Linnia smiled. “Yes, Beth. He said that we are not supposed to take younger persons to Tata Moori. He was angry with me for not telling him you were aboard, but I told him you came in just before we blasted off.”
“Gee, I’m so relieved!” Beth said happily. “I don’t mean I wouldn’t like your company, Linnia, but you know how it is.”
“Yes, I know,” Linnia replied wistfully. “I have missed my mother and friends too. I had to take my brother’s place on this trip when he became sick. You see, everyone on Tata Moori learns science when they are very young.”
“I’ve been wondering how it is that you speak English, Linnia.”
“We keep tuned in on your radio and television,” Linnia answered. “That’s how we learned your language and so many other things about you.”
“You people seem to be ahead of us in progress,” Beth said. “I believe there is much we can learn from you.”
“We can learn much from you too,” Linnia spoke. “I hope the people of our planets are permitted to meet very soon.”
The girls had to belt down on their couches again because of the mounting speed at which they were returning to earth. Beth felt herself sinking deeply into her cushion once more and she grew breathless again. Minutes later, the ship stopped moving.
Beth hurriedly unbuckled and ran over to the window. Through a break in the paloverde thicket she could see her father’s station wagon parked at the roadside. She was back at the same place she had started from.
“Thank goodness!” she breathed.