"All the naked and the dead Should hold each other's hands As they watch me scream at night In a dream no one understands."
The song ended and Kinsman released her hand. When the show finally finished and the ceiling lights came on once more, he avoided looking directly at Marian. He seemed embarrassed, more than a little.
They drove back to Kelly through the muggy hot night in silence. Marian was content to wait until they were airborne again before trying to open him up. He talked better off the ground; he seemed more relaxed up there. They checked the car back into the motor pool and allowed a sleepy-eyed corporal to drive them in a Jeep to the flight line.
Kinsman hopped up on the Cherokee's wing and pulled the hatch open, ducked inside, and took the pilot's seat. Then he helped Marian settle her bulk in the right-hand seat. He checked the control panel's gauges carefully, got his clearance from the tower controller, and taxied out to the runway. The edge lights stretched like glowing pearls, seemingly off to the horizon.
As he waited for final takeoff clearance he revved the engine. The whole plane shuddered and strained like an excited terrier being held in check by a leash. Somehow the engine roar seemed louder in the darkness to Marian. And 132 then they were racing down the runway and up into the air. Kinsman handled the plane smoothly, his hands sure and steady. As they climbed to cruising altitude Marian saw a sky full of stars above them and the even more numerous lights of San Antonio below.
"One of the best Mexican restaurants this side of the Rio Grande is down there," she said, over the drone of the engine.
"Really?" Kinsman replied.
Marian nodded vigorously. "Too bad we missed it."
"Yeah. The food we had wasn't all that good, was it?"
"But I enjoyed the show."
Kinsman might have nodded in the darkness. She could not tell.
"How did you like it?" she asked.
"The show?"
"Yes."
Suddenly he started laughing, a soft, happy, satisfied chuckle.
Puzzled, Marian asked, "What's funny?"
"You are."
'Tm funnyT' She did not know whether to be glad or angry.
"No, not you yourself," Kinsman corrected. "It's the situation that's funny. The relationship between us."
He turned to their homeward course, changed the fre- quency on the radio for the mid-route controller, then turned in his seat toward her.
