"You make a wish!" sheexclaimed. "That makes sense!"

"Yes. No one else can activate it. It is attuned to me. It amplifies my wish to return, and that signal crosses the re -- alities, and the Chip responds. I need it, and it needs me.

Separate, we both are useless."

She squeezed his fingers reassuringly. "So if you could recover that key -- "

"I could return. But it's lost."

"But if I found it for you -- "

His fingers stiffened against hers. "If you could do that -- "

"I can't promise, Darius, but I'll try."

"You give me hope! If I had that key, I would take you with me."

"That's the idea, you know."

His face turned to her. "But you don't believe."

"I believe you love."

"That is enough, I think." They leaned together and kissed. Again she felt the magic tingle of passion, intimacy, and commitment. All that she lacked in her own poor life she had found in Darius. She knew.

She spent the afternoon stocking supplies. She had some money of her own, and she used it to buy groceries at the only store within walking distance that was open on Sunday. She piled them into the shed. "These are canned goods,"

she explained. "You open them with this can opener. They may not taste good cold, but they'll feed you."

"But why are you doing this?" he asked.

She faced him seriously. "This is Sunday. Tomorrow I go back to school. I think I know how to find your key. But getting it may be tricky. If I don't come back, I don't want you to starve.

Stay here as long as you can, and when you can't, well, you'll just have to go out. But I'll try to get back here okay. This is just in case."

"Just in case what?" he demanded, alarmed.

She shook her head. "Darius, it's been beautiful here with you. You have made me believe in human decency again. But out there's the real world. It's not all that nice. Please don't ask me to tell you any more."

"If I ask, you will tell?"

"Yes. But please don't."

"Then I ask you only to be careful."

"Thank you." She kissed him. She liked doing that. Not only did it make her feel good, it made her feel good about it. He was a good man, and he welcomed her kisses, and he asked no more than that. It was love fulfilled. For now. Until she had the chance to prove her love, in a way he might not understand if he knew.

MONDAY, school day, Colene headed out to the bus with her books. Her attendance the past two weeks had been spotty; she had pleaded illness, then sneaked out to be with Darius. But she had done her homework, because she didn't want to bring any unnecessary suspicion on herself. She had done it with Darius, teaching him words and explaining things as she went along, and it had actually been pleasant.