Henry swayed, his ears ringing insistently. To his surprise, she grasped his arm seeking support. Her face paled.
This time their eyes really met. It was unnecessary for her to tell him her ears were ringing too. He knew it.
"I'm scared!" she exclaimed. "What is it?"
"It—it isn't quite like ringing," he told her. "It's more like—"
"Like very high flutes going up and down a scale."
"Yeah—in a weird kind of way."
The small tots in the young mothers' arms were shrieking unaccountably now, in spite of the suckers they had been allowed to taste.
Henry looked at them curiously. "Their ears are ringing, too," he said.
Martia did not question how he knew this, because she was also sure the babies were hearing the eerie ringing of the flutes. And that no one else heard—none of the adults on board....
"Your name is Henry," she said, irrelevantly.