"We've got lots of fun planned for us, Kane boy," Phil said.
Kane remembered a look of sardonic mockery in Lucille's eyes as her
face disappeared and was replaced by several others.
Somehow, Kane couldn't figure out how, five of them were jammed into
the back seat of one of the cabs and then they were moving away through
the fog.
Someone who said "We're Laura," with a tight tanned body was wriggling
on Kane's lap and her arm was around Kane's neck. She had bright teeth
and she breathed scentedly into Kane's face.
"Nothing to worry about, Kane boy," he heard Phil say in a muffled joy.
"We're the gang."
"'It's always fair weather, the Sunhill Gang is always together,'"
Laura was crooning. The red-faced fat man next to Kane laughed and then
Kane saw that the red-faced man whose name seemed to be Ben and the
woman on his lap whom he called Jenny, were kissing one another. There
was something embarrassingly intimate about the way they did it. It was
suddenly much more than a mere spontaneous show of affection.
Kane looked away. Beyond a certain point, he felt that love-making was
something that should be reserved for privacy.
That sort of thing might be expected to change, of course. Customs
changed, and as Kane recalled, one could say the trend had been
somewhat in that direction.
There were two drivers up front. That was a change too. Every cab had
had two drivers, a man and a woman.
It was all a bit overdone, Kane thought. Still, they were friends of
Phil's. A friend of yours is a friend of mine.
But it affected Kane adversely. He felt uneasy. He didn't really know
them at all. In fact, he scarcely even knew Phil.
"We're so glad with you," the girl on Kane's lap said. She crushed her
lips over his mouth and pressed her body against him. Kane couldn't say
that was affecting him adversely. In fact, if there weren't all these
other people around--
"We're nice together," Laura breathed against his lips.
Everyone was so damn glad to see him. All they needed were banners,
little pins. Official Welcoming Party to Greet the Arrival of Professor
Larry Kane.
Kane managed to look out the window as they crossed the Tri-Borough
Bridge at 125th Street and started up the East River Drive.
"Things haven't changed much," Kane said. "Not nearly so much traffic
though."
"The saucers," Phil said. "Most of the traffic's up in the air."
"We're looking at things," Laura said.
"Great old town," Ben said and laughed, on and on. Jenny laughed too,
then said. "It looks just the same almost as when we left."
They're all speaking for me. Kane thought. Funny, a damned funny
custom. It was a reflection of something else. What did it really
mean? His feeling of unease seemed exaggerated. But then their efforts
to make him welcome seemed pretty exaggerated too....
"Everybody happy?" the fat man yelled.
"Yes!"
"We're happy aren't we, honey," Laura said.
"Sure," Kane said.
Why not?
Kane noticed the amazing dearth of traffic on Madison Avenue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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