I think you're looking in the wrong place.

Probably.

I don't know you from anywhere.

That makes two of us, but I could sure use some spaghetti with meat sauce and a glass of Chianti.

Will you be hard to get rid of?

No. I go quietly.

Okay. I'll eat spaghetti with you.

And we did.

That month we kept getting closer and closer until we were there. The fact that she lived in one of those crazy little bubble cities under the sea meant nothing. I was liberal enough to appreciate the fact that the Sierra Club had known what it was doing in pushing for their construction.

I probably should have gone along with her when she went back. She had asked me.

She had been on vacation, seeing the Big Place, and so had I, I didn't get into New York that often.

Marry me, though, I'd said.

But she would not give up her bubble and I would not give up my dream. I wanted the big, above-the-waves world, all of it. I loved that blue-eyed bitch from five hundred fathoms, though, and I realize now that I probably should have taken her on her own terms. I'm too damned independent. If either of us had been normal ... Well, we weren't, and that's that.

Eva, wherever you are, I hope you and Jim are happy.

Yeah, with Coke, I said. It's good that way, and I drank Cokes and he drank doubles with Cokes until he announced his weariness.

It's starting to get to me. Mister Hemingway, he said.

Well, let's sack out.

Okay. You can have the couch there.

Great.

I showed you where the blankets are?

Yes.

Then good night, Ernie. See you in the morning.

You bet, Bill. I'll make breakfast for us.

Thanks.

And he yawned and stretched and went away.

I gave him half an hour and went to work.

His weather station had a direct line into the central computer. I was able to provide for a nice little cut-in. Actuated by short wave. Little-used band. I concealed my tamperings well.