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The table was a magnificent cross section cut from a tulip tree on Saturn VI. Look at these rings. Each
shows a change, an adaptation, yes?
He nodded.
But it s still a tulip tree, yes?
Yes.
It started as a tender bud which could have grown into anything, but the Cosmic Spirit said to it,
You are a tulip tree. Change and adapt as you must, but you will live and die a tulip tree. Well, with us
it s the same thing. We change and adapt, but always within the limits of what we really are deep inside.
All Winter could do was shake his head in bewilderment.
We re polymorphs, yes, she continued, but we live, adapt, fight to survive, fall in love
And play fun love-games with us, he broke in.
And why not? Isn t love fun? She glared at him. What the hell s the matter with you, Winter?
D you think love should be deep, dark, gloomy, despairing, like one of those old Russian plays? I didn t
think you were that juvenile.
After a startled moment he began to shake with laughter at her outburst. Damn you, Demi! You ve
adapted again. But how in God s name did you know I needed a mentor?
She laughed with him. I don t know, darling. Maybe with my left eye. Half the time I m only
sensing what s needed. After all, I m only demi-human, and this is the first time I ve ever been in love, so
I m not accountable.
Never, never change, he smiled. Then, But what the hell am I saying?
That I should change only for you. She took his hand. Come on, Starstud.
"
"
"
This time they returned to the living room together. This time she sat on the couch with her feet up. She
hadn t bothered with the makeshift nightgown, and now she looked like a schoolgirl athlete. Captain of
the field hockey team, Winter thought as he cross-legged on the floor across from her and admired her.
She patted the cushions.
Come sit close, darling.
Not now. That couch talks too damn much.
Talks too much?
He nodded.
You can t be serious, Rogue.
Sure I am. Everything talks to me, but right now I just want to listen to you.
Everything?
Uh-huh. Furniture, pictures, machines, plants, flowers& you name it, I hear it, when I bother to
listen.
What does the couch sound like?
Like& Mostly like a slow-motion walrus with a mouth full of cotton.
Bloo foo goo moo noo You have to be patient and listen long.
And flowers?
You d think they were skittish like giggly girls, but they re not. They re sinuous and sultry like
commercials for perfumes named C est la Séductrice.
You re on speaking terms with the whole universe, she laughed. I think that s why I fell for you.
She looked down at him. Does anything say, I love you ?
They don t think in those terms. Egomaniacs, all of them.
I do. I. Love. You.
His glance returned her look. I can do better than that. I trust you.
Why is that better?
Because now I can confide in you. I ve got some thinking to do with you.
You re always thinking.
It s my one vice. Listen, love, something happened to me& something bad.
Tonight?
On Venucci. Now you re not to repeat what I m going to tell you to anyone. I know I can count
on you for that, but you re just a kid from Virginia, even though you re Titanian, and you may be
swindled into revealing something.
I ll never reveal anything. Suddenly the captain of the field hockey team began to resemble
Morgan le Fay.
Avaunt! he cried and crossed his arms before his face.
Caught in the act. The sorceress grinned and transformed into the fiery Sierra O Nolan.
Not her! Winter cried, remembering screaming brawls. For God s sake, Demi& And then, as
she dropped the role, he grumbled, So you Titanians aren t infallible after all.
Of course not. Who is? she said composedly. And will you please stop using you Titanians. It s
not you and us. We re all part of the same joke in the Cosmic caper.
He nodded. But sweetheart, you have to understand how tough it is to cope with mercurial love.
Oh is it? Look, Rogue, have you ever made a connection with an actress in your raunchy private
life? She began to resemble Sarah Bernhardt.
Alas! Yes.
And how many roles did she play, onstage and off?
A jillion, maybe.
So with us it s the same damn thing.
But you change physically.
Isn t makeup the same damn thing?
You got me, you got me, he surrendered. I guess I ll never know who I m in love with. Who?
Whom? I busted the grammar at the Höhere Schule, he confessed, owing to a surfeit of adverbs.
You are a genius, she crinkled, and I m going to learn from you.
I m afraid I m a father image for you.
Then we ve been incestuous.
Well, I ve broken most of the Ten Commandments, so what s another? Brandy?
Perhaps later, please.
Winter got a bottle of cognac and two claret glasses, put the stemware down on the coffee table,
opened the bottle and had a belt from it.
I ve broken another.
Which?
Isn t Marymount a Catholic-type college?
More or less.
Did les Jeroux raise their changeling kid a Catholic?
More or less.
Then this may shock you. The sixth.
Thou shalt not ? No!
Uh-huh.
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