into my office, and
watched me typing for a while, then asked what I was doing. I answered
(somewhat irritably, because the children are supposed to stay out of
the room when I'm working) that I was trying to write a story._

"_What kind of a story?_"

"_A grown-up story._"

"_But what_ kind?"

_"A science-fiction story." The next thing I was going to do was to
call my daughter, and ask her to take her company back to the
playroom. I had my mouth open, but I never got a syllable out. Teddy
was talking._

_"I don't know where they got the car," he said. "They made three or
four stops before the last...." He had a funny look on his face, and
his eyes were glazed-looking._

_I had seen some experimental work with hypnosis and post-hypnotic
performance. After the first couple of sentences, I led Teddy into the
living-room, and switched on the tape-recorder. I left it on as long
as he kept talking. I had to change tapes once, and missed a few more
sentences. When he was done, I asked him, with the tape still running,
where he had heard that story._

_"What story?" he asked. He looked perfectly normal again._

"_The story you just told me._"

_He was obviously puzzled._

"_The_ science-fiction _story_," _I said_.

_"I don't know where they got the car," he began; his face was set and
his eyes were blank._

_I kept the tape running, and picked up the parts I'd missed before.
Then I sent Teddy off to the playroom, and played back the tape, and
thought for a while._

_There was a little more, besides what you've read. Parts of it were
confused, with some strange words mixed in, and with sentences
half-completed, and a feeling of ambivalence or censorship or
inhibition of some kind preventing much clarity. Other parts were
quite clear. Of these, the only section I have omitted so far that
seems to me to belong in the story is this one:--_

* * * * *

The baby will have to be born on Earth! They have decided that
themselves. And for the first time, I am glad that they cannot
communicate with me as perfectly as they do among themselves. I can
think some things they do not know about.

We are not coming back. I do not think that I will like it on Earth
for very long, and I do not know--neither does Larry--what will happen
to us when the Security people find us, and we cannot answer their
questions. But--

I am a woman now, and I love like a woman. Larry will not be their
pet; s