ch of the drill.

It was a bigger equation, a more complex one, but not different in kind.

The village of Appletree sprang suddenly into being, the hangar with the
metallic gleam of the ship inside, the fields, the pasture fences with
the calves separated from the cows. A few people, clothed, were walking
on the dirt street between the houses. They looked at one another. They
looked up at the sky, at the fields around them, the forests beyond.
They looked back at one another. They shook their heads, and blinked
their eyes, as if suddenly wakened from a sleep, a dream, the craziest
dream.

Later they would compare the dream, and with Jed's help piece together,
and feel the shock, and wonder.

Upon the hill, away from the village, where Jed lay, clothed, in the
hammock swung between two trees, Martha came out of the house, clothed.

"I must have sat down in a chair for a minute and fallen asleep or
something, Jed," she said as she came to stand beside him. "And I had
the funniest dream. You can't imagine. You know how sometimes we'll
dream about being out in front of folks, all naked ..."

"That wasn't any dream, Martha," he answered with a grin. "All the
people in the village are going to start realizing it pretty soon.
They'll need some help. We'd better walk down there. Them people across
the ridge, too. Bet they'll be hightailing it back over here first thing
you know. And something else, there's an E ship here, come to find out
why we didn't communicate."

"Well whatever on Earth are you talkin' about, Jed?" she asked
curiously. "It won't be time to communicate for a couple of days yet.
You ought to know that. Have you been dreaming, too? Or you and the boys
fermenting something? Here, let me smell your breath!"

"Aw, now Martha," he said with a huge grin. He clambered out of the
hammock and stood up, took her in his arms, hugged her tightly.

"Jed!" she scolded. "Right out here in the front yard in front of
everybody." But she didn't struggle away from him.

"Won't matter a bit," he said. "Not after what's been goin' on in front
of everybody right along."

"Whatever has been goin' on can't be half as bad as what I've been
dreamin'," she said.

"Better start gettin' used to the idea that it wasn't a dream, Martha,"
he cautioned.

"Jed!" she scolded again, her face aflame with embarrassment.

27

The communications operator looked up as the supervisor came down the
aisle toward him.

"Com