"We'll find out soon enough," Marc moaned.
And perhaps a bit sooner, it seemed, for even as Marc spoke, the darkness swooped to within yards of them.
Toffee drew close to Marc, trembling a bit, and he placed his arm about her shoulders. They stood in expectant silence for a moment, watching the greenness disappear around them. Then, all at once, it was gone beneath them.
It was just as they plunged downward into the darkness that Toffee threw her arms about Marc's neck and held tight....
The world reeled drunkenly through space ... whirled away with egg-shaped lopsidedness ... and then there was nothing left anywhere but the original dough from which everything had been made in the first place ... messy, clammy stuff ... and you sank deeper and deeper into it no matter how hard you struggled. Marc tried to cry out....
And then there was an answer, a scraping of metal on metal. A light showed ahead, dulled and heavily diffused, but it came suddenly. A voice spoke encouragement....
"Just a minute, and I'll dig you out. How you ever managed to get snarled up like that flat on your back...."
The voice continued scolding him with affection, and a minute later the doughy mass was pulled aside, and he could see that it was only the perspiration-covered sheets. He looked at them, then beyond them to Julie's gently smiling face. Morning was crowding into the room through the windows behind her.
"'Morning," he said sheepishly. "Thanks."