We ended up planning a follow-up rendezvous—but that wouldn’t be until a convention that was coming up in seven weeks. Suddenly that seemed like a... eternity. For more than a week after Julie went back to Oklahoma, I moped around my apartment feeling lonely and sorry for myself. What stuck in my mind was Julie crying at the thought of leaving me, and her vague comments about her problems back home. She said that being with me seemed to much more…is carefree the word? I really wanted to bring. ‘Please? Of course, you could scrub my front, too, if you want. When my breasts get all soapy and slippery, they’re … uh … whoops!’ And her hand let go of the towel, exposing her entire body. Pablo staggered back a step, and he bent to retrieve the towel, never taking his eyes from Cindy’s naked form. Cindy was breathing hard and blushing. Pablo almost turned toward the other end of the hall when they heard what might have been a stifled giggle from the direction of Cindy’s room, but Cindy. Ai Ling stood next to him, a little shorter, her shoulder-length, wavy hair dyed a kind of reddish brown framing her pretty face, which was a shape one of my Chinese friends has described as a moon face – quite wide with high cheekbones. Both were dressed in suits as theyd just come from work. Hi, I said when I reached them and shook hands. There was no need for introductions after the photos wed seen of each other. We meet at last. Hi, they answered smiling, things already starting out much. This was a canal, and a canal indicated intelligent like, as did the long meandering wall she'd seen. For the first time, Kellie regarded the planet as a possible nice place to visit."I like this place," she said. "Let's land where we landed on Planet Number One? Right about there." She indicated a spot midway up the west coast of the northern continent. Even at this distance an inland bay was visible, joined to the ocean by a narrow ribbon of water. The bay ran north-south, long and narrow,.