The rocket was up: the carnival was open. But Professor Lightning didn't
seem to care. He sat in the cooktent with his eyes hooded and hidden
under the unshaded glow of a hundred-and-fifty-watt Forever bulb, while
Charley de Milo fidgeted his feet, and listened, and tried to cut the
old man off.

"Look, professor," he said nervously, "why don't we talk about it later?
Table it, till after the show?" He scratched the side of his head with
his left foot. "I got to go on in a couple of minutes," he said. "I can
hear the talker going now. I got to--"

"Forget the show," Professor Lightning said. His voice was flatter and
harsher, and his face more tense, than Charley ever remembered seeing
it. "The show isn't important."

Charley blinked, trying to understand. "But, Professor--"

"Listen to me," Professor Lightning said. "The world is at the beginning
of a new cultural revolution. Since the Cold War melted, and freedom of
inquiry and research began to live again on both sides of the old Iron
Curtain, science has begun a new Renaissance. The cultural interflow
has--"

"Please, professor," Charley said miserably, rubbing his toes together.
"There isn't much time before I got to go on. And you ought to be
inside the Science tent, too, because any minute--"

"If I am not in the tent," Professor Lightning said calmly, "I will not
appear in the show. It does not matter."

"But they'll fire you," Charley said. He grabbed for a cigarette with
his right foot and got it into his mouth. Striking a match with his left
foot, he lit the cigarette and blew out a long, ragged plume of smoke.
"If you're not there on time," he said in strained tones, "they'll fire
you. And what about me?"

Professor Lightning gestured with both big hands. It was the same
movement he used every night, when he showed the crowd there were no
wires or batteries secreted on his person. Charley half-expected him to
grab hold of a couple of light bulbs and show them glowing in his fists.
But the gesture was meant, this time, as an aid to relaxation. "Don't
worry," Professor Lightning said, in a grating sort of caricature of a
soothing tone. "If they fire me ... well, then, they save me the trouble
of quitting. And as for you, my boy, a carnival job should be the
furthest thing from your thoughts."

"Well, it isn't," Charley said sourly. "And if you'll excuse me,
professor, I care how I get the money to eat, even if you don't. I got a
good job--"

"