Julian’s watch ticked away, and she turned to peer at its face again. She laughed—delighted, dumbstruck—then told him, “I’ve never kept it up this long before.” Julian sprawled as comfortably as he could on sand and stone, and watched Kate as if she were an exhibit. The crested Californian girl-monkey—constantly in motion, entirely distractible. “Is it everything?” he asked. “The whole world?” Shaking her head, Kate closed his watch. Her hair rolled in long, graceful waves, at odds with the broad shoulders of her suit. “Hardly. It’s like a bubble. I can make it as small as myself, but so far, no bigger than a house.” “Then what would happen if someone walked by? Do we look like statues to them?” “No.” Kate slid the watch chain between her fingers, passing the watch from hand to hand. “Daddy says I disappear. There one minute, then gone. That’s what it looks like when he goes on the wind, too.” “I still can’t fathom that.” “Why not? Don’t you have an imagination?”
