Stephen Marlowe

“ Either Angel Martell was a boxer with considerable time to go as yet before he was on, or he was a wrestler. I shuddered. I didn't know one damn thing about boxing or wrestling. Street fighting, yeah—but how the hell would street fighting help me here?
"Quit showing your muscles off to the little woman," a voice said. The voice belonged to a tired-looking little man with glasses.
I said, "Sure."
Little Sally pouted. "In fact, Mrs. Martell," the tired-looking fellow told her, "it might be better if you find your seat out front now and wait for it to get underway. ”

“ No use sighing over what can never be. But automatically I looked down at the list. Study the first name, Xlptl had said. I smiled at my own amazing credulity. Well, chalk it up to wishful thinking.
The first name was Mrs. Hal Drummond (nee Janet Dawes) . I thought of the Drummonds and their address, which was in San Francisco, almost three thousand miles from here.
Something buzzed in my ears.
Louder and louder.
The buzzing became a hissing sound. I couldn't place it at first. Then I realized it was the sound a shower makes in the next room. I looked around. ”

“ I was going to ask her about Xlptl.
"Wait, nothing!" the man who must have been my manager said. "Out she goes."
The door closed behind Sally. I shuddered. I had to find out about Xlptl before I could leave her. Which meant I had to go through with whatever was waiting for me in the arena.
After a while my manager came over and taped my fists. So it was boxing, I thought. That was worse even than wrestling. In wrestling there was a script, and the participants followed it. In boxing I could—and probably would—get my head handed to me. ”

“ You're a detective and you have an assignment to find a client's wife. This good-time gal has found herself a nicer body and is masquerading as some other fellow's wife. So how can you find her? Simple. You get into one male body after another and become a different girl's husband each night. And you're determined to find her even if you have to be every woman's husband to do it! ”

“ Xlptl," I said, "shall we go?"
"I—I guess so. You were so strong! Even stronger than the real Martell. You were wonderful, really you were." She was small but very pretty. She had a funny look in her eyes. "That's what I like about Earthmen," she said. "They're so strong. They're so virile...."
She took my hand. We concentrated on getting out of there.
When I saw Mrs. Xlptl again, she wasn't little Sally. She was a shoulderless almost-human, penguin-like creature from somewhere. "So strong, so virile ..." ”

“ No wonder he looked like a penguin.
"You see," he said in a confidential voice while I continued to gawk, "Mrs. Xlptl thinks she doesn't want to transmigrate back. She thinks she wants to go on being an Earthwoman. Naturally she's wrong. Naturally we ought to go home. ”