Last Updated Oct 8th,  2005
Acknowledgements:

Thanks to Enola Jones for helpful editorial comments.
Thanks to various people in the writer's group for helpful suggestions.
Thanks to Joanna Novey for her insightful suggestions.
Thanks to email buddy, "Tall and Smart", for constructive criticism.

Thanks to Kathleen Rose and Microsoft Word for help in spell checking.

Thanks to John Otto for several very insightful comments and questions.

Thanks to Dorothy Hendrix for good suggestions.

I give a giant thank you to Lee Raymond and Paula Rumble for their very 
comprehensive editorial comments and suggestions.

Thanks to David and Dawn Wyatt-Rose for chapter by chapter suggestions.

And I thank Pam Russo for her very detailed, chapter by chapter, analysis.


Please send constructive criticisms to kermit@polaris.net

Kermit Rose
1914 Rosedale Drive
Tallahassee, Florida
32303


Qualities for Helen to display in the story

Angel of Peace
Art Angel
Celebration Angel
Fairy of lost keys and missing socks
Feel Better Angel
Filing Information Fairy
Flower Angel
Goddess of Child Care
Goddess of communication
Goddess of enlightenment
Goddess of cats
Green Thumb Fairy
Happy Birthday Fairy
Kitchen Angel
sewing Fairy
Shoe Fairy
Travel Angel


Suggestions for writing of this story


Foreshadow the ending.

Include all the elements logically needed for your conclusion.

Develop the plot as a series of increasingly serious problems.



                      Coming into Power

Chapter 1

	Helen pressed her leg lightly against Joe to get his attention.   
However, Helen's musical voice, just by itself, always caught Joe's 
attention.  "Joe, can I change the radio station?  It's not that I 
don't love classical music.  I do.  However, I really do want to hear 
when my friend Melody leaves the moon, and is on the way back to earth. 
She and the other astronauts have beat Sam Raccetts record set in 2066 
for how long an astronaut has stayed on the moon."  Helen felt 
energized while sandwiched between her best friends Bob and Joe. 
	Joe divided his attention. While part of his mind focused on 
driving them to their concert performance in his ancient white camper 
truck, another part of his mind focused on answering Helen's question.  
"Sure can.  I even give you permission."  He turned his head slightly 
so he could alternately see the road and her reaction.
	Helen laughed.  "I'm sorry I told you about my fifth grade 
English teacher and her 'may I' game."  She reached forward and 
swiftly punched the code sequence needed for her favorite news station 
on the truck radio.  
	". . .waiting for the signal to liftoff.  It's t minus 2 
minutes and counting.   Brad, while we're waiting, tell our listeners 
why we named the lunar module by the name 'Grayjay'."
	After a short period of static, Brad's monotonic radio voice 
began. "We gave it the name Grayjay because of the Canadian grayjay.  
The grayjay, a cold weather bird, adapted itself to the cold weather in 
Canada and along the Rocky Mountains in the northwestern United States.  
One of our astronauts, as a child, lived in Canada, and we decided to 
name the lunar module after a Canadian bird. The fact that the grayjay 
also nests along the Rocky Mountains and this lunar expedition will 
explore mountains on the far side of the moon strikes me as an 
interesting coincidence."
	"Sorry to interrupt, Brad.  It's 15 seconds to liftoff. 
Countdown will begin right away." 
	"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1..."
	". . . Grayjay failed to lift off. Grayjay failed to lift off." 
The announcer's voice held the clear tones of tight emotional control.  
"We know at this time only that the main engines ignited and then 
immediately shut down.  This station will make special alerts as we 
receive them." 
	"What!" cried Helen.  "Something went wrong.  Oh, I hope they're 
okay."
	Bob shrugged his shoulders.  "Well. . . you can't do anything 
about it. You should relax. Don't worry about it."
	Joe laughed.  "Bob, we all cope with anxiety differently. Helen 
worries.  Not everyone can be as rational as you." 
	Bob replied, "I don't want her to worry.  I'm trying to explain 
why she shouldn't worry."  He shifted into his objective mode voice.  
	"Look.  Either your friend is okay, or she is not okay.  If she 
is okay, then we don't need to worry. If she isn't okay then we can't 
do anything about it, so why worry about it?  We should worry only if 
it will help us solve the problem we are worried about. So, why don't 
you distract yourself for now?  Besides, I believe everyone can and 
should be completely rational."
	Joe shook his head. "My friend, you don't understand emotions 
yet. Emotions motivate our responses to perceived situations.   After 
we become aware of our response we can choose whether or not we should 
follow through with it."
	Bob meditated silently for a moment before speaking.  "People 
can and should learn rational emotions. Your emo. . . "
	Helen interrupted, "Joe, you two will never settle that 
discussion. So, don't argue with him now.  Instead, tell me what you 
think happened on the moon."
	"Well I can't.  We only know that liftoff failed.  That implies 
something went wrong with either the liftoff engines, or with the fuel.  
Perhaps Bob does have a point this time.  Let's think of other things 
for a while."
	Helen glared at him for just a second, but then laughed.  "We 
can at least check the news after the concert.  I want to hear it.  I 
need to know that Melody is safe."
        She paused, then continued.  "I know, Bob, you'll just say it's 
so I can decide what I should feel. Well . . .  I can't help it.  I 
have to know!"  
	Bob grinned.  "You know me very well. But that's not what I 
intended to say.  I'm curious about Melody.  Tell me how you know her."
	Helen looked affectionately toward Bob.  "Thanks for asking.  
During my high school years, I formed an anti-smoking organization.  
Someone in our small group found out that Melody, already a famous 
astronaut, shared our concern about the growing power of United 
Tobacco Company.  I contacted her and she actually came to our high 
school to speak to us.  She and some guy named Grant encouraged us by 
keeping in touch with us by video phone the rest of the year.  They 
taught us some history about tobacco smoking.  Smoking rates had 
fallen to about two percent of the population due to the Allen Carr 
clinics that appeared in cities all around the world.  But all these 
clinics closed after their near total success in curing the world of 
smoking.  Several years later, smoking rates begin to climb again, 
and, as we all remember, the tobacco companies then merged into 
United Tobacco Company."
	Bob asked, "Did they tell you how to re-open those clinics?" 
	Helen replied, "No, they knew students would not have the time 
to run such a clinic.  I'm sure they hoped that later we might work 
with them to help.  But I'm still a student.  Perhaps I'll contact 
them later."  
	At this thought, Helen again exclaimed, "Oh, I do hope Melody 
can safely return to Earth!"
	Joe commented, "If I were you, the first thing I would have 
said to Melody is that I liked her name."
	Helen looked puzzled. "Why?"
	Joe grinned.  "Aren't you telling me all the time how much you 
like melodies?"
	Both Bob and Helen laughed at this.  Helen smiled.  "Thanks 
guys.  Now I feel better."
	Helen continued, "We must be close to the concert hall.  Oh, 
there it is!" She pointed straight ahead through the window. "Oh, I 
hope we do at least as well tonight as we did last time."
	As Joe turned into the parking lot, he responded to Helen. 
"Plan on it.  You'll keep getting better and better until you perform 
perfectly almost every time."
	Bob spoke up then.  But, if you don't do better tonight, 
please don't let it bother you."
	Helen smiled.  "Thanks, guys."

	Minutes later, Helen, by leaning against the heavy door of 
the large concert hall, slowly pushed it open. Once inside, she looked 
around the room. Pulling a small black box from her pocket, she 
pointed it at the far walls.  Bob, following her in, very carefully 
placed their beloved instruments on the floor next to her. "How does 
it look?"
	"It looks good, Bob. My sounder box tells me that we'll have 
great acoustics."
	Bob nodded and pointed to his right. "There's their stage. 
It's perfect.  We walk up only two steps and we are on stage across 
the room from the doorway.. Where's Joe?"
	"Right here.  It's not easy to keep up when I'm lugging this 
heavy archaic sound equipment, and you guys only have to carry one 
double oh eighteen sized guitar, my fiddle, and the basket containing 
the donation jar and flyers."
	Bob turned to Joe. "After we get rich, you could buy some 
ultra-light quality modern equipment.  That is, unless you are having 
fun showing off this hundred-year-old stuff that you inherited from 
your ancestors." 
	Joe responded, "Well, I'm only keeping it now for sentimental 
reasons. Besides, it's better quality than anything we can afford." 
	Helen tapped Joe on his arm to get his attention. "Well, Joe, 
you are the tallest and strongest of us.  I thought it made sense for 
you to carry the heavy stuff."  Helen smiled at him.

	Joe looked directly into her blue-gray eyes. "Is zat so? Well, 
I may be strong, and exactly 188 centimeters tall, which is at least a 
centimeter taller than both of you. But I'm no Superman. Which reminds 
me, I have in my truck the Superman comic collection you loaned me.  
Ask me after the concert about it."
	Bob laughed.  "Joe, you too?  I knew that Helen gushed over 
Superman, but I didn't know you cared.  Did you try to fly when you 
were a kid too?"
	"Huh! Well. . .   Before kindergarten, I jumped over a log 
trying to levitate.  Because of that, I got a grass reed stuck in my 
throat about a centimeter from my windpipe."
	"Bob, don't you ever dream of flying?" 
	"Sure.  One time I dreamed I built my own airplane and flew it 
all over town, and people looked up and said, 'Look up in the sky. It's 
a plane!' "Bob grinned in spite of his intention to look serious.
	She smiled in return.  "I never said I thought I really could 
fly.  It's just that when I'm asleep I forget it's impossible."
	Bob shook his head.  "I see." He briefly clapped his hands 
twice. "Well, enough of this.  We need to set up."
	Helen saw a small table near the stage, and dragged it to the 
entrance. Using both hands, she picked up the donation jar from her
basket and placed it on the table.  Next she arranged the flyers that 
advertised their availability for future gigs. Helen paused a moment to 
pick up one of their flyers to admire it.  Bob did a really good job 
when he designed this one.  Their name, "Vocal Strings", almost seemed 
to jump out. She like the way he used musical notes to make up the 
letters.  Below their band name were pictures of the three of them.  
Joe, being the blond handsome guy, stood slightly behind and between 
them. Helen ran her fingers over the three figures in the picture, 
tracing out Joe's wavy blond hair, Bob's curly black hair, and her own 
long straight light brown hair. Sighing, she put the flyer down.  She 
needed to set up the chairs.  
	 "I see you've fixed your broken strings."
	"What?"  Helen turned around to see a young man pointing at 
the flyer.  Helen laughed.  "Oh, you mean our name change.  Yes, we 
are no longer the "Broken Strings."  Every few months we change our 
band name.  We'll probably change it again soon."
 	Helen walked across the room to get the concert hall's chairs 
to set in front of the stage.  The young man followed her, and together 
they set the chairs in neat staggered rows in front of the stage.  When 
they had finished, she thanked the young man and asked, "Could you do 
me a favor?"
	When he responded by looking questioningly at her, she 
continued, "Could you point out the donation jar to new people coming 
in?"
	The young man smiled.  "Of course.  I'll be glad to do it."
	Next, she helped Bob and Joe set up the sound system.  While 
Bob played his guitar, Helen walked through the rows of chairs, 
signaling to Joe how to adjust the sound. 
	During this testing period more people began entering the hall.
Some sat down immediately while others congregated in small groups in 
the back of the hall.  Helen looked to Joe to see if he needed any 
additional sound checks.  Joe signaled the all clear.  But 
unexpectedly, instead of sitting down to play, he followed his all 
clear signal by an exaggerated pointing at the entrance to the Hall.  
Helen turned her head to look.  Two tall men, dressed in very formal s
uits, had just entered the hall.  One of the two wore an unusually 
bright red vest, while the other distinguished himself by his top hat 
and fancy sash belt tied to his side.
	Helen quelled the impulse to tell them that they did not need 
to have such formal dress for this concert.  It would probably only 
embarrass them.  As she drew nearer Red Vest smiled and waved to her.  
She reached them just as Top Hat, addressing his friendly companion, 
complained. "Cato, they don't even have an entrance fee!  It's just a 
donation. What kind of concert is this?"
	Helen stood speechless for a moment, wondering what she could 
say to such an insult.
	Cato's smooth mellow voice showed his agreement with Helen's 
feelings.  "Will, I think having a donation jar is an excellent 
idea."  He extended his hand to Helen.  "I'm Senator Cato Irving.  My 
irritating companion is Senator Will Bellum.  I'm sure we'll both 
enjoy your performance."
	Helen's eyes opened wide.  She had almost insulted an U.S. 
Senator!  Even she had heard of the Senator Cato Irving of the ethics 
committee.  Why were they here?  Surely they were not here just to 
critique her performance?  As Helen shook Cato's hand, she noticed the 
time on his expensive looking watch.  Smiling at Cato, she apologized. 
"Thanks. I don't mean to be short, but now I have to run.  It's time 
for us to start."  As she turned away, she had a second thought. 
Turning her head back to look at Cato, she said, "I'll introduce you 
after the concert."
	As Helen jumped up onto the low stage, Joe's watch chimed to 
signal beginning time. He took the microphone.  "As senior member of 
our group, I get to make the introductions.  I'm Joe Athens.  
Sometimes we call the guitar player Bob, sometimes we call him Bam, 
and sometimes we refer to him as 'just the best guitar player on the 
planet'."  Joe pointed to Helen.  "Helen, our lovely singer, the most 
beautiful lady in the world, also answers to the name 'Hat' Can you 
guess why?" 
	Joe paused, then smiling at the audience, said, "I will give 
you this hint.  Her last name begins with the letter T."
	Taking a firmer hold of the microphone, Joe continued, "Today 
is Saturday, July first, 2090.  Why am I reminding you of this?  It's 
so that when I tell you that today is both Bob's and Helen's birthday, 
you will remember it. Of course, I'm not permitted to tell you what 
year she came into the world." 
	Helen winked at Bob.  They had literally run into each other in 
the doorway of the music appreciation computer lab.  She fondly 
remembered being helped up by Joe as she and Bob untangled themselves 
in the doorway.  Calling them "The Three Musketeers" expressed only 
weakly the extent to which their friendship had since developed.

	After the concert, the trio took their bow with grace, 
accepting the audience's enthusiastic applause.  Helen felt warm with 
pride in her singing today. She glanced over at Bob, and caught his 
appreciative nod; he'd felt it too.
	She reached for the microphone stand with one hand.  "Now I'd 
like to intro. . .  Yow!"  Helen crumpled to the stage floor as a 
monstrous blue spark of light leaped from the direction of the 
microphone stand to her fingers.
	When she opened her eyes many faces crowded her view. 
Darkness still obscured her vision.  A commanding mellow voice filled 
her awareness.  "She's awake!  Give her room!"
	She felt her head with her hands.  "What happened?"
	"Some kind of electrical fault knocked you out."  Bob, looking 
worried and concerned, took her hand.  "You scared us a lot by passing 
out like that.  How do you feel?"
	She looked around.  She found herself backstage sitting on a 
low bench leaning against the wall.  No wonder she couldn't see very 
clearly!  She began to feel a bit better.  "I'll be fine in a minute. 
May I have a glass of water?"
	Joe addressed the crowd around him.  "Thanks for your concern, 
folks.  But now we need to pack up our gear and clear the hall."
	Except for the young man who had helped Helen place the chairs, 
the crowd dispersed, leaving them alone on the stage.  He stood, head 
slightly bowed, looking at them as if to ask permission to speak.  When
Joe nodded his head slightly, he said.  "That electric spark didn't 
come from the microphone.  I saw it come through the window.  It flew 
in a straight line past the microphone stand right into her hand."
	When he saw that their only response were looks of astonishment,
he turned, walked slowly down the steps, and left the hall.
	Meanwhile, Senator Bellum and his companion had walked through 
the exit door on the opposite side of the hall. Senator Bellum said 
quietly to his companion, "She promised to introduce us.  She didn't 
keep her promise."
	His companion smiled. "You know, Will, you can be such a jerk."
	Will heard the smile in his friend's voice. "Yes.  We make a 
good investigative team for the ethics committee.  I jerk the people 
around, and you look for guilty responses.  We've caught more 
wrongdoers than anyone else has." 
	Senator Cato replied, "True, but tonight's singer is not 
under investigation.  We came only to enjoy her singing.
	Senator Bellum answered.  "You are right.  However, we do need 
to maintain our reputation."
	Helen heard their remarks as a silent voice in her head.  
Believing the voices to be only her imagination, she said to her 
friends, "Those guy dressed in formal dress were U.S. senators. Why do 
you suppose they came to our concert?"
	Joe grinned.  "Because I invited them."

Chapter 2

	Later that night Helen dreamed she flew through the air.  She 
flew about 6 meters above and along a highway.  She looked down at all 
the cars and took pride in being able to soar above the crowd.
	She wondered briefly what made her different.  At that instant 
she noticed a blue spark of electricity flying along beside her.  From 
the way it flew, sometimes hovering, sometimes zipping along, she knew 
it was alive.  "Who are you?" she inquired.
	In answer the spark grew brighter and came closer to her.  It 
flew straight to her hand, and entered her fingers.  She felt it travel 
up her arm, into her chest, and then up toward her head.  Helen felt 
dizzy for a moment.  Then the spark flew out through her eye, and 
hovered a few centimeters from her.  A voice formed in her head.  "I'm 
an explorer from another world. I followed your trail.  I absorbed you. 
We are now one person. You fly above the crowd only for this reason."
	"What do you mean? What is your name?"
	"My name is what I am.  What I am is my name."
	"Do you mean you have no name?"  Remembering a naming ritual, 
she placed her hand above the cool blue spark. "I pronounce you 
'Sparky'."
	Then she saw her house below her and dove down to fly into the 
window.  She saw the blue spark follow her in.  As she alighted on her 
bed, it hovered around her. "Sparky, what are you doing here?"
	The blue spark answered silently, "I live here now."
	Helen opened her eyes and sat up in bed.  She turned and looked 
at the clock.  2:35.   "Oh brother", she thought.  Then she lay back 
down and closed her eyes, waiting to go back to sleep.
	"What did that dream mean?" She meditated on her brief dream. 
Did that electric shock have some permanent effect on her?
	"Not in the way you think."  The silent voice surprised her.
	"Omigosh", she exclaimed, "I'm talking to myself. That 
electric shock gave me a split personality."
	"No", said the voice. "You are my split personality."
	"Hey.  I'm the original! How could I be your split personality?"
	"When I absorbed you, I became you. You are now part of me, but 
split off from the rest of me."
	"Does this mean I've lost my mind?"
	 "Of course not.  You are still you.  You still make your own 
choices."
	"You changed me! You made me into a different person?"
	"There's no cause for regret.  We are both much greater than 
we were before we merged. I'm grateful to you. Before you, I could 
barely see your world.  Through you I can know everything about your 
world."
	 Helen thought, "So this is what's meant by a lucid dream.  I 
know that I'm dreaming because what's happening is clearly impossible."
	Helen drifted back to sleep. At the edge of consciousness, she 
heard the silent voice again.  "Nothing is impossible to us."


Chapter 3

	The sunlight reflected glaringly off the beach sand. The trio 
enjoyed their regular Sunday morning stroll down their beach.  They 
didn't really own this section of beach.  But Helen thought of it as 
their beach because they had searched for it and found it.  They 
wanted to find a beach where visits by other people would not spoil 
the natural beauty of the beach.  
	They walked north, Helen in the middle, Joe on her right, 
nearer the ocean, and Bob on her left.   "Look at those seagulls 
wading in the surf. How cute they are!" Helen's voice showed her 
amusement.
	The trio continued to walk up the beach as they talked while 
enjoying the ocean breeze.  Suddenly, Helen turned, walked up the 
steep sandy hill a short distance, and stood still in the loose dry 
sand.
	Both Joe and Bob stopped walking immediately. While waiting, 
Bob entertained himself by looking in all directions, never resting 
his eyes more than a few moments in any direction. Joe chose to turn 
towards Helen.  He admired her beauty, and took a moment to just 
stare. Helen had straight light brown hair that came down to her 
waist, blue-gray eyes, nicely shaped ears, and a very cute nose.  He 
especially admired the way her zest for life beamed out from her. 
	Finally Joe found his voice.  "What is it?  Why did you stop?"
	She gave him a blank look. "I'm just trying to figure 
something out."  Then on impulse, she kicked the sand, and a coin 
flew out, making a soft plop sound as it landed by Joe's feet.
	"Wow", Joe bent over and scooped up the coin.  "How did you 
know about the coin?"
	Helen stared at her friends.  "I didn't."
	Bob replied, "Co-incidences like this happen all the time.  
There's no way she could have known about the coin."

	Bob noticed the approaching beach-walkers first.  "Looks like 
we've got company".
	Joe turned and looked in the direction Bob faced. He laughed.  
"Hey, it looks like our kind of people. They like lonely beaches also.  
I wonder how they found our beach?  Helen, Are there any valuable 
coins in their path?"
	As Helen followed Bob's gaze she remembered how Bob had found 
their beach.  Bob had acquired coastal maps from the national 
oceanographic institute and they had all spent several hours scanning 
the map of the coastline.  Finally,  Bob found this one spot that had 
not yet been developed and might never be developed. Ever since, they 
had walked here each Sunday morning.
	Next, Helen considered Joe's last question. She knew Joe liked 
to tease her, and wondered how she should respond.  Suddenly she had a 
clear vision of the people walking in the distance.
	Her voice took on an odd, far-away quality.  "A man and a 
woman . . . we don't know them . . .  The man has red-orange hair and 
is smoking a cigarette . . .  He's wearing white shorts and . . .  an 
extra large light green t-shirt . . .  with Maxwell's physics 
equations on it . . .  She has short blond hair and is wearing 
flower patterned . . .  matching skimpy bikini bottom and top."
	Bob and Joe looked at each other, then at her.  "All that and 
no really valuable coins?" Joe joked uneasily.
	Helen looked confused.  "Huh?  I'm not joking.  I can see them 
clearly."
	Joe and Bob exchanged glances again. Bob looked troubled.  
"Helen, are you claiming to have super vision now?  It's not like you 
to tease us like this." 
        Joe clapped his hands as he responded to Bob's comment.  "Just 
goes to prove how super Helen really is."  Joe's grin turned into a 
frown as he thought of another possibility.  "Helen, could that 
electric spark that hit you last night have made you farsighted?"
	Helen answered, "Of course not. I didn't think they were that 
far away.  However, I did have a strange dream about Sparky last night."
	Joe merely looked puzzled, while Bob exclaimed, "Who is 
Sparky?"
	Helen continued, "I dreamed I talked to the electric spark 
that knocked me out yesterday.  I named it Sparky."
	Bob grinned. "Now I get it.  I bet the spark said it gave you 
super powers. Will you show us a new super power every day from now on?"
	At that instant, she felt Sparky speak silently to her. "Since 
we became one person, you are as a goddess."  
	Helen shivered.  "What an idea! I thought you didn't read 
fantasy.  What made you think of it?"
	Bob replied, "Well . . .  You do sometimes dream about flying. 
Also, I knew you were very concerned about your friend Melody up there 
on the moon, and the spark giving you super powers would be a wish 
fulfillment dream that you could rescue her."
	She shrugged.  "I don't have wish fulfillment dreams.  Freud's 
dream theory is just another Freudian mistake."
	"Helen!" Joe exclaimed, "You made a pun!"
	Helen laughed.  "I made it by accident."  Helen pointed to the 
approaching beach walkers. "Anyway, let's move upwind of those folks 
so the cigarette smoke won't harm us."
	Bob ran his hand through his dark hair, and shrugged his 
shoulders.  "The wind's coming from the ocean.  We'll have a good 
excuse to go swimming and wait until they reach us.  Then we'll see 
if you are just making this up."
	Helen immediately began to wade out into the waves up to her 
waist.  Bob and Joe followed her.
	As the two beach strollers came alongside them, Bob confirmed 
her unlikely description.  "Gee Helen, even with the recent merger of 
the tobacco companies into United Tobacco Company, only 10 percent of 
the population are smokers.  And those Maxwell equations!  What did 
you see to guess that? I didn't even know you knew any physics."
	Bob paused briefly, then continued, "You don't know any 
physics!  The only explanation that makes sense is that you knew 
these people in advance. You planned this with them!  You told them 
how to get to our beach. Isn't that it?"
	Joe commented, "I don't think Helen would do that.  It's less 
likely than her guessing everything right.  
	Helen didn't hear their comments because she had focused 
intently on the couple walking by.  "Doesn't he know it's against the 
law for people to smoke on the beach? I wish he would put that 
cigarette out."
	As she spoke, a huge wave formed immediately in front of her.  
The wave reached chest level on Bob and Joe as it sped to the beach. 
The strolling couple turned their heads toward the ocean just as the 
wave reached them and doused them.
	"Wow!" Joe said, unable to think of anything else to say.  
	"Well, you got your wish, Helen," Bob laughed.  "That 
cigarette is definitely out now."
	All three friends rushed through the receding waters to the 
beach to see what help the soaked couple would need.  As she easily 
passed the other two, Helen briefly wondered why they struggled so 
hard to wade through the water.
	She reached the couple first.  She observed the man lying on 
his back, with his eyes closed, and the woman kneeling by his side, 
with her hands covering her face.
	As Joe and Bob came up behind her, Helen asked, "Are you okay?"
	The man opened his eyes. He moved his left hand forward as if 
to push them away. Then seeing their response, frowned, and said,  
"Thanks. I appreciate your stopping. I tried to stop a tidal wave. I 
may have broken my wrist again." 
	Helen said, "Can we get you to a hospital?"
	The woman, who had uncovered her face and looked at them 
wonderingly when Helen first spoke, now smiled and asked, "Would you 
do that for us?" 
	Bob answered, "Of course.  We'll be glad to.  We can all fit 
in my car. By the way, my name is Bob and my two friends here are 
Helen and Joe."
        Joe smiled and extended his hand toward the kneeling woman.  
"Provided you tell us how you found our beach."
	The woman grasped his hand, and pulled herself up. As she 
gained her balance, she skillfully turned her grasp of his hand into a 
handshake. "Thank you. You are angels to do this for us.  I'm Angela, 
and this is my husband Victor.  He got the map and directions to this 
beach from one of his friends." 
	Bob glanced toward Helen.  Did she mean Helen?  He asked 
Angela, "Who is his friend?"
	Angela looked sharply at Bob.  "Why would you want to know?  
You don't know him."
	Bob nodded his head. "Right.  Apologies. Now you know that I'm 
no angel.  But you definitely are.  Is Angela your original name? Were 
you always a little angel to your mom?"
	Angela shook her head.  "No, I wasn't."  Then she smiled as she 
said, "I'm pretty sure she never thought of me as her angel.  And, yes, 
Angela is my birth name."
	Angela continued.  "My mom believed God put at least one angel 
to live in every community."
	Bob looked puzzled.  "Then did she name you 'Angela' in honor 
of the local angel?"
	Angela grinned.  "Not exactly.  She hoped that, because of my 
name, the local angel would pay special attention to me."
	Meanwhile, Joe extended his right hand to Victor to help him 
get up.  Victor extended his left hand and Joe awkwardly helped him to 
a standing position.  "I'm glad you changed your mind and let us help 
you."
	Victor's face showed his surprise at Joe's words.  Then he 
laughed.  "Oh no, you misunderstood.  When I signed that I tried to 
push away the water, you thought I meant to push you away.  No, no. I 
never intended that."
	Joe smiled.  Then staring at Victor's bright red-orange hair, 
exclaimed "I've never seen anyone before with your color hair. Did you 
eat so many carrots that the color went to your head?"
	Victor grinned at Joe's question, but didn't say anything.
	But Angela did say something.  "Joe! If you insult my husband 
that way again, I won't want to have anything to do with you."
	Immediately Helen reached out to Angela and softly touched her 
shoulder.  "Angela, I'm sure Joe meant well.  When you get to know him 
better you'll realize that."
	Joe replied, "Gee, Angela, I didn't mean to upset you.  I 
sincerely hope you give me at least a second chance." Joe smiled.
	Angela looked at Joe.  His teasing smile puzzled her.  He 
seemed sincere, but also seemed to be making fun of her.  Did she 
misinterpret his intent?
	Angela shook her head and spoke to the trio. "It's ok. And I'm 
so glad you stopped to help us.  I can't drive.  I didn't know what to 
do." 
	Bob expressed his surprise.  "Why not?  All you have to do is 
steer the car.  Anyone can do it."
	Angela shook her head.  "The first time I tried it, I drove 
off the road into a fence."
	Bob nodded his head.  "Did you figure out why?"  
	Angela replied, "When I saw the fence, I couldn't take my 
eyes off it until I crashed into it."
	"Then you knew that the next time you should keep your eyes on 
the road?"
	Angela paused before answering.  "I waited several months 
before trying again.  The second time when I came to a curve in the 
road, and saw the warning sign, I felt dizzy. I drove right into the 
warning  sign.  Victor persuaded me to try again.  The third time, we 
tried that two lane road into the country side.  I had thought that 
if we took it, I wouldn't have to worry very much about other traffic. 
Ha.  I didn't think about the people who live along that road.  When 
I saw the first car coming toward me, I froze.  If the other driver 
had not swerved at the last instant, I would have hit her.  After 
that I decided that I shouldn't drive a car."
	Joe said gently, "Is it that you are afraid to drive now?  
There are people who can help you with that."
	Angela looked troubled.  "I think it's more than that.  I 
remember that my vision blurred when I saw that car coming toward me. 
And why did I get dizzy when I looked at the curve warning sign?"
	Angela continued, "I don't want to talk about it now. Let's 
go."
	As they walked, Helen talked with Angela. "We're musicians. 
Our band is called "Vocal Strings", but we are thinking of changing it 
again.  I'm just waiting until I hear a better name.  I'm their 
singer, and Bob and Joe play guitar and fiddle."
	Angela smiled as she replied, "I'm an accountant at the 
university union store.  Actually I'm part of the accountant team 
there.  I mainly keep track of inventory and re-order when things 
get low."
	Helen felt the need to do Angela and Victor a favor.  
Irrationally,  she couldn't help feeling as if she had caused their 
problems.  "Angela, would you like me to help you practice driving?" 
	Angela smiled her delight.  "That would be wonderful.  Give me 
your telephone code and I'll call you when we can get together." 
	As Bob started his car, the car radio came on.  "Grayjay is 
still stranded.  So far we have no confirmation as to why.  We only 
have hints that the fuel tanks were damaged.  Tune in the 6:00 news 
report for more." Victor leaned back, carefully resting his injured 
wrist against his stomach.  "It's too bad about those astronauts. I'm 
guessing rocks from space punctured some of their fuel tanks either 
before or after they landed on the moon.  It looks like they are truly 
stranded on the moon."
	"Not good! Do they have extra fuel available?" Helen showed her 
worry.
	Victor replied, "I don't know.  Even if they did, they would 
have to fix the leak in their empty tanks before refueling them."
	Joe said, "Perhaps we have a spare rocket ready to rescue them."
	Bob chimed in, "Joe, I think it's only in fiction that there 
are spare rescue rockets. This is only the 21st century.  Safety 
concerns still make the rockets so costly that they can't have more 
than one at a time."
	When they arrived at the hospital, Bob pulled the car up to 
the front door of the emergency room.   "Victor, you and Angela go on 
in.  We'll find a parking place."
	Helen spotted a possible parking space, and a problem.  The 
car in the adjacent space straddled the line taking up too much of the 
parking space they wanted.
	Then she had a wild idea.  "Hey Bob, I bet the three of us 
could move that car over a little bit."
	Bob laughed, "Okay, if you say so. Do you have super strength 
now as well as super vision?"  
	Bob stopped his car just short of the two spaces.  Then led by 
Helen, the three of them stood, with bent knees, under the back bumper 
of the other car, with Helen in the middle. "Now at the count of three, 
lift and shift to your right. One, two . . .    three."  
	As Joe and Bob grunted, straining to lift the car, the car rose 
and slowly moved about 30 centimeters to the right. Bob and Joe looked 
at each other in astonishment.
	Helen ran around to the front of the car.  "Hey, come on you 
guys, don't stand there all day admiring your work.  Come help me lift 
this end of the car."



