"Yes, you must be. It's a long time into the future. But, you see, some of my relatives there want to punish you for--it must be for killing Father. They lost out on a chain of inheritance because he died when he did. They have money now, but they are bitter because they had to make it themselves. They can afford every luxury--even the luxury of revenge." I suppose when you keep seeing monsters and hearing yourself say things you didn't say, you can believe unusual things easier. I believed Miss Tompkins. "It was not murder," I said. "I killed him by accident." "No matter. They would hex you if you had hit him with a car in a fog or given him the flu by sneezing in his face. I understand people are hexed all the time for things they never even knew they did. People up there have a lot of leisure, a lot of time to indulge their every irritation or hate. I think it must be decadent, the way Rome was." "What do you--and the machine--have to do with my hex?" I asked. "This is the Primary Focus area, I told you. It's how the Hexers get into this time hypothesis. They can't get back into this Primary itself, but they can come and go through the outer boundary. It's hard to set up a Primary Focus--takes a tremendous drain of power. They broke through into the basement of the old house before I was born and Daddy was the first custodian of the machine. He never knew that he was helping avenge his own death. They let that slip later, after--it happened." "Why did they come to you? Why did you help them?" She turned half away. "The custodian is well paid. My relatives preferred the salary to go to someone in the family, instead of an outsider. Daddy accepted the offer and I've carried on the job." "Paid? You were paid?" She brushed at her eyes. "Oh, not in United States currency. But--Daddy got to be president of the store. It was set up so he could make a fortune that they could inherit. All he left was his insurance, and that went to mother. She died a few months later and some of it went to me and the rest to her relatives." "You mean my life has been like it has because some descendants of yours in the future hate me for an accident that deprived them of some money?" * * * * * She nodded enthusiastically. "You understand! And because I helped the Hexers they hired get to you. I was afraid you wouldn't believe me. Now"--she stopped to exhale--"do you want to kill me?" "No, I don't want to kill you." I walked over and squinted at the machine. "Could _I_ get into the future with this thing?" "I don't know how you work the outer boundary. I think you need something else. There's an internal energy contact--you can talk to Communications." She raced through that. "You want to kill _them_, don't you? The Hexers and my relatives?"