Part 6 (1/2)

She didn't smile in return. ”Fred--we're married.”

”I'm glad,” I said. ”Aren't you?”

”It's no time for the light touch.” Tears in her eyes. ”Fred, are you a--a Russian spy?”

I shook my head.

”But--”

It was a clear night, and I went to the window. How it shone, in that clear air. Jean came over to stand next to me.

I pointed, and said, ”There's my home.”

”Venus,” she said. ”Fred, for heaven's sake--_I'm serious_!”

”Some day,” I said, ”this planet will learn how to see through our manufactured fog. Some day they will develop the vision we developed a century ago. And--”

”d.a.m.n it, Fred, be serious. If you'd know what I've gone through, alone here, thinking back on all the crazy things you've said and done. What have you told me about yourself, what do I know?”

”Nothing,” I said. ”And what have I asked you about yourself? It's a matter of faith, Jean.”

”Faith? Running all over the country like fugitives, financed by those d.a.m.ned diamonds, nosing into this and into that, and then running off to Russia, all alone. _With what you'd learned, Fred?_”

I shook my head, resentment stirring in me.

”Remember when we met? In Santa Monica--right there, next to the beach.

You didn't have a thing but the clothes on your back and a bagful of diamonds. Was it a sub that brought you that far, Fred?”

”No,” I said, ”and you wouldn't believe me if I told you.”

”Try me, and see,” she said. She was rigid, and near hysteria.

”All right. I came there in a s.p.a.ce sphere from Venus.”

She started to sob, a wild, lonely sound and I moved forward to take her in my arms.

Her fingers clawed my face, her high heel smashed my instep. ”Get out,”

she screamed, ”get out, get out, get out--”

I got out. I went to the first floor washroom and cleaned up my b.l.o.o.d.y face, and then went into the bar. This was one habit I'd picked up on the planet.

When I came up to the suite, later, I didn't even check to see if she was in the washroom. I flopped down on the davenport and didn't know anything for the next twelve hours.

She was gone, when I came to. She'd checked out before I'd come back to the room, the night before.

I missed the plane she took from France. I missed her by a day in New York. I went back to the big house with the high pillars on Sunset Boulevard.

And she wasn't there.