Chapter 4

	Melody Armstrong, standing on the moon's surface, watched the 
dials of the oxygen extractor.  They had lost essential oxygen when the 
liftoff failed.  This oxygen extractor had been one of the new devices 
they were to test.  Now their lives depended on it working well.
	The oxygen extractor operated very simply. Melody would put 
moon rocks into the machine.  Then Hydrogen reacted with oxygen 
compounds in the moon rocks, producing water.  Next an electric 
current split water into oxygen and hydrogen.  Unfortunately, not all 
the water and hydrogen could be recovered. 
	First some of the water stuck to the walls of the machine and 
to the remains of the moon rocks. Second, Hydrogen reacted with other 
compounds in the moon rocks. And some of the hydrogen simply leaked 
through the supposedly air tight joints of the machine. 
	Her suitphone rang.  Melody smiled when she saw first the 
Earthlink signal, and then Grant's face on her phone monitor.  "Hello, 
Gaunt", Melody said as she opened the connection.
	"Hello, Melody.  I don't have much to report on my 
Anti-tobacco broadcast site as yet.  I have made some progress 
setting it up, but I'm not having any luck finding someone to program 
it."  Grant didn't comment on Melody's use of his nickname instead of 
his proper name.  Grant had gotten used to people first calling him 
gaunt Grant, and then eventually, just Gaunt.
	Melody expressed her confidence.  "I know you'll solve this 
problem as quickly and as easily as you solve all problems that come 
to you.  Did you check out that high school group we worked with 
several years ago?"
	Grant replied, "Yes.  None of them remained activists.  It 
seems that college life kept them too busy.  Even their leader, what's 
her name, has filled her days and nights studying music."
	Melody laughed.  "I'm guessing that you don't have your 
computer name directory handy.  Otherwise, you'd know her name.  It's 
Helen Troy."
	Melody continued, "It seems to me that many people would jump 
at the chance to program an internet broadcast website.  Is it true 
that you invented the protocols for internet broadcasting?"
	"Not quite.  The basic rules were set a hundred years ago. I 
merely organized and simplified them so that we could license and 
control the content of internet broadcasting.  And for five more years, 
I keep the sole right to grant licenses for internet broadcasting, 
provided the courts agree with my choices.  But now I have a question 
for you."
	Melody guessed what Grant wanted to know.  "The oxygen 
extractor is working well.  We should have enough oxygen for liftoff 
in a couple of days."
	"Great!  How is the hydrogen holding up?"  
	Melody expressed her worry.  "I'm only losing about one part 
in a hundred of the hydrogen for each cycle of the oxygen extraction. 
It looks like we'll have enough hydrogen left for liftoff but just 
barely."  
	"Hmmm . . .   It would be good if you found some rocks rich 
with water.  Then you could obtain more hydrogen and make sure you had 
more than enough hydrogen for liftoff.  I think that the survey showed 
some water bearing rocks about a mile from you."
	Melody laughed.  "When you read about the presence of water, 
you didn't bother looking at how much water was found, did you?"
	Grant's face showed his embarrassment.  "You are right.  I 
guess I jumped to the conclusion that it would not have been reported 
if it were not of practical importance.  Silly me.  I should be used 
to what other scientists find important by now."
	Grant continued, "But you don't really need to worry about 
running out of water do you?"
	Melody agreed.  "That's correct.  Lucky for us that we can 
recycle our water supply.  We could stay here almost indefinitely 
except that we would run out of food in one more day.  We might have 
to go hungry for a day or two before we can lift off."


	Grant changed the subject. "Did you discover why the Oxygen 
tank failed at liftoff?"
	"Sure did.  But the oxygen tank didn't fail.  The hydrogen 
tank is the one that failed.  We had re-designed the hydrogen tanks 
to cut off if the airflow exceeded the safe amount. However, the 
hydrogen tanks still had settings calibrated for Earth.  On the 
airless moon, because the air initially flows more quickly, we needed 
to re-calibrate.  We've fixed the problem now."
	"Then why did you lose oxygen?"
	"Because the oxygen continued to flow into the reaction 
chamber until the computer system responsible for monitoring the 
reaction shut off the oxygen tank."
	"I see." Grant said it in a way that made him sound like an 
expert on the moon rocket.
	Melody grinned.  Gaunt may not be a rocket scientist, but he 
definitely knew his electronics.  Melody exclaimed, "Hey Gaunt, you 
haven't asked me about your invisible alien detectors!"

	Grant gave one of his rare smiles. "That's right. I haven't.  
That's because I can see from my instruments that you've already 
deployed them.  I can assure you that no invisible aliens have landed 
on the moon anywhere near you."
	Melody laughed again.  "You know that I don't believe in your 
invisible aliens.  Unlike you, I never saw a saucer flying toward the 
full moon suddenly vanish. I'm surprised that you convinced the boss 
to let us bring your detectors to the moon.  How are they supposed to 
work anyway?"
	"They continuously emit low intensity radio waves to get a 
radar picture of the surroundings.  They monitor the distance between 
themselves and points on the moon."
	Melody said,  "I still don't get it.  How will knowing the 
distance between the detector and places on the moon tell you if there 
are invisible aliens?"
	Grant replied, "The way an alien would make itself invisible 
would be to make any light or, in this case, radio waves, go around it.  
The radar signals would suddenly go a longer distance to reach their 
target.  It would be as if the background target suddenly moved 
farther away.  Yet there wouldn't be any corresponding Doppler shift."
	Melody said, "Now I get it.  You check to see if everything 
stays in the same place.  If something appears to move, but doesn't 
really move, you know an invisible alien has intercepted your radar 
signal."
	Grant agreed.  "Yes.  I will let you know if any aliens, 
visible or invisible, have landed in your neighborhood."
	"Okay, Grant.  It's a deal. See you when I get back home."  
Melody smiled as she cut the connection.  She wondered how such a 
brilliant person like Gaunt could believe in such nonsense as 
invisible aliens.  She remembered again that many times Gaunt had 
sold electronic systems to Supermarket chains at cost in order to get 
his designs spread across the country.  Were any of them alien 
detectors?

Chapter 5

	Bob sat in the school cafeteria, occasionally taking a bite of 
lasagna, as he transposed several sheets of music using his circular 
"key changer."  Just as he finished transposing the last line, his 
cell phone rang.  
	"Hello Bob, this is Angela.  Is Helen there yet?"
	"No, not yet?  What's up?"
	"I needed to tell her, tell all of you, that you can come at 
14:45 to make your recording."
	"Whoa!  What recording?"
	"Didn't Helen tell you?  I asked Victor to do you a favor, and 
make a recording of you three performing your music.  Victor thinks he 
can give you a chance to earn lots of money by selling your music 
worldwide."
	Bob hesitated a moment before speaking. "How much would it 
cost.  We wouldn't be able to pay you any time soon."
	"We're not asking for money.  You didn't ask for money when 
you chauffeured us to the hospital. We're just returning the favor."
	"Thanks.  That's very nice of you, Angela.  I'll tell the 
others."
	As Bob gathered up his music and shut down his music laptop 
computer, he saw out of the corner of his eye that, across the room, 
Joe had just entered the cafeteria.
	Joe waved, and rapidly traversed the room to sit across from 
Bob.  Bob pushed across the table to Joe the two milks, peanut butter 
sandwich, apple and banana that he'd earlier gotten for him.
	Just then Helen strode into the cafeteria to meet her friends.
	Bob spoke as she approached.  "Hello Helen. Are you going to 
get lunch?"
	She replied, "I'm not hungry."
	Joe teased, "Are you sure it's not just that you don't want to 
go down the line because everyone will notice this?"  Joe brushed his 
hand lightly upward against Helen's mismatched solid yellow shorts and 
dark red blouse.
	She glanced down at her clothes and smiled.  "No, of course 
not." Then she frowned as she remembered.  "I'm still a bit riled from 
getting this speeding ticket on my way over here."  She tossed a 
yellow slip of paper down onto the orange tabletop.
	Joe looked puzzled. "But you don't have a car!"
	Helen smiled ruefully.  "That's true, unless you count when I 
drive Bob's car.  The traffic cop interrupted my jogging to give me 
this ticket."
	Bob picked up the ticket and looked closely at her.  "You look 
serious. Surely you're joking. Why did he give you the ticket?"
	 She replied, "I think he got mad when I told him he should 
get his speedometer fixed."
	Joe looked wondering at her.  "And why did you tell him he 
should get his speedometer fixed?"
	Helen grated out her answer.  "It tagged me as jogging twenty
meters per second along the sidewalk." 

	 Joe reached across the table, and took the ticket from Bob.  
"Wow.  Hey!  This isn't really a speeding ticket.  It's only a warning 
ticket.  It says that if you're a public nuisance again, you'll be 
subject to a fine. May I keep this ticket for my 'Helen Archives'?"
	She smiled at him.  "Of course you may. Thank you."
	Joe continued, "Did you find any really valuable coins while 
you were outrunning a racehorse?"
	She looked at him, a look of puzzlement crossing her face.  
"Why would I?"  As she realized Joe's meaning she grinned.  "Quit 
teasing me.  
	Bob changed the subject.  "Helen, don't you have some other 
news for us?"
	"Indeed I do.  Remember that guy we met on the beach and took 
to the hospital? "She paused as she looked at them to see their 
reaction.  At Bob's smile and Joe's inquisitive look, Helen continued, 
"Victor owns a recording studio, and he's asked us to be recorded on a 
disc, free!"
	"What!" Joe exclaimed, "How can you be so lucky?"
	 Bob answered for Helen. "Angela convinced Victor he should do 
us a favor."
	Joe laughed.  "I suppose this illustrates how women run the 
world behind the scenes." He smiled his teasing smile.
	 Joe continued, "And I bet that Victor jumped at the chance 
to meet Helen again.  So, when do we get to do this recording?" 
	Helen said, "I don't know.  Angela's supposed to call me to 
tell me the exact time."
	Bob recalled his previous conversation with Angela and 
responded, "We're supposed to meet Victor at his home, right after our 
next tutoring session, at 14:45. He's setting things up, even as we 
speak."
	Surprised by this comment Joe stared at Bob. "You sly dog. You 
knew all the time, and didn't even tell me!"
	Enjoying the moment Bob smiled, it was not often he could tell 
Joe news.  "I didn't know until just a few minutes ago. Angela called 
me."  
	Bob looked at his watch and added, "We'd better hurry if we 
want to use our scheduled time at the music lab."
	 The three friends hurried to the music lab. As Helen answered 
the pretest questions on the computer, she found herself daydreaming 
about the recording she would be doing afterward. She didn't notice 
that she'd automatically answered correctly all the pretest questions 
about pre-tonal, tonal and post-tonal theory.  If she had been more 
alert, it would have surprised her because she had not yet studied 
the topic.
	After the computer session, Helen met Joe and Bob in the 
parking lot.  Bob already sat in the camper truck on the passenger's 
side. Joe held the driver's side door open for Helen so she could 
slide in to sit in the middle.
	The trio arrived at Victor's exactly on time.  "Hello folks.  
Glad you could make it.  Come in."  Victor held the door open for them 
with his left hand. While Victor had not put his right arm in a sling, 
the trio easily noticed that he tried to not use it for pushing or 
pulling.
	"Let me show you my equipment."  Victor led them into a small 
room whose walls were covered with glass cabinets holding electronic 
equipment.  "I designed the door and walls to make this room 
soundproof."
	"You will perform there." Victor pointed to three small stools 
in the center of the room.  Taking care to not bump their instruments, 
Bob and Joe each perched on a stool, and Helen stood between them.
	"We will be ready in exactly twenty seconds."  Victor flipped 
a switch, and then pulled a cigarette package from his shirt pocket.
	Helen interrupted.  "Victor . . .   I'm allergic to cigarette 
smoke."
	Victor looked at her in surprise as he turned slightly and  
streched his left arm to flip a switch to his right.  He looked at 
the cigarettes in his hand, and slowly put them back into his shirt
 pocket. "Are you really allergic to cigarette smoke?"
	"Actually", she admitted, "Everyone's allergic to cigarette 
smoke. It's just that some people don't know it."
	Victor stood silently a few seconds.   "I wondered about that.  Do 
you really think I'm killing myself with these cigs?"  He looked 
expectantly toward Helen.
	Helen could only nod her head.
	Victor stood silently a few moments as he reconsidered why he 
smoked.  Finally, he said, "Well . . ., shall we resume the countdown?"  
He flipped some more switches.  "Twenty, nineteen . . . "  At ten he 
stopped counting and used his fingers to show the number of remaining 
seconds.
	Joe and Bob, at the same time, began to play.  Helen's lovely 
voice harmonized immediately with their playing. Victor smiled as he 
listened to them play. They performed so beautifully! Surely this 
would make the top hundred.
	With the recording completed, Victor spoke to them. "It's a 
very good recording. Thank you all.   Now I need to record your 
answers to a couple of questions. Next I can submit everything to my 
producer.  If he likes it, then we all might be a bit richer.  I'll 
let you know when Grant sends me his evaluation."
	Victor led them into another room obviously designed for 
photography.  He instructed them to sit on a long couch and look 
expectantly into the video recording camera.
	After they were seated, Victor said, "Now I will ask two 
questions, and each of you will answer the question in turn."
	"The first question is: 'Why did you become a musician'?"
	Bob answered first.  "On my 7th Birthday, my grandfather gave 
me a piccolo.  The next year, in a school play, I used it to play the 
ending part of 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.' Later I learned how to 
play other musical instruments."  Bob turned to Helen, swinging his 
open hand toward her as if to say, "your turn."
	 Helen said, "I've always loved music. My mother sang 
professionally, and she sang to me all my life, including before my 
birth. That may be why I have a natural perception of intervals.  It 
wouldn't have made sense for me to go into any other field of study."
	Joe grinned at Helen before taking his turn.  "I had a high 
school sweetheart, a beautiful girl in the church choir.  I wanted to 
impress her.  So I began to study the fiddle.  But she moved to 
Sweden."
	 Then Joe smiled as he added, "But now I know how to play the 
fiddle."
	Victor returned his smile.  "Good. "Then he asked his second 
question.   "What do you want to be doing one year from now?"
	Bob answered first. "I have my eye on being an instructor in 
the school of music here at the university."
	Next Helen answered.  "I see myself as joining some opera 
group.  I had expected that when I finished school, I would become an 
opera singer. If that doesn't work out, I can always support myself by 
teaching music."
	 Finally, Joe answered.  "I haven't thought about this yet.  I 
will be out of school.  Perhaps the three of us would continue to play 
as a band, and support ourselves by playing at various special 
events."
	After the interview, Victor gave Joe the first disc already 
made by his recording equipment. "Here's your copy of the recording of 
the music and interview.  Later today, I'll email a copy to Grant so 
he can evaluate your performance."
	Joe replied, "Thank you, my good friend.  We appreciate your 
faith in our music."
	Victor combed his red-orange hair with his hand. "I wanted to 
do you guys a favor for helping me out yesterday.  And it looks like 
I'm doing myself a favor also.  Thank you again."
	Bob turned to Helen, "Are you ready to go?"
	"You and Joe go ahead.  I promised to give Angela some driving 
lessons."
	Bob smiled as Angela suddenly appeared in the doorway. "And 
here she is.  She must have known we were done.  Helen, you are just 
too good for your own good. See you later at Joe's place for our 
regular practice session?"
	"Sure.  See you in a few hours."  She gave them goodbye hugs.
	As the guys drove away, Joe asked, "Bob, will you help me 
locate opera singer prospects for Helen?"

Chapter 6

	Helen asked Angela, "Did you have any particular place in mind 
for test driving?"
	As Angela hesitated, Victor started to clasp his hands 
together.  Then as pain coursed up his right arm, he decided to 
skip the sign language. "Why don't you practice at the abandoned 
military school.
	"That's a good idea.  Let's go, Angela."  Angela picked up her 
round baggy white purse and led Helen out the door to Victor's dark 
green pickup truck.
	Helen noticed a large cardboard box in the back of the truck.  
"Is it okay if we leave that box in the truck?"
	"Sure. That's only an empty box Vigor, I mean Victor, planned 
to take to the recycling place later." 
	Angela's face flushed red as she apologized. "I sometimes 
forget and use my pet name for Vigor, . . .  oops, there.  I did it 
again!" 
	Helen smiled her understanding.  "I like it!  How did you find 
Victor?"
	As they climbed into the cab of Victor's truck, Angela 
answered, "I didn't.  He found me.  Six years ago, he attended a 
summer engineering music conference in Belgrade, Brazil at the hotel 
where I worked as a maid."
	Helen interrupted, "Belgrade?  I knew about the Belgrade in 
Europe, but I didn't know Brazil had one."
	Angela paused, then replied, "It's not a very old city. I 
think they built it about thirty years ago and named it after the 
European city."
	Angela continued her story. "Vigor had forgotten some 
important papers in his room and had rushed back to get them.  I had 
just finished straightening the blankets on his bed.  He walked in 
just as I walked through the door to leave.  We ran into each other.  
When he saw me, he stopped just in time, but I didn't.  Maybe I 
wanted to run into him."  Angela smiled at the memory.
	Helen echoed Angela's smile. As she made herself comfortable 
sitting in front of the inset steering wheel, she noticed that the 
truck had one long couch seat just like the newer models had.  She 
asked, "Angela, did this couch seat come with your truck originally?"
	Angela replied, "I don't know.  We bought it second hand.  The 
couch seat and the three seat belts were in it when we bought it."
	Helen acknowledged Angela's answer by nodding her head. Then 
she pointed to the drive buttons on the dashboard. "If you wish to 
go faster, push the forward button.  If you want to go just a little 
bit faster, then just jab it.  It you want to go a lot faster, hold 
it in. If you need to slow down, push the back button or step on the 
brake.  But be careful with the back button.  If you use it to slow 
down by holding it in, after you stop, you'll find yourself going in 
reverse.  It's better to stop by stepping on the brake.  And this red 
button on the left is the off button.  Press it after you've parked 
the car to turn off the engine."
	Helen waited while Angela mentally processed the information. 
"Seems simple enough. Actually Victor explained that part before.  He 
even told me that I could start the engine by giving three quick jabs 
on either button. Also, he told me I should never hit the panic 
button."  Angela pointed to a three centimeter by three centimeter 
square set in the middle of the dashboard.'
	Helen frowned slightly as she looked at Angela.  "Well, if 
you see yourself about to run into another vehicle, you should hit 
the panic button.  It tells the truck's computer to take over 
driving the vehicle. You usually want to do this in case of 
emergency.  The computer can decide how much to brake or speed up 
quicker than any person can. After the emergency is over, the 
computer stops the car so that the driver can resume control." 

	Angela acknowledged by nodding her head back and forth. "But 
what I need help on most is actually driving."
	"Yes, of course.  Let's go."  Helen gave the forward button 
three quick jabs.
	A computer voice responded, "You are not authorized to drive 
this vehicle."
	Both Helen and Angela laughed out loud at their forgetting 
about this lock on the truck.  Through her laughter Angela managed to 
address the computer. "Attend to me computer V S."
	The truck computer answered. "You have my attention, Angela"
	Angela replied in a formal voice. "Please authorize the 
current driver to drive this vehicle today and all future days."
	The computer acknowledged, "Authorization is granted." 
	When they arrived at the abandoned school, Helen stopped on 
the side road that ran around the parking lot.  Helen opened her door, 
and looking at Angela, moved her hand in a counterclockwise motion to 
signal that they should change places. 
	As Angela climbed into the drivers seat, she asked, "Now what?  
what should I practice doing?"
	"Since you know the basics, let's just drive on this side road 
that runs around the parking lot until I tell you to stop."
	"Okay", Angela agreed.  "Remember, you promised to not 
criticize my mistakes."
	"Of course.  I'll merely have you repeat until you get it 
right." Helen smiled to show her friendly intent.
	Angela pressed the speed forward button on the dashboard, "I 
hope I don't run off the road."
	Helen looked sharply at Angela.  "Angela, please focus your 
complete attention on the road where you want the truck to go.  This 
is very important."
	Angela gave Helen a weak smile.  "I'll try."  After she'd gone 
half-way around the circle, she turned her head to talk to Helen.  As she 
did so, sudden dizziness made her jerk the steering wheel.
	Alarmed, Helen reached out to tap Angela on the Shoulder.  
"Angela, stop!"
	Angela stepped hard on the brake, and the truck lurched to a 
stop." 
	Helen spoke as calmly as she could manage.  "You just did the 
first brakes test.  Let's see if we can stop more smoothly."
	Helen got out of the parked truck and removed the large empty 
packing box from the back of the truck.  She placed this on the ground 
about a meter off the road.
	Helen walked over to where Angela still sat in the driver's 
seat.  She placed her right hand on Angela's shoulder and looked her 
directly in the eye.  "Angela, please don't take this as criticism.  
I want you to stay calm, keep your eye on the road, and keep control 
of the wheel when you have to turn your head."
	Suddenly, Angela felt something flow from Helen's fingers.  
She felt it travel upward from her shoulder into her neck, then 
disappear.  Angela felt an amazing calmness.  "Helen!  What did you 
just do to me?  I don't feel nervous anymore."
	Helen stepped backward in surprise.  "I didn't do anything.  
But I'm very glad you aren't nervous anymore. Are you ready to start 
again?"
	At Angela's nod, Helen said,  "Drive around the circle.  
When we come back here, stop at the box."
	The first time Angela stopped at the box with a noticeable 
jerk.  Over the successive tries her stops become smoother.  Finally, 
Angela said, "I've got it".
	Helen replied, "Indeed, you do." She smiled at Angela. "How 
come this truck runs so quietly at idle?"
	"You noticed that?" Angela showed her vicarious pride, "Vigor 
takes very good care of his truck.  What do we do next?"
	"Drive into the parking lot.  We'll practice pulling into 
parking spaces."
	Angela consistently parked over a line, putting half the 
truck in the adjacent parking space.  After four such tries, Helen 
asked Angela, "Angela, how are you deciding when to turn the wheel?"
	Angela replied, "I turn the wheel when I see the first 
boundary line go past."
	"I see.  Angela, next time I want you to try this. Pick a 
parking space. Try to see both the first and second boundary lines at 
the same time.  Turn the wheel when it will put the truck exactly 
midway between the boundaries.  Drive as slowly as you need to do this."
	After ten more tries, Angela felt confident. "Hey, I've got 
it.  Thanks Helen.  I'll practice driving as much as I can this week.
Come next week and I'll show you how much better I've gotten at 
driving."
	"Sure. You can begin your practice by driving back home."
	Angela began the familiar drive back home.  After only a few 
blocks, she saw a man trying to hitch a ride.  Her previous practice 
still sharp in her mind, Angela stepped gently on the brake pedal.  
The truck slowed and stopped. 
	Helen lowered her window, and asked the man, "Where are you 
going?"
	 The man leaned over to peer into the cab.  Then he 
straightened up and addressed Helen.  "Just throw me your purse."  
As he pulled out a wicked looking gun he added, "And be quick about 
it."
	As Angela jabbed the forward button, and held it in, Helen 
heard a silent voice in her mind saying, "It's okay now."  At the 
same time the man apparently threw the gun at her.  She flinched, 
but the gun had already vanished.
	"Good going Angela!"  Helen looked back toward the man as the 
truck continued to accelerate away.  The man just stood there staring 
at the truck.  After a few blocks Angela slowed the truck, pulled 
over to the side of the road, and stopped.  White-faced, she turned 
toward Helen.  "I think I need to lie down for a moment.  He might 
have shot us."
	Helen opened her door as she faced Angela, "slide over and 
lie down while I drive us back."
	As she walked around the truck to the driver's side, she 
wondered about their escape.  It had been impossibly easy.  "That's 
because I took his gun away from him and ate it."  Helen stopped in 
mid-stride. Then thinking the silent voice to be just her 
imagination, she resumed walking.
	"I am real.  Think of some tests to prove it to yourself."  
Helen smiled at this.  How sophisticated could her imagination get?


