Fritz Leiber

“ There was a moment of strain and they were falling ahead and up. Looking out the side, Tom saw for a moment the sooty roof of the ranch house and the blue of the pool and the pinkish umber of tanned bodies. Then the helicopter lurched gently around. Without warning a miserable uneasiness gripped him, a desire to cling mixed with an urge to escape. He tried to convince himself it was fear of the height.
He heard Lois tell Jock, "That's the place, down by that rock that looks like a wrecked spaceship."
The helicopter began to fall forward. Tom felt Lois' hand on his. ”

“ A very few time winds are like the monsoon, blowing at fixed intervals, first in one direction, then the other. Such a time wind blows near a balancing rock in a valley of red stones in the American Southwest. Every morning at ten o'clock, it blows a hundred years into the future; every afternoon at two, it blows a hundred years into the past. ”

“ To be given paid-up leisure and find yourself unable to create is unpleasant for any artist. To be stranded in a cluster of desert cabins with a dozen lonely people in the same predicament only makes it worse. So Tom Dorset was understandably irked with himself and the Tosker-Brown Vacation Fellowships as he climbed with the sun into the valley of red stones. ”

“ Sometimes a time wind is playful, snatching up an object, sporting with it for a season and then returning it unharmed to its original place. Sometimes we may be blown about by whimsical time winds without realizing it. ”

“ Tenderness is beautiful, but—" She pouted. "A big family can be vastly crushing. I wanted to declare today a holiday, but they outvoted me. Jock said it didn't chime with our mood cycles. But I was angry with them, so I put on my clothes—"
"Put on—?"
"To make it a holiday," she explained bafflingly. "And I walked here for a tantrum." She stepped out of Tom's shadow and hopped back. "Ow, the sand's getting hot," she said, rubbing the grains from the pale and uncramped toes.
"You go barefoot a lot?" Tom guessed. ”

“ How I loathe that man! But Larry's almost as bad, with his shame-faced bumptiousness, as if we'd all sneaked off on a joyride to Venus. And there's Jokichi at the opposite extreme, forever scared he won't distribute his affection equally, dividing it up into mean little packets like candy for jealous children who would scream if they got one chewy less. And then there's Sasha and Ernest—"
"Who are you talking about?" Tom asked.
"My husbands." She shook her head dolefully. "To find five more difficult men would be positively Martian." ”

“ A little girl had darted to Joyce from the children's table.
"You're a very dirty little girl," Joyce told her without reproof. "Hold them out." She briefly directed the silver pencil at the clay pellets on the grimy little palm. The little girl shivered delightedly. "I love ultrasonics, they feel so funny." She scampered off.
Tom cleared his throat. "I must say I'm tremendously impressed with the wood carvings. I'd like to photograph them. Oh, Lord!"
"What's the matter?" Rachel asked. ”

“ Jock, the gay pharaoh, shrugged. "It's not difficult."
Rachel, the slim Negro, chuckled in her throat. "We're just people, Tom."
He tried to phrase his question without mentioning money. "What do you all do?"
"Jock's a uranium miner," Larry (the beard) answered, briskly taking over. "Rachel's an algae farmer. I'm a rocket pilot. Lois—"
Although pleased at this final confirmation of his guess, Tom couldn't help feeling a surge of uneasiness. ”

“ Tom briefly described the ranch house and cabins at the other end of the valley.
"Comic, I can't place it." The beard shrugged. "Here come the children."
A dozen naked youngsters raced around the ranch house, followed by a woman in a vaguely African dress open down the sides.
"Yours?" Tom asked.
"Ours," the beard answered.
"C'est un homme!"
"Regardez des vêtements!"
"No need to practice, kids; this is a holiday," the beard told them. "Tom, Helen," he said, introducing the woman with the air-conditioned garment. "Her turn today to companion die Kinder." ”