I wasn't in any mood to get married, and least of all to a seeress.
Precognition is the least understood of the Psi powers, and the most
erratic. But of all people, I could least afford to sneer at the power
of Psi.

For the first time, I guess, I realized the awful helplessness that
comes over the Psiless when a TK invokes his telekinetic power. I wanted
no part of the future this corn-fed oracle had conjured up. But it might
be the only future I'd ever have.

I tried to recall her looks. Thinking about them, they really added up
to no more than hysterical sniffles, not enough to eat, and the pathetic
evidence that there hadn't been any money for orthodonture. Fatten her
up, straighten her teeth and--Talk about _religious_ rationalization!

I snapped out of it. Maybe she could call the turn of dice. But I'd be
damned if she could call the turn of people. Let her try _me_.

I sat up on the parapet, swinging to put my feet on the gravel of the
root. "So tonight you found the husband God's been going to give you?" I
asked.

"Yes," she said softly.

"And I'm the one?"

"Yes!"

"Not that again!" I growled, grabbing her thin shoulders and shaking
her. Her glasses bobbled on her nose. "I'm _not_ your darlin' Billy, and
you well know it. Admit it!"

She closed her lips over her buck teeth and sniffled. "I reckon not,"
she said, raising her head and looking at me without flinching. "I lied
to you."

"Why?"

"Kind of made me feel more decent about bein' divorced."

I gave her a last shake for the lie. "Let's have it," I went after her.
"How much of what you've been feeding me is just window dressing?"

She shrugged, but stayed silent.

"_Have_ you been married?" I insisted.

"Yes, Billy Joe."

"_And_ divorced?"

"Oh, darlin' Billy," she sighed. "I jest shouldn't never a _done_ that.
But I did," she added.

"Talk English," I snapped. "This chitterlin's and corn pone are just
more window dressing, right?"

Her face was solemn behind the glasses. "When you are a smart girl, and
you know the future, too, they hate you and try to hurt you," she said.
"They don't seem to mind it so much if it comes from a piece of white
trash that never could be 'no account.' By the time I was twelve or so I
had learned to act just a little stupid and corn-fed."

* * * * *

This, her longest speech, she delivered in quiet, Neutral American, the
speech that covers the great prairie states an