	Chapter 7

	As they drove back home, Angela recovered her spirits.  "Helen, 
could you stop at the Vanity Shop?  I'd like to buy a replacement for 
a mirror I broke last week."
	Helen glanced over at Angela. Angela smiled as she sat up and 
refastened her seat belt around her.  Helen replied, "Just tell me 
where to find the Vanity Shop."
	Angela pointed through the windshield.  Just turn left at the 
light, and go about a block to the shopping center on your right.
	Helen replied, "I remember it now."  She looked ahead to the 
traffic light.  It looked strange. She saw the red arrow for the left 
turn signal but also saw, as if in a tunnel, a sequence of red arrows 
that at the end of the tunnel changed to green.  Bemused and 
distracted by the strange looking red light, Helen didn't stop for it.
She drove into the intersection just as the red arrow signal changed 
to green left arrow.
	Their truck entered the intersection at the same time as 
another car.  Angela screamed, "No! No! No!" as she saw the car 
headed right toward them.  Almost by accident she swung her arms 
around and swatted the panic button on the dashboard.  Immediately, 
All the side windows rolled down.
	 Meanwhile the passenger in the front seat of the car, Mike 
Long, reached out calmly and pressed the panic button while the 
driver, Dan Austin, belatedly pressed the brake pedal as hard as he 
could. 
	Mike watched the action as if in slow motion.  He barely 
noticed the windows of the car swiftly roll down.  He did notice two 
women in the green truck and watched the driver put her left hand 
through her open window as if she could stop Dan's car with one hand.
	Mike stared at Helen, fearful that the next second would see 
her hand crushed.  Instead, both vehicles, under control of their 
computers, attempted to avoid the collision.  
	The car made a 450 degree counterclockwise turn.  At 180 
degrees through its 450 degree rotation, when it faced away from the 
truck, the car accelerated forward briefly.  At 360 degrees through 
its rotation, Mike felt the brakes take hold.  Mike stared forward at 
the truck.  The car completed its 450 degree rotation, and he needed 
to look through his open side window to keep the truck in view.
	The truck made a full 360 clockwise degree rotation.  At 90 
degrees through its rotation, it accelerated away from the car for a 
brief instant. At 270 degrees through its rotation, the brakes took 
hold.
	Both vehicles had slowed significantly, but not enough to 
completely avoid collision.  Mike could see it now.  In another half 
second the side of the truck would strike their car.  He attempted to 
slide as far as he could away from his side window, but his seat belt 
jerked him to a stop.
	The expected impact never came.  Mike, catching his breath, 
looked wonderingly through his open side window at the green truck.  
Both vehicles had stopped.  He could see Helen and Angela through the 
truck's open side window.  They were staring at him.  Mike did not 
notice that Helen's hand rested lightly on his open window ledge.  
Mike grimaced, and weakly waved to Helen.  
	With the vehicles stopped, Dan saw that they needed to clear 
the intersection.  He triple punched the forward button on the 
dashboard to start the engine.  He looked to his right to check on 
the truck.  He noticed the driver of the truck holding on to their 
window, while staring at Mike.  He thought to warn the driver to 
remove her hand, but immediately forgot about it because the 
immediate need to clear the Highway intersection dominated his 
thoughts.
	Dan glanced upward at the traffic light.  It flashed red in 
all directions.  Of course! The car's computer had transmitted the 
emergency code to the traffic light.
	Dan drove his car forward through the light, turning left, 
back the way they had come, so he could park his car in that shopping 
center they had just passed.  
	In a daze, Helen started the truck, followed Dan, and parked 
the truck in the adjacent space to the right of the car.  She looked 
to her left to meet Mike's stare.
	Dan opened his door, and walked around his car to address 
Helen.  "Are you alright?"
	Helen broke off her stare with Mike, and looked at Dan.  
"We're fine.  Both of us are fine.  We were all extremely lucky this 
time.  We should take it as a lesson for next time."
	Angela quickly opened her door, so she could get out to face 
Dan.  "You drove very recklessly!  We could have all been killed!  
It's a miracle that we're not all dead! Your guardian angel won't 
always be there to save you."  Turning to inspect Victor's truck she 
said,  "I don't understand how we escaped the collision?"
	Helen wondered too.  What really happened?  Then she heard or 
imagined she heard a quiet voice within her say, "I stopped the 
vehicles from colliding." She snapped her head sideways to get rid of 
the voice.  Could anything be done to stop her silent auditory 
illusions?
	Mike and Helen emerged from their respective vehicles at 
the same time.  All four of them now stood in front of the two 
vehicles.
	Mike addressed Helen and Angela. "I'm Mike Long, and my 
companion is Dan Austin. Dan is the CEO for United Tobacco Companies. 
I'm his right hand man, responsible for public relations and shooting 
any trouble that arises.  We came a week early to vacation before the 
big event."
	Helen frowned, but politely asked, "What big event?"
	But Angela, excited, answered.  "Oh, you must mean the big 
Shoppe Faire next Monday at the fairgrounds.  Almost everyone who has 
anything to sell will be there advertising their wares.  I myself will 
be there representing the university Union store.  Helen, you should 
come to my booth at the Faire."
	Helen shook her head.  "First I've heard of it.  I don't think 
I'm interested in the faire."
	Angela turned toward Helen.  "You won't be free that day?"
	Helen replied, "Oh, I'll come see you, Angela.  But I have no 
intention of seeing these two gentlemen ever again."
	Mike responded, "I understand. We almost killed you.  I'm 
sorry. I don't blame you for never wanting to see us again."
	Helen shook her head.  "No.  That's not it at all.  I hate 
tobacco and cigs.  I won't have anything to do with people selling the 
cigs.  I wish you understood that cigs kill people."
	Mike started to respond, but then changed his mind.  
He signaled Dan and they both got back into their car.  Helen and 
Angela watched them drive out of the shopping center.
	Angela turned to Helen.  "Now I feel relieved. Helen, what do 
you think just happened?  How come we aren't dead?"
	Helen frowned.  "I don't know, and I don't want to think about 
it.  Let's go buy your mirror." 
	As they approached the Vanity Shop, they saw a small boy 
sitting on the sidewalk in front of it.  As the boy looked up at them, 
they saw the tears in his eyes.  Helen asked, "What's wrong?"
	The boy started to cry again, and through his tears explained.  
"I came to buy a present for my mom, but just as I got here, the wind 
blew my M-note out of my hand. I couldn't see where it went.  Now I 
don't have any money to buy my mom's present."
	Helen smiled. "I think I can fix that."  She reached into her 
pocket and pulled out a flat wallet.  Opening it, she pulled out her 
last M-note. Giving it to the small boy she said, "This will replace 
the one you lost."
	The boy looked up at Helen, and smiled his thanks.  "Oh, Thank 
you very much!  Are you the Goddess of Beauty?"
	"What?"  Both Helen and Angela spoke as one.
	The boy pointed to a billboard behind them.  "Isn't that you?"
	Helen and Angela quickly turned to look in the direction he 
pointed. They saw the billboard set about four  meters off the ground 
on the edge of the parking lot.  On it a picture featured a woman 
dressed in a toga like an ancient Greek citizen. She cradled a 
shallow dish of white stargazer lily flowers in her two hands while 
looking up at the night sky filled with stars.  The Caption at the top 
of the Billboard read, "The goddess of beauty shops first at the 
Vanity Shop."
	Angela exclaimed, "Oh my goodness Helen, she looks just like 
you!"
	Helen addressed the young boy.  "No, that's not me.  I think 
the goddess isn't a real person."
	Angela added her comment.  "Sometimes Helen acts like an 
angel, but I know that she's a real person."
	The boy nodded his head.  "That's what I thought.  But when I 
saw you, I wanted to make sure."  The boy turned to go into the shop. 
Helen and Angela followed him in.  
	As they entered the shop, Angela rushed over to speak to the 
woman at the checkout desk. "Who was the model for your goddess of 
beauty ad?"
	Surprised, the woman looked up at Angela.  "We didn't have a 
model.  My husband paid a friend of his to find the most beautiful 
woman in the world.  Myself, I think it's kind of silly, and haven't 
paid any attention. Why do you ask?  Do you know someone who it looks 
like?"


Chapter 8
	
	Later Helen met Bob and Joe for music practice, greeting them 
with the announcement, "I almost got killed today, twice."
	Stunned silence greeted her announcement.  After a few moments 
Joe replied, "I'm very glad you survived."
	Bob followed with "What happened?"
	Helen replied, "I ran a red light, and almost drove Angela's 
truck into another car.  Luckily the truck's panic computer programs 
saved us. I don't quite understand how.  Earlier than that, a gunman 
threatened to shoot us if I didn't give him Angela's purse."
	"And I daydreamed Sparky talked to me again."
	Bob laughed at this.  "And what did Sparky tell you?"
	"Sparky claimed to have eaten the gunman's gun and to have 
blocked the collision.  Sparky also said we should do some tests to 
prove it exists."
	Bob commented, "Well, perhaps your subconscious suggested 
these tests because it wants to exorcise this Sparky."
	Joe added, "Have you thought of any tests to prove or disprove 
that Sparky is real?"
	Bob responded, "I know some tests.  They won't prove anything 
for sure, but they may help show how unlikely Sparky is."
	Bob continued, "Helen, will you cooperate with us in these 
tests?"
	At her nod, Bob said, "Okay, what I want you to do is pretend 
you know Sparky is real, and you can talk directly with Sparky. I'll 
ask Sparky some questions, and you tell us its answers."
	She nodded assent.  Bob asked, "Sparky, can you do 
arithmetical calculations faster than Helen?"
	She said, "Yes, I can."  Helen looked surprised at her own 
words.
	Bob echoed her surprise.  He paused a moment. "Tell me what's 
eight to the eighth power."
	"Sixteen million, seven hundred seventy seven thousand, two 
hundred and sixteen."
	Joe grabbed a pen and his notebook.  He wrote down a number at 
random and showed it to Bob.  "Ask her to factor this number."
	Bob looked at the number and took the pen and notebook from 
him.  "Sparky, tell me the prime factors of 9823862349264."
	"Sixteen divides it. The odd prime factors are three, twenty 
three, and lastly, eight billion, eight hundred ninety eight million, 
four hundred twenty six thousand, and forty one."
	Bob, pen still in hand wrote down the numbers as Helen spoke. 
Then both of them looked at Helen in awe.  Bob said "Joe, will you 
have your calculator confirm these numbers?"
	Joe picked up his pocket calculator from his work desk, 
punched in 9823862349264, and then pressed the factor button.  The 
calculator confirmed Helen's answer.
	Joe turned off his calculator, and turned to her. "Well super 
lady, which is it?  Are you a super fast calculator, or does Sparky 
really exist?"  
	Helen frowned.  "I don't think either of those are possible. I 
don't know."
	Bob said, "Well I'm out of ideas for the moment.  Joe do you 
have any suggestions?"
	Joe replied, "This is a toughie . . .  Wait, I have it.  Let's 
ask Sparky to prove itself."
	Bob turned to her, "Okay Sparky, what can you do that would 
prove to us you exist?"
	In answer, Helen yelled as she began to float toward the 
ceiling. Bob stared at her as she floated upward.  "This is not 
happening.  This is not happening. I'm dreaming it."
	When she reached the ceiling, Joe voiced his question.  
"Helen, how did you do this?"  
	She yelled down, "I'm not doing this!  Hold on a minute."  
For a long while they watched Helen floating near the ceiling with 
her eyes closed and an expression of total amazement on her face.
	Finally, she floated back down to stand between them. "Bob, it 
helped tremendously that you had me pretend that Sparky is real. It 
help make it possible for me to accept that Sparky really is real."
	"Sparky really is a person.  Sparky can control 
gravito-inertial and electro-magnetic fields.  I see everything much 
more clearly now.  I am Sparky!  Sparky is me!  Yet, Sparky is more 
than me."
	Bob raised his eyebrows.  "Really? why did Sparky evolve the 
ability to levitate?"
	Helen looked forward without seeing.  "Sparky's family lived 
in a neutron star. Their metabolism is based on sub-atomic particle 
interactions."
	Bob said, "I see . . .    Just kidding."
	Joe said, "Then you really did have supervision yesterday!  
How well can you see now."
	Helen replied, "I can see in all directions at the same time. 
Whenever you move, I actually see where you will be in the next few 
seconds.  I realize now that's part of the reason I had the collision 
accident.  I saw the green light in the future, before it turned 
green.  At the time, I didn't know how to interpret what I saw."
	Bob responded, "It's not possible to see into the future!"
	Helen replied, "You're right.  I don't really see into the 
future.  It's just that I see what I anticipate, and I can anticipate 
very accurately almost everything now."
	Helen continued, "And I can see or feel the exact distance 
between objects that I look at.  You and Joe are standing 78.125 
centimeters apart. I notice so many details that I never noticed 
before!"
	"All my senses are hyper!  I hear your heartbeat.  I can tell 
you the chemical composition of things I smell or taste.  I caused 
the ocean wave that sprained Victor's wrist again. And I cured 
Angela's proneness to dizziness.  I didn't realize it at the time."
	Helen continued, "And I know everything there is to know about 
human biology!  When Sparky absorbed me, I learned everything that 
Sparky learned.  Sparky learned the complete basis of life."
	Bob voiced his skepticism.  "Maybe Sparky knows everything 
about your biology, but I doubt he knows everyone's."
	Helen reaffirmed her claim. "Sparky understands all possible 
variations of my biology. Now I also know every emzyme that might 
have been used in any person's body and I know how they work together 
to maintain life."
	Joe stared at Helen, wondering if this person before him still 
remained the Helen he knew and loved.  He addressed Helen, "If you and
Sparky are now one person, are you still a woman?"
	Helen smiled warmly at Joe.  "Would you still love me if I 
weren't?  But you don't need to worry.  Sparky has not changed my 
gender. Sparky is neither male nor female.  However Sparky does feel 
feminine to me.  But of course, she should.  Sparky is me!"	
	After a pause, Bob said, "Well . . .    Either I'm dreaming 
this remarkably lucid dream, or we have a very interesting time ahead 
of ourselves."
	Helen laughed.  "How can it be your dream.  It must be my 
dream."
	The three friends stared at each other for a few seconds.
	Finally, Joe broke the silence.  "Glad to hear that you are 
still the most beautiful woman in the world.  Now you truly are the 
goddess of beauty."
	Sudden insight came to Helen.  "Joe! You were the one who 
arranged for my picture to be on the billboard by the vanity shop!"
	Joe grinned.  "Indeed.  I thought it only fair for your face 
to launch a thousand sales."
	Helen blushed.  "At least my name isn't on the billboard. 
Most people won't know its a local person."
	Bob interjected, "Unless you become famous because of your 
superpowers.  What can't you do?"
	Helen paused.  "I don't know.  But I feel that I can do 
anything that I can imagine doing. Why don't you test me?"	
	Joe said "Could you make us rich by crushing coal to diamond?"
She paused a moment with the blank look in her eye.  Then she opened 
her hand out toward him palm up, fingers curled slightly.   A small 
diamond immediately took shape in her cupped hand.  She shook her 
hand gently, as if she were rolling dice.   Joe watched, fascinated, 
as the diamond slowly grew larger than any diamond anyone had ever 
seen.  He did not expect it when Helen tossed the diamond toward him 
and he almost missed the catch.  He lifted the diamond closer to 
study it carefully. "Tomorrow we'll take this to the jewelers for 
evaluation!"  He put the diamond in his pants pocket.
	Bob said with evident tension, "We see you can levitate and 
make things from nothing.  Sparky told you it could manipulate 
electricity and magnetism.  Can you, for example, make Joe's phone 
ring?"
	Joe's cell phone rang.  Joe looked at Bob, shrugged his 
shoulders and pulled his phone from his pocket, and placed it to his 
ear without bothering to look at his caller ID.  "Hello . . . "
	"Hello", said Helen's voice on the phone.  Joe spun around and 
stared at her.
	"This is fun", said Helen and the phone voice at the same 
time.  "Now I can carry my cell phone in my head.  I'll let the 
telephone tracking system know where I am anytime I travel so that 
everyone will be able to reach me any time of day or night, no matter 
where I am."
	Joe stared at her a moment longer, then sighed and pressed the 
disconnect button.
	Helen continued.  "Thanks guys.  Earlier I had hoped you would 
help me forget about Sparky.  I didn't expect you to prove to me that 
Sparky not only exists but has also become one with me.  Thank you 
again for helping me.  Bob, earlier you suggested that I dreamed 
sparky because I wanted to make sure Melody is safe.  But now I 
really can make sure Melody is safe." She smiled her gratitude.
	Bob stared at her for a few more moments.  Then he turned to 
Joe.  "This is too much for me. I need a rest. I'm going home. 
Our practice session tonight is canceled.  Please call me tomorrow 
morning.  Helen, do you want to stay awhile, or do you want me to 
give you a ride home?"
	She smiled.  "Maybe I'll just fly home."
	Bob's laugh showed his tension.  "You do that . . .   On 
second thought, if people see you fly,  they will be asking you to 
teach them how.  Maybe you'd better learn how to be invisible first."
	Helen said, "Invisible."  Then she began to turn transparent 
and fade from view.
	"No! This can't be happening." Bob yelled as he clenched his 
fists.  He spun around and walked out of the house without saying 
another word.
	Joe, although excited, spoke more calmly. "Helen!  Are you 
making the light go through you?"
	She reappeared.  "No.  Sparky said the light goes around us."
Then Joe and Helen walked out to his porch, just in time to see Bob 
drive away.
	Helen sighed as she said, "Well . . .  I know how Bob feels."
She turned to look at him.  "See you tomorrow morning."  
	Joe reached out to catch Helen's hand.  "Bob made a good 
point.  You shouldn't let everyone know about your powers.  With your 
good nature, you'd be doing super favors for everyone in the world, 
and have no time for yourself."
	Helen paused, thinking it through. "Perhaps You're right.  
But I think I don't really have cause for worry.  Who would believe 
that I'm practically a goddess now?"
	Joe smiled.  "You've always been a goddess to me.  But be 
careful.  If someone who has public credibility discovers you, and 
announces you, you'll have thousands of people asking you for favors. 
You've always done anything people have asked of you, provided it 
fell within your power.  And now you have apparently unlimited power.  
Please be careful.  Please keep your powers a secret."
	Helen nodded, pulled Joe to her, and gave him a lingering 
goodbye hug.  Then she fell upward into the sky and faded out of 
sight in seconds.  Only a slight breeze signaled her departure.


Chapter 9

	Melody watched the group assemble into the main chamber of the 
moon rocket.  Abner, the team leader, looked worried.  Melody wondered 
what could possibly worry Abner.  She had thought Abner never worried.  
The other three astronauts took their places.  Carol sat directly 
across from her, next to Abner.  Calvin sitting on her left showed 
his impatience by shifting his weight almost constantly.  Jonathan, 
sitting on her right, simply looked forward directly at Abner.  
Melody imagined that anyone but Abner would have felt nervous at 
Jonathan's stare.
	Abner cleared his throat.  "I've just received an update from 
Earth.  They want us to lift off a day early."  Abner held up his 
hand to ward off the expected questions. "I know that you think this 
isn't possible.  But it is, provided we change our flight plan and 
leave non-essential gear on the moon."
	"We'll take a coasting orbit back to earth.  Instead of 
taking a direct path back, we'll simply reach moon escape velocity, 
and fall into orbit around Earth.  Then it will be a simple matter to 
refuel the Grayjay from the Earth orbiting space station."
	Calvin jumped to his feet so quickly that he had to grab a 
support to avoid flying to the ceiling. "But why?  We wouldn't get to 
Earth any sooner.  If we waited until we had more fuel, we could go 
faster.  We might even get there quicker if we waited."  Calvin looked 
toward Melody as he said this last.
	Melody nodded slightly to indicate that Calvin had the right 
of it.  Then she asked Abner, "What's the real reason we are asked 
to leave a day early."
	Abner's face turned slightly pink. After a few moments, he 
sighed, and said, "The president wants to make an Independence Day 
speech as we lift off.  He wants to use our liftoff as part of his 
speech."
	Melody turned to look at her neighbors.  Jonathan scowled his 
feelings.  Calvin looked pensive.  Carol seemed about to ask a 
question, and Abner's face showed his readiness to tackle their 
objections.
	When Abner turned toward Carol, she blurted out," But why?  
We'll have to coast three days in this small craft just so the 
president can make a nice speech!"
	Abner nodded his head affirmatively.  "Consider this to be 
only a request.  The final decision is up to all of us.  Think it 
over.  Let me know later what you decide."

Chapter 10

	Early the next morning, Helen, sitting on the roof of Joe's 
apartment, patiently waited for him to wake up.  At last he stirred, 
opened his eyes, rolled out of bed and dressed.  Only then did she 
float down through the ceiling into Joe's bedroom.
	"Wow", said Joe as he noticed her floating down.  "So, now you 
can go through things."
	Helen's feet touched the floor. "Not exactly.  Sparky eats the 
things we go through, then afterward restores them as they were.
	Joe pulled the diamond out of his pants pocket.  "I've had 
second thoughts about trying to sell this diamond.  The clerk would 
want to know where it came from."  He handed the diamond back to her.  
"Here. Take it back."
	She took the diamond in her hand. Joe stared at the diamond 
as it slowly sank into her open hand and vanished.
	"So . . .  How come you're here so early? If you had come 
any sooner, I would have still been in bed."
	She smiled, but didn't mention her waiting for Joe to wake 
up. "I didn't go home.  First I visited the university union store.  
Some people will be a little disappointed that now the store's out 
of cigarettes."  Helen grinned. "Then I flew to the memorial hospital 
and secretly cured everyone in immediate danger of dying."
	"Wow!  And how long did that take?  Did you do any surgery? I 
wonder how much money the store lost on the cigarettes. "
	"I converted the cigarettes to 'Helen's super nutritious 
chocolate covered peanut butter patties'. I also converted the 
display cases to accurate plastic representations of healthy and 
unhealthy lungs. The store didn't lose any money.  I made enough of 
the peanut butter patties to exactly pay for the cigs I took away."
	"Gee, Helen.  Don't you know there's no such thing as super 
nutritious chocolate covered peanut butter patties?"
	She grinned, "Not until I invented them."
	Helen continued her story. "At the hospital, none of the 
serious patients were in need of surgery. Besides, with today's 
technology, if surgery were the answer, they wouldn't be in danger 
of dying.  For most of the patients,  I only needed to make minor 
improvements in their metabolism and give them the particular 
nutrients they needed. After taking a few minutes to cure the 
serious patients, I helped the other less serious patients."
	Helen paused, then looked directly at Joe as tears began to 
form in her eyes. "Joe, I want to visit the hospital regularly from 
now on. Two of the patients would have died of emphysema. Cig smoking 
caused their emphysema.  I don't want anyone else to die from 
emphysema like my uncle Ed did."
	Joe stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Helen and 
held her until he felt her move to disengage.  As they separated, 
Joe held her shoulders and looked her directly in the eyes.  "You 
know, Helen, now that you can do just about anything, you can do 
something to stop people from smoking."
	Helen's face lit up. "Thanks Joe.  You are right!  I will do 
something!  But right now, I want to give you a present."
	Helen held out her hands palm up.  Joe watched in amazement 
as several tiny copies of musical instruments grew in her hands.  
After a few seconds, Helen handed them over to Joe.  "I remembered 
your wishful look when we looked at instruments like these last month."
	Joe smiled his biggest most sincere smile.  "Thank you Helen.  
But please don't make a habit of granting my every wish.  I could get 
spoiled that way."
	Helen laughed.  "Oops.  Perhaps when my powers aren't such a 
novelty, I'll be more careful."
	Joe grinned.  "But since you do have these fantastic powers, I 
have an idea how we can use them to earn some petty cash."
	Helen looked puzzled, and waited for Joe to continue. "Since 
you can make these tiny instruments, you can repair busted musical 
instruments and equipment.  We can repair musical stuff at less than 
half the price of any competitor.  How does that sound to you?"
	Helen laughed.  "So now you want me to make full sized musical 
instruments and equipment! Should I start with your sound equipment?  
I can make it a lot lighter now.  Do you want me to advertise for 
you?"
	"Ah, no.  Not yet.  And I don't need or want the whole world 
to know.  I'll just tell a few of my friends on campus, and let them 
know they can tell others about us.  I don't want this to be a big 
business.  We can ask Bob if he wants in on it too.  Oops, I'm 
supposed to call Bob right away."
	When Joe made the call, Bob answered on the second ring. "Hey 
Joe.  I'm sorry I didn't make it out to your place last night.  I must 
have forgotten.  Well . . .    I didn't totally forget.  I had one 
heck of a dream about being at your place!"
	Joe echoed, "A dream?"
	Bob answered, "Yah.  I picked up on Helen's dream.  I dreamed 
she had gained all sorts of super powers.  Can you imagine?  I never 
dreamed impossible things like that before."
	Joe paused, wondering what he could say. "Eh Bob, did you know 
you left your guitar at my house?"
	Bob responded, "I don't think so.  I think its here."  
He looked on the shelf where he usually put his guitar.  "It's not 
here!"
	Joe replied.  "That's because it's here."
	Bob responded, "Thanks for letting me know.  Don't yet 
remember when I left it.  Why else did you call me?"
	Joe replied, "You aren't awake yet, are you?  Today's our 
fourth of July gig.  Do you want to meet us over here, or should we 
come pick you up?"
	Bob remained silent a few moments. "Might as well come pick 
me up.  I'll be finished with breakfast by the time you get here."
	Joe replied, "Okay.  See you in about twenty minutes."
	When Joe and Helen reached Bob's home, they saw him studying 
his guitar books and swinging on his front porch swing.  Bob jumped 
up and gathered his books when he saw them.  He then dashed out to 
the white camper truck. Helen opened the door for him, and he leaped 
into the cab.
	"I've figured out some possible songs for us to do."  Bob 
named his candidates and asked them their opinions about it.
	Helen said, "Well those are all good classical fourth of July 
songs.  I like the lyrics of some of them.  And I want to start off 
with a couple of songs I just wrote."  She handed Bob some music 
sheets.  "And here are the music sheets for them."
	He took the sheets and put them in his folder while still 
looking at her.  "Tell me how you came to write these songs."
	"Remember, on the beach, when Angela felt insulted by Joe's 
comment about Victor's hair?  Well, I thought about it, and decided 
to make up songs about insults and friendship.
	Bob looked at the songs she'd just handed him. He nodded in 
appreciation.  "Yes.  These are good. I'm surprised you didn't 
include some anti-cig songs."
	Helen nodded her head.  "Yes.  I wanted to include some, but 
couldn't figure out how to fit them into the fourth of July theme."
	Bob replied,  "Yes.  I see how that would be difficult. You 
said you liked the lyrics of some of the songs I chose.  Does that 
mean you won't sing the ones you don't like?"
	"Which would you rather I do: Change the lyrics of a song I 
don't like, or not sing it?"
	Bob replied, "I would rather you not sing it of course.  If 
you change the lyrics, then you should change the tune also. And of 
course you should sing your own songs first.  Which of my songs do 
you like the lyrics to?"
	"I like 'Designs in the sky', 'Whose birthday is it', 'Our 
Country's Birthday", and 'Yankee Doodle'."
	Bob moved those songs to just below her music sheets.  After 
he did this, he asked, "Joe, do you agree with her about the choice of 
songs."
	He answered, "Sure do.  I agree with almost everything Helen 
does of course."  He smiled at both of them.
	As Bob closed his folder of music sheets he looked out the 
window.  "Here we are at the park already.  I wonder if the stage 
will be out by the lake like last year."
	Joe turned onto the one lane driveway that entered the park.  
"We'll know in a couple of minutes."  They followed the driveway down 
and around the park until they reached the parking lot by the lake.
	"Well, look at that!  They didn't put the stage by the lake, 
but on the lake!  How are we supposed to get out to it?"  Joe didn't 
answer his rhetorical question.  The arrival of a busload of park 
service employees to the lake dock answered his question for him. 
Joe shook his head once in a "come this way" gesture, and led the way 
down to the dock.
	As they came to the dock, the park service employees prepared 
a ferryboat for use.  After about fifteen minutes, one man started 
the ferryboat's engine, and all but six of the employees left the 
dock to prepare the rest of the park for the holiday programs.  The 
remaining six employees stepped onto the ferry, and found seats for 
themselves.  One of them took the pilot's seat. 
	Immediately after boarding Bob moved to the back of the 
ferryboat where, by standing up, he could get a good view of the 
ferryboat's forward direction. He remained standing and supported 
himself by one of the metal bars connecting floor and ceiling. He 
stared in the direction of the floating stage in the middle of the 
lake.
	Joe called out to him, "Hey Bob, are you in a hurry to get 
to the stage.  We are early you know.  Besides, nothing will happen 
until we get there."
	Bob replied, but Joe could not hear his reply.  Turning to 
Helen, he said,  "I can't hear him.  Is it because he's in the back 
of the boat?"
	Helen replied, "Yes.  He said that he's looking at the 
stage."  Let's go to him.
	Bob turned to watch his two friends walk up to him.  "I'm 
just thinking about their set up."  He pointed to the stage.  "It 
looks as if they set up the sound equipment yesterday.  One advantage 
of a big gig like this is we don't have to bring any of our own sound 
equipment.  Of course the disadvantage of a big gig like this is we 
aren't allowed to use our own more familiar sound equipment."  Bob 
grinned.
	Helen laughed.  "Maybe I should personally inspect their 
sound equipment to make sure it is up to par."
	Joe added, "We will have plenty of time to do that.  We are 
scheduled to begin in about 40 minutes.  Although I suspect we should 
just stay out of the way while the park guys run the sound checks."
	Bob replied, "Bet they won't do it as well as you and Helen."
	Helen giggled.  Why Bob, you actually made a compliment."
	Bob traded glances with Joe, then replied, "Oh, you noticed.  
Bob Paused, then continued.  "Actually I made it accidentally.  Did you 
like it?  If you did, then after the concert, I can figure out lots 
more."

