"Child!" I said. "If he's a child, they grow 'em big in the minus world."
But as I lifted Jay off the floor I wondered if he was as big as I'd always thought. It wasn't his weight. Nothing weighed very much on this asteroid, but it was his frail body. He seemed to be a boy of sixteen, rather than a man stationed 300,000,000 miles in space.
I carried him out of the laboratory into the living quarters and placed him on his bunk. I loosened his clothing, noting at the time that he had been right about his garments not fitting him.
"You've made him lose weight," I said.
"What makes you think so?" the woman asked.
"Because every screwy thing that has happened since we came here a year ago must have an explanation."
The woman smiled. "Don't think too harshly of me." She looked very solid now. Her body had lost that tenuous look. She was no longer nebulous and cloud-like. "Certain things were necessary in order for me to proceed safely through the gap between the positive and negative worlds," she explained.
I looked at Red again. His face was smooth and I knew he hadn't shaved in more than a week. "You've made him younger," I said. "Well, he shouldn't kick at that."
The woman nodded. "I turned the young man inside out. In a moment the transition will be complete. You will be our next entrance to this universe...."
From Red's bunk came a wail. A bawl, like a tiny baby. A dying baby.