said, “Not at all. But aren’t you with someone in this group?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m alone. Even if that were not the case, Earthies are no great thrill to me.”
She looked at him again. He was fiftyish and there was a weary look about him which only his bright, inquisitive eyes seemed to belie. He had the unmistakable look of the Earthman, laden down with gravity. She said, “ ‘Earthie’ is a Moon-expression, and not a very nice one.”
“I’m from Earth,” he said, “so I can use it without offense, I hope. Unless you object.”
Selene shrugged as though to say: Please yourself.
She had the faintly oriental look about the eyes so many of the Moon-girls had, but her hair was the color of honey and her nose was prominent. She was undeniably attractive without being in any way classically beautiful.
The Earthman was staring at the nameplate she wore on the blouse covering the upper slope of her high, not-too-large left breast. She decided it was really the nameplate he was looking at, not the breast, though the blouse was semi-transparent when it caught the light at a particular angle and there was no garment beneath it.
He said, “Are there many Selenes here?”
“Oh, yes. Hundreds, I think. Also Cynthias, Dianas, and Artemises. Selene is a little tiresome. Half the Selenes I know are called ‘Silly’ and the other half ‘Lena.’ ”
“Which are you?”
“Neither. I am Selene, all three syllables. SELL-uh-nee,” she said, coming down heavily on the first syllable, “to those who use my first name at all.”
There was a small smile on the Earthman’s face that sat there as though he weren’t quite used to it. He said, “And what if anyone asks you if you sell any, Selene?”
“They never ask me that again!” she said, firmly.
“But do they ask you?”
“There are fools always.”
A waitress had reached their table and had placed the dishes before them with quick, smooth motions.
The Earthman was visibly impressed. He said to the waitress, “You make them seem to float down.”
The waitress smiled and moved on.
Selene said, “Don’t you try to do the same. She’s used to the gravity and can handle it.”
“And if I try, I’ll drop everything? Is that it?”
“You’ll make a gorgeous mess,” she said.
“Well, I won’t try.”
“There’s a good chance someone will before long, and the plate will flow down to the floor and they’ll grab for it and miss, and ten to one knock themselves out of their chair. I’d warn them, but it never helps and they’re just all the more embarrassed. Everyone else will laugh—the tourists, that is, because the rest of us have seen it too often to find it funny and because it’s just a cleanup job.”
The Earthman was lifting his fork carefully. “I see what you mean. Even the simplest motions seem queer.”
“Actually, you get used to it quickly enough. At least to little things like eating. Walking is harder. I never saw an Earthman run efficiently out here. Not really efficiently.”
For a while they ate in silence. Then he said, “What does the L. stand for?” He was looking at her nameplate again. It said, “Selene Lindstrom L.”
“It just means Luna,” she said, rather indifferently, “to distinguish me from the immigrants. I was born here.”
“Really?”
“That’s nothing to be surprised about. We’ve had a working society here for over half a century. Don’t you think babies are born here? We have people here who were born here and are grandparents.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-two,” she said.
He looked startled, then mumbled, “Of course.”
Selene raised her eyebrows. “You mean you understand? Most Earthmen have to have it explained.”
The Earthman said, “I know enough to know that most of the visible signs of aging are the result of the inexorable victory of gravity over tissue—the sagging of cheek and the drooping of breast. With the Moon’s gravity one-sixth that of Earth, it isn’t really hard to understand that people will stay young-looking.”
Selene said, “Only young-looking. It doesn’t mean we have immortality here. The life-span is about that of Earth, but most of us are more comfortable in old age.”
“That’s not to be dismissed.… Of course, there are penalties, I suppose.” He had just taken his first sip of his coffee. “You have to drink this—” He paused for a word and must have discarded it, for he used none.
“We could import food and beverages from Earth,” she said, amused, “but only enough to feed a fraction of us a fraction of the time. There’d be no point