"It must be my maddening beauty," said Ann.
"I'll kick him cross-eyed if he starts anything," Jeff said. "I'm just in the mood."
Ann giggled. "Honey, what big veins you have! Forget him. Let's talk about the engineering lab you're going to start. And let's eat."
He groaned. "I lose my appetite every time I think about the building being sold. It isn't worth the twelve grand. I wouldn't buy it for that if I could. What burns me is that, five years ago, I could have bought it for two thousand."
"If only we could go back five years." She shrugged fatalistically. "But since we can't—"
The character at the next table leaned over and spoke to them, grinning. "You like to get away? You wish to go back?"
Jeff glanced across in annoyance. The man was evidently a salesman, with extra gall.
"Not now, thanks," Jeff said. "Haven't time."
The man waved his thick hand at the clock, as if to abolish time. "Time? That is nothing. Your little lady. She spoke of go back five years. Maybe I help you."
He spoke in an odd clipped way, obviously a foreigner. His shirt was yellow. His suit had a silky sheen. Its peculiar tailoring emphasized the bulges in his stubby, muscular torso.