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talking in the day, and helping the neighbors, who seemed quite taken with Aliena. There was no power, no running water, no proper sewage, but it was actually a rather pleasant time. Because they liked each other’s company.
    It seemed like only an instant before Aliena announced that she was free of the period and ready to see the sea. In the interim she had learned to use his credit card, and had bought several books to read. She had also finally zeroed in her tickle and love stroke reflexes. He had taught her about as much as he could; she was taking over her own training. She really didn’t need him any more. He braced himself yet again for her departure, once the power returned, and with it, her people, Martha and Sam. He was pretty sure they would not approve his association with Aliena. She was destined to be an important foreign envoy, not a common local girl.
    “Tomorrow early we will drive there,” he agreed. “I’ll pack the swimsuits and towels.”
    “We will go there,” she agreed raptly.
    In the morning they drove through the still-dark suburbs, but the lighted area was closer than it had been, and Brom judged that power would be restored to his area by the end of the day. That meant, ironically, that his association with Aliena was probably about to end. He hated that, despite the advantage that the restoration of power would bring them all.
    Aliena was resplendent in shorts and halter, in vibrant health. She had kept up her exercise routine, showing rare discipline, and it showed. He was getting physically fitter than he had been, too, because of running with her. His exercise had been intermittent; now it was regular.
    “You asked once about mating in my kind,” she said as the wind from her open window tousled her hair. “I said it was different from yours. We do not use the looks and words and strokes. Instead we sing.”
    “You sing,” he repeated.
    “I understand enough of your way now so that I know I can do it. I have been learning love, and now I think I love you, and am ready. But there is one thing I need, for this: to sing.”
    “You mean the way we sing ‘Aliena’?”
    “Not exactly, but it will do. When we reach the sea, I will sing. If you want to mate with me, you can sing that.”
    “Oh, Aliena, I admit it: I have fallen in love with you and I want to have sex with you. But is it right?”
    “It is right when I want it, when I am ready, and now I am. I am ready to sing.”
    She continued to surprise him. “Can you tell me more about this mating song?”
    “It is like this.” Then she sang a single note, like a resonant bell. It stirred him powerfully. There was just something about it.
    “And if I sing ‘Aliena,’ I can join you?”
    “Oh, yes.” Then she paused, the way she sometimes did. “But when we return, and the power returns, and Martha and Sam return, and you learn the rest of me, it may be over. That will be my sorrow.”
    “What is it about you that you fear will turn me off?”
    “I may not tell you. But I can warn you again: I am not a pretty girl. That is just my host. I wish I could be, for you, but I can’t change what I am. I can only love you, today, and hope you will love me.”
    Her original form might have been ugly. But her mind was marvelous. “I have difficulty imagining anything that would turn me off you. You’re not a murderer or a changed male?”
    She laughed, as she could do now. “I am neither! I am an innocent female. A virgin.” She had picked up that term from their reading.
    He did not press her further. Whatever it was, he would learn all too soon. Meanwhile, they had this time together, and he wanted to make the most of it.
    They came to the sea. The shore was there, and the sandy beach, but no people; the cleanup following the storm must be keeping them busy. They had it to themselves, on a sunny warm day.
    “Oh!” she cried as she saw the expanse of it. She scrambled out of her clothes as he parked the car, and ran