against her
back in token of support and she said grudgingly, "All right, Fat
Belly."

Then, so help me, to the tune of the Muskrat Ramble, which I'd taught
Beau, we got girls for those two ETs and everybody properly paired up.

Right here I want to point out that a lot of the things they say in the
Change World about Recuperation Stations simply aren't so--and anyway
they always leave out nine-tenths of it. The Soldiers that come through
the Door are looking for a good time, sure, but they're hurt real bad
too, every one of them, deep down in their minds and hearts, if not
always in their bodies or so you can see it right away.

Believe me, a temporal operation is no joke, and to start with, there
isn't one person in a hundred who can endure to be cut from his lifeline
and become a really wide-awake Doubleganger--a Demon, that is--let alone
a Soldier. What does a badly hurt and mixed-up creature need who's been
fighting hard? _One individual_ to look out for him and feel for him and
patch him up, and it helps if the one is of the opposite sex--that's
something that goes beyond species.

There's your basis for the Place and the wild way it goes about its
work, and also for most other Recuperation Stations or Entertainment
Spots. The name Entertainer can be misleading, but I like it. She's got
to be a lot more than a good party girl--or boy--though she's got to be
that too. She's got to be a nurse and a psychologist and an actress and
a mother and a practical ethnologist and a lot of things with longer
names--and a reliable friend.

* * * * *

None of us are all those things perfectly or even near it. We just try.
But when the call comes, Entertainers have to forget grudges and gripes
and envies and jealousies--and remember, they're lively people with
sharp emotions--because there isn't any time then for anything but _help
and don't ask who_!

And, deep inside her, a good Entertainer doesn't care who. Take the way
it shaped up this time. It was pretty clear to me I ought to shift to
Illy, although I wasn't quite easy in my mind about leaving Erich,
because the Lunan was a long time from home and, after all, Erich was
among anthropoids. Ilhilihis needed someone who was _simpatico_.

I like Illy and not just because he is a sort of tall cross between a
spider monkey and a persian cat--though that is a handsome combo when
you come to think of it. I like him for himself. So when he cam