but I was reminded that I had determined not to speak to him, ever again. So I moved away a little.
A section of the remaining crowd pressed forward toward the scoutship, bent on getting a good close look at us. George looked out at them with no particular sign of pleasure, as though he’d like to shoo them away.
“Stay here,” he said to me. “I’ll be right back.”
He walked up the ramp to the place where the three crewmembers were standing. They were lounging in the mouth of the ship and getting a big kick out of the crowd. When George came up, they said something that sounded like a joke, and laughed. George didn’t laugh. He shook his head irritatedly and motioned them to go inside.
“What do we do now?” the boy, Ralph, said to his sister, and I turned back to look at them.
On the Ship we have such long lives and low population that you never see brothers and sisters closer than twenty years apart, never as close together as these two. All the kids I know are singletons. I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but except for build, this brother and sister didn’t look much alike at all. I had thought they would—in books they always do; either that or exactly like their long-lost Uncle Max, the one with all the money. Helga had dark hair, though not as dark as mine, and it was quite long, hanging down to her shoulders and tucked in place with combs. She wore a dress with a yoke front. Her brother wore long pants like those Daddy had put on to wear today, and a plain shirt. They had both obviously done some grooming for this little ceremony, and it made them look as stiff as their manners.
I suppose I looked just as odd to them as they did to me. I was a short, dark little thing with close-cut black hair, and I was wearing what I usually wore, a white blouse with loose sleeves, blue shorts, and high-backed sandals. It was a costume I would have felt comfortable in at almost any sort of gathering within the Ship. I wouldn’t have worn exactly that to play soccer in—something a little less formal, actually, and harder shoes—but I was presentable. My clothes were clean and reasonably neat. However, after the glory of all those dark green uniforms, I could see that these kids might consider what I was wearing just a bit lacking in elegance.
We looked at each other for a long starchy moment. Then the boy unbent a little and said, “How old are you?”
“Twelve,” I said.
“I’m fourteen,” he said. “She’s twelve.”
Helga said, “Daddy told us to show you around.” She said it tentatively.
I took a deep breath and said, “All right.”
“What about him?” she said, pointing to the ramp. George was standing just inside the ship with his back to us. “He told you to stay here.”
“He’s supposed to watch me, but I don’t have to pay any attention to him,” I said. “Let’s leave before he comes back.”
“All right,” Ralph said. “Come on then.”
He ran under the high rim of the scoutship, in exactly the opposite direction from Daddy and his own father. Helga and I followed him. George saw me as I started off, and yelled something, but I just kept on running. I’d be damned if I’d pay any attention to him.
Ralph made a slight detour to tag the lower bulge of the ship—maybe to be brave and have something to tell about afterward, maybe just to do it—and then dashed on. We went all the way under the rim of the ship and out the other side. There were a few people there, but a much smaller crowd than on the side where the ramp was lowered, possibly because there weren’t any Ship people to stare at over here. We charged through them, and I noticed that they were all squarely built, too. We left them looking after us and dashed around the first corner we came to. I was feeling pretty daring in my own way, as though I were cutting loose on a great adventure.
We took a couple of quick turns from one street into another, and if George was following after, he was soon left behind. By that time, I had no idea of where we were. It was a street like the others we’d been in, made of rounded stones and about the width of