Neither did any of the rest of us, walking up the street.
There was something knocking at my mind and I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. There was something wrong, something that didn’t make sense.
Ma was worried too. Finally I heard her say, “Pop, if they really want to keep this place a secret, wouldn’t they maybe—uh—”
“No, they wouldn’t,” I answered, maybe a bit snappishly. That wasn’t what I was worried about, though.
I looked down at that new and perfect road, and there was something about it I didn’t like. I diagonaled over to the curb and walked along that, looked down at the greenish clay beyond, but there wasn’t anything to see except more holes and more bugs like I’d seen back at the Bon-Ton Restaurant.
Maybe they weren’t cockroaches, though, unless the movie company had brought them. But they were near enough like cockroaches for all practical purposes—if a cockroach has a practical purpose, that is. And they still didn’t have bow ties or propellers or feathers. They were just plain cockroaches.
I stepped off the paving and tried to step on one or two of them, but they got away and popped into holes. They were plenty fast and shifty on their feet.
I got back on the road and walked with Ma. When she asked, “What were you doing?” I answered, ” Nothing.”
Ellen was walking on the other side of Ma and keeping her face a studious blank. I could guess what she was thinking and I wished there was something could be done about it. The only thing I could think of was to decide to stay on Earth awhile at the end of this trip, and give her a chance to get over Johnny by meeting a lot of other young sprigs. Maybe even finding one she liked.
Johnny was walking along in a daze. He was gone all right, and he’d fallen with awful suddenness, like guys like that always do. Maybe it wasn’t love, just infatuation, but right now he didn’t know what planet he was on.