"I don't know."
"If it were on the edge, and if I took a rowboat out on it, I wonder what would happen?"
"I know one thing—I wouldn't be there holding your ankle while you found out."
She took his arm as they gazed past the electrified fence at the Earth below and to the west.
"It's impressive, isn't it?" she said. "I wonder if that's Indiana way over there?"
He patted her hand absent-mindedly. "I wonder if it's west at all. I mean, how do we know Superior is maintaining the same position up here as it used to down there?"
"We could tell by the sun, silly."
"Of course," he said, grinning at his stupidity. "And I guess we're not high enough to see very far. If we were we'd be able to see the Great Lakes—or Lake Erie, anyway."
They were musing about the geography when a plane came out of a cloudbank and, a second later, veered sharply. They could make out UAL on the underside of a wing. As it turned they imagined they could see faces peering out of the windows. They waved and thought they saw one or two people wave back. Then the plane climbed toward the east and was gone.
"Well," Don said as they turned to go back to Cavalier, "now we know that they know. Maybe we'll begin to get some answers. Or, if not answers, then transportation."