and Jenny. They're right for all of us together."
From a number of rooms, people were watching Ben and Jenny being right
for all of us together, but Kane couldn't look.
"See us all," Laura shouted and dived through the floor. A spray of
water spilled up and fell unfelt through Kane's flinching torso. Ben
and Jenny ran away.
Kane was practically alone with Lucille. It was the first time in he
had no idea now how long that he had been this much alone with any one
other person.
She glanced rather sadly at Kane above the paper she was reading.
"You know how I feel, Lucie?"
She nodded, almost imperceptibly.
"How can you stand it, all the time this way?" he asked.
"Some of us learn to be in it, with a part of us out of it. A kind
of self-hypnosis, a retreat of some kind. Into fantasy, that's what
it really is. But--but I don't think any of us can keep on doing it
forever. We will all give way completely--sooner or later."
"I've got to get out," Kane said. "Do you want to get out?"
"It's impossible to get out."
"I've got to try."
"What's the use of trying if you know you can't get away? Where can
anyone go?"
"There must be people who break away," Kane said. "There have to be."
"There's supposed to be an underground, some secret group of some kind
that helps people get out."
"Get out--where? Out of the country?"
"It's pretty much like this everywhere. But there are supposed to be
areas where it isn't. Islands somewhere. Hidden places right here in
the country. Supposed to be places in the Kentucky Mountains, and in
New Mexico, places like that."
"The Moon," Kane said. "That's a place I know of. I've been there."
Her eyes were bright for a moment. "I know. It must have been
wonderful. Why on Earth did you ever leave?"
"I didn't know what it was like here. And--my wife died. I wanted and
needed another wife. More than a wife really. Someone who could share
that kind of a life with me, someone who would be interested in the
work too."
She turned quickly back to the paper.
"You might be able to get out of the hotel," she said. "But you would
be too conspicuous."
"Because I would be traveling alone?"
"Yes."
"If you came with me, there would be two of us. We wouldn't be
conspicuous that way."