Was Keyro saying what Martin thought he was? "Yes." he finally answered. "But — why would you ask that?"

"On my planet, things are different." said Keyro. "We are a people devoted to technology and commerce. You would probably call us technologists. And the better you are at it, the more highly placed in society you are, which is something we consider very important. My parents — Jahv's and mine — are very good at it. They fed us, educated us, took us with them wherever they went. But I don't think they really loved us. On my world, emotion isn't something openly expressed. Jahv and I are still getting used to it with you guys. And my parents didn't like it when Jahv and I showed emotion to each other."

"Did they hurt you?" asked Martin, recalling some of what his friend Keith had been known to endure.

Keyro shook his head. "No. Not physically, anyway. They'd just — ignore us more than usual. Jahv finally decided to run away, but I wasn't certain. It's a terrible crime on my world to run away."

"Why?" asked Martin.

Keyro shrugged. "I'm not sure. Maybe because if it weren't, more kids would do it. But after Jahv left, they accused me of making him leave. You see, parents are held responsible for the actions of their children on my world, so our parents would be blamed for this. I finally decided I had to leave, as well."

"Do you think your parents miss you?" asked Martin.

Keyro snorted, suddenly sounding bitter. "Probably all they miss is whatever lost business opportunities they'll suffer during whatever penalty would be imposed for our running off. After that, they'll probably be just as glad we're gone so they don't have any distractions."

Martin shook his head. "Do you ever get homesick?"

"Home — sick?" asked Keyro. "I don't understand that word. Have I ever been sick at home? We've cured most diseases native to our.

"No, no, that's not what I mean." corrected Martin. "I mean — do you ever miss your home planet?"

Keyro almost grinned. "That's an unusual question. Like I said, we're sort of taught that expressing — sometimes even feeling — emotion isn't quite right. I've never thought about it before. I guess — no, I really don't. We traveled an awful lot. I've been to over a hundred different planets in my life. Not counting this one. My home planet is just — one more world. My home was my parents' ship, and I really don't miss it. You would miss your home if you had to leave it?"

Martin nodded. "Very much so."

Keyro smiled, widely. "Maybe that's what Jahv and I like about you guys so much. You're not afraid to feel." His face turned a little sad, then. "I'm — not sure I know how. Jahv is not afraid to, but it's unusual for both of us."

Martin reached over and gave Keyro a hug. Given that both boys were covered with mud, there was a rather bizarre SQUISH sound to the embrace. "That's how!" said Martin.

Keyro giggled. "Is it always that noisy?" That gave both boys a complete case of the giggles that lasted for some time.

Back in the tent-dome, Keith and Davy were discussing between themselves theories as to why exactly Keyro, and often with him Martin, had taken such a liking to the muddy expanse beyond the small lake in the woods.

"Must've been because he landed there that he likes playing in it so much," remarked Jahv on occasion.

"Or he landed on his head." countered Keith, but not very effectively. He found the mud a lot of fun to play in himself, if only because he knew that if his parents ever found out about it, he'd be in more trouble than he usually was at their hands, especially his stepfather's. His mother could be more understanding, but lately, she tended to go along with what Keith's stepfather said and did. That upset Keith more than ever. Granted, Keith lived with his grandmother most of the time, and she was okay, but she was so elderly that she wasn't someone that Keith could really have much fun with.

Davy and Keith tended to spend their time with Jahv, either playing in the pond, or wondering what new trouble Jahv was going to cause with his computer. «Trouble» wasn't the most accurate word, but every time Jahv hacked into some new site, out of simple, childlike curiosity combined with an alien intellect far beyond anything mankind presently knew, Keith half-expected Jahv to try to land the Space Shuttle in a nearby field, reprogram the Mars Pathfinder to search for settlements, or for all he knew, program every television set in the world to play reruns of "The Partridge Family." And he suspected Jahv was capable of any or all of the above.

Today, however, Jahv was not working with his computer. He was digging around in his backpack. That alone could take hours, thought Keith. All Jahv had ever explained was that the backpack, like the cloaked dome-tent in which he lived, contained an artificial tesseract — essentially a four-dimensional region of space confined within a three-dimensional object — like a backpack or a tent. That made the interior of the object exponentially larger than the exterior. Neither Keith nor Davy understood the scientific principles. But they couldn't deny it worked. Jahv's tent was the size of a decent house or a very large apartment. As for the backpack, Keith wouldn't've been surprised to see Jahv pull a small truck from it if there had been room to get it past the opening of the pack, which seemed to be its only size constraint.

Apparently Jahv was really searching for something, because his entire head, upper torso, and arms were buried within the backpack, which made for an extremely odd sight that the other two boys were having a very difficult time not laughing themselves silly over. It didn't help that Jahv, according to his peoples' custom that children did not regularly wear clothes, was stark naked. So the sight on the floor was nothing short of a bright green butt and legs squirming around, their owner apparently having been half-eaten by a denim blue vinyl backpack.

"Any thoughts as to what we do if he gets stuck?" asked Davy, who as usual was dressed in denim coveralls and no shirt. "Or falls in?"

Keith shrugged. Hot as it had been this summer, he'd been wearing shorts and sandals. "Turn it over, dump it out, and hope that the entire contents don't overwhelm the place?"

"I wonder if even HE knows what the entire contents are?" wondered Davy.

"Doubt it." replied Keith. "You know the entire contents of YOUR room?"

Davy grinned. "Nope. Although I did find a cheese sandwich I lost last week."

"Where was it?" asked Keith.

"Under the bed." answered Davy.

"What made you look under there?" asked Keith.

"Trying to figure out what had died." said Davy, not quite stifling a grin. "The sandwich had."

"It's disgusting what you people eat, you know!" came a muffled yell from the backpack.

Davy and Keith giggled. Jahv's alien metabolism could tolerate some foods from Earth, but not all. On the list of things Jahv and Keyro had to avoid were cheese, peanuts, peanut butter, and cola. Other sodas were chemically safe, but, as it had turned out, not safe from a reaction standpoint. Not long after his arrival, Keyro had chugged back an entire two-liter bottle of Sprite in one sitting. The resultant belch had blown leaves from the trees and set off a car alarm in a neighborhood almost a mile away.

"One more like THAT and they're going to KNOW something weird is out here!" Keith had remarked at the time.

"Yeah, but are they going to want anything to do with it?" Martin had replied. As it turned out, the noise had been heard, but had been reported in the local newspaper as a sonic boom, considered odd only because there were no military bases all that nearby.

Finally, Jahv started to wriggle out of the backpack. "Found it!" he called. "How would you guys like to see what my world looks like?"