Earl ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head. "I don't remember clearly, I guess. I was looking around the room and I remember thinking how scared I was, and how nice it would be to be here with you. And then I was here." Earl faced the window, looking out, then turned quickly back. "What is it?" he asked, desperately. "What happened to me?" "Better put your trousers on," Mrs. Jamieson said. "It's something very unusual and terrible to think of at first, but really wonderful." "But what happened? What is this patch behind my ear?" Suddenly his face paled and he stopped in the act of getting into his trousers. "Guess I know now. They made me a Konv." "Well, don't take on so. You'll get used to it." "But they shouldn't have! They didn't even ask me!" He started for the door, but she called him back. "No, don't run away from it now. This is the time to face it. There are two sides to every story, you know. You hear only one side in school--their side. There is also _our_ side." He turned back, a dawning comprehension showing in his eyes. "That's right, you're one, too. That is why you killed that Agent in the third cabin." It was her turn to be surprised. "You knew about that?" "I saw you. I wasn't sleeping. I was afraid to stay inside alone, so I followed you. I never told anyone." "But you were only nine!" "They would have taken you away if I'd said anything." Mrs. Jamieson held out her hand. "Come here, son. It's time I told you about us." * * * * * So he sat across the kitchen table from her, and she told the whole history, beginning with Stinson sitting in the laboratory in New Jersey, holding in his hand a small cylinder moulded from silicon with controlled impurities. He had made it, looking for a better micro-circuit structure. He was holding this cylinder ... and it was a cold day outside ... and he was dreaming of a sunny Florida beach-- And suddenly he was there, on the beach. He could not believe it at first. He felt the sand and water, and felt of himself; there was no mistake. On the plane back to New Jersey he came to certain conclusions regarding the strange power of his device. He tried it again, secretly. Then he made more cylinders. He was the only man in the world who knew how to construct it, and he kept the secret, giving cylinders to selected people. He worked out the basic principle, calling it a kinetic ordinate of negative vortices, which was very undefinitive. It was a subject of wonder and much speculation, but no one took serious notice of them until one night a federal Agent arrested one man for indecency. It was a valid charge. One disadvantage of this method of travel was that, while a body could travel instantaneously to any chosen spot, it arrived without clothes.