[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of Tomorrow April 1963
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Every man's mind is a universe with countless
places in which he can hide--even from himself!
The dance that the chocoletto girl was performing was an expurgated
version of the kylee sex ritual which the Louave maidens of Dubhe 7
practiced on the eve of their betrothal. Expurgated or not, however,
it was still on the lascivious side. The G-string that constituted
the chocoletto girl's entire costume put her but one degree above the
nakedness which the original dance demanded. Nathan Blake's voice was
slightly thick when he summoned the waiter who was hovering in the
shadows at the back of the room. "Is she free?" he asked.
"I do not know, mensakin. Perhaps."
Blake resumed watching. The girl's movements were a delicate blend of
love and lust. Her face accompanied her body, eyes half-lidded one
moment to match the languid motion of her limbs, wide and feral the
next to match the furious bump and grind of her hips. For a chocoletto
she was light-skinned--more bronze, really, than brown. But then,
the word "chocoletto", coined by the early beche-la-mer traders, was
misleading, and few of the natives of Dubhe 4's southern-most continent
lived up to it completely.
She was beautiful too. Her high-cheekboned face was striking--the eyes
dark-brown and wide-apart, the mouth sensuous, the teeth showing in a
vivid white line between the half-parted purple lips. And her body was
splendid. Blake had never seen anyone quite like her.
He beckoned to her when the dance was over and, after slipping into
a white thigh-length tunic, she joined him at his table. She ordered
Martian wine in a liquid voice, and sipped it with a finesse that
belied her cannibalistic forebears. "You wish a night?" she asked.