hed. "_Mars._"

I began to itch again. "Want to dance?"

"They don't have a license," she said. "Byron, _I_ didn't know you'd
been to _Mars_! Please _tell_ me about it."

"It was all right," I said.

That was a lie.

She was interested. She forgot to smile. It made her look nicer. She
said, "I knew a man--my brother-in-law--he was my husband's brother--I
mean my ex-husband--"

"I get the idea."

"He worked for General Atomic. In Rockford, Illinois. You know where
that is?"

"Sure." I couldn't go there, but I knew where Illinois was.

"He worked on the first Mars ship. Oh, fifteen years ago, wasn't it? He
always wanted to go himself, but he couldn't pass the tests." She
stopped and looked at me.

I knew what she was thinking. But I didn't always look this way, you
know. Not that there's anything wrong with me now, I mean, but I
couldn't pass the tests any more. Nobody can. That's why we're all
one-trippers.

I said, "The only reason I'm shaking like this is because I'm cold."

It wasn't true, of course. It was that cough of Gilvey's. I didn't like
to think about Gilvey, or Sam or Chowderhead or Wally or the captain. I
didn't like to think about any of them. It made me shake.

You see, we couldn't kill each other. They wouldn't let us do that.
Before we took off, they did something to our minds to make sure. What
they did, it doesn't last forever. It lasts for two years and then it
wears off. That's long enough, you see, because that gets you to Mars
and back; and it's plenty long enough, in another way, because it's like
a strait-jacket.

You know how to make a baby cry? Hold his hands. It's the most basic
thing there is. What they did to us so we couldn't kill each other, it
was like being tied up, like having our hands held so we couldn't get
free. Well. But two years was long enough. Too long.

The bartender came over and said, "Pal, I'm sorry. See, I turned the
air-conditioning down. You all right? You look so--"

I said, "Sure, I'm all right."

He sounded worried. I hadn't even heard him come back. The girl was
looking worried, too, I guess because I was shaking so hard I was
spilling my drink. I put some money on the table without even counting
it.

"It's all right," I said. "We were just going."

"We were?" She looked confused. But she came along with me. They always
do, once they find out you've been to Mars.

* * * * *

In the next place, she said, betw