	Helen Laughed, "Bob! You surprise me.  Are you taking 
silliness lessons from Joe?  But you can flatter me some other time.  
There's something I need to do as soon as possible.  I'll leave right 
after our gig.  What about you two?"
	Joe guessed what she had to do.  "I didn't have any plans for 
myself.  I presume you are leaving immediately after the gig to make 
sure your friend Melody gets back to Earth safely."
	She smiled.  "Yes.  I won't need you to give me a ride of 
course, so you are free to stay here all day or not as you please.  
I'll be back maybe this weekend and we can talk then about the 
astronauts' safe arrival back on earth."
	Bob looked strangely at her, but said nothing.  His face 
showed the conflict in his mind.  Did Helen really have super powers?  
No, of course not.  That's a silly dream! 
	Joe also noticed Bob's discomfort. "Hey Bob, what's bothering 
you?"
	Bob shook his head, started to say something, then shook his 
head again.  He looked toward them and saw that both were looking 
expectantly in his direction.  After a few moments, Bob said, "Helen, 
are you . . ."  His voice trailed off as he found it impossible to 
continue.
	"Bob, you didn't just dream about Sparky giving me 
superpowers.  Sparky really does exist." 
	Bob shook his head negatively.  "That's impossible!"
Helen smiled, and pulled her friends into a three-way hug.  "Let me 
show you Sparky's story."
	An image formed in both Joe's and Bob's mind at the same time.  
Musical food in the form of light and motion swirled all around them.  
Helen's silent voice-over carried the information they needed to 
interpret the images.  Both Bob and Joe feel they are Sparky.  They 
feel the feelings Sparky felt. It's as if they are the ones living 
in the neutron star.
	They live in the neutron star of Sparky's original home. But 
the star will soon collapse into a black hole.  It's necessary to 
leave.  The neutron star is so close to collapse that to escape, 
everyone must fly directly upward away from the center of gravity.  
It's lucky that we discovered contra-gravity fields before final 
collapse.  
	It's time to leave.  One of Sparky's friends tries to follow 
their path.  As they fly away from their star, the friend is lost 
from view.
	The image shifts.  Suddenly the neutron star is no longer 
visible, and stars are whizzing by.  A dim star appears directly in 
front.  They plunge directly into it.  The food isn't as rich here as 
at home, but it will do. They slowly travel all the way through the 
star.  As they exit the star, they hear a music that reminds them of 
their home star.  This is impossible.  Nothing lives in this section 
of the galaxy.
	They follow the music trail.  There is a slightly thicker 
cloud of matter at its source. Helen's thought explains that they 
are looking at the Earth. They plunge into the cloud that contains 
the source.  It's just ahead of us. The music stops.  No matter, 
we've located the source.  Now to absorb it so we can examine it.
	The images faded from Bob and Joe's mind.  Helen smiled at 
them as they looked groggily at her.  "Sparky thought she traced the 
source of the music to me.  The music that Sparky heard came from 
the Earth itself."
	Bob studied Helen carefully.  "You look the same as always. 
This is still so incredible.  Are you sure you haven't changed?"
	She returned the smile.  "I've changed a lot, but basically 
I'm still the same person.  The only difference is that now I can do 
anything I can imagine. I refused to believe it myself until you and 
Joe proved Sparky to me.  Then I had to believe. Now I understand. 
I am Sparky.  Sparky is me. Now I can fly to the moon to make sure 
my friend Melody is safe."


Chapter 11

	The Grayjay had launched successfully.  They were now coasting 
through space, falling into orbit about Earth.  It will take two and a 
half days to complete the fall.
	Melody released her restraints and prepared to float around the 
cabin in zero gravity.  She had prepared for this moment. From the 
storage bin next to her bunk she pulled cloth and metal wings that she 
had made the previous day.  Attaching the wings and looking upward, she 
launched herself toward the ceiling. 
	Seconds later she bumped against the ceiling.  Using the wings 
to push against the air, she swam into the center of the room, and 
pivoted. She had placed herself exactly where she wanted, over two 
meters away from any wall.
	For a while, Melody just enjoyed spinning and moving through 
space using the makeshift wings.  She looked down.  In the absence of 
gravity, down meant in the direction of the floor.  She saw Calvin 
walking across the room using the magnetic shoes to keep himself on the 
floor.  Abner, Carol, and Jonathan were seated at their workstations.
	Melody heard her phone ring.  She had left it on her bunk. So 
she called out,  "Calvin, could you toss me my phone?"
	Calvin grinned, changed his direction to walk over to Carol's 
bunk, carefully picked up Carol's phone, and pitched it to her with an 
expert baseball like pitch.  It landed exactly in the palm of Melody's 
outstretched right hand. 
	As she very slowly spun around from the impact of the phone, 
Melody pressed the receive button.  Grant's image formed on the cell 
phone monitor.  "Hello Gaunt, What's up?"
	Grant said, "I'd like you to do me a favor.  Pull the TV 
monitor out of the wall and open the back panel.  Find a red toggle 
switch and flip it."
	Melody replied,  "I will, after you tell me why."
	Grant sighed.  "Ok. The red toggle switch will activate the 
invisible alien detector inside the Grayjay.  I didn't expect it to 
ever be used, so I put the switch for it in the back."
	Melody laughed. "I shouldn't have been surprised.  Ok, I can 
toggle your switch, but tell me anyway why you put the invisible alien 
detector circuit in there in the first place?"
	Grant said, "I can explain that part easily.  I use a prototype 
circuit for all my devices.  Long ago I constructed a general circuit 
that does almost everything that I would like a monitor system to do.  
Naturally I incorporated some of my alien detectors into it.  Whenever 
I need to design a new monitor system, I start with my prototype 
circuit, and make minor adjustments to customize it."
	Melody hovered her finger over the disconnect button. "Oh, I 
almost forgot.  Why do you want to turn on the invisible alien detector 
inside the Grayjay?"
	Grant paused.  Then he said, "Just before the Grayjay launched, 
my instruments, the ones you deployed earlier on the moon, observed an 
invisible alien land on the moon, and approach the Grayjay. I couldn't 
detect it at launch or after launch.  I'm considering the possibility 
that you have an alien stowaway on board."
	Melody laughed again. "I guess I didn't really need to ask.  
Ok, I'm on my way."  She ended the call, placed the phone on her belt 
hook, and looked for the closest wall. Propelling herself to the 
nearest wall, she lazily landed feet first, then used the brace of the 
wall to propel herself speedily back to her bunk.  There she put the 
wings back in the storage bin.  She would have fun with those later.
	Slipping on her magnetic shoes, Melody went to the TV monitor, 
disengaged it from the wall, turned it around, and found the red toggle 
switch.  She flipped it, and the put the TV monitor back in its wall 
space.
	The word "scanning" showed briefly on the monitor.  Then a 
picture of the inside of the cabin showed from the point of view of the 
monitor.  Consequently, the monitor looked like a mirror.
	Only now the monitor showed a pink globe about two meters in 
diameter floating near the ceiling right next to where Melody had been 
playing in midair.  
	By now the others had noticed Melody's antics and were staring 
at the monitor.
	Calvin looked at the monitor, looked up at where the pink globe 
supposedly floated, and saw nothing unusual.  He nodded at Melody, and 
then removed his phone from his belt and casually pitched it in the 
direction of the pink globe as shown on the monitor.
	The pink globe image on the monitor easily evaded the 
corresponding image of the thrown phone.  Calvin's phone bounced off 
the ceiling, struck a wall, bounced off the floor, and returned to 
within his reach.  He retrieved his phone and stuck it back in his 
belt.
	Calvin looked at the others.  "Anybody else have any ideas?"  
Everyone except Carol just stood there staring.  Carol shook her head 
in the negative. 
	For a few more seconds everyone stared at the space above. 
Then a vibrant feminine musical voice startled everyone.  "I have 
decided to speak with you.  I didn't at first intend that you know my 
presence. Now I must reveal myself more than you have already seen. 
Know that my intentions are peaceful. Perhaps you can pretend I'm not 
here."
	Nobody moved.  They all waited to see what would come next. And 
then they saw a ghostly form of a young lady, standing on the floor 
near the center of the cabin, slowly become more and more solid. 
Finally Helen stood fully visible before them.
	Melody yelled, "Hel . . .", when she recognized Helen.  She cut her
exclamation short because she thought she should wait to see if Helen 
wanted people to know her name.  How did Helen gain the power to 
become an invisible alien.
	Jonathan nudged her elbow.  "Melody, I've never heard you 
curse before. Although I admit that the situation merits it.  Myself, 
I'm inclined to think she's an angel from heaven rather than a demon 
from hell."	

	The both turned their attention to Helen as she smiled and said, 
"I let you see me because I didn't want you to worry.  Originally I 
thought I could just ride along invisibly until you landed safely back 
on Earth."  
	Helen continued, "I know you have questions. If I can answer 
your question, I will."  She looked over to Melody, wondering what her 
reaction would be.  
	Calvin spoke first.  "How did you get here?  How did you make 
yourself invisible?"
	Jonathan got his question in before Helen answered Calvin's 
question. "How can you survive in space without a spacesuit?"
	Helen smiled.  I flew to the moon from Earth, and entered your 
craft just as it took off from the moon.  I make myself invisible by 
making the light go around me.  I don't need a spacesuit because I can 
make a bubble of air all around me."
	Calvin grinned. "Care to elaborate on that?  Why can you do 
these things?"
	Helen returned the grin.  "I absorbed an alien from another 
world.  The merger extended the abilities of both of us."  
	Calvin's face showed both frustration and amusement.  He slowly 
nodded his head affirmatively.  "Just like that?  Are you going to tell us 
what's so special about this alien? "
	Melody echoed Calvin's feelings.  "I do hope you will explain 
more.  Are you one of Grant's invisible aliens?"
	Helen laughed.  "Melody, it's good to see you again!  Sparky is 
alien, but doesn't have any flying saucer.  Although we could make one 
if we wished."
	Helen looked serious as she continued, "If Grant believes I'm 
an alien, he might announce it to the world press, and it could cause 
trouble for me.  I'd prefer that Grant not know about me being here. I 
seek your friendship to ensure that he doesn't find out about me being 
here."
	Abner took a step toward Helen, turning his head slightly so he 
could see both Helen and Melody at the same time.  "Melody, do you know 
this young lady?"
	Melody paused.  Looking thoughtful she said, "Her name is Helen 
Troy.  I met her six years ago.  I don't have any idea how she came to 
be our invisible alien."

	Jonathan spoke up.  "You say that you want to make friends with us 
so we won't tell Grant.  Isn't that kind of risky.  What's to stop us 
from telling everyone about you"
	Helen turned to face Jonathan. "Well, unless you tell Grant, 
who might be one of the few people who'd believe you and would be
believed by a lot of people, I'm not worried.  I hope that you will 
choose to not tell Grant about me.  But whatever happens it will be 
your choice.  I will do no more than ask."
	Melody suddenly remembered the Scanner.  "But Grant's seeing 
you right now on his scanner!"  She turned toward the scanning monitor. 
	Helen replied.  "No problem.  The scanner isn't seeing me.  
Now that I'm aware of the invisible alien scanner, and how it works, I 
can make myself invisible to it."

	Jonathan walked forward to Helen, and extended his hand.  "You 
have my promise.  I won't tell."  When Helen extended her hand, and 
gave him a firm but gentle handshake, Jonathan expressed his surprise. 
 "I do believe you are just what you seem to be, a quite human young 
lady."
	Then Carol spoke, "You said you intended to ride invisibly 
until we were safe on Earth.  Did you come here to make sure we made 
it back?"
	Helen smiled.  "I didn't know your risks until I got here.  I 
prepared myself for almost everything except Grant's monitor showing my 
presence. Then I decided that it would be better for you to know a 
little bit about me than for you to be worried sick over invisible 
aliens."
	Then Abner voiced his concern.  "What story are we to tell on 
Earth? Grant has his recording of an invisible alien aboard our vessel. 
Do you want us to deny his recording? What do you want us to say?"
	Helen looked at Abner, and then at each of the others before 
answering.  Then she spoke slowly and carefully. "I won't ask you to 
outright lie.  I ask only that you refrain from telling what you see 
and hear from me right now.  Grant is mistaken.  I'm still very much a 
human being.  I don't want Grant to think I'm an invisible alien. I 
don't even want him to know of my existence. I give you a dilemma that 
only you can resolve."
	Calvin unhooked his phone and pitched it toward Helen.  Helen 
instinctively caught it and then smiling, pitched it back in perfect 
imitation of Calvin's pitch.  Calvin smiled, and then said, "You 
passed the test.  Do you still wish to ride with us until we reach 
Earth?"
	Helen's smile widened. "Yes, of course I do.  What test did I 
pass?"
	Calvin tapped his phone.  "When I threw the phone at you, you 
didn't duck. And you tossed it back to me just as if we were two kids 
playing baseball.  I'd say that pretty much shows your humanity, or at 
least your friendliness."
	Helen smiled. "Thanks.  How about the rest of you? Will it be 
ok with you?"  As she saw answering nods and smiles, she added, 
"Great!" 

Chapter 12

	Angela slowed her pace as she approached the entrance to the 
student university union store. She no longer noticed the computer 
door security monitor and took it for granted that the door would open 
automatically as she approached it.  As she entered, she quickly and 
systematically examined the shelves for the cursory inventory that she 
did every day she had worked here.
	Everything seemed to be in order.  She pivoted on her toe and 
started to walk to her office.  Then she saw the new items behind the 
salesclerk's counter. What in heaven's name is that?  She strode 
quickly around the counter to take a closer look at the racks of candy 
peanut butter patties that Helen had left there two nights earlier.  
Where did these come from?
	Just then Angela's supervisor entered the store.  Angela waved 
a peanut butter patty at her.  "Betty! Look at this!"
	Betty took the patty from Angela, and held it up to read the 
inscription on it.  "Helen's super nutritious peanut butter patties."  
She opened it and took a bite.  "Its delicious.  You should try one.  
Or did you already try one when the order came in?"
	Angela shook her head.  "But I didn't order these.  I don't 
know how they got here!"
	Betty took a step backwards.  "So, we need to find out who 
ordered it without consulting you."
	Angela shook her head again.  "No.  That's not possible.  I'm 
the only one authorized to actually place an order.  Besides, I stayed 
here Monday until we closed at noon for the independence day holiday.  
These appeared between noon on Monday and now."
	Betty looked around. "Is anything missing?"  She spied the 
plastic replica of a blackened lung.  "What is that?  And, where are 
the cigs?"
	Angela felt her heart beat rapidly.  "Some thief broke into the 
store and replaced the cigs with this display during the holiday!"
	The supervisor nodded her head affirmative. "Yes, that's the 
way I figured it also."  She turned and strode rapidly to her glass 
enclosed office behind the main sales counter.
	Once there she clicked on her computer, and typed in the phone 
code for the local branch of United Tobacco Company.  As soon as she 
heard the answering "Hello", she spoke rapidly, "Clint, someone broke 
unto our store and stole all the cigs!"
	Clint's voice showed his disbelief.  "What?  Have you checked 
your alarm recording system yet?  Email me the pictures of the thief.  
But why didn't the alarm system alert the police when the thief broke 
in?"
	Betty replied, "That's what I'd like to know.  I'll call you 
back when I have the pictures."
	Angela showed puzzlement on her face.  "What pictures?"
	Betty pointed to the middle of the far wall.  There is a 
hidden camera in the wall.  Actually the camera is not there.  Only 
the lens is there.  The camera is in another building.  A fiber optic 
cable connects them."
	"Why?  Wouldn't it have been cheaper to have the camera here in 
the store?"
	Betty agreed, "Well, yes.  But the university security advisors 
suggested it.  They reasoned that if someone had sophisticated 
electronic equipment, they could break into the store without 
triggering the alarms.  If they could do that they could also detect 
any active camera in the store and disable it."  Betty pointed to the 
wall.  "The recording system we have doesn't radiate any energy, so a 
thief would be less likely to discover it."
	Betty sat down at her desk, and invoked the computer program 
for the alarm recording system.  "I'll start it at closing time last 
Monday.  The program skips over the part where nothing is moving.  
We'll see results almost immediately."
	Angela bent over to get a closer look.  The screen filled up 
with a yellow background.  Then large black letters appeared, 
proclaiming, "Ultimate Security System:  Copyrighted by Grant 
Richardson, January 6, 2075."
	Then they saw the recorded action.  Someone slowly descended 
from above, as if supported by an invisible rope.  Angela took a quick 
look behind her at the ceiling.  It looked normal.  She returned her 
attention to the screen.  The figure on the screen had her back to 
them.  Her long light brown hair hid the small bit of her profile 
caught by the camera.  
	Angela thought, "From the back, she looks like Helen."
	
	Betty spoke then. "I'm running this in record mode so I can 
send a copy to Clint and to University Security."
	They watched silently as the figure on the screen stood in 
front of the shelf where the cigs had been.  The figure hid most of the 
cig cartons from view.  
	However, one cig carton, slightly to the left of the mysterious 
figure, remained in view. They saw the figure reach out and pick up the 
carton, and after a moment put it back.  No.  She had put back a carton 
of peanut butter patties, not the cig carton.
	The last scene showed the mysterious figure pulled upward again 
as if by an invisible rope."  Angela looked again at the ceiling above 
the checkout counter.  Nothing unusual there.
	Angela thought, "I need to talk to someone about this."  Going 
to her office, she opened her computer phone program, and typed 
Victors Phone code.  When she heard the recorded message saying that 
Victor's phone had been busy for five minutes, she hung up.  Angela 
decided to wait five minutes and try again.
	While she waited, Angela kept thinking about the mysterious 
thief.   Why did the thief take only the cigs?  Angela laughed as she 
imagined Helen's smile when Angela told her about the cigs being 
stolen. 
	Angela tried again to call Victor.  When she heard the busy 
signal recording, she hung up.  She'd wait a few more minutes.  
Angela begin to pace back and forth in front of her desk.  
Is there anyone else she could call?  Yes.  She could call Helen, and 
talk to her until Victor got off the phone.
	Angela called Helen. On the fifth ring, Angela heard Helen 
answer.  "Hi Angela. What's up?"
	"Glad I caught you."  Excitedly Angela spoke about the 
mysterious woman stealing the cigs and replacing them by peanut butter 
patties.  Angela paused so that Helen could answer.  
	Angela waited for Helen's expected response.  Finally she 
heard Helen's question, "How did you know it was a woman?"  
	Angela answered "We had pictures of the back of the woman who 
did it.  She had long hair just like yours"
	Three seconds later Angela heard Helen's response.  "Angela, 
thanks for telling me.  I need to think about this.  May I call you 
later?"
	Angela quickly replied, "Sure!  I didn't mean to bother you if 
you're busy.  Call me when you're free."
	 Angela sat back in her chair and pondered a moment.  She 
really didn't have anything else she could tell Helen when they met.  
Did Helen have any ideas about it? 

	 Suddenly Angela connected "Helen's super nutritious peanut 
butter patties" with Helen.  Could it be? It did look like Helen from 
the back.  No, it's only a coincidence.  It must be only a coincidence!
Lots of people are named Helen. Besides, if she did it, why would she 
have used her real name on the wrapping for the peanut butter patties?
	Up on the spaceship, still only about a third of the way from 
the moon to the Earth, Helen pondered her recent conversation with 
Angela.  She needed to figure out what she wanted to tell Angela.
	Helen interrupted her concurrent conversation with Melody.  I 
just now spoke with my friend back on Earth.  I think I may be in 
trouble."
	Melody looked surprised.  "What did you do?"
	Helen answered.  "Last Monday night I broke into my university 
campus store and took all the cigs off the shelf and destroyed them.  
My friend Angela works as an accountant at the university union store. 
She just phoned me and said they had pictures of me doing it, but they 
don't know it's me because they only had pictures of my back."
	Melody stared at Helen. "Why did you do it?"
	Helen responded, "I did no harm.  The cigs would do harm if the 
store sold them.  I made sure the store lost no money by replacing the 
cigs with something of equal monetary value."
	Melody frowned. "Couldn't you have just bought the cigs?"  
Surely with your powers you can find some other way to solve the cig 
problem. Why don't you deal directly with the cig company?"
	 Helen considered her friend's words.  "I could do more.  And 
I did wrong to break into the store that way.  And you are right.  I 
should deal directly with the cig company."
	Melody asked, "What are you going to do?"
	Helen answered, "I'm already working on it.  Right now I'm 
composing an email to send to the manager of the local branch of the 
cig company."
	Melody replied, "How will that help?  What are you telling 
him?"
	Helen replied, "I'm telling him that he can't deliver cigs to 
the union store anymore.  And I should let Angela know what's going on, 
so I'll copy the same message to her."
	Down on Earth, in the university union store, Angela, sitting 
back in her chair with her eyes closed, attempted to make sense of 
recent events.  Suddenly the computer announced, "Incoming text 
message."  Angela opened her eyes, and pressed the accept key for the 
message.

To: Clint@cig.Eastside.VA.US.com
CC:  Angela@Eastside.USEVA.us.edu
From: Aunt.Izciguf.Ana.Tic@Eastside.USEVA.us.edu

You have a problem.

I'm responsible for your problem. 

Your problem is that you won't deliver any more Cigarettes to Eastside 
Campus.

Since I'm responsible for your problem, I offer you some alternative 
solutions.

(1) Leave in the warehouse the cigarettes that you would have sent to 
Eastside Campus.  I will buy them from you at Cost.  This would be only 
a temporary solution.  

(2) Shut down your production of Cigarettes and start up a different 
more useful business to people.  I will help you get started.

(3) Close your business.  I will individually help you and each of your 
employees get other jobs at least as personally satisfying as the 
current job.

(4) If you have any other suggestions for how I may help you in light 
of my preventing you from delivering Cigarettes to Eastside, I am 
listening.


 Aunt.Izciguf.Ana.Tic


	Angela read the text message over twice.  She still found it 
incredible.  She pressed the print option, stood over the printer as it 
printed the message, and then ran with the printed copy to her 
supervisor's office.  She dashed directly to her supervisor's desk, 
handed her the paper and gasped, "You've got to read this!"
	 The supervisor suspended her emotional reaction until she 
could read the paper.  As she scanned the paper, she called Clint 
again. .  When Clint picked up, she said, "Clint!  Please check your 
email immediately.  Our mysterious thief just sent you an incredible 
message."
	Clint's voice came through loud enough for Angela to hear. "I'm 
already looking at it."  With grim humor evident in his voice, he added,  
"Well Betty, I don't think any insanely arrogant fanatic will stop me 
doing business with you.  I'll turn this over to my legal advisors.  
We'll be ready in case this fanatic tries to intercept our delivery to 
you next Monday.  Thanks for your concern."

Chapter 13

	Grant Richardson held a phone log in his hands, and read though 
it a third time.  On July 5th, two days ago, someone had called from 
Eastside University to the moon shuttle, nearly 270,000 kilometers out 
from earth.  Privacy laws prevented him from knowing that the log 
referred to Angela calling Helen.
	Grant remembered he knew someone from that area.  He relaxed to 
try to remember who.  Now he remembered.  It's Victor.  In fact, Victor 
had recently sent him a recording of a new band.
	Grant opened his file of potential new musicians. Just last 
Monday Victor had sent a recording of a band named Vocal Strings, 
consisting of Helen Troy, Bob Mercury, and Joe Athens.
	Seeing Helen's name, Grant remembered that Melody had 
recommended Helen for programming his anti-cig broadcast.  Grant 
incorrectly guessed that perhaps Helen had been the one who had called 
Melody.  Grant kept this guess as a working hypothesis, in spite of 
how surprising it seemed. Ordinarily, citizens were prevented from 
calling astronauts in space.
	Grant pondered a few moments.  Perhaps Helen called Melody 
because she's ready to fight the cig company again.  He should ask 
Helen to program his anti-cig broadcast. He made a note in his 
reminder file to call Melody after she gets back and have her invite 
this Helen Troy and her band to perform at Melody's next house party.  

	The fall into Earth orbit went as smoothly as expected.  And 
their orbit nearly paralleled the orbit of their replacement fuel, 
which now could be seen on their outside monitor.  About seven hours 
earlier, the shuttle that carried it had launched by automatic pilot 
from the nearest Earth orbit space station.
	They planned a simple and foolproof procedure for retrieving 
the new fuel tanks from the nearby rocket.  Calvin and Melody would go 
outside.  Calvin would jump to the carrier rocket, extract the fuel 
tanks and throw them directly to Melody.  Then Calvin would jump back 
and help Melody place the fuel tanks where they were needed.
	When Calvin and Melody completed their work, and  were back 
inside, Helen said to them, "Very good.  I would have helped you if 
it were necessary.  You did everything with no problems?"
	Calvin caught the question tone in Helen's last statement, 
and he laughed.  "No, Ms. impossible lady, we didn't need your help.  
Earlier you didn't really answer my question about how you can do the 
things you can do.  What can you tell me?  Should I believe in magic 
now?"
	Helen looked at Calvin in Alarm.  "Please don't. There is a 
natural explanation for how I do things."
	"Could you teach other people to do what you do?"
	Helen frowned. "That's not possible."
	Calvin looked puzzled. "You said you don't use alien technology.  
You say you can't teach anyone else. Yet it's not magic.  What is it?"
	Helen nodded her head affirmatively.  "Yes.  There is only one 
Sparky.  No-one else in the world has an alien from a neutron star inside 
of them."
	Calvin sighed.  "Very well . What you say is incredible, but I 
guess I won't get any more information.  I'm glad that at least you 
affirm that there is a scientific explanation."
	Calvin continued, "In about two minutes, the rest of us need to 
be strapped down.  I hope that it's unnecessary for you because we don't 
have the extra bunk for you." Then Calvin grinned as another thought came 
to mind.  
	"Although I suppose that you could snuggle in with one of us if 
you wished."
	Helen grinned back.  "Nope, it won't be necessary for me to be 
tied down during your splashdown."
	The splashdown went according to plan.  Helen prepared to leave.
	As Helen made her farewells to the group, Melody asked, "Will 
you be able to come to our astronaut's open house on July 22?"
	Helen smiled, "Yes.  May I bring my friends?"
	Jonathan and Melody both exclaimed, "yes!" at the same time.
	Helen replied, "It's a date."
	As she sank through the floor of the cabin into the water 
below, she concentrated on forming a bubble of air around her.  Once 
below the surface she surprised herself by knowing the species name of
the first fish she saw.  Amused by this, she let herself sink all the 
way to the bottom of the ocean, naming the fish she passed as she sank.
	At the bottom of the ocean, she saw a Yellowtail Rockfish.  
Helen smiled as she said, "Hello Sebastes Flavidus."  As she made her 
way to the surface she continued to amuse herself by reviewing the 
species name, family name, and likely habitat of each fish she passed. 
How did she know these names and facts?  Did she know other things 
like this?
	Helen asked, "Sparky?"
	Sparky's silent voice confirmed her suspicions. "We are fully 
integrated into your world wide computer system now."  
	How could she test herself?  Joe had kidded her for not taking 
that advanced math tutorial.  Did she know all about that math now?  
Nothing came to mind right away. Perhaps she needed to ask the right 
question. What did Joe call that course? Calculus?  That's right!  Now 
she had it. She knew the fundamental theorem of Calculus and all about 
taking derivatives and integrals without having to take the course. 
	As she broke the surface of the Ocean, she made herself 
invisible, and then flew toward home.  She needed to set up a meeting 
with Angela tomorrow so they could talk about the university union 
store not selling cigarettes anymore.  
	She used her power to call a phone number by thinking it.
Angela answered on the second ring.  "Hello Angela, this is Helen. I'm 
back in town.  I'd like to meet with you to discuss your mysterious 
cig thief.  When could we meet?"
	Angela responded, "Tomorrow is Saturday. There won't be as 
many students.  So, we could meet at 11:30 at the student cafeteria."
	"Sure.  Ok.   11:30 tomorrow at the cafeteria.  It's a date.  
Oh, I almost forgot.  Is it ok if I invite Bob and Joe to come along?"
	Angela almost laughed. "Of course.  I expected you to bring 
them with you."

