"Shut up, creep, I gotta concentrate," she squelches him. The professor pipes up like he's half asleep. "You know, Miss LaTour, there must be a destiny about all this...." "La de day--yeah, that's what that there Aphrodite told my new boy friend," she throws a dazzlin' smile at him over her shoulder, wavin' that white robe around her flawless body. "It won't seem the same on Venus without you," the professor sort of moans. "Shut up, professor," Luigi hollers, then that tough voice of his breaks, like he was almost cryin'. "Baby, stop dancin' around." "Outa my way, ya lug. I'm workin' up to the finale." "Please, baby. I'll--I'll give ya a million asteroids, honey. I won't smoke no more of them there Saturn Stogies--" The LaTour's movin' around gets more fancy all the time. She is all the moonbeams and flowers I ever seen, rolled into one. It was easy to unnerstan' how she got to be the big star that she was--even here on rough and ready Venus. She had class, and somethin' else--somethin' that made ya keep watchin' her every movement, like you was hungry for somethin', but ya didn't know what. And you wanted to jump up and down, and holler, but ya just couldn't move because you was watchin' so hard. She was wigglin' them beautiful, dimpled, rounded hips-- And then she wasn't there anymore. * * * * * "Hey!" Luigi runs around the room like he is goin' space-daffy. "It's no use, Luigi," the little guy says, lookin' sadder than ever. "She's gone back. And this time I suspect it's forever," the prof says. Luigi comes over to the little guy and grabs him by the throat. "She can't do that to me. Gone back where? Y'gotta tell me." "She's gone back to Paris," the prof says. Luigi snarls like he is gettin' a Martian sand-fever fit. "What? Leavin' me fer some Frenchman? I'll--" "No." The professor pulls away from Luigi. "This Paris is a part of ancient Greece--a young shepherd prince whose theft of the wife of Menelaos started the Trojan War." "Huh?" Luigi is as up in the air as I am. "Helen...." The little, fella looks sort of thoughtful. "Of course. That was her name. Helen of Troy--LaTour. The queen of space. 'The face that launched a thousand ships.'" The professor nods at us. "Who would have ever believed--" "Okay, pop," Luigi looks tough again, and I am plenty scared. "Hey Luigi," I hollers, "You kin see the little guy is tellin' the truth. He didn't do nothin'--" Luigi turns around, and I kin see the little red specks at the corners of his eyes. "Who says he did?" he snarls. He heads fer the open window, reachin' in his vest fer his blood-freezer, and I kin hear him mutterin'. "I'm goin' after that guy Paris, and when I find him, I'm gonna turn the blaster on and smash him right through that there space warp! "Yeah," he hollers, standin' there framed by that window fer a minute before he jets off, with all them millions of stars blazin' like fury in the cleared-up Venusian night sky.