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I have too much to do.   The tech world moves too fast … or used to.   In this place I have an eternity to burn.”
    “Not really a fan of cats personally,” Elspeth said.  
    “No?   Well, my cat’s hilarious.   You’d like him .   I just started to get him catnip.   I had no idea how much they love that stuff, they go crazy for it!   Gets them baked out of their brains and elsewhere.  
    “Anyway, I remember the first time I got it for him.   It comes in this clear plastic bag full of the powdered green leafy stuff.   I actually snuck it up to the counter!   I felt like I was scoring a bag of weed for my cat.”
    Elspeth snorted out a laugh in between brush strokes.   “Yeah I kind of hate cats.   But dogs!   I love dogs.”
    “So what do you give a dog to get them high?”
    She blinked.   “Nothing.   Dogs don’t get high.   Dogs are drunk.   They’re born drunk.   And they stay drunk, all life long.”   She laughed uproariously.
    “Hey tall señorita,” snapped one of the Kings.   “Keep your mouth shut.   You’re going to get us all on hard labor duty.”   He nodded towards the guards.    
    But Elspeth didn’t back down.   Instead, she seemed to grow even taller.   Card hissed a warned, but she wasn’t having it.   She stepped towards the Latin Kings.   For their part, they seemed more amused than challenged.
    “You.   What’s your name?”   She addressed the apparent alpha of the group.
    “You don’t want to know, chica.   You’re too tall for me.”   They all laughed.
    “I’m not looking for a lover.   I’m —“
    “No?   Not even a Latin lover?”   His friends guffawed while he air-thrusted.  
    She smiled patiently.   “No.   Not even.   Beside, we have a more immediate problem on our hands, you and I.”
    “What’s that?”
    “This prison.”
    “Si.   It is a problem.”   The alpha suddenly grew more serious.   “But what is to be done?   It has swallowed us.”  
    Elspeth responded with a tight grin.   “What’s your name?”
    “My name?   Constancio.   What’s yours?”
    “Constancio.   Yes.   I’m Elspeth—”
    “You’re going to learn to scream it!” Constancio grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly towards him.
    “Has anyone ever died here, Constancio?”   She said it suddenly, hoping to throw him off balance.   It worked.
    His nostrils flared like he’d just smelled something rancid.   “Morte!   Why do you speak of death?”
    “Answer the question.   Nobody dies here, do they?   Not really …?”
    Constancio pushed her away, clearly turned off now.   “I never seen it.   No.”
    “What’s the matter, Constancio?”
    “You ruined the mood, man.”   The Latin Kings pushed off, clearly annoyed with her.
    “That was not smart,” James Card said.   “Those guys can get real mean.   You got off easy just now.   You have no idea.”

    THAT NIGHT, she dreamt of the Painted Man in the airport.
    This time, he was not wearing a business suit.   Instead, he was nearly naked, and dancing around a fire he’d made of newspapers and magazines.   But nobody paid any attention to him.   Next he smashed an old-style Kodak camera with glee; and then did the same thing with a big vacuum tube powered radio.   He looked around for reaction — but got none.   This seemed to disappoint him.
    She woke up feeling the fire of the plane burning on the runway — the heavier-than-air flying machine that could not fly and never, ever could …
    Here’s a kiss from the Dolphin Queen.

FOUR: THE ARBORETUM

    THE NEXT DAY Elspeth was separated from James Card.   She was grouped with another company of prisoners and led into a narrow chamber that at first appeared to be just another cell.   But it quickly opened out into a vast underground arboretum or hothouse of some kind.
    The guards handed out wicker baskets with leather straps that could be worn across the body: apparently, they would be gathering fruits and