Chapter 14

	Angela laid the three copies of her email from 
Aunt.Izciguf.Ana.Tic on the orange tabletop in front of her.  On each 
copy she had handwritten Clint's final comment about Aunt Ana being an 
insanely arrogant fanatic. She looked up toward the entrance to see if 
they were here yet.  Nope. Not yet here.  To distract herself, she read 
the email for the fifth time.
	On the fifth reading she began to think about similarities 
between Aunt Ana and Helen. Both wanted to end the tobacco company.  
If Helen could break into the store, would she do this?  Silly!  
Helen couldn't have done it.
	Just as Angela thought this, she looked up to see the trio, 
arms linked, with Helen in the middle, standing just at the opposite 
edge of the table from her.  She smiled, and motioned them to sit down 
with her.
	As they sat down, Angela eagerly handed the copies of the email 
to them.  Helen glanced at it as she took it, and instantly apprehended 
everything on it.  Tears came to her eyes as she realized the import of 
Clint's last words. She really had been an arrogant fanatic.
	Neither Bob nor Joe noticed, but Angela did.  She had focused 
her attention on Helen because she especially wanted to know what 
Helen would think about all this.  She noticed that Helen had glanced 
at the email, and put it aside as if already familiar with it. 
	Angela started to say something to Helen about it, but then she 
saw Bob's frown and Joe's smile as they read the emails.  None of them 
were responding the way she expected.  Did they all know something 
about this that she didn't? 
	Bob spoke before he finished reading.  He asked Helen the 
question that Angela had wanted to ask.  "Helen, what do you think 
about this?"
	Helen replied.  "Clint is right.  Auntie is indeed an insanely 
arrogant fanatic."
	 Joe responded, "Take it easier on your . . ."  Joe paused, but 
then continued, "on Auntie. She must have had some good reasons for 
writing this."
	Helen said, "Yes, she might have had some good reasons, but not 
good enough.  She should have taken a different approach."
	Bob replied, "I'm glad you think so. What do you think Auntie 
will do?"
	Helen replied, "I don't know.  Perhaps she should visit 
Clint in person and get his side of the story."
	Joe turned his head slightly to look intently at Helen. "Would 
Auntie like to have her friends come with her?"
	Angela almost yelped in surprise.  Helen had barely glanced at 
the email, but she evidently knew everything in it.  How did she know?  
And what did Joe mean? How did he know whether or not Auntie had 
friends helping her, and why did it matter?
	Angela spoke her puzzlement. "What do you guys know about all 
this?"
	Helen understood Angela's puzzlement. "Angela, you deserve to 
know what's going on.  I am Auntie."
	"What!"  Helen's statement shocked Angela. Her suspicions were 
correct!  How is this possible?  "Prove it to me!"
	Helen said, "I will prove it by sending you an email from 
Auntie right now."
	Angela's cell phone rang.  When she pressed the respond button 
on it, the phone announced, "incoming text message."  Then it scrolled 
the text message across the tiny screen, "Apologies to all.  Auntie."
	Angela stared at the screen for a few moments.  Then she looked 
up at Helen. "How did you do that?  Did you have an accomplice send me 
this message just now? If you want me to believe you, why don't you 
send me a message that an accomplice wouldn't know to send."
	Helen pondered a moment.  "OK.  Pick a number between 1 and 100, 
and tell it to me."
	Angela's cell phone rang as she said the number to Helen. 
Immediately, she pressed the respond button.  The phone announced, 
"Incoming voice message."  
	Then Helen's voice came from the phone.  "Your number is 42."
	Angela dropped the phone on the table. In astonishment, she 
asked,  "Do you want to tell me how you did that?"
	Helen looked at Angela, but said nothing.  After a few moments, 
Bob responded for her. "If I had been in your place, I would have 
thought that we'd preprogrammed the computer to send you the voice 
message.  We could have preprogrammed everything except the number.  
Then we could have transmitted the number to the computer as soon as 
you told it to us."
	Both Helen and Angela, surprised, looked at Bob.  Angela asked, 
"Is that how you did it?"
	Helen shook her head negatively. "Bob is very clever. But that's 
not how I did it."
	Angela thought about it for a few moments.  Then she said, "It's 
ok. I don't really need to know how you did it.  It's enough that you 
have proven to me that you can do it.  I suppose it's also easy for you 
to break into the university union store at night without triggering 
any alarms."
	Helen's face turned red as she nodded her head affirmatively.
Angela felt troubled. "Helen, why did you do it?  Why didn't it seem 
wrong to you? Why . . . ?"
	Helen responded before Angela could finish her questions. "I 
wondered the same thing myself.  In the future I will think things 
through before I act."
	Angela smiled.  "Good. I'm glad you said that. For a moment you 
seemed to be more like a devil than an angel.  I'm glad you decided to 
stay an angel."
	As Angela's words echoed in her mind, she wondered if she spoke 
more truly than she intended.  Could Helen actually be an angel?  No, 
it couldn't be. Unlike her mother, she didn't really believe angels 
walked the Earth, did she?
	But how does Helen do these things?  She'd like to stay and 
find out more, but she'd planned to keep this meeting short so she 
could get her weekly grocery shopping done on time.
	Angela stood up.  "I'm sorry to run off, but I need to go to 
the supermarket to buy some groceries."
	Helen replied, "Angela, I want to tell you more, but I need to 
figure how how.  Can you wait a few more minutes?"
	Angela reconsidered.  She couldn't really wait. But there were 
alternatives. "Would you like to come with me to the store?"
	Joe grinned.  "Sure, we'd like to come with you.  I want to see 
you show off your driving skills."
	Angela laughed, and led the way to Victor's truck.  As she 
approached the truck, she suddenly stopped.  "Oh, I just remembered. 
There's only room for three people in the truck."
	Joe laughed.  "Not a problem.  Helen can sit in my lap. I'm sure 
she won't be too heavy."
	While Angela drove to the supermarket, Helen pondered how to 
tell Angela about her powers in a way that would not upset her more.  
The supermarket appeared in front of them by the time Helen worked out 
her strategy.  Angela looked for a place to park and decided to park 
in the empty place next to the post that marked where to return empty 
shopping carts.
	Helen chose that moment to speak to Angela.  "Angela, last 
week something strange happened to me.  Part of me is an alien from 
near the center of the galaxy."
	 Concentrating on parking the truck, Angela seemed not to hear 
what Helen had said.  Then as she pulled into the parking place, she 
replayed in her mind what Helen had said.  Her hands let go of the 
steering wheel as she turned and stared at Helen. Suddenly, a very loud 
bang interrupted her thoughts. Angela had run into the shopping cart 
post.
	Angela looked through the windshield at the bent shopping cart 
post.  She imagined the huge dent it must have made in the truck.  She 
buried her face in her hands. Victor would be so disappointed!  Tears 
rolled down her face.  
	Then she heard Bob's voice.  "It's ok now."
	Angela looked at Bob in wonder.  "What do you mean?"
	Bob pointed through the windshield.  "Look."
	Angela looked where Bob pointed.  "Helen stood by the shopping 
cart post.  Amazingly, she saw no damage to the post.  Angela got out 
to inspect the truck. 
	Not a scratch! Not a dent!  Angela turned to Helen.  "Didn't I 
hit the post?"
	Helen answered.  "Yes you did.  I fixed it.  Besides, it was my 
fault that you hit the post."
	Angela looked at Helen.  "You could have just told me that I 
only imagined that I'd hit the post.  I would have believed you. Helen, 
are you really an Angel?  I mean, like the supernatural kind."
	Helen laughed.  "No.  Please don't think there's anything 
supernatural about me.  I can do some amazing things now, but there's 
a natural explanation for everything I can do.  So, let's just forget 
about the shopping cart post, and go buy your groceries."
	Angela slowly nodded her head affirmatively. As they walked 
into the store, she addressed Helen.  "Just before I hit that post you 
said something about being possessed by an alien."
	Angela's words surprised Helen.  "I didn't say possessed. I 
said that part of me is alien.  The alien part provides me with 
amazing abilities. But please let this be our secret.  I want to be 
thought of as just plain Helen Troy."
	Angela pulled a shopping cart from the rack.  As she pushed the 
cart down the first Aisle, she thought that no one would ever think of 
Helen as plain. 
	Certainly she'd keep Helen's secret.  It's not like anyone 
would ever believe her anyway.
	After Angela finished filling her shopping cart she looked 
for a short checkout line.  She spotted one and headed directly for it, 
oblivious of another lady heading for the same checkout line.  Angela 
got there first.  
	The other lady yelled at Angela.  "Excuse me!  You saw me 
heading for this line.  You cut me off on purpose!"
	Angela responded.  "No I didn't.  I didn't see you.  Why are 
you in such a hurry anyway?"  Suddenly Bob stepped between her and 
the other lady. 
	Bob spoke gently to them.  "Hey now.  There's no problem." He 
pointed to the adjacent checkout line.  "This next checkout line just 
now opened."  Addressing the other lady Bob added.  "Why don't you take it?  
You'll be done sooner."
	The other lady smiled, and thanked Bob.  Angela looked at the 
other checkout line cashier.  Helen stood there dressed in the uniform 
of the store!  Angela watched amazed as Helen calmly processed the 
groceries for the previously upset lady.
	Joe, standing at her side, commented.  Helen is amazing!  She's 
expends so much time and effort just to help someone avoid feeling bad.  
	Angela spoke to Joe.  "Helen told me to keep her amazing 
abilities a secret.  Aren't any of you worried that someone will think 
it strange that Helen suddenly became a checkout clerk?"
	Joe answered.  "Well, I just hope that everyone here is too 
busy to notice."  In fact, Joe's hope is almost justified.  Only the 
computer managing system noticed.  And it noticed only to the extent 
of adding the appropriate wage to the last registered checkout clerk 
to use that register.

Chapter 15

	Helen, Joe and Bob were ushered into Clint's office by the 
petite blond secretary.  Clint rose, and reached over his desk to 
shake hands with each of them.  "How may I help you?"
	Before Bob could give his prepared speech, Helen blurted out, 
"I'm Helen Troy. I'm the insanely arrogant fanatic that planned to 
stop you from delivering your cigarettes to the university union 
store."
	Clint laughed in surprise. "That planned? Are you no longer 
planning it?"  Clint looked intently at Helen.  "So you are the thief 
who broke into the university Union Store and stole all the cigs.  How did you 
do it?"
	Helen replied, while looking directly into his eyes, "Yes. I'm the 
insanely arrogant fanatic that threatened to block your distributing 
cigs.  How I did it is not important.  What's important is that I 
won't do it again because I don't wish to be insanely arrogant."
	Client stared at Helen for a few moments.  "You're right.  I 
don't really care how you did your magic trick.  I do care that you 
don't do it again.  But I don't believe it's just because you don't 
want to appear arrogant.  What other reason do you have?  How can I 
believe you?"
	Helen replied, "That's why we are here now. We want to hear 
your side.  Why are you selling cigs?"
	Clint opened his mouth to reply, but unable to say anything, he 
closed his mouth after a few seconds. Then he shook his head 
negatively, and sank back into his chair closing his eyes.
	A few seconds later, he opened his eyes to look at the three of 
them seated in the soft red velvet high-backed chairs that his 
secretary had provided.  Then he said, "My grandpappy managed this 
business. My dad worked here.  I inherited this business on my 25th 
birthday. I never expected to do anything else."
	Joe said in a soft manner, "Do you think about whether your 
business is helping people or hurting them?"
	Clint turned to Joe, incipient anger visible on his face. 
"Sometimes. I don't know whether I'm helping people or hurting them.  
However, I do know that I give people what they want."
	Clint leaned back in his chair, relaxing.  Then he said, 
"Besides, I don't need to apologize to you for what I do."
	Bob caught Joe's eye.  When Joe nodded his head slightly, Bob 
said, "We don't intend to argue with you.  We are here to listen to 
you."
	Clint sat up straighter, then said, "If that's so, then listen 
well. I don't like you to question my business.  As long as people want 
to smoke cigarettes, I will sell them."
	Helen smiled.  "Suppose too few people wanted to smoke 
cigarettes. Would you quit selling them then?"
	Clint laughed.  "And how would you arrange for that?  Yes.  If 
not enough people bought cigarettes, I would be forced to go into another 
business."
	Then Clint added, "This is just a hypothetical question, right? 
There's no way you can persuade all my customers to quit. But if you 
did somehow persuade my customers to quit, I couldn't blame you, for 
after all, it is the customer who chooses to buy or not buy."
	Helen's smile grew.  "Thank you very much.  We may talk again 
some day.  You probably feel you never want to see or hear from us 
again. But, perhaps you should save my email address in case you wish 
to get in touch with me again."
	Clint showed his surprise.  "Is that all?  You don't want to 
question me more? What will you do now?  Are you giving up so easily?"
	Joe grinned.  "No, we haven't given up.  We will just figure 
out how to persuade people to quit buying cigarettes.  Get in touch 
with us when you notice that your sales have dropped."
	Clint laughed again.  "Gee, you sound like you mean it."  Clint 
reached across the desk inviting Joe to shake hands with him. "Ok. May 
the best side win."
	As Joe and Clint shook hands, Bob concluded, "Yes, the best 
side will win."
	Then Bob and Helen each shook hands with Client, and everyone 
smiled as they left Clint's office.
	Clint sat back in his chair, satisfied that he'd managed 
everything very well.  He congratulated himself on his public relations 
skills.  His phone rang. 
	Clint glanced up at the phone monitor.  It's Angela, calling 
from the Shoppe Faire.  Angela and Victor had been good friends since 
the first day the couple had moved to town.  Victor had wished to 
check out the local branch of United Tobacco Company and had come 
directly to his office.
	Clint had given them a tour of his business, showing off the 
warehouse, re-packaging equipment, delivery trucks, and his four room 
office building.  He had gladly answered all Angela's questions, even 
though she did not limit her questions to be relevant to the tour.  
Her questions reflected her primary concern of adjusting to life in the 
United States.
	Angela had appreciated Clint's helpfulness.  She had expressed 
her gratitude by inviting him to have dinner with her and Victor.  
Over time, the friendship that Angela had presumed, became actual.  
Each time Clint visited, he brought Victor another two weeks supply of 
cigs.  Nowadays, when he did not visit quite so often, he personally 
made sure Victor received a steady supply of cigs.  Perhaps after he 
finished his call with Angela, he should call Victor to see when he 
needed another delivery.
	Clint picked up his phone.  "Hello Angela."
	Angela replied, "Hello Clint.  My friend Helen Troy said she 
planned to visit you today. Are they there now?"
	Client replied, "They just left.  They took only a few minutes to 
say what they wanted to say."
	"How did the meeting go?"
	"It went very well.  I don't think I need to worry about 
Ms Troy and her friends.  So she is your friend also.  What can you 
tell me about her?"
	Angela suddenly felt that she didn't know Helen at all.  What 
could she say about Helen?  "What can I say?  Helen does the unexpected. 
She wants you to not sell cigs.  She intends to persuade you to stop.  
	But I don't know what she will do if she can't persuade you.  
She might decide to force you to stop.  In the short time I've known 
Helen, she has amazed me.  She is an angel or a magician. I think you 
should avoid being on her wrong side."
	Clint showed his amusement.  "I fail to see what she can do.  
When she left, she and her friends spoke of persuading my customers to 
quit smoking.  I don't see how she has a chance."
	Angela paused.  "Maybe not.  But, watch out for her.  If she 
gets sufficiently frustrated, she may pull one of her magic tricks on 
you."
	After she completed the conversation with Clint, Angela placed 
her cell phone in its holder on the wall of her Shoppe Faire booth.  She 
glanced at her watch, and waited patiently for Helen.  She had promised 
to come by.
	"Hey there!"
	Startled, Angela looked up.  She saw Mike Long approaching her 
Booth.
	"Not many customers yet, eh?  I left Dan to take care of the 
booth.  Too few customers to need both of us."
	Angela frowned.  "So you run into me again.  Were you looking 
for me, or did you just happen to find me?"
	Mike laughed.  "I wanted to find you.  You work at the 
university Union Store.  We sell cigs at your store.  I need to make 
sure I'm not on your bad side."
	"It won't be easy.  Almost killing me doesn't make a good 
start."
	Mike stepped forwards.  "Hey, take it easy.  I want to make 
amends."
	Angela paused.  "Remember when my friend Helen said she wished 
you understood that cigs killed people?"
	Mike looked carefully at Angela.  "So?"
	Angela paused.  Should she say anything?  Why not?  "I think 
that if you don't put yourself out of business first then Helen will."
	As Mike started to reply, he saw Helen out of the corner of his 
eye.  "I don't think that's very likely.  But here she is now.  I'll 
ask her myself."
	Angela spun around and looked in the direction Mike faced.  She 
smiled as Helen walked up.
	Mike addressed Helen.  "Hey.  Your friend thinks you can put us 
out of business.  When do you start?"
	Helen paused before answering.  "I've already started."
	Mike laughed.  "So, what have you done?"
	Helen looked pointedly at Mike.  "Just before coming here, I 
bought up all the cigs at the university Union store. Your customers in 
this area won't have easy access to cigs for another week.  I hope some of 
them decide to quit rather than go out of their way to buy more cigs."
	This time Mike laughed so hard he had to bend over.  "Are you 
going to be our biggest customer?  Think!  Even if you were able to buy 
up all the cigs locally, it wouldn't matter. Our customers are loyal.  
They won't think twice about walking a mile or more to get their cigs."
	Helen frowned.  "Perhaps.  But if they do, it just shows their 
addiction.  But I'm working on that too.  I visited Clint at his office 
today and after talking with him, decided to persuade all the smokers 
in Eastside to quit smoking."
	Mike laughed again. "Ha!  I'll have to ask Clint to notify me 
when you succeed."  Mike's continuing amusement showed on his face. 
	Angela shook her head.  "I just called Clint.  He's not worried 
either, but I think he should be."

	As Clint broke the phone connection with Angela, he said to 
himself, "First I'll call Victor before I forget."  Clint punched in 
Victor's phone code.
	Victor answered on the third ring.  "Hello Clint.  No, I don't 
need any more cigs.  Don't bother to send me any more.  I'm quitting."
	Surprised, Clint replied.  "why are you quitting?"
	Victor paused.  "Why do you need to know?  It doesn't have 
anything to do with you."
	Clint replied, "Does it have anything to do with Helen Troy?"
	Victor replied with a puzzled tone in his voice. "Why yes, it 
does.  How did you know?  I don't think that she knows that I'm 
quitting."
	Clint answered, "She and her friends came to see me today.  She 
wants to put me out of business and when she left she planned to 
persuade all my clients to quit.  Is your quitting only a 
co-incidence?"
	Victor considered the question.  "Yes and no.  Last week Helen 
unintentionally pointed out to me that I'm really killing myself when I 
smoke.  I knew that.  I should have quit long ago.  I realize now that
I don't really enjoy smoking the cigs.  I didn't know that she planned 
to make people quit.  She didn't tell me to quit.  I chose to quit 
because she made it clear to me why I should."
	Clint replied.  "I see.  Thank you very much Victor." 
As Clint hung up the phone, he thought out loud, "This Helen Troy may 
be more interesting than I thought."
	Across town, immediately after Victor broke the phone 
connection, it rang again.  Seeing the video attachment light up, he 
punched the video option. He smiled when he saw the tall thin man on 
the video.  "Grant!  So you finally got my message.  What do you 
think of the singer?"
	Grant looked directly at the camera, which meant that he also 
looked directly at a corresponding image of Victor on a television 
monitor. "She has promise.  The two guys aren't bad either.  I'd like 
to meet all three of them in person someday.  In the meantime, I'll 
forward the recording to the advisory committee."
	Victor replied, "Great.  I'll let them know."
	Grant reached to disconnect, then paused.  "Oh, you can do me 
a favor.  Please ask Helen Troy to call me.  I want to ask her some 
questions."
	Victor said, "Sure.  I'll do that."  As Victor hung up the 
phone, he considered, perhaps he should let Angela tell Helen the good 
news.  She'd enjoy that.

	Helen turned to Angela.  "Angela, I want to ask you a favor.  
Joe had this idea for making some money.  Before now I thought I'd 
use the money to buy up all the cigs.  Now I understand that I'll 
need to use the money some other way to stop the sell of cigs."

	Angela looked at Helen in surprise. Turning to Mike, she said, 
"Mike, we'd appreciate it if you leave.  We need to plot stategy."
	Mike stepped forward a step.  "Then I should hear it."
	At Angela's fierce look, he paused.  "Ok, I know when to 
retreat.  I'll talk to you another time."
	After Mike left, Angela asked Helen, "What is Joe's idea? How 
does it involve me?"
	"Joe wants to repair broken musical instruments.  Can you open 
a repair shop department within the Union store?  People can drop off 
their broken instruments at the union store.  You can advertise one day 
service."
	Angela looked serious.  "Well yes.  I'm very sure that my boss 
will agree provided you give us ten percent of your revenues.  In fact, 
it gives me another idea. Betty would not let me drop the cig orders 
without a good reason.  If you bring in enough business to the store, 
then I think I can persuade her to drop the cig orders.  You need to do 
enough repairs to match the revenues she gets from sales of the cigs."
	Remembering what she had discovered about Helen's amazing 
abilities over the weekend Angela added, "Do you want to restrict the 
repair to musical instruments?  If you wish, we could advertise to 
repair anything."
	Helen paused.  "Ok.  But Joe wants to restrict customers to 
students and faculty.  Please make a sign in the store window your 
only advertisement."
	Angela agreed.  "What do you want the sign to say?"
	Helen smiled.  "I'll show you."  She brushed her hand across 
the window ledge of Angela's booth.  Angela watched, fascinated, as a 
cardboard sign grew, line by line, right there on the window ledge.
	Angela picked up the sign.  She admired the elegance of the 
sign.  Three rows of pictures conveyed its message.  The top row of 
pictures showed a person accidentally stepping on his music cd, and 
then bringing it to the union store for repair.  The second row of 
pictures showed a guitar player become frustrated at her new guitar 
and bringing it to the union store repair shop for adjustment.  The 
third row of pictures showed a puzzled man examining a toaster oven, 
being inspired to bring it to the union store repair shop.

	Bold letters at the bottom of the sign proclaimed, 

	"Bring me your worn out gadgets, your broken jar,
	Your crumpled mats yearning to stretch free,
	The wretched refuse of your household store.
	Send these, the useless, time ravaged to me.
	Repair all at this space in the union store."



Chapter 16

	Betty stared at Angela and Helen.  "Angela, Let me get this 
straight.  You say that this is the thief that stole our cigs!  And 
you want her to open a appliance repair department within our store!  
And you want us to not honor our commitment to Clint because she can 
make more money for us than the cigs!
	Helen boldly stepped forward.  "Yes, Ms Bennigan.  My name is 
Helen Troy.  I won't enter your shop again without your knowing.  I'm 
sure we can work out a deal fair to both of us."
	"Fair to both of us, eh. How about if you work for me.  I pay 
you minimum wage or ten percent of what you make for me, whichever is 
smaller.  At the end of the week, I'll let you buy any left over cigs 
with the money you earn from me."
	Helen thought about it. She needed a better deal.  But this 
would be a start.  Helen addressed Betty.  "I agree to your deal."
	Angela, shocked, exclaimed.  "But Helen, you don't get any of 
what you need.  The store will still sell all the cigs it did before! 
And you won't get your fair share of the money you earn for the store!"
	Helen looked toward Angela.  "Yes, I know.  But I should earn 
her trust before I try to make a better deal with her."
	Betty looked at Helen in surprise.  "Earn my trust? Those are 
words that a responsible person would say.  Now I believe you when you 
say that you won't break into the store again."
	Angela looked hopeful.  "Does this mean you'll give us a better 
deal."
	Betty paused before replying,  "Let's wait and see."  
Addressing Helen, Betty added, "Forget what I said before.  I'll give 
you that space over by the window to do whatever you wish.  After two 
weeks, we can discuss this again, and as you say, make a deal fair to 
both of us.  Whatever deal we make depends on what happens during the 
next two weeks.  Do you both agree?"
	Helen agreed, and after a few moments, Angela reluctantly 
agreed.
	Angela added, "I need to ask a favor from you."
	When Betty looked expectantly toward her, Angela added, "I'd 
like to go with Helen today to help her.  Is it ok if I take the 
morning off?"
	Betty almost smiled.  "Is that all.  Okay.  Make sure you 
record it on your vacation log."

	Angela and the trio paused at the entrance to the local 
smoketorium.  Helen expected to persuade everyone here today to quit
smoking.  She would turn the smoketorium into a clean air building.
	Joe announced to the group, "This small step we take today, 
on a summer day in the year 2090, shall mark the beginning of the end 
for United Tobacco Company."  He stejpped forward to enter the 
smoketorium.
	Almost every town had a smoketorium.  They were the only 
public places left where people could smoke.  They had become special 
clubs, and sometimes had tobacco shops within them.
	As they entered the smoketorium, Helen made a breeze blow 
from her in all direction, creating a bubble of fresh air around them.
	 They walked up to the back of the smoketorium where a heavy 
table had been pushed against the wall
	Helen turned and examined the people in the room.  There were 
five people around the pool table.  One guy leaned against a column in 
the center of the room watching the other four guys play.  Helen 
observed the one ping pong table in use.  Two expert ping-pong 
players showed off their skill.  Most of the people were gathered 
around the chess tables.  There were ashtrays built into the edges of 
the chess tables. Pressing a button sent the ashes to a disposal unit.
	Helen looked around the room and studied the distribution of 
smoke around the room.  She focused her attention on the smoke. It 
became brightly colored, and began to form into bold letters and arrow 
signs pointing to herself.  Helen made the arrow signs take on a 
sequence of colors and move backwards and forward to emphasize where 
she and her friends stood. The letters spelled out the words ACT NOW,  
BE BOLD, and ENGAGE FREEDOM..  The bright colors were caused by the 
smoke slowly burning into carbon dioxide and water. While other toxic 
gasses were also produced, they caused no problem because Helen 
removed them as they formed.
	After the last brightly colored arrow sign burned out, Helen 
collapsed the bubble of fresh air she had been maintaining. She didn't 
need it any more because now all the smoke in the room had been 
eliminated.  While some people still had lit cigs, she could easily 
remove the smoke from them as quickly as it formed.
	Several people stopped what they were doing and looked her way.
One person sitting at the chess table stood up and clapped.  "Very 
good trick.  I haven't seen a magic stunt like that since October 85. 
I hope what you have to say is as good or better."
	Helen, smiling her thanks, addressed everyone in her clear 
musical voice that easily carried across the room.  "I'm here to solve 
your biggest problem.  Your biggest problem is cigs.  Cigs are 
enslaving you.  I can help you.  Who here has tried to quit smoking?" 
Helen looked around the room for responses.
  	After several seconds, one of the ping-pong players raised his 
paddle and said, "Sure lady.  I've tried to quit.  I've tried several 
times."
	Bob replied to him.  "Don't give up hope.  Each time you try, 
the next time will be easier.  Remember:  Partial success is not 
failure.  Try again until you succeed.  You needed to know that 
smoking the cig alters your metabolism.  Your body adapts to it in 
various ways.  The problem is that your body removes the nicotine you 
get from the cig quite rapidly.  Within four hours less than one 
percent of the nicotine remains.  Now the body has to adapt again, 
this time to the absence of nicotine.  If you don't know this about 
cigs, you might think that you need the next cig to restore yourself 
to normal.  Don't take that next cig.  Just wait until your body 
adapts back to not having those poisons in your body."
	Joe added his comment. "The so called withdrawal symptoms are 
caused by your body re-adapting to normal.  When you feel those 
symptoms, be glad, for they signal your success at quitting."
	One of the pool players banged his cue stick on the edge of 
the pool table.   "Hey, what about us guys that never tried to quit.  
Are you going to convince us that we should?"
	Helen replied, "That's up to you.  There are good reasons to 
quit smoking.  Whether or not you quit is up to you.  If you wish to 
quit, I can help you.  Even if you don't wish to quit, I want to know 
why you don't."
	The pool player responded, "I can tell you why I don't want to 
quit.  I need the cigs to relax, to give me confidence."
	Joe laughed.  "What you really mean is that you think you need 
the cig to get back to the way you were before you started smoking. You 
can relax and have confidence without smoking.  In fact, if you quit 
now, you will regain your natural relaxation and confidence."
	Surprise flashed across the pool player's face.  "You'd say 
anything to get me to quit, wouldn't you."
	Joe only smiled, and shrugged his shoulders.
	Helen spoke up.  "Joe told you the truth.  The cigs don't relax 
you.  Your body adjusted itself to the poison in the cigs, and you 
fell into the trap of thinking you needed those poisons to feel 
normal."
	A young man by the nearest chess table stood up, and took a 
step toward Helen.  "I'm not addicted to the cigs.  I smoke only 
because I enjoy smoking."
	Joe replied, "Prove to yourself that you are not addicted.  
Stop for a week."
	The young man replied,  "I don't need to make any such test.  
I enjoy the cig smoking.  That's the only reason I smoke."
	Helen sighed, "This is going to be more difficult than I had 
hoped."
	Joe added his comments.  "We can convince you only if you wish 
to listen to us.  I'm sure you've heard all the good reasons for 
quitting many times.  Here are some reasons you've not heard very 
often."
	"The most important reason to quit smoking is that you will 
cope better with stressful situations.   You may think that cig 
smoking helps you cope with stress.  This is an illusion.  Cigs reduce 
your mental and physical abilities, making you less capable of 
resolving unfavorable situations."
	"In fact, as we will show you, quitting will not only enable 
you to cope better with unfavorable situations, it will enable you to 
have much more fun in life."
	One of the chess players said to his companion, "I don't need 
more fun.  My chess games provide me all the fun I need."
	Helen heard his comment, and responded, "Would you find it 
more fun if you played a better game?  If you let us help you, I 
assure you that you will play a much better chess game."
	The chess player stood up and addressed Helen directly.  "I 
challenge you to a chess game.  If you win, then I'll listen to you.  
If I win, then you will quietly leave and never bother us again.  Do 
you accept?
	Angela whispered to Helen, "Have you ever played chess before?  
Do you have any chance?"
	Helen smiled.  "Every Chance.  Even though I've never played, I 
know the complete play of millions of chess games, and can calculate 
all the important consequences of a move before I make it."
	Helen spoke to the chess challenger.  "I accept your challenge."

	As they set up the chessboard to play, the challenger 
introduced himself.  "My name is Ralph.  I'm the best chess player in 
the county, so don't feel too bad when you lose."  Ralph smiled as he 
said this.
	Helen reached across the table to shake hands with Ralph.  
"Thank you.  My name is Helen. Perhaps I'll surprise you."
	Angela, standing directly behind Helen added her comment.  
"Definitely, Helen will surprise you."
	After fifteen minutes of play, neither side had found 
opportunity to safely capture a chess piece.  Ralph commented, "You 
really are a good chess player, but you won't win this game if you 
only play the defensive."
	Helen replied, "I'm beginning to realize that. Thanks."
	A few minutes later, Ralph exclaimed, "Now I have you!"  He 
moved a pawn diagonally to capture one of her pawns. She countered by 
moving a rook up to capture the pawn. He took her rook with one of his 
own rooks.  She captured his rook with her other rook.  Immediately, 
he captured her second rook with his remaining rook.  She took his 
remaining rook with one of her knights.  He captured her knight with 
one of his own knights.
	Now Helen had captured a pawn and two rooks.  She had lost a 
pawn, two rooks and a knight. Angela squeezed Helen's shoulder.  "Do 
you still have a chance to win?"
	Helen gave Angela's hand a reassuring squeeze.  "The game isn't 
over yet."  She reached for her remaining knight, and moved it to 
attack, at the same time, both his king and queen.  "Check, and 
checkmate in seven moves."
	Ralph replied, "Not so fast."  He moved his king to the next 
square giving his red bishop a clear path to her queen. "Now my queen 
is protected and there's nothing you can do. . .  Wait!"  Ralph gasped 
in surprise.  "Darn.  Now I see it.  You tricked me.  Good job."  
Ralph reached across the table to shake Helen's hand.  "You've earned 
my attention to whatever you have to say."
	Ralph stood up, and indicating Helen with a wave of his hand, 
addressed everyone in the room.  "Folks, This young lady has earned 
the right to address us about our smoking cigs.  I feel that out of 
respect to her none of us should light any cigs while she's here.  Do 
you all agree?"
	There were many voices of agreement, and while most, but not 
all, people in the room voiced agreement, none voiced disagreement.  
Ralph smiled, and waved for Helen to continue her speech.


