“Tomorrow, if you’re ready for it.”
“Why not?” Shirley said.
I searched her face for a betrayal of her desire. But I saw nothing except simple excitement.
“Why not?” Jack agreed. “But tell me this: is the place going to be overrun by reporters and policemen? I won’t put up with that.”
“No,” I said. “Vornan’s whereabouts are going to be kept secret from the press. There won’t be a media man in sight. And I suppose the access roads to your place will be guarded, just in case, but you won’t be bothered with security people. I’ll make sure they stay far away.”
“All right,” Jack said. “Bring him, then.”
Kralick had the South American trip postponed, and announced that Vornan was going to an undisclosed place for a private holiday of indeterminate length. We let it leak out that he would be vacationing at a villa somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Amid great show of significance, a private plane left Johannesburg the next morning bound for the island of Mauritius. It sufficed to keep the press baffled and misled. A little later that morning Vornan and I boarded a small jet and headed across the Atlantic. We changed planes in Tampa and were in Tucson by early afternoon. A car was waiting there. I told the Government chauffeur to get lost, and drove down to Jack and Shirley’s place myself. Kralick, I knew, had spread a surveillance net in a fifty-mile radius around the house, but he had agreed not to let any of his men come closer unless I requested help. We would be undisturbed. It was a flawless late-autumn afternoon, the sky sharp and flat, free of clouds, the taut blueness practically vibrating. The mountains seemed unusually distinct. As I drove, I noticed the occasional golden gleam of a Government copter high overhead. They were watching us… from a distance.
Shirley and Jack were in front of the house when we drove up. Jack wore a ragged shirt and faded jeans; Shirley was dressed in a skimpy halter and shorts. I had not seen them since the spring, and I had spoken to them only a few times. It struck me that the tensions I had observed in them in the spring had continued to erode them over the succeeding months. They both looked edgy, coiled, compressed, in a way that could not altogether be credited to the arrival of their celebrated guest.
“This is Vornan-19,” I said. “Jack Bryant. Shirley.”
“Such a pleasure,” Vornan said gravely. He did not offer his hand, but bowed in an almost Japanese way, first to Jack, then to Shirley. An awkward silence followed. We stood staring at each other under the harsh sun. Shirley and Jack behaved almost as though they had never believed in Vornan’s existence until this moment; they seemed to regard him as some fictional character unexpectedly conjured into life. Jack clamped his lips together so firmly that his cheeks throbbed. Shirley, never taking her eyes from Vornan, rocked back and forth on the balls of her bare feet. Vornan, self-contained and affable, studied the house, its environment, and its occupants with cool curiosity.
“Let me show you to your room,” Shirley blurted.
I fetched the luggage: a suitcase apiece for Vornan and myself. My own grip was nearly empty, holding nothing more than a few changes of clothing; but I had to struggle to lift Vornan’s. Naked he had come into this world, but he had accumulated a good deal on his travels: clothing, knickknacks, a random miscellany. I hauled it into the house. Shirley had given Vornan the room I usually occupied, and a storage room near the sun deck had been hastily converted into an auxiliary guest room for me. That seemed quite proper. I set his suitcase down, and left Shirley with him to instruct him in the use of the household appliances. Jack took me to my own room.
I said, “I want you to realize, Jack, that this visit can be ended at any time. If Vornan gets to be too much for you, just say the word and we’ll pull out. I don’t want you going to any trouble on his account.”
“That’s all right. I think this is going to be interesting, Leo.”
“No doubt. But it might also be strenuous.”
He smiled fitfully. “Will I get a chance to talk to him?”
“Of course.”
“You know about what.”
“Yes. Talk all you like. There won’t be much else to do. But you won’t get anywhere, Jack.”
“I can try, at least.” In a low voice he added, “He’s shorter than I thought he’d be. But impressive. Very impressive. He’s got a kind of natural power to dominate, doesn’t he?”
“Napoleon was a short man,” I reminded him. “Also Hitler.”
“Does Vornan know that?”
“He doesn’t seem to be much of a student of history,” I said, and we both laughed.
A little while later Shirley came out of Vornan’s room and encountered me in the hall. I don’t think she expected to find me there, for I caught a quick glimpse of her face, and she was wholly without the mask that we wear in front of others. Her eyes, her nostrils, her lips, all revealed raw emotion, churning conflicts. I wondered if Vornan had attempted anything in the five minutes they had been together. Certainly what I saw on Shirley’s face was purely sexual, a tide of desire flooding toward the surface. An instant later she realized I was looking at her, and the mask slipped swiftly into place. She smiled nervously. “He’s all settled in,” she said. “I like him, Leo. You know, I expected him to be cold and forbidding, some kind of robotlike thing. But he’s polite and courtly, a real gentleman in his strange way.”
“He’s quite the charmer, yes.”
Telltale points of color lingered in her cheeks. “Do you think it was a mistake for us to say he could come here?”
“Why should it be a mistake?”
She moistened her lips. “There’s no telling what might happen. He’s beautiful, Leo. He’s irresistible.”
“Are you afraid of your own desires?”
“I’m afraid of hurting Jack.”
“Then don’t do anything without Jack’s consent,” I said, feeling more than ever like an uncle. “It’s that simple. Don’t get carried away.”
“What if I do, Leo? When I was in the room with him — I saw him looking at me so hungrily—”
“He looks at all beautiful women that way. But surely you know how to say no, Shirley.”
“I’m not sure I’d want to say no.”
I shrugged. “Should I call Kralick and say that we’d like to leave?”
“No!”
“Then you’ll have to be the watchdog of your own chastity, I’m afraid. You’re an adult, Shirley. You ought to be able to keep from sleeping with your house guest if you think it would be unwise. That’s never been much of a problem for you before.” She recoiled, startled, at my gratuitous final words. Her face crimsoned again beneath the deep tan. She peered at me as if she had never seen me in clear focus before. I felt angry at myself for my foolishness. In one breath I had cheapened a decade-long relationship. But the taut moment passed. Shirley relaxed as though going through a series of inner exercises, and said at last in a calm voice, “You’re right, Leo. It won’t really be a problem.”
The evening was surprisingly free from tension. Shirley produced a magnificent meal, and Vornan was lavish in his praise: it was, he said, the first dinner he had eaten in anyone’s home, and he was delighted by it. Afterwards we strolled together at twilight. Jack walked beside Vornan, and I with Shirley, but we stayed close to one another. Jack pointed out a kangaroo rat that had emerged from hiding a little early and went hopping madly over the desert. We saw a few jackrabbits and some lizards. It forever astonished Vornan that wild animals should be on the loose. Later, we returned to the house for drinks, and sat pleasantly like four old friends, talking of nothing in particular. Vornan seemed to accommodate himself perfectly to the personalities of his hosts. I began to think that I had been uneasy over nothing.