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said Johannan. "Our years together were very brief."
    His face closed smoothly over his sorrow. "We move our life-slips," he went on after a brief pause, "without engines. It is an adult ability, to bring the life-slips through the atmosphere to land at the Canyon. But Lala is precocious in many Gifts and Persuasions and she managed to jerk her life-slip out of my control on the way down. I followed her into the storm-" He gestured and smiled. He had finished.
    "But where were you headed?" asked Mark. "Where on earth-?"
    "On Earth," Johannan smiled. "There is a Group of the People. More than one Group, they say. They have been here, we know, since the end of the last century. My wife was of Earth. She returned to the New Home on the ship we sent to Earth for the refugees. She and I met on the New Home. I am not familiar with Earth-that's why, though I was oriented to locate the Canyon from the air, I am fairly thoroughly lost to it from the ground."
    "Mark," Meris leaned over and tapped Mark's knee. "He thinks he has explained everything."
    Mark laughed. "Maybe he has. Maybe we just need a few years for absorption and amplification. Questions, Mrs. Edwards?"
    "Yes," said Meris, her hand softly on Lala's shoulder.
    "When are you leaving, Johannan?"
    "I must first find the Group," said Johannan. "So, if Lala could stay-"
    Meris's hands betrayed her. "For a little while longer," he emphasized. "It would help."
    "Of course," said Meris. "Not ours to keep."
    "The boys," said Johannan suddenly. "Those in the ear. There was a most unhealthy atmosphere. It was an accident, of course. I tried to lift out of the way, but I was taken unawares. But there was little concern-"
    "There will be," said Mark grimly. "Their hearing is Friday."
    "There was one," said Johannan slowly, "who felt pain and compassion-"
    "Tad," said Meris. "He doesn't really belong-"
    "But he associated-"
    "Yes," said Mark, "consent by silence."
    The narrow, pine-lined road swept behind the car, the sunlight flicking across the hood like pale, liquid pickets. Lala bounced on Meris's lap, making excited, unintelligible remarks about the method of transportation and the scenery going by the windows. Johannan sat in the back seat being silently absorbed in his new world. The trip to town was a three-fold expedition-to attend the hearing for the boys involved in the accident-to start Johannan on his search for the Group, and to celebrate the completion of Mark's manuscript.
    They had left it blockily beautiful on the desk, awaiting the triumphant moment when it would be wrapped and sent on its way and when Mark would suddenly have large quantifies of uncommitted time on his hands for the first time in years.
    "What is it?" Johannan had asked.
    "His book," said Meris. "A reference textbook for one of those frightening new fields that are in the process of developing. I can't even remember its name, let alone understand what it's about."
    Mark laughed. "I've explained a dozen times. I don't think she wants to remember. The book's to be used by a number of universities for their textbook in the field if, if it can be ready for next year's classes. If it can't be available in time, another one will be used and all the concentration of years.--" He was picking up Johannan's gesture.
    "So complicated-" said Meris.
    "Oh yes," said Johannan. "Earth's in the complication stage."
    "Complication stage?" asked Meris.
    "Yes," said Johannan. "See that tree out there? Simplicity says-a tree. Then wonder sets in and you begin to analyze it-cells growth, structure, leaves, photosynthesis, roots, bark, rings-on and on until the tree is a mass of complications. Then, finally, with reservations not quite to be removed, you can put it back together again and sigh in simplicity once more-a tree. You're in the complication period in the world now."
    "Is true!" laughed Mark. "Is true!"
    "Just put the world back together again, someday," said Meris, soberly.
    "Amen," said the two men.
    But now