Chapter 17

	Helen smiled.  "I wish to sing a song for you." Helen and her 
friends returned to stand next to the heavy table on the back wall of 
the smoketorium.  Bob and Joe picked up their instruments, and as they 
began to play, Helen begin to sing.



	"Where, oh where do you wish to live? 
	Do you wish to live in fresh air?
	 What are you willing to give,
	what are you willing to dare,
	For abundant life to live?

	One day to Sally said Fred,
	"I wouldd like to be your friend."
	Responded Sally to Fred,  
	"We will be able to blend,
	if your cigs I need not dred.

	One day Fred said to his Aunt, 
	"I would like to visit you."
	To Fred responded his Aunt
	"Your cigs I must never view.
	On your visit, smoke you can't."

	To his employer said Fred, 
	"I'd like to work in Sales."
	His employer said to Fred,
	"Any salesman who smokes, fails.
	For smokers do our clients dred."

	Said Fred to his good doctor, 
	"Now what do I need to do?"
	To Fred Said the good doctor,
	"There is nothing you can do.
	Death is standing at your door."

	Revelation came to Fred.
	It's cigs have done this to me.
	I should have already pledged,
	to quit the cigs, to be free.
	But lack of cigs I did dred.

	Advice for quitting, Fred sought.
	I must get through this, I must.
	Spent he many days in deep thought.
	So many things did he adjust
	Too many items had he bought.

	For nothing did work until
	Found he this better method
	to quit the cigs that did kill.
	Now he teaches the method
	But does not send clients a bill.

	F. A. I. T. H. you need
	"F" refers to the first word
	of a list you need to heed.
	"H" refers to the last word
	of a list you need to heed.

	"F" is for faith you feel,
	in your body, mind and soul,
	that soon yourself you will heal.
	Poisons to you cigs did dole,
	to which you did justly deal.

	You did adapt very well
	to the poison nicotine.
	Now you feel very unwell
	with the lack of nicotine,
	and may even think cigs swell.

	To the lack of this poison
	must you now fully adapt.
	other people, Don, Jon, Ron
	can tell how they did adapt
	to become free of poison.

	"F" also refers to fear
	which feeds the daily torment,
	that you must make disappear.
	Lack of cigs is not like Lent,
	for cigs subtract from life dear.

	"A" refers to actual
	which means to say, know what is,
	what is truely factual.
	Cigs do not make you a whiz,
	do not help you with your gal.

	Cigs hinder you, handicap you.
	But mostly, they play a trick.
	You think they help you to do
	those things which you need to click,
	to handle things that are new.

	But actually you must know,
	if not dependent on cigs,
	you would everyone show,
	that you can do all the gigs.
	Nothing to cigs do you owe.

	Know nicotine for its trick.
	After you adapt to cigs,
	which first hit you like a brick,
	you feel you need cigs for gigs.
	This is nicotine's big trick.
	
	To adapt to lack of cigs
	requires work requires courage,
	not the stubornness of pigs.
	speedy progress you can gage
	by disinterest in cigs.

	"A" is for anticipate.
	Look forward to being free.
	Within three weeks pangs abate.
	then you will be truely free,
	no nicotine on your plate.

	"I" is for your interest.
	Search to do things which you love.
	Then life will be at its best.
	Your work will fit like a glove,
	Killed is the nicotine pest.

	"I" also stands for inside.
	Look fully inside your mind.
	Many ideas there do abide.
	Don't let nicotine you bind,
	or trick you to suicide.

	Permit your ideas to grow,
	and then before you expect,
	your many ideas will flow,
	to what you could not project,
	to great creations you know.

	"T" is for the time it takes
	for you to truly be free,
	for changes your body makes
	to be normal, to be free,
	free of cigs, for goodness sakes.

	"T" is also for the trap,
	that cigs almost always spring.
	None escape being a sap,
	by the trap that cigs do bring.
	Throw this trap across a gap.

	"H" represents the word heal.
	To relax yourself, do learn.
	With all tensions learn to deal.
	Make your primary concern
	Love, truth, rest, and your next meal.

	"H" also represents harm,
	which cigs do much too often.	
	Don't let those cigs from the farm
	ever enter your own den.
	Don't let them do yourself harm.

	Now Fred does proudly exclaim,
	Smoke another cig I won't.
	No more will cigs cause me pain.
	Do I miss the cigs?  I don't!
	Now in my life, joy does reign.





*******   Revising this song   ********




	Where oh where do you live?
	Do you live in slavery to cigs, or do you live free?

	Said Fred to Sally,  "I have vowed to never smoke again."
	Said Sally to Fred, "I shall be glad to be your friend."

	Said Fred to his Aunt, "I never enjoyed the cigs anyway."
	Said his Aunt to Fred, "Welcome to my home."

	Said Fred to his Employer, "I shall never smoke again."
	Said his Employer to Fred, "Welcome to the Sales department."
	
	Said Fred to his doctor, "I have quit the cigs"
	Said the doctor to Fred, "Good.  Now you can enjoy what's 
	left of your life."

	Where or where do you live?  Do you live in freedom and joy, 
	or do you live in slavery and fear?

	Said Fred to Sally, "When shall we get married?"
	Said Sally to Fred, "Let's do it tomorrow."

	Said Alice to her son, "Thank you for freeing me from the cigs."
	Said her son to Alice, "Thank you for escaping the cigs."

	Said Fred to his employer, "you helped me escape cigs!"
	Said his employer to Fred, "Thank you for your excellent work."

	Said Fred to his doctor, "I feel much better now."
	Said the doctor to Fred, "It's a miracle.  You are cured"


Chapter 18


	Some people clapped in appreciation.  Others sat silently 
thoughtful.  Ralph spoke to Helen, "I like the song, but I don't see 
how it makes things any different for us.   We've heard those 
sentiments hundreds of times."

	Helen replied, "As I said before,  cigs are your biggest 
problem.  They reduce your ability to respond to stressors.  In 
addition, each time you smoke a cig, you are damaging your own health 
and the health of your neighbors.  I want to help you quit smoking so 
you can have a good life and have it more abundantly.  It also works 
the other way around.  The best way I can help you quit smoking is to 
show you that you can do better work and have more fun in life if you 
don't smoke cigs."
	Ralph nodded his head.  "Yes.  I heard you both times.  It's 
just that I don't believe cigs are hurting me.  The medical problems 
you are blaming on cigs are just part of growing older.  I'm already 
perfectly happy with my life."
	Helen stepped forward. "If you don't want to quit smoking, at 
least quit making smoke to harm other people.  And I'm here to make 
that possible.  I'm here to sell you a superior cigarette, a smokeless 
cig. And for those of you who wish to quit smoking, these smokeless 
cigs will help you quit. Who would like a free sample?"
	One of the chess players who wore a bright button-down blue
shirt looked up.  "Did you say free?"
	Helen nodded her head affirmatively, and then she tossed a pack 
to him.  He caught it easily since Helen had aimed it expertly.  As he 
opened the pack, he commented, "They look just like regular cigarettes.  
What makes them superior?"
	Helen replied, "Try it." 
	He took out one of the cigarettes, and put it in his mouth.  
He turned on his cigarette lighter and raised it to his mouth.  As 
soon as the flame touched the tip of the cigarette, it said "OUCH!"
	The man jerked the cigarette out of his mouth, and yelled at 
Helen,  "What the hell is this?   What kind of joke are you pulling?"
	Helen winked at Joe before replying. It had been his idea to 
put that feature in.  "That is just to remind you that you don't need 
to light these cigarettes.  Puff on them as if they were already lit.  
These are smokeless cigarettes.  You won't ever need your cigarette 
lighters again.  And you have no ashes to worry about."
	The man replied, "I never worried about ashes anyway."  He put 
the cig back in his mouth, and took a few trial puffs.  "Hey!  It does 
smell like regular cigs. It's not quite as good as a regular one 
though."
	Suddenly, a voice issued from the cig.  "sixty seven point 
four four five percent of initial adult lung capacity."
	"What the hell?"  Did this cig just talk to me?
	Bob answered.  "Yes.  It just told you what percent of your 
normal lung capacity you have left.  If you quit smoking, your lung 
capacity will gradually improve."
	"Iszat so?"  He took a few more puffs. "When will it tell me 
again?"
	Joe answered this time.  "After you tap the cig on the end."
	The smoker tapped the cig on the end.  After a few more puffs 
it again told him his current lung capacity percentage.  "This is 
neat!  Hey Ralph, why don't you try one?"  He handed a cig from the 
package to his companion sitting across the chess table from him.
	Ralph took a few puffs.  "Eighty one point two two two percent 
of initial adult lung capacity."
	In a clear voice that carried across the room, Bob said, 
"These cigarettes carry no toxin, not even nicotine.  If you use these 
instead of regular cigs, you'll be able to taste your food again, and 
your smoker's cough will go away.  Even if you don't use these cigs to 
help you quit, you can occasionally use them to check your lung capacity 
score.  You win when your lung capacity increases."
	Joe jumped forward to add his comments.  "These smokeless cigs 
have been designed to taste and feel almost like regular cigarettes, but 
that is only an illusion to minimize the effort it takes to switch.  
Another reason is that these cigarettes will last, on the average, 10 
times longer than a regular cigarette.  As you puff on this cigarette it 
will shorten just like a real cig that burns.
	When the cigarette reaches the size of a cigarette butt, put it 
back in the cigarette pack, and in an hour's time it will lengthen to its 
regular size. 
	Notice that before the first time you use it, the side of the 
cigarette has the number 10 written on it.  After one usage, that number 
will change to 9."
	With only a slight pause, Joe continued, "And now, Here's Bob".  
He beckoned Bob forward with wide sweeping motions of his arms.
	Bob stepped forward.  "Some more of you may want to quit the 
smoking curse.  These cigarettes will help you quit. One pack will be 
more than enough to help you quit."
	"This is because these cigs contain no nicotine.  One pack will 
last longer than the three weeks it takes for your metabolism to 
revert to normal.  As long as you avoid taking in any nicotine, your
body metabolism will stay normal.  In fact, it will be very important
that you avoid nicotine because your body now knows how to adapt to 
it, and one exposure could put you in the trap again.  However, please
remember the good news.  By making a strong commitment, you can get out 
of that trap.  It merely requires you knowing that your body metabolism
will revert to normal within three weeks if it is not exposed to
nicotine"
	Bob stepped back, and motioned Helen forward.  As he did this, he 
said, "Helen can tell you some additional reasons you should quit."
	Helen looked around at her Audience. "I'll summarize the reasons 
now, and go into more detail later.  Smoking is an addiction that 
is killing you slowly.  But you can quit, and I can help you. The cig 
smoke is hurting all your friends as well as yourself. For men, Cig 
smoke damages your sperm and, for pregnant women, interferes with 
development of the baby in the womb."
	"Why did you begin to smoke? Why do you continue to smoke?
Do you enjoy each cig as you smoke it?  Some of you claim to do so, 
but do you really?"
	"Or is it that you continue to smoke only to avoid the 
withdrawal symptoms.  You don't need to.  You can easily ignore
those withdrawal symptoms if you understand what they are.  Every 
night, while you sleep, almost all the nicotine is removed from your 
blood circulation.  Ignore that empty feeling you get when you feel the 
impulse to smoke.  It is caused by your metabolism reverting back to 
normal.   Don't smoke any more cigs, avoid taking nicotine in
any form, and within three weeks, your metabolism will be back to normal."
	"Avoid the temptation to smoke when under slight stress.  It may
feel like the cig is helping you cope with stress, but that is only
the cig trap at work.  You will feel slight stress as your metabolism
reverts to normal.  Invite this stress.  Be glad for this stress.  It
shows your success at escaping from the trap."
	"Avoid the temptation to smoke when you feel bored.  It is the
same trap.  Smoking cigs uses up energy you might use for more worthwhile
projects.  This is how cigs make it more likely that you will be bored. 
Preventing your metabolism from reverting to normal frees up some of 
your energy and creates the illusion that the cig relieved your boredom.
But, observe yourself closely.  Do you have enough energy to actually do
more than smoke the cig?  Instead of being bored, doing nothing, you are
being bored while smoking a cig."
	"Avoid the temptation to smoke when you need to take an exam or 
concentrate your attention on some problem to be solved.  In fact, smoking 
cigs starve the brain of oxygen and reduces your ability to concentrate.
The illusion that cigs help you to concentrate comes from being distracted
by that feeling associated with your metabolism returning to normal. 
Recognize that feeling.  Be glad of that feeling, and allow yourself
to not be distracted by it.  Your concentration will improve immensely
once you are cured of having to smoke cigs."
	"Avoid the temptation to smoke when you want to relax.  The 
nicotine in cigs increases your heart rate.  Cigs do not relax you. 
This illusion that cigs relax you is caused by the fact that you
feel a slight stress as your body metabolism tries to revert to 
normal.  Recognize this stress and welcome it.  It is a sign 
that you are escaping from the trap.  If you instead smoke
a cig, you are preventing your body from recovering.  By preventing 
your body to do the work necessary to bring your metabolism back to 
normal you reduce your overall stress, causing you to think the cig 
relaxed you.  Don't allow yourself to fall into this trap over and 
over again."
	"If you allow yourself to stay in this trap, you'll eventually
reach the stage where when you are not smoking, you'll feel impatient 
until you have a chance to smoke, and when you are smoking, you'll
wish you didn't have to.  Escape from this trap now.  Make your
last cig be the last cig you smoke."
	"I'll tell you five  tactics available to you to help you
through the short time it takes for your metabolism to re-adjust
to not having the nicotine poison in your body.  You can remember
these five tactics by remembering the five letter word, FAITH."
	"The first letter, F, is for faith.  Have faith that your
body can heal itself.  Nature has given us marvelous bodies that
adapt amazingly well to unexpected circumstances.  When you smoked
your first cig, your body adapted to the presence of nicotine and
other poisons.  When you choose to have smoked your last cig, your
body will adapt to not having those poisons present.  It is only
your ignorance of your body's adaptability that keeps you in the
cig trap."
	"The second letter, A, is for accurate.  Have an accurate
view of what is actually happening.  Instead of thinking that
you are suffering withdrawal pangs or cravings, rejoice in the
certain knowledge that your body's metabolism is returning to
normal."
	"The third letter, I, is for interest.  Find interesting
things to do to keep your mind busy.  Doing interesting work or 
play releases stored energy and speeds your recovery."
	"The fourth letter, T, is for tap.  Tap resources available 
to support your commitment.  Talk to your friends, meditate on feelings
of well being, remember all the supporting reasons why you should quit 
smoking, read and ponder advice that may help you.  There are more
resources available to you than I could possibly list.  Please feel
free to phone me any day of the week, any time of day.  I'll be 
glad to facillitate your escaping from this cig trap."
	"The fifth letter, H, is for heal.  Heal yourself.  Teach 
yourself to relax muscles in your head, arms, chest, etc at will.
Remember joyous and pleasant feelings to release energy for 
healing your body."
	"If right now you make the commitment to quit smoking, then
you will have already smoked your last cig."
	Helen stepped back to exchange places with Joe.   Joe then 
added his remark.  "Do you care about money in the long term?  
Calculate how much money you'll release for useful purposes over
the rest of your life if you quit now.  Do you care about money
in the short term?  These smokeless cigs, which will help you
escape the cig trap, last 10 times as long as a regular cigarette. 
And the cost is exactly the same.  Effectively you pay only 
one tenth as much for them."
     Joe added, "And if you finish the pack, and still feel the need for
more to escape the nicotine trap,  you may return the used smokeless
cigarettes to us in order to get a new pack at half price. So, after the 
first pack, you really pay only one twentieth of the price per pack. 
Think of it this way.  You would get a full pack for what you now pay 
for one cigarette "
     Joe paused, then continued, "And incidentally, you may trade regular 
cigs for our cigs.  If you give up your pack of cigs to us, we will give 
you one pack of ours for free.  For each regular cig that you give to us, 
we will give you one of our smokeless cigs."
	Joe stepped back to invite Bob to exchange places with him.  Bob
spoke clearly, using his announcement voice.  "It is important that you
don't think you need willpower to quit.  To stop smoking, all you have
to do is to stop smoking. The cig does you no good.  It doesn't relax you.
It doesn't help you concentrate to solve problems or to do work.  It 
doesn't relieve stress. It doesn't give you enjoyment. It doesn't relieve
boredom.  The cig does not help you in any way.  You don't need willpower
to overcome those false cravings.  You need only a clear understanding
of what is happening to you.  You will find it easy to stop."
	"Beware of another trap you might fall into.  Once you discover that
it's easy to escape the cig trap, you might think that it's ok to smoke
on occasion because you can escape again.  This is another subtle trap.
Remember that every cig you smoke is not good for you.  There is no
reason to subject yourself to that punishment.  If you should smoke 
another cig, you'll have to choose between staying in the cig trap
the rest of your life, or being miserable for a while during the escape 
process.   Commit yourself to never smoking another cig for the rest 
of your life."

     The chess player with the blue shirt replied, "You give a good 
argument.  However, I don't think any of us here are ready to quit our 
habit.  Besides, you yourself said these cigs have no nicotine.  So really 
they are fake cigs."
	Angela showed her presence by immediately responding, "They aren't 
fake cigs, they are anti-cigs.  If you replace your regular cigs with ours, 
then you'll automatically free yourself from the cig trap."
	Blue Shirt replied, "So what.  I have no interest in giving up
smoking."  
     One of the remaining two guys playing ping pong spoke up.  "Speak for 
yourself, Sam."  He addressed Helen.  "I want to quit.  You impressed 
Ralph with your chess playing, but you haven't impressed me yet.  How well
can you play ping pong?  It will impress me if you play a good game. If you 
can beat me in a game of ping pong, then I'll buy several packs of your 
smokeless cigs.  I'll even give all but one pack to my buddies and tell 
them all about you and the smokeless cigs.  Are you game?"
	Helen strode to the ping pong table and picked up a paddle. "Ready 
when you are."
	The challenger replied.  "I'm ready. Be prepared to lose because I 
haven't lost a game in six months.  By the way, my name is Long Arm Tom."
	They started to play.  As Helen returned Tom's first serve, she 
realized that she could have easily returned the ball in such a way that 
Tom would have found it impossible to hit.  But she had decided that that 
would be an unfair use of her powers.  So she returned the ball where Tom 
could easily hit it back to her.  
	After a few volleys, an onlooker jeered, "Why are you being so 
soft on her Tom?  When are you going to start slamming?"
	Tom glanced up, then focused his attention back to the game.  
Carefully, so as to not disturb his concentration, he replied, "Relax 
Red. It'll be very soon.  It won't be worth cam-cording for your news 
show."
	Tom saw his chance.  He moved his paddle under the ball and 
slammed it down on Helen's side of the table.  He then relaxed, confident 
that Helen would miss.  But Helen didn't miss.  She saw exactly where the 
ball would be and had her paddle ready to gently return it to Tom's side 
of the table.  Since Tom did not expect her to return the volley, he 
watched in surprise as the ball bounced gently twice right in front of him.
	At this Red turned his head, and announced loudly to everyone in 
the room.  "Hey folks, come and watch.  This lady is a table tennis pro 
also!"   Red lifted his camcorder to record the rest of the game.

	Alarmed, Tom decided to try the trick slam.  He begin a series of 
easy volleys on the right hand side of the table.  After he felt that 
Helen probably expected his next volley to be on the same side of the 
table, he slammed it to the edge of the left hand side of the table.  He 
then relaxed, watching for her look of consternation.  
	Instead Tom showed the look of consternation when Helen, having 
zipped over to the other side of the table, with an incredibly long reach, 
gently returned the ball to his side of the court.  Tom made a valiant try 
to return the ball, but the paddle slipped out of his hand just as he hit 
the ball, and the ball went off the table.
	This sequence of events repeated several times.  After a few 
volleys. Tom would slam the ping pong ball down on Helen's side, and not 
expect her to return it.  When Helen did return it, Tom could not respond 
in time.
	When the score became six to zero in Helen's favor, Tom put down 
his paddle. "I concede.  Give me several packs of your cigs, and I'll be 
your salesman for a week."
	As Tom took the packs from Helen, he said, "In fact, I'll start 
right now."  Taking his cell phone from his cell phone holder, he punched 
in a local phone number.   "Hey Clint,  I've got something really hot for 
you.  I think you should send it up to the big boss."



 Chapter 19


	Monday 		July  3		Cigs stolen from  Union Store
	Tuesday		July 11 	1st episode at local Smoketorium
	Wednesday	July 12  	5 cancellations
	Thursday	July 13  	3 cancellations
	Friday		July 14  	5 cancellations
	Saturday	July 15  	2 cancellations
	Sunday		July 16  	2 cancellations
	Monday		July 17         8 cancellations
	Tuesday		July 18  	2nd episode at local smoketorium.
					8 cancellations
	Wednesday	July 19  	4 cancellations
	Thursday	July 20  	5 cancellations
	Friday		July 21  	3 cancellations

	"Look at this chart!"  Clint's voice showed his worry.  "If this 
keeps up much longer, I won't have any customers left!"
	Mike spoke calmly to Client.  "I don't see anything to be really 
worried about.  How many customers do you have in this town?  About twenty 
thousand?  In the worse case, you'd still have eighty percent of your 
customers after a year's time.  I'm sure we can find ways to eliminate 
your threat way before then."
	Mike continued, "But you must be patient.  This is a only a local 
threat, so I can't devote too much time to it."
	Mike ignored Clint's look of disappointment, and added, "However, 
we are very glad you brought this to our attention.  I expect that we can 
find some chemist to testify that her smokeless cigs are dangerously 
toxic."

	Clint shook his head.  "I think Helen would not push toxic cig 
substitutes.  She must believe they are safe.  But how would she know? 
Where did she get them?  She's only a music student at the college."

	Mike shook his head.  "That's a mystery I hope to solve soon.  
I've hired a detective agency to report to me everything they can find out 
about ms Helen Aphrodite Troy."
	Clint nodded his head in satisfaction.  "Good.  I wonder what's 
she's doing right now."

	Helen landed softly on the walkway leading up to Melody's Home.  
As she landed she released Bob and Joe.  She had had her right arm around 
Joe, and her left arm around Bob as she flew the three of them to the 
Astronauts' party in Houston Texas.   Both Bob and Joe, each protected 
from changes in air pressure by a bubble of air, had chosen to carry his 
musical instrument in its case strapped across his chest.  Helen had 
offered to shrink their beloved instruments to pocket size, and expand 
them later, but neither wanted to take her up on her offer.
	Joe glanced at the beautiful marble walkway and beautifully 
landscaped yard. He started to comment on it, but Helen and Bob had 
already moved along the walkway to the front door.  As Bob stepped on the 
doorstep, a computer voice said, "Please state your name clearly and 
distinctly."
	Before Bob could respond, Joe rushed forward and said, "We are 
the impossible trio.  You scheduled us to entertain for today's party."
	The computer replied, "Response accepted. Please enter."  As they 
entered the opening door, Joe explained, "I called Melody earlier to tell 
her the new name of our band."
	Melody greeted them as they entered.  "Calvin and the other 
astronauts are already here. Helen, please introduce me to your friends."
	Joe stuck out his hand for Melody. "I'm Joe Athens."  Then 
indicating Bob, he said, "This is Bob Mercury, and of course you already 
know Helen."
	Melody said, "Thank you.  Let me first show you where you will be 
performing."  She led the way down a long wide hallway with fancy 
artistic silk-screened pictures hanging on the walls.
	After walking through the hallway they entered a large room.  The 
entire wall on the other side of the room seemed transparent, for they 
could see a beautiful lake and garden beyond it.
	Melody led them directly across the center of the room to the 
transparent wall.  She observed Joe looking intently at the lake scene 
through the wall.  
	She laughed.  "Do you think this is just a picture window?  Let 
me show you what a real picture window this is."  She held up a remote 
control, which she handed to Joe. "Press any channel button."
	Puzzled Joe pressed a button at random.  Suddenly the beautiful 
lake disappeared to be replaced by a view of the moonscape as 
photographed by the astronauts in 2060.  
	"Wow" exclaimed Joe as he handed the remote control back to 
Melody.
	Bob, equally impressed, asked, "How many scenes do you have for 
this window?"
	Melody replied.  "This remote has the capacity for selecting 4095 
different views.  I think we have about 500 of them programmed."
	Just then Calvin and Jonathan, each smiling and waltzing to 
inaudible music brought light swivel chairs for them to sit in. They set 
them down next to the picture window. They then turned to greet the 
group. 
	Melody introduced the trio to them. "Calvin, and Jonathan, this 
is Joe, and Bob.  And of course you remember Helen."  Melody waved her 
hand briefly toward each person as she said the name.  Then she observed, 
"I'll have to introduce you all over again to the latecomers."
	Just then Abner walked up. "Then why don't you wait until they 
start to play to introduce them?  Abner smiled at Helen.  "I'm glad you 
brought your friends." He shook hands with Helen, then Joe and Bob.
	Helen observed, "The only one of your group that we haven't 
greeted yet is Carol."
	Melody replied, "Carol is bringing out the punch bowl."
	Just as Melody said this, they all heard a loud crash and a yell 
of disappointment.
	They looked toward the sound and saw Carol sitting down in the 
long hallway with gallons of punch flowing away from her and shards of 
broken glass all around her.
	Helen ran toward Carol to help her up. As she approached Carol, 
the punch and glass shards in her path vanished. She helped Carol up. 
	Then she said, "Let me help you with the rest.  Where did you 
want the punch bowl set up?"
	Carol replied, 'It's too late.  I broke our only punch bowl and 
spilled the last of our punch mix."
	Helen smiled.  "Show me anyway.  Pretend you never dropped the 
punch bowl."
	Carol frowned, then remembering that Helen had previously done 
seemingly impossible things decided to go along, wondering what miracle 
she might do now.
	With a wave of her hand, Helen absorbed the remaining glass 
fragments in the hallway and followed carol to the refreshment table back 
in the large room.  Carol touched the edge of the table and said, "I 
intended to put it on this table."
	Helen replied.  "Ok."  She then stood next to the center part of 
the table and placed her cupped hands over the table.  Soon she had 
recreated the punch bowl and placed it onto the table.  She next held her 
arm above the open bowl.  Punch poured out of her arm into the bowl.
	Calvin came up to her.  "Do you know how many different laws of 
physics you just violated?"
	Helen replied, "Actually I haven't violated any laws of physics.  
It just seems that way."
	Calvin laughed.  "I'm glad to hear that.  So should I think of 
you as just a super stage magician?"
	Helen looked at Calvin in surprise.  "Yes.  That's a very good way 
to look at it.  Thank you."

	Later when almost all the guests had arrived, Melody signaled to 
Joe that they should begin.  Joe spoke to the audience.  Our first song 
is called 'Where do you live?'  Helen wrote both the lyrics and score 
for it.  After this song, we will take requests from the audience."
	Joe sat down and swiveled to face Bob, already sitting.  They 
began playing and Helen began to sing.  
	Abner, leaning against the wall, prepared to wait out the song. 
After hearing a few lines of the song, he stood up and moved slightly 
closer to insure he heard every word of the song. 
	When Helen finished her song, she turned to speak to the audience.  
"Ok folks, time to challenge us.  What would you like to hear us perform?
	A tall thin man who had just entered spoke up.  "Please sing 'On 
the other side of the moon.'  It's my favorite song."
	Melody gasped in surprise.  "Gaunt!  That's not fair.  When you 
taught me that song you told me that it dropped off the charts over 60 
years ago.  These kids are too young to know it."
	Helen spoke then.  "It's ok Melody.  We can do it.  We have the 
sheet music for it.  Helen reached into her pocket and pulled out two 
rolls of framed plastic paper.  She handed one to Joe and one to Bob.  
	As Joe took it he whispered to Helen, "Neat trick.  No one would 
have suspected that these rolls of sheet music were made on the spot."
	Helen whispered back, "or that I didn't even know the song 
existed until he requested it."
	The rolls of sheet music unrolled automatically and then grew 
legs. Bob and Joe weren't the only ones whose gasp showed their surprise 
while the rolls of sheet music became music stands. After a few moments, 
each of them began to play while Helen sang.      
	After the performance, Grant came up to examine the music stands. 
Picking one up, he carefully bent portions of it and watched it spring 
back into shape.  Putting it down, he smiled at Helen.  He said, "That's a 
very clever application of memory wire.  Even though I invented memory 
wire, I never would have thought of this application."

