He hesitated. "They make me feel rather no good," he said, and then
admitted, "but in a way I'm more attracted to them than any people I've
ever met."
"You are?" Her grip on his hand tightened. "Then why don't you stay
with us for a while? I like you. It's too early to propose anything,
but I think you have a quality our group lacks. You could see how you
fit in. And there's Joyce. She's just visiting, too. You wouldn't have
to lone unless you wanted."
Before he could think, there was a rhythmic rush of feet and the
Wolvers were around them.
"We're swimming," Simone announced.
Lois looked at Tom inquiringly. He smiled his willingness, started to
mention he didn't have trunks, then realized that wouldn't be news
here. He wondered whether he would blush.
Jock fell in beside him as they rounded the ranch house. "Larry's been
telling me about your group at the other end of the valley. It's comic,
but I've whirled down the valley a dozen times and never spotted any
sort of place there. What's it like?"
"A ranch house and several cabins."
* * * * *
Jock frowned. "Comic I never saw it." His face cleared. "How about
whirling over there? You could point it out to me."
"It's really there," Tom said uneasily. "I'm not making it up."
"Of course," Jock assured him. "It was just an idea."
"We could pick up your camera on the way," Lois put in.
The rest of the group had turned back from the huge oval pool and the
dark blue and flashing thing beyond it, and stood gay-colored against
the pool's pale blue shimmer.
"How about it?" Jock asked them. "A whirl before we bathe?"
Two or three said yes besides Lois, and Jock led the way toward the
helicopter that Tom now saw standing beyond the pool, its beetle body
as blue as a scarab, its vanes flashing silver.
The others piled in. Tom followed as casually as he could, trying to
suppress the pounding of his heart. "Wonder you don't go by rocket," he
remarked lightly.