“Yeah, well, you could do worse. I don’t know how you could do better, though,” Jerry said. “Only drawback I can see is, everything’s more expensive than it is on the mainland.”

“Worth it,” she said, and he couldn’t very well disagree.

At the gate to the flight that would take them back to the mainland, Jerry eyed the passengers who’d board with Anna and him, wondering if any of them were returning from the Glomar Explorer. He didn’t see anybody he recognized. Maybe everyone from the A crew was long since back. Or maybe those people were still out there at Site 126–1 off of Midway, doing whatever they were doing with and to Humpty Dumpty.

He and Anna landed in Los Angeles a little before midnight. It was in the mid-fifties and cloudy. It wasn’t raining, but it felt as if it might. It felt like the start of December, in other words. In Hawaii, they called the rain “liquid sunshine.” Not here. As they walked to Jerry’s Rambler, Anna said, “Let’s go back!”

“Would be nice,” Jerry said, but he kept walking. So did she.

At the apartment, the King of Siam hid from both of them. Anna’s mother had fed and watered him and cleaned the cat box while they were gone. A week away was plenty long enough for him to decide they were invaders from Rigel, not proper humans at all. The invaders, though, knew where the kitty treats were and how to make inviting noises. The road to the King of Siam’s heart ran straight through his stomach. He came forth to claim his reward.

After some treats, he admitted the apparent strangers might be friends after all. He let Anna fuss over him and even put up with Jerry scratching him under the chin. Chances were he wanted to play, too, but that wouldn’t happen. The humans needed to crash; they went back to the real world in the morning.

“It’s late,” Anna said—blurrily, because she was brushing her teeth. She spat and rinsed. Then, more clearly, she went on, “Not as late as when I got you in the summertime, but still late.”

“Everything worked on this plane,” Jerry said. “Let’s go to bed, okay?” That was too obviously a good idea for her to badmouth it. Go to bed they did.

Anna’s alarm clock went off like a bomb at 6:15. It woke Jerry, too; with that hellish racket, he thought he would have had a hard time staying dead. He didn’t need to be up so early, of course. He tried to go back to sleep while she dressed and fixed breakfast and got ready to head out the door.