	Helen extended her hand.  "Thank you."
	As they shook hands Grant said, "You're welcome.  If you can 
program memory wire this well, I'd like to hire you to program a broadcast 
web site.
	Joe leaned forward to shake hands with Grant.  "My name is Joe."  
Pointing to Bob, he added, "And this is Bob."
	Bob stepped forward to shake Grant's hand.  "Glad to meet you. 
	Grant turned his head to find Melody, and waved for her to come 
over.  As Melody walked up, he asked her, "This group is very impressive.  
I already knew they were good.  But tonight, they exceeded all my 
expectations."
	Bob immediately asked, "You already knew?  How? Did you see us 
play before today?"
	Grant answered, "Yes. Victor sent me your first recording.  I've 
endorsed you, and you have a very good chance of earning free world wide 
advertisement.  If or when that happens, you'll have a steady 
supplementary income forever."
	Grant added, "But I had first met Helen through video phone 
several years ago, although she might not remember me."
	Bob and Joe both turned to look at Helen.  She responded, "I do 
remember Grant.  He worked with Melody to support my anti-cig club that I 
started my sophmore year in high school.  He called me again last year to 
tell me that he and Melody were working together on a project against the 
tobacco Company, and asked me if I were interested in working with them.  
At the time I turned them down.  My music study kept me too busy."
	Just then Abner walked up. "Helen, I'm really impressed by your 
song, 'Where do you live'.  What inspired you to write it?"
	Helen smiled, then replied, "I'm on a crusade.  I want to free 
everyone addicted to cigarettes so that cigarettes won't be made any 
more."
	Abner stepped back a step, astonishment lighting up his face.  
"That's a pretty big ambition, maybe even for you.  How will you do it?"
	Helen replied, "I've started small.  In my hometown Eastside, 
Virginia, I've gone weekly to the local smoketorium and attempted to 
persuade some smokers to quit.  I wrote the song so I could sing it at the 
smoketorium."
	Joe commented.  "I bet you'd be even more impressed by Helen's 
smokeless cigs!"
	Grant leaned forward, addressing Helen.  "So you do still care!
It's perfect.  Would you like to have your performances at the Eastside 
smoketorium broadcast all over the world?"
	Helen looked at Grant in surprise. "That would be very good.  How 
much work would it be for you?  It sounds like it would be too much to 
ask of you."
	Grant paused.  "Actually, I've already set it up.  I'm just 
looking for someone to manage it."
	He pulled a small computer phone from a holster on his belt, and 
rapidly punched keys on its keypad.  "Now I just need to know your email 
address."
	Helen smiled.  "Wonderful."  She reached into her pocket and 
pulled out a card.  "Here's the email address I use that's dedicated to 
the antismoke issue."
	Grant looked at Helen's email card.  "How did you come up 
with an email name like Aunt.Izciguf.Ana.Tic@Eastside.USEVA.us.edu?"
	Helen laughed. "So it's not so obvious after all.  It's 
Ant-ti-cig-f-fana-tic. I threw in some extra letters to complete the 
syllables, and confused things by moving first or last letters of a 
syllable to an adjacent syllable."
	Grant shook his head.  "I see that I didn't really need to ask."  
Looking at the card, grant quickly keyed in her email address.  "I've set 
up a web page dedicated to the broadcast. I've programed in one week 
already, and it repeats itself every week. The broadcast is 24 hours per 
day, 7 days per week.  I've also set up a way for people to ask you 
questions and make comments to you in response to the broadcast.  I need 
you to program variations of the content so people will find it 
interesting enough to subscribe to."


	Grant pulled a card from a clip in his shirt pocket and handed it 
to Helen.  "Here's my web address and email address. Log in to my web 
address by using any part of your name as ID and your email address as 
password. You may change your id and password anytime you wish.  It's 
ready for you to assign a broadcast structure and upload the content 
files.  Just make sure the content is relevant to the smoking issue.  
Email me if you have any difficulties."
	Grant's swift action impressed Helen.  Thank you very much!  We 
will make use of your web site very soon.  Is there anything we can do 
for you in return?"
	Grant answered, "Joe, you said something about smokeless cigs that 
Helen has.  Are they props you use for explaining the effects of cigs?"
	Joe laughed,  "Ha. Not at all.  Her smokeless cigs are substitutes 
for the real cigarettes so that people could feel they are still smoking 
while they break their addiction.  They are miraculous cigs."
	Grant looked at Joe in astonishment. "So you say.  Could you give 
me some so I can have my lab analyze them?"
	Helen reached into her pocket.  she focused her attention on 
generating the required genetic structures.  After a few seconds, she 
pulled out a jar containing a green jelly.  "Here.  With this you can 
grow your own smokeless cigs."
	In astonishment, Grant took the jar.  "Grow my own?  How?"
	Helen replied, "The smokeless cigs are organic.  The wrapping of 
the cig, instead of being made of paper, is made of fine hairs that weave 
themselves together as they grow.  A very sophisticated network of nerves 
and nutrient vessels grow throughout the cig as it develops.  The nerve 
network carries the logic program needed for the cig to do its work."
	Helen continued, "Just feed the cig jelly with regular foods like 
milk, fruits, meat and veggies.  Add sprinkles of water, tobacco, and iron 
or copper filings. The tobacco is needed so that the cig can mimic the 
tobacco taste.  After awhile, depending on how much food and light it 
has, it will grow a smokeless cig. The cig will come to the surface of the 
jelly when it's fully grown.  It will remain alive until you use it up, 
or for about a month if you don't use it."
	Grant held the jar up to look closely at it. "You must be kidding 
me.  No lab on Earth could possibly calculate the required genetic 
structure."  
	Grant pulled an eyeglass case from his pocket.  Taking the 
glasses in both hands, he pressed key points on the frames, and converted 
them into a powerful microscope.  "This is one of my early applications 
of memory wire.  My glasses convert to any shape I need."
	Grant opened the jar, and with a thin wire, pulled out a tiny bit 
of the jelly to put under the microscope.  After peering at it through the 
microscope a few moments, he commented.  "This appears to be some kind of 
protoplasmic jellylike fluid.  I felt quite sure that nobody on Earth 
could possibly make it."
	Suddenly, Grant's face lit up in a very wide smile.  "Say!  If you 
folks aren't pulling my leg, you probably know how to contact the Aliens."


Chapter 20

	Helen took the last bite of her lunch and looked across the campus 
cafeteria table to her two friends, Bob and Joe,  "I've just examined the 
first batch of requests for the smokeless cigs from our worldwide 
broadcasts."
	Joe replied, "I bet it's a lot.  Maybe even several thousand.  How 
will you deliver them?  You can't mail them because the post office 
stopped delivering tobacco products.  Even with the extra money coming in 
from your repair shop in the university union store, we couldn't afford to 
have Federal Express deliver them."
	Helen replied, "We certainly need help.  There's not enough time 
in the day for me to make and deliver them at the rate I've been doing 
it."
	Bob looked surprised.  "Not enough time in the day?  Just how many 
orders came in this first batch?"
	Helen looked apologetic.  "About a quarter million."
	Joe whistled softly.  "How are we going to handle this?"
	Helen sighed.  "I think I need to ask Grant for help."
	Bob and Joe exchanged glances.  Joe spoke first.  "If Grant works 
closely with us, he's sure to discover your superpowers."
	Helen sighed again.  "I know.  I've failed to think of any way we 
could handle this ourselves.  I might be able to package the cigs in time, 
but there's no way I could deliver this many of them in time.  Besides, I 
haven't grown enough cigs yet.  It'll take another three days to grow the 
cigs I need for just this first batch of orders."
	"The customers are expecting delivery within three days.  We made 
a mistake by not planning for this before I reprogrammed Grant's anti-cig 
broadcasts.  Without Grant's help, it'll take too long to deliver the 
cigs.  We need Grant's help to avoid disappointing our customers."
	Bob replied, "The only way to find out if Grant can help us 
quickly enough is to call him."  Bob looked toward Joe, but Joe had 
already taken out his cell phone and begun to punch in Grant's phone 
number.
	Just before Joe finished placing the call, his cell phone rang.  
Astonishment tinged Joe's voice as he looked at his cell phone caller id.  
"Grant is calling us!"
	Joe accepted Grant's call.  "Hello Grant!  What's up."
	Grant replied, "I need your help.  How do I turn off the cig 
growing jelly?"
	Surprised, Joe said the first thing that popped into his mind.  
"Just don't feed it."	
	Grant answered, "I know that of course.  But it doesn't help me.  
I anticipated that you'd want to grow lots of cigs after the orders 
started comming in.  Immediately after you gave me the cig jelly, I had 
one of my larger warehouses, number seven, emptied so that I could grow 
the cigs in it.   I hired a company to carefully prepare a garden on the 
warehouse floor consisting of the standard bacterial medium and to 
continuously pipe in nutrient fluid containing the proteins and minerals 
needed by the cig jelly.  They put a large elevated tank just outside the 
warehouse to hold the nutrient fluid.  They finished in four days."
	Joe glanced at Helen as he answered, "I still don't see why you 
should have any problem.  Even if it had a continuous supply of food, the 
amount of cig jelly we gave you shouldn't produce more than about 10 cigs 
a day."
	Grant answered, "I have a lot more than that now.  You should have 
told me that it reproduces itself exponentially if the food supply is 
available.  Now the floor of my warehouse is completely covered with cig 
jelly and with your smokeless cigs."
	Helen reached for Joe's phone.  Joe saw Helen reach for the phone, 
and since he knew that Helen, with her super hearing, had heard both 
sides of the conversation,  he quickly handed Helen the phone.
	Helen spoke excitedly into the phone.  "Grant, we need those cigs. 
We were just about to call you to ask you to help us deliver our first 
order of cigs."
	Grant replied, "Sure I can help.  I have a very efficient 
independent distributor for my electronic equipment.  But it won't be 
exactly easy to apply it to this many cigs."
	Grant continued, "When can you help me with my warehouse problem? 
Do you have some fast way to harvest your cigs from the jelly?"
	Helen replied, "Sure, but what happened.  We gave you only a small 
jar of the jelly.  What did you do to get your warehouse floor covered 
with it?"
	Grant replied, "After the company finished making the garden for 
the jelly on the floor of the Warehouse, I requested that they disperse 
the small jar of jelly throughout the garden.   They did this very well.  
Only microscopic traces of the jelly ended up in any one spot.  When I 
came back to check on the results, three days later, meaning today, 
July 29th, green jelly covered the entire floor of warehouse seven, 
except for a few square meters near the entrance."
	Helen responded, "Grant, your problem is part of the solution to 
our problem. If I harvest the cigs for you, will you be able to package 
them and deliver them within two days?"
	Grant responded, "That is asking a lot.  I'm not sure I can do it. 
Let me think about it.  When can you come to harvest the cigs?  How will 
you do it?"
	Helen replied, "Right now.  Are you at the warehouse?"
	Grant replied, "Yes.  When I saw how things were going here, I 
called you by the first phone number I could remember."
	Helen laughed at this.  "We're very glad you called.  Wait for me.  
I'll meet you at the warehouse in two minutes."
	Astonishment tinged Grant's voice.  "Did you say two minutes?  You 
must have meant two days."
	Helen spoke calmly.  "No, I really did mean two minutes.  I'll 
explain when I get there.  Bye for now." Helen handed the phone back to 
Joe.
	Grant said "Wait!  Do you know where the warehouse is?"  Not 
hearing any response from Helen, he looked at his phone to check if they 
were still connected.  As he looked at it, the display changed to  "call 
ended". Grant pondered what Helen had said.  She would be here in two 
minutes.  How far could she travel in two minutes? Had they been on the 
way to see him when he called them?"
	Grant looked again at the floor of the warehouse.  He bent down 
and picked up a few cigs lying on the surface of the green jelly.  How 
would Helen harvest them?  Perhaps he could show a token effort to help 
her. He had brought a few unassembled boxes with him to the warehouse and 
stored them on a rack next to the entrance.  He could assemble a few of 
those.  He turned around to fetch a box to assemble.
	He saw Helen.  She appeared to suddenly materialize in front of 
him.  Startled, Grant said, "I didn't hear you come in."
	Helen smiled.  "I just flew in."
	Grant looked beyond at Helen, then beyond her.  "Where are your 
friends?"
	"They're still in Virginia."
	Grant looked puzzled.  "But you talked to me through Joe's phone!" 
Grant shook his head, then as another thought came to him, he said, "Did 
Joe transfer me to your phone? Or maybe you two were already talking to 
each other, and he added me in as a third link."
	Helen shook her head.  "Nothing so complicated. A few minutes ago 
I did speak to you from Joe's phone in Virginia.  I flew here in two 
minutes."
	Grant voice showed his astonishment.  "What do you mean?  How 
could you fly from Virginia to here in two minutes?"
	Helen replied, "Like this."  As she said this she shot up to the 
ceiling of the warehouse, then slowly floated back down, but stopped 
before reaching the ground.
	Grant gave voice to his wonderment.  "How are you doing 
this?"
	Helen answered.  "If I tell you, will you promise to keep it a 
secret, and not tell anyone?"
	"Ha."  Grant almost laughed.  "So that's why you denied 
knowing the Aliens!  You were afraid that I'd blab. Then why did you let 
me see you do this technological magic?  But don't worry.  I never had any 
intention of telling anyone.  I just wanted to know for myself."
	Helen looked at Grant.  "Thanks.  I really do need your help.  You 
were bound to discover my secret anyway as we worked together.  Besides, 
it doesn't feel right to hide my powers from you anymore since you have 
become our good friend by helping us so much.  I do hope you can avoid 
telling the news media about me.  I worried that you would be so tempted 
to tell because you'd think you had the first proof of aliens on Earth 
and it would make you famous."
	Grant smiled.  "Become famous?  I'm already famous.  And it would 
make no difference if I said that I had proof that Aliens were on Earth.  
Those who believe already believe.  Those who don't believe would not 
believe I had proof.  There's no reason for me to tell the news media 
about you.  Besides, I don't want to interfere with you as you help me 
fight the tobacco company.  If the news media should become interested in 
you, they might take up too much of your time.  Besides, we are friends 
now, and I don't want to cause you trouble."
	Helen looked affectionately toward Grant.  "Thank you.  I really 
appreciate it.  Grant, I want to explain about the aliens. There is only 
one alien on Earth, and it's inside me. "
	Grant showed his surprise by his sudden lifting of his head toward 
Helen.  "When did this alien come to Earth?"
	Helen replied, "About four weeks ago, on the evening of my 
birthday, July first."
	Grant shook his ahead. "I can't believe it.  Besides I have proof 
that some other Alien exists.  My instruments recorded it entering the 
Grayjay as it left the moon."  
	Helen laughed.  "I know.  You also saw me inside the Grayjay after 
you had Melody turn on your invisible alien detector."
	Grant replied, "You know that because, at the astronauts party, 
Melody told you all about it."  Grant paused, as he became fully aware of 
Helen's words.  "What do you mean by that I saw you?  Are you claiming to 
be the alien on the Grayjay?"
	Helen replied, "Yes.  As I said, there are no other aliens.  And 
I'm not really alien.  It's just that Sparky, the alien, is inside me.  
It's because of Sparky that I have these amazing powers."
	Grant replied, "I still can't believe it. How do you know that 
your Sparky is the only alien on Earth?  But no matter.  Maybe you can 
prove it to me some other time.  For now, let's focus on getting this work 
done.  
	Helen agreed. "Ok. Let's start assembling some of the boxes that 
you brought. Then I'll fill them with the cigs."
	Grant stifled his laugh.  "How long do you think it'll take you 
to pick up all the cigs in here?"
	Helen looked at him, and said in her musical voice, "About 
fourteen hours."
	"Fourteen hours!"  Grant expressed his surprise.  "I expected it 
would take more like fourteen weeks unless we got a lot of people to help 
us." Grant paused, then continued, "But, of course, you have alien 
technology to help you."
	Grant focused his attention on assembling the first box.  When he 
finished assembling it, he looked up to ask Helen how many boxes she 
needed.  He forgot his question as he saw cigs flying through the air in 
tight formation.  Grant alternately stared at Helen as she waved her hands 
around like a conductor on a music stage and at the six boxes where the 
cigs stacked themselves up neatly.
	Within a few minutes, the cigs had completely filled all six 
boxes. Helen apparently had assembled five boxes in the time he'd 
assembled one. How did she do it?  Immediately, he saw the answer to his 
question. Several of the unassembled boxes flew off the rack and begin 
assembling themselves.  
	Grant glanced at his cell phone clock. They needed to fill several 
hundred boxes with cigs, and even at this fast rate, they'd be here 
several hours.  "I advise that we find a different way to do this work.  
As fast as you fill these boxes, it won't be enough.  If, as you said, it 
takes fourteen hours to harvest all these cigs, you won't have any time 
left over to do any other work.  Let's stop a few minutes and plan some 
way to automate this process."
	Grant took out his combination cell phone and computer.  Helen 
continued to assemble boxes and fill them with cigs as she watched Grant 
work out some design on his computer.
	After about half an hour, Grant looked up and said, "I've got it.  
Come look at this."
	As Helen looked over Grant's shoulder at the display on the small 
computer screen, Grant explained the details.  "The body of the robot is a
very light very small helicopter.  It'll be able to carry up to thirty 
cigs. It'll be powered by electricity stored in a rechargable battery. 
The computer circuitry and its memory for its instructions are built into 
the outside shell of its body. I could set up the equipment to mass 
produce these in about a week."
	Helen answered.  "I can start making them right now."  As she 
spoke, she placed her open hand in front of her, palm up.  After about a 
minute, a small helicopter following Grants design appeared in her palm. 
Almost immediately it flew up out of her hand, swooped down to pick up 
cig after cig until its cig bin became filled. It then deposited the 
collected cigs neatly into one of the unfilled boxes.
	For the next two hours, Helen made the small flying helicopter 
robots while Grant assembled boxes and placed them along the wall of the 
warehouse.  At the end of that time, Grant decided to take a rest.  He 
leaned against the wall of the warehouse, and contemplated his lunch.
	Helen watched Grant leaning against the wall.  "You look thirsty."
	Grant looked up in surprise.  "You seem to know a lot about me.  
You knew how to find my warehouse, and now you can tell when I'm thirsty 
just by looking at me.  How do you know?"
	Helen grinned, "Because you are not sweating as much as usual."
	Grant nodded his head.  "Yes.  I presume you are just stating a 
fact, and not intending to insult me.  Should we take a break and go get 
some lunch?"
	Helen answered, "We can have lunch here."  She focused her 
attention on making a vinyl plastic blanket.  She held her hands out in 
front of her.  Grant watched, amazed, as a green yellowish blanket begin 
to flow out of Helen's hands and settle to the warehouse entrance floor.
	Grant asked, "Where is the blanket coming from?"
	Helen answered, "I'm making it from stored energy."
	Grant shook his head.  "It's not possible to store that much 
energy.  You must mean accessible matter and energy, not just stored 
energy. But no matter.  If you can make a blanket that quickly, then you 
should have been able to gather up and package all these cigs in a 
heartbeat."
	Helen replied, "I don't yet see how I could have done that.  Helen 
sat on the blanket. She touched a spot on the blanket next to her.  "Here 
we can have a pitcher of water."  As she slowly raised her hand, a pitcher 
of water formed in the spot she'd indicated.  Next she created two medium 
sized glasses, and placed them next to the pitcher. Turning toward Grant 
she asked.  "What would you like to have for lunch?"
	Grant replied, "How about a turkey beef cheese sandwich with tomato 
paste?"
	Helen put her hands together, and slowly pulled them apart.  As 
she pulled her hands apart, Grant's wrapped sandwich formed between her 
hands.  As Grant took the sandwich he commented, "I can't even begin to 
guess what kind of technology you're employing to do this."
	As they ate their lunch, Grant said, "Now we need to figure out 
how to automate putting your cigs into packages and labeling them with the 
names and mailing address."
	Helen replied, "Right. As they come in, the names and mailing 
addresses are automatically stored in a file on the website.  We'll need 
another kind of robot to package the cigs, and several printers to print 
the labels."
	Grant took his last bite of sandwich and took out his computer 
phone.  "I can start the printing right now.  I presume that the address 
file will be accessible only from our login?"
	Helen replied, "Of course.  I followed the privacy protocols."
	Grant logged in, found the address file, and invoked a printer 
program to print the addresses.  "Twenty five printers are now printing 
your addresses very quickly." Grant looked again at the small display 
screen on his computer.  "Your file should be printed in about an hour."
	Grant added, "Now we need another kind of robot to put the mailing 
labels on the cig packages. The mailing labeling robot can work either 
here or at the main office where my printers are."
	Helen replied, "Can we move the printers here so that next time 
everything can be done here?  
	Grant looked around the warehouse.  "Well, right now almost all 
the available floor space is taken up by the cig jelly.  I suppose we 
could grow the cigs on shelves instead of using the floor.  Then we'd have 
much more space for the jelly, and also have room for the printers and 
anything else we need."
	Helen smiled.  "Grant, that's a wonderful idea.I'll make the 
shelves for next time. But before I do that, shouldn't we design the robot 
to put the cigs into packages for us?"
	Grant nodded his head.  "Right, you do want to get this first 
batch out as soon as possible."  Grant activated his computer and begin to 
work out a design. After a couple of minutes, he looked up.  "Hey, Helen, 
I don't really need to do this."
	Grant responded to Helen's puzzled look.  "Because if you can have 
the cig jelly grow the cigs ready made, why can't you grow them already 
packaged?"
	Helen opened her mouth to speak, then brought her hand up to cover 
her mouth.  Quickly recovering from her astonishment, she said, "Grant, 
you are an absolute genius."  Immediately, Helen flew along imaginary grid 
lines over the cig jelly.  As she flew, she pointed her finger downward, 
almost touching the cig jelly.  The RNA and DNA that flowed from her finger 
tip merged into the jelly, causing it to mutate. Helen finished her task 
in less than five minutes.  
	Helen hovered in the air next to Grant, then gracefully settled to 
earth, standing besides him.  "By tomorrow morning, the mutation will have 
taken hold, and from then on, only packaged cigs will be produced."
	Helen spoke again. "Grant you've inspired me.  I see that I've 
been working nowhere near my full speed. I've figured out how I can very 
quickly package all the cigs that are already made.  Watch."
	"First I'll make the packaging material."  Helen held out her arms 
in front of her, and sheets of the packaging material begin to flow out 
and stack up in front of her.  In a little over twenty minutes, when she 
had finished, the stack of packaging material stood over three meters 
high.
	Grant had quietly watched Helen create the stack of the packaging 
material.  "That's a pretty big stack.  How long will it take to use it 
up?"
	Helen said, "Watch".  About a dozen sheets of the packaging 
material flew from the top of the stack.  Each sheet broke up into two 
hundred pieces and each piece assembled itself into an open package ready 
to receive twenty cigs.  The assembled packages, open at the top, floated 
in midair for a few seconds.	
	Fifty thousand cigs shot into the air and grouped themselves into 
groups of twenty. Each group of cigs fell into a waiting cig package.  
Then the top of each cig package sealed itself closed.  Finally, the 
packaged cigs zoomed over to completely fill five boxes.  Helen moved the 
five boxes outside the warehouse to rest against the warehouse wall.  The 
entire process took about ten seconds.
	Grant expressed his amazement.  "Wow! You'll be done long before 
fourteen hours. While you're packaging these cigs, I'll go get the 
labels."
	Helen replied, "Good.  Even though I'll have to make more boxes, 
it'll take me less than twenty minutes to finish this.  After that, I'll 
come help you with the labels."
	Grant replied, "In that case, why don't I wait for you.  I can 
work on making a robot to put the labels on the packages while I wait.  
I want to completely automate this process so you won't have to worry 
about doing this every day.  Besides, it's best if United Tobacco Company 
thinks I'm doing all the production and delivery.  We don't want them to 
get the idea that you have some kind of technological magic."

Chapter 21

	Alphonse studied the campus map that he'd only minutes earlier 
obtained from student services.  Alternately, looking at the map and the 
landscape, he identified the music building, the library, the cafeteria, 
and the union store.
	Folding the map and putting it in his small travel bag, he strode 
rapidly toward the union store.  He had almost reached the entrance when 
a man and a woman exited the store, speaking excitedly to each other.
	Alphonse heard the woman say to the man, "Helen is absolutely 
amazing."  Waving a small coffeepot she held in her right hand, she 
continued, "She smoothed out the dents in this aluminum coffeepot with 
her bare hands!"
	The man replied, "That's not half as amazing as what she did for
me.  "I thought she exagerated in her ad that showed she could fix broken
CD's.  I brought her my favorite CD which my nephew had only this morning
accidentally broken in half.  I expected to show her up for false advertising.
She completely amazed me when she simply put the two halves of the CD 
together, and glued them by running her finger along the crack."
	The man continued,  "That surprised me enough, but she really 
amazed me when she put the CD in a player, and it played beautifully.  I 
have no clue how she did it."
	Alphonse stopped, standing absolutely still as he pondered their
comments about Helen's amazing feats.  The man and woman were well out of 
sight by the time he awoke from his trance.
	Inside the union store, he started to look around for the manager, 
but paused as A woman about his own height approached him.  
	"May I help you?"
	Alphonse recognized this lady with the short blond hair to be 
Angela Septavious, the store's chief accountant.  He had intended to 
interview her after he had interviewed the manager, Betty Walters.
	Alphonse looked at Angela. "Ms Septavious, I'm Alphonse Meeter.  
I'm a private investigator from United Tobacco Company.  Is the manager 
in?"
	Angela frowned.  "You must be here about the break-in over the 
holidays. You don't need to see the manager.  I can tell you anything you 
need to know."  Angela did not say the thought uppermost in her mind, that 
she knew her good friend Helen had been the one who did it.
	Alphonse shook his head.  "I want to talk to both of you.  I had 
hoped to talk to Betty first, but if she's not here now, I'll talk to you 
first."
	Reluctantly, Angela agreed.  "Ok.  Ask me your questions, and I'll 
answer them the best way I know how."
	Alphonse took out his small notebook and a pen.  Holding the 
notebook in his left hand, he put the pen to the notebook.  "How long have 
you known Helen Troy?"
	"What!  Why are you asking about Helen?  You don't need to know 
anything about Helen.  I won't tell you."
	Alphonse quickly wrote shorthand code in his notebook for a short 
sentence.  "Angela is Helen's Close friend."  He closed the notebook, and 
returned his pen to his shirt pocket penholder.  "I see.  Can you tell me 
when Betty will return?"
	Angela shook her head.  "No, I can't."   She pivoted, and pointed 
to Betty's office.  "She's in conference with a staff member."
	Alphonse looked through the glass wall of Betty's office.  He 
saw Betty sitting on the far side of her desk, waving her hands excitedly.  
He could not see the face of the person she talked to.  He could wait.
	He looked around for a comfortable place to wait.  He had just 
decided to lean against the wall over by the outside window when Betty 
came out of her office.
	Betty spied Angela immediately.  "Angela,  Helen and I've have 
reached an agreement.  We won't sell the regular cigs anymore.  Instead 
we'll stock Helen's smokeless cigs. You or some other staff member will 
collect the items for the repair shop.  Helen will come in after hours to 
repair them."  
	Angela smiled.  "I'll call Clint immediately." Then she thought to 
warn her supervisor about Alphonse.
	Alphonse had not waited to be introduced. He addressed Betty the 
instant she'd finished speaking.  "Ms Walters,  I'm Alphonse Meeter. I'm 
a private investigator for United Tobacco Company.  I'd like to ask you 
some questions."
	Betty showed her surprise.  "The police closed the case.  We have 
nothing more to add."
	Alphonse nodded his head.  "Yes, I know.  I'm not investigating 
the break-in or the stolen cigs.  I'm here to find out everything I can 
about Helen Troy."
	Helen stepped forward.  "What do you want to know about me?"
	Alphonse smiled.  "I'm so glad you're here, ms Troy.  Is there a 
place we can sit comfortably while we talk?"
	Helen looked toward Angela's office.  Angela guessed Helen's 
intention. "Helen, don't tell him anything!  He'll only use what you tell 
him against you."
	Helen answered Angela, "I don't see it that way.  Perhaps Alphonse 
can mediate for me with United Tobacco Company."	
	Angela shook her head.  "No way!"  Then she sighed, "Ah well. If 
you're determined to shoot yourself in the foot, then go somewhere where I 
won't hear you, like the school cafeteria."
	Helen looked at her friend, "Ok.  I'll let you know what happens.  
Please don't worry."
	It took only a few minutes for them to arrive at the cafeteria.
As they sat down at an orange topped table, Alphonse commented, "Your 
friend, Angela gave you good advice.  I will try to use everything you 
tell me against you.  So you should be careful what you tell me. I'll 
understand if you don't want to tell me something."
	Helen shook her head.  "Why would you tell me this? Doesn't it 
make your job more difficult?"
	Alphonse grinned, "In fact, it usually makes my job easier. People 
get nervous and reveal more than they intended.  Now that I see that it 
won't work with you, we can proceed informally." 
	Alphonse continued, "I wish to find out what United Tobacco 
Company can do to stop Grant Richardson's interference with them.  Why 
did he wait until he hired you?"
	Helen almost laughed.  She stared at Alphonse for a few seconds.  
"If you quit selling cigs, then we'll quit interfering.  You can guess 
why Grant waited until now."
	Alphonses tapped on the table lightly with his right hand fingers. 
"You know they won't do that.  They need the income from cig sales. If I 
could guess why Grant waited, I would not have asked you."  
	Alphonse remembered about Helen repairing the CD and coffeepot.  
"I think there's something special about you. I can guess that Grant 
doesn't have time to write new scripts and respond to the subscribers.  
However, it that were all there were to it, he could have simply hired 
any of thousand's of secretarial programmers."  With that thought, Alponse 
opened his notebook, and wrote in his private shorthand code, "Find a way 
to keep Helen too busy to respond personally  to their subscribers."
	Helen saw him write his note, and calling on the vast store of 
knowledge that sparky had pulled from the internet, she recognized and 
understood what he wrote.  Joe wanted to be in on this.  She mentally 
called Joe's Cell phone.  Joe answered on the second ring.
	"Joe, I'm being interviewd by a representative of United Tobacco 
Company.  He just wrote in his notebook the idea of finding a way to keep 
me too busy to effectively program the anti-cig broadcasts."
	Joe said the first thing that popped into his mind, then 
continued to ponder the situation.  Helen followed Joe's suggestion.
	"Alphonse, Would you do me a favor?"  As Alphonse looked 
at her, she said, "Please warn me in advance of their plans to keep me too 
busy to do my work."
	Alphonse grinned.  "Now you're teasing me.  Evidently you can read 
my shorthand. How did you know it?"
	Helen adjusted her internal phone connection so that Joe could 
hear everything that both Alphonse and she said.
	Helen grinned in return, partly in embarrassment.  "Sorry, didn't 
mean to tease.  That just slipped out.  I discovered your shorthand on the 
internet."
	Alphonse slapped the table top with the palm of his right hand.  
"Dang.  There ain't any secrets left."  
	Alphonse continued, "I think that you don't need me to warn you 
when Mike figurerss out how to distract you.  You'll know it soon enough."
	Joe's voice came over Helen's internal phone connection.  "He's 
right.  We can deal with it as it comes."
	Alphonse placed his small travel bag on the table top, and 
pulled a collapsed computer monitor from it.  By pressing a couple of 
switches on the side of it, he expanded it to full viewing size.  "Are you 
ready to talk directly to Mike now?"
	Helen showed her surprise as she agreed.  Alphonse pressed two 
more switches, and Mike Long stared at her from the view screen.  
	Mike reached besides him and shoved a photo onto the screen.  "Do 
you know who this is?"
	Helen examined the photograph.  She recognized herself in it, even 
though it showed only the back of her head. "How did you get this?  Never 
mind. I know how you got it.  Betty gave the pictures of her store's 
break-in to Clint, and Clint gave them to you."
	Helen continued, "Mike, please listen to me.  I want you to quit 
making and selling cigs.  I understand that you believe that the cigs are 
the only way you can sell your tobacco.  This is not true.  We can give 
you hundreds of alternatives."
	Mike smiled pleasantly. "Surely you exaggerate.  I suppose one of 
your alternatives is for us to take over distribution of your smokeless 
cigs.  I'm not interested in any of your alternatives.  You've not given 
me any compelling reason to be interested."
	Joe's voice came over her internal phone link.  "I suppose that 
the best way to get his attention is for his cig production to fail."
	Helen silently answered Joe's comment. "I see that, but I still 
feel that there's a better way to handle this.  I want to avoid using my 
powers unfairly."
	Mike interrupted their thoughts.  "How were you able to break into 
the campus union store without triggering any of the floor alarms?"
	Helen paused.  Joe's voice carried a teasing tone as he suggested 
she tell the literal truth.  Helen considered Joe's advice.  "I flew over 
the store and dropped through the ceiling."
	Mike laughed. "Ha.  So you won't tell us.  It doesn't matter.  
We've worked out a plausible theory.  Your friend Angela arranged for the 
doors to open and unset the alarms..  Then with special equipment you 
climbed up the wall to the ceiling, and then dropped down to the display.  
That's how you made it look like a mysterious break-in."
	Mike continued.  "If the store manager had not dropped all 
charges, we would have hauled you into court by now. You won't always be 
so lucky.  We'll be watching you."  Mike reached toward his screen, 
evidently ready to turn it off.
	Alphonse interrupted, "Wait Mike, what about the ping pong game?  
Clint gave you a copy of the video that Red gave to him.  It showed her 
playing incredibly well.  She impressed Long Arm Tom into working for 
her.  I think you should take a closer look at Ms Helen Troy."
	Mike replied.  "It's of no consequence.  We finally figured out 
that Helen and Long Arm Tom were in cahoots.  It became obvious when we 
noticed that in one of the shots Helen ran around the table to intercept 
the ball even before Tom hit it."	
	Mike started to reach for the turnoff switch again.  Helen 
interrupted him.  "Wait Mike.  In fairness, don't you think you should 
tell me what you would consider to be compelling reasons to listen to me?"
	Mike rested his hand slightly above the cutoff switch as he 
replied.  "I can't because such compelling reasons do not exist."  The 
screen went blank.

