"We don't say 'starving,' we say 'nutritionally challenged.' How did you think it would be?"
"I don't know, I thought science would solve everything.''
"So did a lot of people. How's your steak?"
"Okay."
"Try a bite of this."
He accepted it, chewed. "Say! You said it was good, but I didn't believe you."
"Trust me."
"Okay, I will." He smiled, and she saw the sudden glint of a gold tooth. "Listen, I said I was sorry, but that wasn't true. If I hadn't touched you with the ring, would you of gone out with me?"
She looked at him for a moment before replying. "Probably not."
"Well, I'm glad you did."
"So am I, but let's not get squishy about it."
"Okay. So. What do you do, at the IDA?"
"I review project analyses and make recommendations."
"I don't know what that means. What does the IDA do?"
"It loans money to Third World nations and gets them deeper in debt."
"What's the Third World? I thought we only had one."
"Pre-developed countries, mostly in Africa and South and Central America."
"Is that like poor?"
She smiled. "Yes.''
"Okay. So you loan them money and get them in debt. Is that a bad thing?"
"Usually."
"So why do you do it?"
"It's a job. It pays well, and once in a while I get a chance to approve something that might do some good. The world is such a mess that nothing really works."
"Well, what's the problem, if there's all this money to throw around? Do you know what they're giving me? A million four. That's the way he said it. I just walked in off the street."
"You don't think that's fair?"
"No."
"Going to give the money back?"
"No."
"Okay, then don't complain. What was it like, in the thirties?"
He chewed and swallowed. "Hard times. Lots of people out of work, factories closing down. Breadlines, soup kitchens. But listen, I think it's worse now. I saw people sleeping in cardboard boxes last night. I mean, not just regular cardboard boxes, but ones that said 'PortaHouse' on them. A guy who asked me for a handout, he had bums all over his face."
He looked at his beer and put it down. "Something I never could figure out, you've got all these factories, if you opened them up people could have jobs and buy the stuff the factories make. It just goes around and around. It's like, 'If we had some ham we could make ham and eggs, if we had some eggs.' "
She laughed. "I like that."
"You do, huh? Your name, Lavalle, is that French?"
"It is, but I'm not. I was married before."
"It didn't work out?"
"No."
"Got a sweetheart?"
"It's none of your business, but yes."
He looked at her. "Do you step out with other guys anyway?"
"Not usually." She put down her fork. "Listen, I'm having a good time, and I like you, but you scare me. Do you really believe all this stuff about aliens, and putting people in a box?"
"Sure."
"And you're going to do it?"
"Oh, yeah. There's no way to stop me."
"I think that's frightening."
"Well, it's like being on a roller coaster. Once you start down, you have to go all the way."
"You sound so calm about it. How can you be so calm?"
"I haven't got any choice. You know how it is when you love somebody so much, or maybe your family, or your country, you'd do anything for them? I mean, you want them to be happy and you want them to win, so you do whatever you can, right, and as long as you're doing that, you can be calm. Well, that's how I am about the aliens. I love them, and they trust me, and I know I won't let them down, so I'm calm."
"Do you think maybe they made you feel that way?"
"Oh, I know they did. The first time I saw them, I wanted to run. I think they put something in my brain. I can feel it in there."
"In your brain. Well, doesn't that make a difference?"
"No. Didn't you ever love somebody, and you knew you probably shouldn't, but you just couldn't help it?"
"Yes."
"Well, it's the same thing. I have to do whatever they want me to, and besides, maybe it's all true about the Earth being destroyed."
"You don't think it is?"
"I'm a little worried about it, but there isn't much I can do about that. "
After a moment she asked, "What do they look like?"
"They're about the size of a rat. They sit in a hollow space in the head of a robot, and the robot carries them around. They look-I don't know. Like a yellow octopus, except they have joints in their arms. Or legs, it's hard to tell. They have suckers on their hands and feet. Their faces are all spiny, except for the forehead. That's what they talk with. They make these symbols on their foreheads, kind of like Chinese."
She shuddered. "And you love them?"
"Well, probably we look awful to them too."
She said, "You're crazy."
"I know I am. Don't you think I know that? Either I made the whole thing up in my head, or else they drove me crazy, so I'm crazy either way."
The waiter reappeared. "All through?" he said.
"Yes. We'll have baklava for dessert, Jimmy, and Greek coffee."
"What's baklava?" Stone asked.
"Trust me."
He ate the baklava with an expression of delight and disbelief. "Were you married before?" she asked.
"Yeah, but after I lost my job she took the kids and went back to her mother's in Teaneck."
"How many kids?"
"Two. Boy and a girl."
"Do you ever wonder what happened to them?"
"They're dead now, I guess, or they're old people. I thought about that. What could I say to them, 'Hello, I'm your father'? They wouldn't believe me, and if they did, so what?"
After a moment she asked, "Did you love your wife?"
"I guess so, at first. What about you?"
"It seemed like a good idea at the time, but he was a sleaze."
"You kept his name, though."
"Well, it was better than Izquierdos." She looked around, and the waiter appeared. "We'd like the check, Jimmy."
Stone said, "You don't have to go right away, do you?"
"Afraid so."
"I thought you might like to take in a show or something."
"Some other time."
The waiter deposited the check on a tray. Stone looked at it and his eyes bulged.
"We'll split this, of course," Lavalle said. "Give it to me, I'll use my card and you can give me your half."
"Don't you think that's a little steep?"
"Dinner for two, with drinks and wine, seven hundred fifty? No. You want real food, you have to pay for it."
"I can't get used to that. Where I come from, nobody ever said 'real food.' That was all we had. And there was enough of it to go around, except they poured kerosene on it to keep the price up." He counted out the bills glumly. "Listen, I don't suppose you could lend me cab fare? I'll pay you back next week."
"Never mind, I'll drop you on the way home."
"Where's home? You live by yourself?"
"Never mind, and no."
They watched the street scene on the way across town: people standing around fires in trash cans, food vendors with carts, lonely guitar-players. Confetti came drifting out of the sky, turning black as it fluttered. The cab drew up in front of the hotel.
"I had a swell time," he said.
"I did too."
"I suppose you've got to go home tonight?"
"Yes."
"Can I call you when I get back in town?"
"I don't know if that's such a good idea."
"I'll call you, anyway."
"Yes, I guess you will."
CHAPTER 13
"Son," said the President of the United States, "Dan Givens told me I had to see you, and that's good enough for me. But I'm not sure I understand what you're asking me for. You want to build a big box and put everybody in it, is that right?"