I stepped back and looked up at the «Bon-Ton Restaurant» sign, and the others walked up and looked in the doorway, which I’d left open. They came back and we just stood there until Ma got impatient and said, «Well, what are you going to do?»
«What do you want me to do?» I wanted to know. «Go in and order you a lobster dinner? With champa — Hey, I forgot!»
The champagne bottle was still in my jacket pocket and I took it out and passed it to Ma and then to Ellen, and then I finished what was left of it, and I drank it too fast, because the bubbles tickled my nose and made me sneeze.
I felt ready for anything, though, and I took another walk through the doorway of the building that wasn’t there. Maybe, I figured, I could see some sign of how recently it had been put up, or something. But there weren’t any signs that I could see. The inside — or rather the back of the front, if you know what I’m talking about, was smooth and plain like a sheet of glass. It looked like a synthetic of some sort.
I took a look around at the ground back of it, but all I could see were a few holes that looked like insect holes. And that’s what they must have been because there was a big, black cockroach sitting (or standing, because how can you tell whether a cockroach is sitting or standing?) by one of them. I took a step closer and he popped down the hole.
I felt a little better as I went front through the doorway. I said, «Ma, I saw a cockroach. And you know what was peculiar about it?»
«What?» said Ma.
«Nothing,» I told her. «That’s the peculiar thing. There was nothing peculiar. Here the ostriches wear hats and the birds have propellers and the streets go nowhere and the houses haven’t any backs to them, but that cockroach didn’t even have feathers.»
«Are you sure?» Ellen wanted to know.
«Sure I’m sure. Well, let’s take the next rise and see what’s over it.»
We went, and we saw. Down in between that hill and the next, the road took another sharp turn, and facing us was the front view of a tent with a big banner that said, «Penny Arcade.»
This time I didn’t even break stride. I said. «They copied that banner from the show Sam Heideman used to have. Remember Sam, and the old days, Ma?»
«That drunken no-good?» asked Ma.
«Why, you liked him, too, Ma.»
«Yes, and I liked you but that doesn’t prove that you aren’t or that he isn’t.»
«Why, Ma,» I interrupted. But by that time we were right in front of the tent. Looked like real canvas because it billowed gently. I said, «I haven’t got the heart. Who wants to look through this time?»
But Ma already had her head through the flap of the tent. I heard her say, «Why, hello Sam, you old soak.»
I said, «Ma, quit kidding or I’ll —» But by that time I was past her and inside the tent, and it was a tent, all four sides of one and a good big one at that. And it was lined with the old familiar coin machines. There, counting coins in the change booth was Sam Heideman, looking up with almost as much surprise on his face as there must have been in mine.
He said, «Pop Wherry! I’ll be a dirty name.» Only he didn’t say «dirty name» — but he didn’t get around to apologizing to Ma and Ellen for that until he and I had pounded each other’s backs and then he’d shaken hands around and been introduced to Johnny Lane.
It was just like old times on the Mars and Venus carney lots. He was telling Ellen how she’d been just «so high» when he’d seen her last and did she really remember him? And then Ma sniffed.
When Ma sniffs like that, there’s something to look at, and I got my eyes off good old Sam and looked at Ma and then at where Ma was looking. I didn’t sniff, but I gasped.
A woman was coming forward from somewhere in the back of the tent and when I call her a woman, it’s because I can’t think of the right word if there is one. She was St. Cecilia and Guinevere and a Petty girl all ironed into one. She was like a sunset in New Mexico and the cold, silver moons of Mars seen from the Equatorial Gardens. She was like a Venusian valley in the spring and like Dorzalski playing the violin. She was really somethin’!
I heard another gasp from alongside of me, and it was an unfamiliar note. Took me a second to realize why it was unfamiliar. I’d never heard Johnny Lane gasp before.
It was an effort, but I shifted my eyes for a look at his face. And I thought, «Oh-oh. Poor Ellen.» For the poor boy was gone now, no question about it.
And just in time — maybe seeing Johnny helped me — I managed to remember that I’m pushing fifty and happily married. I took hold of Ma’s arm and hung on.
«Sam,» I said, «who on Ea — on whatever planet this is —»
Sam turned around and looked behind him. He said, «Miss Ambers, I’d like you to meet some old friends of mine just dropped in. Mrs. Wherry, this is Miss Ambers, the movie star.»
Then he finished the introductions, first Ellen, then me and then Johnny. Ma and Ellen were too polite. Me, I maybe went the other way by pretending not to notice the hand Miss Ambers held out. Old as I am, I had a hunch I might forget to let it go if I took it. That’s the kind of a girl she was.
Johnny did forget.
Sam was saying, «Pop, you old pirate, what are you doing here? I thought you stuck to the colonies where you’d get a play, and I sure didn’t look for you to drop in on a movie set.»
«A movie set!» I said. Things began to make sense, almost.
«Sure. Planetary Cinema, Inc. With me as technical adviser on carney scenes. They wanted inside shots of a penny arcade so I just brought my old stuff out of storage and set it up. All the boys are over at the base camp now.»
Light was just beginning to dawn on me. «And that restaurant front up the street? That’s a set?» I queried.
«Sure, and the street itself. They didn’t need it, but they had to film the making of it for one sequence.»
«Oh,» I went on. «But how about the ostrich with the bow tie, and the birds with the propellers? They couldn’t have been movie props. Or could they?» I’d heard that Planetary Cinema, Inc., did some pretty impossible things.
Sam shook his head a bit blankly. «Nope, you must have seen some of the local fauna. There are a few, but not many, and they don’t get in the way.»
Ma said, «Look here, Sam Heideman, how come if this planet has been discovered, we hadn’t heard about it? How long has it been known, and what’s it all about?»
«Man named Wilkins discovered this planet ten years ago,» Sam chuckled. «Reported it to the Council, but before it got publicized, Planetary Cinema got wind of it and offered the Council a whooping rental for the place on the condition that its existence be kept secret. As there aren’t any minerals or anything of value here and the soil ain’t worth a whoop, the Council rented it to them on those terms.»
«But why secret?»
«No visitors, no distractions, not to mention the jump on their competitors. All the big movie companies spy on one another and swipe each other’s ideas. You should know that by now. Here they got all the space they want and can work in peace and privacy.»
«What’ll they do about us finding the place?» I wanted to know.
Sam chuckled again. «Guess they’ll entertain you royally now that you’re here and try to persuade you to keep it under your hat. You’ll probably get a free pass for life to all the Planetary Cinema theaters, too.»
He went over to a cabinet and came back with a tray of bottles and glasses. Ma and Ellen declined, but Sam and I had a couple apiece, and it was good stuff. Johnny and Miss Ambers were over in a corner of the tent whispering together so earnestly that we didn’t bother them, especially when I told Sam that Johnny didn’t drink.