Every home on Kwarkis has a water room. It’s one of my favorite things about living here. Basically it’s a huge room with a multilevel stone floor. Clear water runs down one wall, then flows through streambeds into pools and ponds that dot the floor. There are even a few small waterfalls. Some of the ponds have fish—well, they’re not really fish, but that’s close enough for you to understand. Also, there are a lot of plants and a few flying things that are sort of like birds.

The Kwarkissians spend a lot of their free time in the water rooms; they’re a great place to chat and relax.

Well, we went there for dessert—at least, Dad and I were having dessert (gooey chocolate pie, to be precise). The Kwarkissians were chewing purple leaves, which is what they like to do after dinner. The guys from Planet X were just sort of watching us. I got the impression they don’t do much of anything for fun on their planet.

While we were sitting there, Ralph J. Bear wandered in. I flinched, remembering that Dad had told me to keep Ralph in my room that night I glanced at Dad. He didn’t seem upset but this didn’t give me any useful information; Dad’s training as a diplomat makes him very good at masking his real feelings. Certainly his face gave me no clue as to the kind of trouble I was about to get myself into.

When our guests saw Ralph they all wanted to pick him up—which seems to be an almost universal reaction to the little guy. At Dad’s suggestion, I showed him around. Everyone liked him. Even the guys from the planet with a secret name seemed to lighten up at the sight of him.

A little while later Nnnnnn tucked one long green hand under his robe and pulled out something that looked like a picture frame, the kind that you can open like a book. He opened it, looked inside, nodded, smiled in a sad kind of way, then started to pass it around. Each person who looked into it first appeared startled, and then—well, a strange look would cross his or her face. Sometimes it was happy, sometimes sad, but in all cases it was intense.

I couldn’t wait for it to come to me.

I was sitting next to Fifka’s mother. I had taken off my shoes, and we both had our legs dangling in the water. (Kwarkissians don’t wear shoes, since the soles of their two-toed feet are like leather.)

When the thing the nameless-planet guys were passing around came to Fifka’s mom, she looked into it and sighed. Then she passed it on to me.