Driven by inexplicable impulse, Darrel drew a pad from his shirt pocket and wrote on it, "Who are you?" and showed it to the girl, Leyloon. It was ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous! Asking a question after it had been answered. But the inner compulsion had been irresistible.
He was silent for a long time. An hour ... two hours. Leyloon chatted gaily, even affectionately, in her strange tongue. She wrote incomprehensible things on pieces of paper that flew up from where they lay on the ground and from the waste receptacle beside the bench. She bewildered him, and yet.... Her every action was in reverse, but, despite the weirdness of the effect, hers were graceful and lovely actions.
Finally she left, rising to her feet and setting off down the parkway—walking backwards. She waved near a bend of the walk, then backed rapidly around it and out of sight.
Darrel returned to the ship. He weaved his way slowly and drunkenly through the crowds of this crazy world going in reverse.
The ship was a lifesaver. It sat there as solidly as a rock. He rubbed his hand over the smooth metal hull and began to regain his sense of reality.
Over twenty-four hours already and none of the gravity plates was repaired. At this rate he would never get off Neptune ... that is, if he wanted to.
He attacked the job with more energy than enthusiasm.
The third day began with two realizations. The first realization was that he was very definitely in love with Leyloon.
The second, that time here was moving in the opposite direction from the time-stream in which he existed. It was the only way to explain all these strange happenings. He had thought about it half the night.