n
joked back at Curt occasionally, something she had never done with
Martin in Fred's memory. Her joking was clumsy and uncertain. Fred
laughed uproariously to encourage her and to hide his uncomfortable
feeling.

"Oh, I haven't felt so good in ages," she said when they were seated
around the tablecloth spread with sandwiches and salads and cakes. "It's
wonderful getting out like this. We'll have to do it often."

"We will," Curt said. "At least once a week."

Fred's mother picked up a sandwich. She started to raise it to her
mouth. She was smiling at Curt and about to say something to him. Both
Curt and Fred were watching her.

Abruptly she wasn't there. The sandwich seemed to remain stationary for
a long second. Then it dropped to the tablecloth.

Curt was holding a paper cup filled with hot coffee. His hand
constricted. The cup collapsed, spilling steaming coffee over his legs.

Fred stared at the space his mother had just occupied. Abruptly he
squawked, "No!" He turned accusing eyes on Curt. "You told her!"

Something seemed to go out of the man. He seemed to become visibly
smaller. "Yes," he whispered, "I told her."

Fred was crying. "But you shouldn't have," he sobbed. "I told you
because I wanted you to vanish. I didn't want her to, and now she has.
And nothing happened that I could use."

Curt blinked at him, absorbing this new bit of information. "You wanted
_me_ to vanish?" he echoed. "Yes, I can see that now. I didn't know. It
seemed too absurd. I thought you were just imagining things. Yes, I went
out while you were at school and spent the whole morning teaching her
every step. It was fairly easy. We had planned on coaxing you to explain
it to her. Knowing it ahead of time she could pretend to grasp it that
much more easily. We were planning on coaxing you into a more social
relationship. Actually, she had already read the theory in your father's
book she was reading for the publisher." A glassy look came into his
eyes. "The book. If the theory is at the root of the disappearances the
book shouldn't be published. Yes, by God. That's what your father was
driving at. Your mother told me the publisher had told her your father
tried to get him not to publish it."

"The book has the theory in it?" Fred said. "It mustn't get published.
Why--thousands of people would read it and vanish. We've got to stop
them!"

Curt was shaking his head in bewilderment. "But we can't be sure. It
must be something els