"The two boys swam forward, using a sort of self-taught kind of a breast stroke, right through the solid glass of the viewport, until they were in the ship beside me, and then they stood up. That's no small feat in itself, standing up in a spaceship in the absence of gravity or spin."
Captain Hannah beckoned the waiter for a refill, and then asked me if I wouldn't change my mind and drink with him. The way this story of his was going, I figured I might as well, and he didn't start in talking again until we had both had a sip.
"They were skinny, and they looked explosively energetic, the way kids that age usually do. But they just stood quietly facing me side by side, giving out with cheerful gaptoothed small-boy smiles. Somehow or other it was reassuring to notice that they both had belly buttons. It was an indication to me—whether it made sense or not—that they were just human beings; that they had been born of women in the usual way—and that there must be some rational explanation for what looked like miracles.
"'Is there anything I can do for you two kids?' I asked, as politely as I knew how.
"'Well, sir,' said the one who had spoken before, 'please excuse us for barging in on you like this, with no clothes on and all....'
"The other boy picked up the conversation without a break, 'but you have materialized your spaceship right in the middle of our swimming hole ...'
"'... and it's muddying everything up something fierce,' finished boy number one.
"I glanced out through the view ports at the illimitable and untrammeled reaches of space, and then back at the boys.
"'We're afraid you'll just have to take our word for it, sir. This is our swimming hole,' said boy number one earnestly. 'There aren't many ...'