George jutted his chin toward the sofa and his brothers. "They don't know what they want to do. They think that, 'cause it'll be hard to live here, we should hide out in the cave forever." "Alan, talk to him," Fred said. "He's nuts." "Look," George said. "You're gone. You're *all* gone. The king under the mountain now is Davey. If we stay there, we'll end up his slaves or his victims. Let him keep it. There's a whole world out here we can live in. "I don't see any reason to let my handicap keep me down." "It's not a handicap," Edward said patiently. "It's just how we are. We're different. We're not like the rest of them." "Neither is Alan," George said. "And here he is, in the big city, living with them. Working. Meeting people. Out of the mountain." "Alan's more like them than he is like us," Frederick said. "We're not like them. We can't pass for them." Alan's jaw hung slack. Handicapped? Passing? Like them? Not like them? He'd never thought of his brothers this way. They were just his brothers. Just his family. They could communicate with the outside world. They were people. Different, but the same. "You're just as good as they are," he said. And that shut them up. They all regarded him, as if waiting for him to go on. He didn't know what to say. Were they, really? Was he? Was he better? "What are we, Alan?" Edward said it, but Frederick and George mouthed the words after he'd said them. "You're my brothers," he said. "You're. . ." "I want to see the city," George said. "You two can come with me, or you can meet me when I come back." "You *can't* go without us," Frederick said. "What if we get hungry?" "You mean, what if I don't come back, right?" "No," Frederick said, his face turning red. "Well, how hungry are you going to get in a couple hours? You're just worried that I'm going to wander off and not come back. Fall into a hole. Meet a girl. Get drunk. And you won't ever be able to eat again." He was pacing again. Ed and Fred looked imploringly at him. "Why don't we all go together?" Alan said. "We'll go out and do something fun -- how about ice-skating?" "Skating?" George said. "Jesus, I didn't ride a bus for 30 hours just to go *skating*." Edward said, "I want to sleep." Frederick said, "I want dinner." Perfect, Alan thought. "Perfect. We'll all be equally displeased with this, then. The skating's out in front of City Hall. There are lots of people there, and we can take the subway down. We'll have dinner afterward on Queen Street, then turn in early and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, we'll negotiate something else. Maybe Chinatown and the zoo." They are stared at him. "This is a limited-time offer," Alan said. "I had other plans tonight, you know. Going once, going twice --" "Let's go," George said. He went and took his brothers' hands. "Let's go, okay?" They had a really good time. #