"No, let her talk, Harry. Of course he was gone all night. What's the
matter, don't you think he can take care of himself?"
"My Harry is quite a capable man, thank you."
"Marie!"
"Your Harry. That's right, you are fettered to one another all your
lives. It's fantastic. Will you be a good girl and bring me something
to eat?"
Marie nodded and soon returned with two plates of stew. It was
Marsden's favorite food and Marie had probably prepared it as a peace
offering, but two plates meant one for him and one for Alice Cooper and
Marie would go hungry.
"I'm not in the mood to eat," said Harry, while his stomach grumbled.
"You? Not in the mood to eat Talborian stew? I'd like to see the day.
Go ahead, I'm not hungry."
"You're both crazy," Alice Cooper said. "Pretending you're not hungry
so the other can eat. No wonder this is such a backward place. If
someone said that to me I'd gobble the food up quick before he could
change his mind. On Earth, naturally, no one would ever say it."
"I'll get some cold cloths for your leg," Marsden said to break the
awkward silence which followed.
"Cloths, nothing." Alice Cooper stood up. "Did you think I really hurt
myself? I only wanted you to carry me and take me here, but if this
hefty wife of yours is here, I guess you might as well take me back to
town."
"If I wasn't a lady ..." began Marie.
"You? That's very good, my dear. A lady wrestler, you mean. Well,
Harry, what are you waiting for? Take me back to Talbor City, please."
Marsden looked at his wife's plain, unpainted but still pretty face,
at the way days under the bright sun had added glowing highlights to
her red-brown hair and Alice Cooper seemed like a wilted flower by
comparison. Marsden thought of the long walk with her back to Talbor
City and wished it were over already.
* * * * *
The spaceship blasted off with a terrible clamor. The people of Earth,
the men and women, were gone. They had been here on Talbor only a few
hours but to Marsden it seemed much longer. He was infinitely glad they
could only stay one day.
He met Charlie Adcock near the steps of the hotel. Charlie carried his
shirt under one arm and was scowling. "You know," he said, "songs and
pictures are funny things. They sure can fool a guy sometimes."
"Yeah," said Marsden.
"I don't know, Harry. I'm still glad they came. We were busting to see
something different, either to have them come here or maybe to take off
and forget all about Talbor."
"What do you mean, forget about Talbor? Talbor's a pretty nice place.
You work all day, sure, but it's good, clean work and you know your
friends are working too, and then Saturday night you can go into town
hooting and hollering and no one cares."
"Yeah, Harry. Sure. That's what I mean. You know what? Those women of
Earth are kind of skinny."
"It was an accident they came when they did," said Marsden. "A lucky
accident. I like Talbor now. I wouldn't change places with anyone."
"It's still nice looking at pictures and singing songs, I guess, if we
can forget about the real women of Earth."
"A lucky accident," said Marsden again. "Just when we got all
starry-eyed about things that didn't matter, they came and showed us
what we really had."
"Well, see you."
Later, after Marsden returned to his cabin, Marie said:
"I'll wear that dress Saturday nights if you want."
"Fine," said Marsden. "But only Saturday nights. It's silly the rest of
the time."
He took Marie in his arms.
* * * * *
Alice Cooper removed the tight corset with a sigh of relief. "The first
thing I'm going to do when we get back home is go out to the beach
somewhere and get sunburned. Swim and ride horseback, too," she told
one of her companions. "I feel all--all scrunched up."
"Little wonder, Alice. Women weren't made to wear these tight things
and get all constricted."
"What a job," said Alice. "Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it. We
still have three more planets to visit on this trip."
"It's worth it. Sociology Central figures it out just right. When the
folks on one of the out planets get a little disgruntled with what
they've got, we're sent. They've built up a mighty splendid picture of
Earth and Earth people."
"I know it. So we come along and do everything we can to make Earth
look like the worst sink hole in the universe. By the time we leave,
the two ideas--their own glorified impression of Earth and our warped
play-acting--kind of merge. They realize they have a pretty good thing
on their own home planet."
"That's the way it should be, but I _still_ like Earth."
"Me too," Alice smiled. "One of these days, though, my husband is going
to make me give up my career and raise a whole crew of children. You
know something? I think I'd like that fine."