I kissed her back; I had to. But I was afraid she’d known me as “Mark”; perhaps we’d been “married.” I vowed that when I next saw Ralph I would put an end to his immortality.

“Don’t you know me?”

I looked at her until a picture came into my mind. It was of an old woman in a wheelchair wearing a pink flannel nightgown. This woman and I had become Newbodies on the same day. We were, in a sense, the same age.

I said, “Good to see you. How are you enjoying it?”

“I don’t know. Wherever I go, people try to touch or have me. If I don’t comply, they’re nasty. Still,” she said, “I wouldn’t have men fighting over me if I were a pile of ash.”

“Oh, I don’t know. What else will you do?”

“I’ve got a record contract,” she said. “And you?”

“It’s strange, like being a ghost.”

She glanced around. “I know. Relax now. There are others here like us. Everyone else is so silly and blind.”

“How many others like us?”

I looked at the faces and bodies behind her. How would I know who was who?

“More than you think. We play tennis and we stay up late at cards, talking about our lives. We have plenty of time, you see. Like pop stars and royalty, we stick together.”

I thought of them, the beauties around a table together, like moving statues, an artwork.

I said, “Soon, everyone in the world will know.”

“Oh, yes, I think so. Does it matter? Come and talk to me later.” She was looking down at her feet. “Do you love your body now?”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“I’m a little too tall and my waist is too thick. My feet are big. Overall, I’m not comfortable.”

She left when Alicia rejoined me. “You say you don’t know that woman. Will you go with her now?”

“Go where? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You can if you want,” Alicia said. “There is time. We’ve set sail.”

“Set sail for where?”

Alicia was laughing at me. “I don’t know. But I do know that setting sail is what boats tend to do. We’re on here until dawn.”

I ran to the side of the boat. We were already in motion. It hadn’t occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to escape at any time. I considered jumping into the sea, but wasn’t convinced I could swim so far. Anyway, Patricia was beside me straight away. She seemed to be insisting that I stay beside her all night. Not only at her side, in fact, but within touching distance.