"But what about the lecture?" asked Zelda anxiously.

"I can get a transcription for you to study later."

"Well, all right," she agreed reluctantly.

Barnes left them on a strangely warm stone bench in the great square,
after asking them to report back to work at the usual time. Zelda,
instead of looking at Clocker, watched Barnes walk away. Her eyes were
bright; she almost radiated.

"Isn't he wonderful, Clocker?" she said. "Aren't they all wonderful?
Regular scientists, every one of them, devoting their whole life to this
terrific cause!"

"What's so wonderful about that?" he all but snarled.

She turned and gazed at him in mild astonishment. "They could let the
Earth go boom. It wouldn't mean a thing to them. Everybody wiped out
just like there never were any people. Not even as much record of us as
the dinosaurs! Wouldn't that make you feel simply awful?"

"I wouldn't feel a thing." He took her unresponsive hand. "All I'm
worried about is us, baby. Who cares about the rest of the world doing a
disappearing act?"

"I do. And so do they. They aren't selfish like some people I could
mention."

"Selfish? You're damned right I am!"

* * * * *

He pulled her to him, kissed her neck in her favorite place. It got a
reaction--restrained annoyance.

"I'm selfish," he said, "because I got a wife I'm nuts about and I want
her back. They got you wrapped, baby. Can't you see that? You belong
with me in some fancy apartment, the minute I can afford it, like one I
saw over on Riverside Drive--seven big rooms, three baths, one of them
with a stall shower like you always wanted, the Hudson River and Jersey
for our front lawn--"

"That's all in the past, hon," she said with quiet dignity. "I have to
help out on this project. It's the least I can do for history."

"The hell with history! What did history ever do for us?" He put his
mouth near her ear, breathing gently in the way that once used to make
her squirm in his arms like a tickled doe. "Go turn in your time-card,
baby. Tell them you got a date with me back on Earth."

She pulled away and jumped up. "No! This is my job as much as theirs.
More, even. They don't keep anybody here against their will. I'm staying
because I want to, Clocker."

Furious, he snatched her off her feet. "I say you're coming back with
me! If you don't want to, I'll drag you, see?"

"How?" she asked calmly.

He put her down again slowly, frustratedly