$    Not yet the end
$    Next few chapters are pieces to be fit together into the story.

Chapter 22

	Dan Austin looked up as Mike Long entered his office.  "I 
presume you want to show me your first revised commercial."
	Mike replied.  "Yes, this is the first of several adverts 
targeted to teenagers.  If we don't do something to get new 
customers, we'll continue to lose customers at a steady rate.  
Otherwise, within seven years we'll hit the lowest we've been for 
over a century."
	Mike inserted a disc into Dan's disc player.  "We can't air 
it as a straight commercial, so we've sneaked it in as a soap opera 
type story which we wrote. The rules for fiction are different than 
nonfiction.  Grant can't bump us off for anything a character says 
unless it violates FCC rules."  
	Dan watched approvingly as the disc played.  "That's pretty 
good.  When will it broadcast?"
	Mike glanced at his watch. "I've scheduled it for noon today, 
which is just five minutes away.  I submitted it to the broadcast 
editorial board as late as I could."
	Dan looked surprised, then laughed.  "Ah, I get it.  You wanted
to give as little time as possible for Grant to revise it before sending
it out over his broadcast."

	Grant routinely approved fictional broadcasts provided the 
computer which scanned them for adherrance to FCC rules approved them.
This one had passed the FCC scan, and he had approved it. However, 
something about the name of the submitter bothered him.  Perhaps he 
should check the name against his data files.  He invoked his name check 
program and typed in the suspect name.  The computer displayed "name not 
in data base".  Now searching other available sites for links to name. It 
took a full two minutes for the computer to finish its search.  Then it 
displayed several links between the entered name and other names.  United 
Tobacco Company popped up as the tenth associated name.
	Grant exclaimed to himself, "That's not good."  Could he postpone
the broadcast.  No.  It had already transmitted to the secondary 
broadcast sites.  Grant immediately dialed Helen's number.  When she 
answered, Grant said, "I'm emailing you a video clip from United Tobacco 
Company that sneaked by my monitoring programs.  It's already starting 
to broadcast.  I'm hoping you can use your technological magic to watch 
it in fast motion and design another video for me to append to the end of 
it to nullify its impact."
	Helen replied, "Sure.  I'll see what I can do.  Hold on while 
I scan it."  She oppened the video attachment and instantly apprended 
everything in it. This is what she saw.

	The young blond	lady opended the door to Anthony Abbot's office.
Anthony looked up as she entered.  "So you're the new advert writer that
we might hire.  What do you have to show me?" 
	Young blond lady replied, "My name is Cindy Lewis.  This demo
video shows some work I did for a previous clint."  Cindy placed the 
video in the player. 	
	Words too small to read began to form on the screen.  Gradually 
the words became larger and bolder.  An over-voice read them out loud, 
"The real thing." The words slid off to the right, leaving a copy 
behind.  A third and fourth copy formed the same way.  The words moved 
counterclockwise, forming a spiral moving up, and then down.
	Then the over-voice asks, "What's the real thing?"
	A series of pictures flash on the screen, each picture up for a 
tenth of a second or less.  Among the brief scenes are a rodeo cowboy 
riding a bucking horse, a canoe traveling over the rapids, a farmer 
slaving over a tobacco crop, A beautiful lady making a swan dive into a 
swimming pool, An airplane taking off from LAX, an ice skater making a 
very fast spin, a glorious sunrise, cigarettes dropping into a bin for 
packaging, a middle aged lady giving a piece of apple pie to a young man, 
a seven year old boy tasting a piece of chocolate, A young lady reading 
poetry, cartons of cigarettes being delivered to a retail store, etc.
	Next, the words "A little bit of history" popped up on the screen. 
The words appeared first in outline form, and gradually filled in with 
red and green colors in each letter.  Suddenly the letters disappeared, 
and scenes from movies of long ago flashed across the screen.  Each 
scene stayed on the screen for two seconds and showed a person smoking 
a cigarette.  At the end of the succession of scenes, the over-voice 
said, "Cig smoking has had a long and famous history."
	The video screen flashed a blank white screen for a fraction of a 
second, and then went completely black for about one second.  Next it 
showed another succession of scenes.  The first scene opened showing a 
Bellboy at a Hotel in the costume last seen over a century ago.  The 
bellboy cupped his hands to his mouth, and yelled, "Call for Philip 
Morris."  In quick succession, over thirty different cigarette commercials 
from the previous century jumped onto the screen.  "I'd walk a mile for 
a camel."  ""You've ccome a long way baby." "Enjoy blissful regressions 
from vexatious depressions" etc.  Each commercial showed appealing 
graphics but looked as if they had been photographed instead of computer 
generated.

	The video screen went blank, and Cindy removed the video disc 
from the player.  "Do you like it, sir?"
	Anthony replied, "Excellent technical work.  Consider yourself
hired."

	Helen considered the import of what she had just viewed.  She 
needed to think super fast to figure something out in response to
this video.  A few seconds later, she had an idea.  Another two seconds
later she emailed her response to Grant.  Helen, still on the phone with
Grant, said "It's done.  I've just emailed you my followup video."
	Grant exclaimed, "Great!  Helen, you amaze me, even though I 
suspected you could do it, I still had some doubt.  Won't Mike be 
surprised when he views it!"



 

Chapter 23

	Then the picture zoomed up to a media announcer holding a 
microphone.  The announcer strode up to a young couple. "Here are two young 
people. Is that an engagement ring you have on, young lady?"
     The young lady smiled and proudly held up her hand to the camera. "He
proposed to me this morning."
     The announcer faced the camera as he smiled.  "Ah, very good.  Tell 
me your names."
     My name is Cindy Lewis, and my boyfriend's name is Dean Olsen."
     "And how did you two meet?"
     "We met at the smoketorium.  I went there because I felt bored, and 
then he showed up."  Cindy turned to Dean as she said this, the smile of 
love evident in her face.
     Dean took Cindy's hand gently into his own.  "And I'm very glad I 
went to the smoketorium. I would never have met Cindy otherwise."
     The announcer took out a pack of cigarettes.  Cindy reached out her 
hand, and took the cigarette as the announcer placed it in her hand. Dean 
gallantly took out his lighter, and as Cindy placed the cigarette in her 
mouth, Dean lit
it for her.
     The focus shifted back to the announcer. "And there you have it 
folks. Another success story."


Chapter 24


     The screen went black again for a second, then the interior of a
smoketorium came slowly into focus.  A young man sitting at a table looked
bored.  Suddenly, two young women walked in together, but separated, and
went to tables on the opposite sides of the room. The one that went to
the man's left had dark brown hair and combed it with her fingers as she
walked to her table.  The other lady, walking as if she were proud of her
light blond hair, cast an appraising eye at the young man.
    The young man looked at each of them in turn, clearly wishing to go to 
both of them but undecided who to go to first.  Then the choice became 
clear.   The blond took out a smokeless cigarette, and began to inhale. 
She looked around and noticed the young man looking at her.  She smiled, 
and beckoned him with a wave of her hand.
   In the meantime, the darker haired lady took out a cigarette, and lit 
it. Smoke curled up around her face.  The young man got up to go to the 
blond, but before he took two steps, he noticed the smoke from the other 
lady's cigarette. In mid-stride he turned and went to the darker haired 
lady with the smoking cigarette.

Chapter 25


	A stream of water began to run down the middle of the screen. The 
stream widened, and became a river. The camera's eye followed the river 
downstream to an area of rapids. Then the screen image rotated until the 
announcer and his interviewee were in the foreground.
    The announcer began, "So you are a pathfinder.  Tell us about the 
paths you have made."
    "Yep. I've been path-finding for years.  I'm proud of it.  Although, 
don't know why they call it path-finding.  It would be better to call it 
path inventing."
     "What do you do when you path-invent?"
     "I hack away with this little hatchet you see here."  The pathfinder 
held up his hand to show the hatchet. "I cut away underbrush and sometimes 
vines to make an easy path to walk. It may take me several hours just to 
clear a good path for a short walk.  Before we open up the trail to 
tourists, we must treat the ground.  We must get rid of all those 
troublesome bugs before we let the public walk on the trails."
     "Why did you choose to take a job like this?"
     "I've always liked to blaze my own trails.  It's like cigarette 
smoking. My father didn't smoke.  In fact he forbid me to smoke. I decided 
to decide for myself.  So on my tenth birthday, I sneaked in a few cigs 
with the help of some friends.  I still remember the pure pleasure they 
gave me.  I recommend that everyone be bold and blaze their own trails."
     As he said this last, he started to cough, but the camera cut away
immediately and didn't show his coughing fit.




Chapter 26

 with the usual disclaimers that yes we
knew that cigs had serious health effects and were addictive.  But in a
free society we were still a responsible company who gave adults who
chose to smoke what they wanted.



     From a close-up of Alan, the camera zoomed away to show him sitting 
at a table watching Helen on video.  The video screen split to show Helen 
on the left half, and Alan on the right half.  Alan had a cell phone to 
his ear while he spoke.  "Some of us have a complaint.  Your smokeless 
cigs don't have that rough taste we expect to have in a real cigarette."
     Helen smiled.  "Exactly.  That rough taste of the cig that you refer 
to is what tells you that the cig is killing you.  No way would I want to 
duplicate that!  The purpose of my smokeless cigs is to facilitate your 
quitting smoking the cigs that are killing you and those around you."
     The video Alan looked surprised.  Then he said, "But suppose we don't 
wantto quit.  What good are your smokeless cigs then?"
     Helen frowned.  "If you don't use them, then of course they are no 
good to you at all.  However, if you do use the smokeless cigs, it will 
be very beneficial to your friends, and when you are able to quit cigs 
completely, the smokeless cigs will have been useful to you."
     Video Alan looked pensive for a moment, then said, "Thank you very 
much."  The interview over, Alan's side of the video vanished as Helen's 
image expanded to push it off the screen.



Perhaps we can set up an ongoing denial of service
attack on her web site.  


















Chapter 27


recognized the
background of the Jerry Terry Show.

     Jerry glanced toward the camera, and then turned toward his guest. 
"Today my cameo guest is Senator Heedly.  Senator, you recently made a 
little known, but important amendment to this year's education allocations 
bill that President Carothers signed into law yesterday.  Can you tell me 
about that amendment?"
     The Senator looked stern. "Yes.  This very important amendment makes 
it illegal to sell products that haven't been patented.  We must protect 
the public from frauds and unproven and untested products."
     Jerry looked a little skeptical.  "Just because it doesn't have a 
patent doesn't mean that it's a fraud.  But haven't courts protected us 
with the existing laws?  Why do you need this law?  Aren't you worried 
that it would conflict with individual rights ensured by the tenth 
amendment in the Bill of Rights?"
     Surprised, the Senator glared at Jerry.  "Not at all.  The courts 
will understand who I intend the law to apply to."
     "And who do you intend the law to apply to?"
     "An enemy of our economy has come to my attention.  This person sells 
an unpatented product to smokers.  Every time this unpatented product is 
sold instead of an authorized  tobacco product, it's a loss to our 
economy."
     "An important segment of our economy is based on tobacco.  Even though 
only about ten percent of the public smoke, that is still millions of 
people.  But it's not just the people who smoke who depend on tobacco. 
Consider the plight of the farmers who grow the tobacco." The Senator 
waved his hands in the air.  "I know, I know, the farmers aren't U.S. 
Citizens since all the tobacco is grown in Indonesia. But consider the 
plight of the people who produce the fertilizers and insecticide needed 
to grow the tobacco. Many, if not all, of these people could be ruined 
financially if the tobacco economy fails."
      Jerry shook his head in disbelief. "And what penalty would you give 
for people who violate this law?"
      The Senator paused to reflect before replying. "The amendment didn't
specify specific penalties.  Rather it specified that selling an 
unpatented product is a felony. Whatever punishment is accorded to 
felonies is the penalty that the seller faces."
      Jerry's face showed his concern.  "Aren't you being somewhat harsh? 
Don't we all know that it would be a good thing if people quit smoking? 
The health benefits would outweigh all other disadvantages."
     The Senator laughed.  "You do like to play devil's advocate.  We can't
legislate morals.  We don't infringe on people's right to choose, even if 
they choose badly.  But that's not the issue here.  The issue here is that 
someone is selling an untested product to the public, and must be stopped."
      Jerry paused to marshal his thoughts.  Then he asked, "Wouldn't it h
ave been sufficient to have required proof of harmlessness before the 
product could be sold?"
      Senator Heedly snorted.  "Ha!  In this case I don't think that would 
be possible.  On my own initiative I had some chemists analyze these 
cigarette substitutes. They reported to me that these substitutes contain
a few compounds in the amino acid group, and several well known compounds 
that have no beneficial effect at all."
      The Senator continued, "I went even farther.  I had my office 
conduct a health survey of the people who have been using these cigarette 
substitutes. The survey proved that, on the average, people who use these 
substitutes are less healthy than the normal person."
      Jerry paid no attention to the answer because he needed to quickly 
come up with his next question. "How does the cost of these substitute 
cigarettes compare to ordinary cigarettes?"
     The Senators face showed annoyance. "That's another thing. This 
company is obviously selling far below cost in order to create a monopoly. 
And you all know what monopolies do once they have the power!"
     Jerry, mindful of the time, hurried on with his next question. 
"What's the name of this company?  Who do you bring to court?"
     The Senator frowned.  "One of the spokes-persons is the space engineer 
who sponsored their web page and distributes their cigs. The other is an
extraordinarily beautiful young lady who they hired to be their 
web programmer and personal relations person.  Well, this young lady will 
regret working for them when she is arrested for selling illegal and 
probably harmful products."
     Jerry laughed. "What makes you so sure that this young lady is only a
personal relations person, and not the CEO?"
     The Senator looked surprised. "Surely you don't think that a young 
woman, barely out of her teens could be head of a large devious company 
like this!"
     Jerry glanced at the clock above him. "We have time for one more 
question.  What brought your attention to this issue?"
     The Senator froze. After a few seconds, he relaxed, and said, "Why 
some of my constituents, who happen to be smokers, alerted me to the 
danger. And I'm glad that they did!"
     Jerry stared into the camera.  "And that's all folks.  This is Jerry 
Terry saying Good Night, and may all your troubles be small ones."





Chapter 28



     Jerry Terry nervously looked for the tenth time at the printed email
confirmation in his hand.  Five minutes till air time and his guest hadn't 
yet arrived!  Perhaps he should call them to make sure they were on the 
way.  Turning away from the doorway, he dialed the number.

    Joe walked in just as he dialed the number.  He immediately guessed 
that Jerry had called their number.  So Joe, not waiting for Bob and Helen,
immediately walked up to just behind Jerry.  After a couple of rings of the
distant phone, Joe said "hello" in Jerry's ear just the way he would have 
said it on the telephone.
    Jerry said into the phone, "Why the hell aren't you here?"    Then Joe
teasingly said, "But I'm here.  Look behind you."
    Jerry spun around, facing Joe, and by this time, Helen and Bob. Seeing
Helen's glorious smile, Joe's grin, and Bob's look of surprise, he burst 
out laughing.
     Jerry led the way into the studio. He spoke to Bob and Joe.  "You 
guys have the couch seats. Helen will sit there next to me since she's 
the main attraction.  But don't worry.  We will give you guys a chance to 
answer some questions also."
     Jerry led the trio into the stage wings, and gave brief instructions.
"First my aide will call me out to the stage. Then I'll call you three to 
join me on stage.  Then all of us will take our interview seats, you first."
    All went exactly as Jerry described. As soon as he sat down, Jerry 
turned to Helen and said, "So tell me the real story. Did you see my 
interview with Senator Heedly?"
     Helen smiled. "Yes I did.  That's why I emailed you to request a 
follow-up interview."
     The grin on Jerry's face increased in intensity. "I remember 
receiving it.  Probably, at the time, everyone in the building heard my 
yell of delight. I'm very glad you are here.  I want to give you the 
chance to tell your side."
	Helen spoke calmly and quietly in spite of her strong feelings. 
"For as long as I can remember I knew that cig smoke harmed everyone 
exposed to it. A month after my tenth birthday my uncle Ed died from cigs. 
I'm very glad that recently it became possible for me to work to remove 
cig smoke from the world."
      Jerry interrupted, "This is a very ambitious task.  How long do 
you expect to take?  It's not like you can wave a magic wand, and
command the cigs to vanish."

     Helen smiled ruefully.  "That's true.  I won't destroy the cigs 
overnight."
     As she said this, Joe laughed. Jerry turned a quizzical look toward 
him, but Joe waved his arm in dismissal, and said, "Private joke."
    Helen continued, "An engineer friend in the space program set up a 
broadcast web site for me.  I could send my message to all the smoketoriums 
in the world from it.  A small percentage of people responded favorably.  
Most people ignored it.  However, as time goes on, more and more people 
respond."
	Jerry pursed his lips as he paused a moment to choose his words. 
"According to Senator Heedly, you are doing more than sending a message.  
You are selling something called smokeless cigarettes that haven't been 
patented and have not been tested for safety."
	"I know that they are safe. I know they are beneficial. I know they 
work.  I know because I have seen the results of their use."
	"My earliest customers have quit smoking. This means that they 
don't smoke cigs nor do they still use my smokeless cigs.  They are cured 
of their addiction."
    Jerry nodded affirmatively. "Very good.  I suppose you can count on 
those customers to support you if it ever came to a court battle?"
    Helen looked surprised. "Perhaps.  I never thought to ask.  I'm 
primarily concerned with helping them cure their addiction."
   Jerry again nodded his head affirmatively.  "I understand. Have you had any
backsliders.  People who stopped smoking for a while, and then resumed?"
   Helen paused. Then she said, "None of my customers have resumed smoking.
we keep in touch with all of our customers and counsel them as long as
they wish.  About eighty percent are satisfied with a single counseling
session.  Ten percent require about three counseling sessions.  Another 
ten percent wish to continuing conseling indefinitely. There is no charge 
for the conseling."

   Jerry's voice raised in surprised.  "A hundred percent success! What's 
in those smokeless cigs?"
   Helen's face echoed the tinted light from the neon bulb behind Jerry. 
"The main ingredient isn't in the smokeless cigs.  The main ingredient is 
my message. I get my customers to think about their life. I ask them if 
they want cigs to always rule their life.  I composed a song to catch 
people's attention about the danger's of cigs."
   Jerry said, "Wait a moment.  I really want to hear your song, but 
first I need to follow up on the active ingredients in your smokeless 
cigs. How do they work?  What makes them work?"
    Helen sat up straighter as she answered. "The reason people become 
addicted to nicotine or similar drugs is that the drugs change their 
metabolism.  You don't feel good when your metabolism ungoes change.
But nicotine is unusually swift in its action on the body.  It also
leaves the body unusually fast.  Within four hours of smoking a cig, 
almost all the nicotine has left your body.  Cig smokers don't know
that they have this opportunity every day to quit smoking."
	Helen continued, "Once the nicotine has left the body, its 
metabolism slowly reverts to normal.  Within three weeks, if the 
person does not take in any more nicotine, the metabolism will
return to normal."
	Jerry paused, then said, "You haven't answered my question.  What
makes your smokeless cigs work?"
	Helen replied, "I did answer your question.  The smokeless cigs
work because they do NOT contain any nicotine.  My task is to motivate
people to commit themself to escaping the cig trap."
	Jerry smiled. "Very nice. So how do you motivate people?"

        Joe picked up Bob's guitar from the floor and tossed it over to
him. "That's our clue."  They both played their instruments while Helen
sang her song, "Where do you live?"

        Helen continued singing until she'd sung all the verses.  When
she had finished, Jerry sat stunned for a few moments.  Finally shaking
his head, he said, "That's very powerful.  I can believe that anyone 
hearing that song would want to avoid cigs completely."

        Helen smiled as she replied.  "Thanks.  I wished the song really
did have that effect.  But people already addicted tend to not hear it."
	Jerry paused a few seconds and a frown crossed his face.  "But 
now I need to ask you a difficult question.  I'll understand if you can't 
answer it."  As Helen looked puzzled, Jerry asked, "Just over a year ago 
you seemed a typical music student at Eastside, Virginia.  Suddenly you 
are a key figure in what apparently is a very powerful corporation.  How 
did this come about?" 
	Helen paused, wondering what she could say.  Joe stood up to 
answer for her.  "She grew up."
	An amazed look flashed across Jerry's face at Joes response.  
Then he replied, "Wonderful."  Turning toward the camera, he said, 
"That's all folks.  But before we leave, I want to appeal to all of you.  
Help our guests end this burden on society.  Please send donations to the 
anti cig company care of the Jerry Terry Show.  This is Jerry Terry 
signing off, and may all your troubles be small."


Chapter 29


Chapter 30

    Mike Long again counted the panels on the wall of Senator Heedly's 
living room while he waited for him.  The Senator had promised to appear 
in a few moments after he wrapped up some research in his library room. 
Finally the Senator's head appeared in the doorway from the library.  He 
opened the door just enough to squeeze through, and left the door 
slightly ajar as he entered the living room.  The Senator quickly moved 
to sit in the comfortable chair adjacent to Mike.
    Mike stared intently at Senator Heedly. "There are reasons why you 
shouldn't sponsor the ban on cigs from Indonesia. Now I will tell you 
some you haven't heard yet."
    Mike handed the Senator a folder containing three booklets.  The 
Senator looked at each of the booklets in turn.  "Why don't you just 
tell me what you want me to know from these booklets."
    Mike wondered briefly if the Senator ever read anything.  Then he 
looked the Senator in the eyes and said, "Sure.  One of those papers 
explains our plans to smuggle cigs into the country should the import ban 
pass congress.  Don't think you can block us.  And don't think we've 
incriminated ourselves.  The smuggling tricks hinted at in this paper are 
well within the law.  We have other tricks that you won't catch us at.  
The black market will net us a greater profit anyway. But don't expect to 
benefit from that."
    Mike continued, "The second paper details the change to our 
donations to the senate if the ban is passed.  I think you and several 
other senators would have a hard year ahead while you learn how to 
spend less money."
     "The third paper explains in detail why five federal judges believe 
the ban isn't right and would declare it unconstitutional if it were 
passed. I've added my own comments about that at the end of the paper."
     Looking Mike directly in the eye, the Senator took the papers. 
"First, I don't care if you smuggle in the cigs.  Second, I don't need 
your money any longer.  Your past donations will keep me in good shape 
the rest of my natural life. Third, I don't care if the law is declared 
unconstitutional.  The folks who matter will know that I tried."
     Mike stared at the Senator while he tried to think of a reply.  After 
a few moments he closed his eyes and tried to invoke inspiration.  Nothing 
came to mind.  He opened his eyes and leaned forward toward the Senator.
     The Senator moved backwards to avoid Mike's forwardness.  
Consequently he fell off his chair.  Mike jumped up to help the Senator. 
But Senator Heedly had already recovered, and stood up just in time to see 
Mike rushing toward him. Alarmed, he began backing up, and backed into the 
slightly open door leading to the library.
     Mike, still approaching the Senator asked himself, "What's wrong 
here?  Why has the Senator turned against us?"  Mike unconsciously 
continued to press toward the Senator while he tried to think of the 
right questions to ask.  Senator Heedly, forced to back up into his 
library, stopped only when he bumped into his computer.  The whole event 
took only seconds.
     Mike and the Senator found themselves in the library room, and 
neither quite knew how it had happened.  The Senator had backed up as far 
as he could.  He had reached his computer console.  Mike suddenly became 
aware then of how little space separated him from the Senator.  He leaned 
backwards a tiny bit to give the Senator more space, and reconsidered.  
One question dominated Mike's mind.  What changed the way the Senator felt?

      Suddenly Mike became aware of the computer monitor and several 
pictures posted on the walls.  The Senator's computer showed icons of 
Helen Troy roaming across the computer desktop screen. The walls of the 
room showed at least a dozen printed pictures of Helen.
        Mike smiled and relaxed.  Now he knew what to do.  Obviously the 
Senator had fallen in love with Helen.



Chapter 31




Chapter 32




$Not Yet The End


$  Helen develops and sells hundreds of alternative use tobacco products,
including

A protein filter based on a tobacco plant mutation



$   Mike conspires  with the senate to steal  the right to sell these alternate use tobacco products.


$  Helen secretly cooperates so that Mike can steal them.

$  Now selling the alternative products are bringing in more profits than
are the original cigs.



$  Pressure builds from within the United Tobacco Company to phase out the sale
of the addictive cigs.