In the cocktail lounge Herb Asher sat with a glass of Scotch and water in front of him. He had been waiting an hour but the evening entertainment had not begun. The cocktail lounge was filled with people. Constant noise assailed his ears. But, for him, this was worth it, despite the rather large cover charge.
Rybys, across from him, said, "I just don't understand what you see in her."
"She's going to go a long way," Herb said, "if she gets any kind of a break at all." He wondered if record company scouts came here to the Golden Hind. I hope so, he said to him- self.
"I'd like to leave. I don't feel well. Could we go?"
"I'd prefer not to."
Rybys sipped at her tall mixed drink fitfully. "So much noise," she said, her voice virtually inaudible.
He looked at his watch. "It's almost nine. Her first set is at nine."
"Who is she?" Rybys said.
"She's a new young singer," Herb Asher said. "She's adapted the lute books of John Dowland for-"
"Who's John Dowland? I never heard of him."
"Late-sixteenth-century England. Linda Fox has modernized his lute songs; he was the first composer to write for solo voice; before that four or more people sang ... the old madrigal form. I can't explain it; you have to hear her."
"If she's so good, why isn't she on TV?" Rybys said.
Herb said, "She will be."
Lights on the stage began to glow. Three musicians leaped up onto it and began fussing with the audio system. Each had in his possession a vibrolute.
A hand touched Herb Asher on the shoulder. "Hi."
Glancing up he saw a young woman whom he did not know. But, he thought, she seems to know me. "I'm sorry-" he began.
"May we sit down?" The woman, pretty, wearing a floral print top and jeans, a mail-pouch purse over her shoulder, drew a chair back and seated herself beside Herb Asher. 'Sit down, Manny," she said to a small boy who stood awkwardly near the table. What a beautiful child, Herb Asher thought. How did he get in here? There aren't supposed to be any minors in here.
"Are these friends of yours?" Rybys said.
The pretty, dark-haired young woman said, "Herb hasn't seen me since college. How are you, Herb? Don't you recognize me?" She held out her hand to him, and, reflexively, he took it. And then, as he shook her hand, he remembered her. They had been in school together, in a poly-sci course.
"Zina," he said, delighted. "Zina Pallas."
"This is my little brother," Zina said, motioning the boy to sit down. "Manny. Manny Pallas." To Rybys she said. "Herb hasn't changed a bit. I knew it was him when I saw him. You're here to see Linda Fox? I've never heard her; they say she's real good."
"Very good," Herb said, pleased at her support.
"Hello, Mr. Asher," the boy said.
"Glad to meet you, Manny." He shook hands with the boy. "This is my wife, Rybys."
"So you two are married," Zina said. "Mind if I smoke?" She lit a cigarette. "I keep trying to quit but when I quit I start eating a lot and get as fat as a pig."
"Is your purse genuine leather?" Rybys said, interested.
"Yes." Zina passed it over to her.
"I've never seen a leather purse before," Rybys said.
"There she is," Herb Asher said. Linda Fox had appeared on the stage; the audience clapped.
"She looks like a pizza waitress," Rybys said.
Zina, taking her purse back, said, "If she's going to make it big she's going to have to lose some weight. I mean, she looks all right, but-"
"What is this thing you have about weight?" Herb Asher said, irritated.
The boy, Manny, spoke up. "Herbert, Herbert."
"Yes?" He bent to hear.
"Remember," the boy said.
Puzzled, he started to say Remember what? but then Linda Fox took hold of the microphone, half shut her eyes, and began to sing. She had a round face, and almost a double chin, but her skin was fair, and, most important to him of all, she had long eyelashes that flickered as she sang-they fascinated him and he sat spellbound. Linda wore an extremely low-cut gown and even from where he sat he could see the outline of her nipples; she had on no bra.
Shall I sue? shall I seek for grace?
Shall I pray? shall I prove?
Shall I strive to a heavenly joy
With an earthly love?
Audibly, Rybys said, "I hate that song. I have heard her before."
Several people hissed at her to be quiet.
"Not by her, though," Rybys said. "She isn't even original. That song- She piped down, but she was not happy.
When the song ended, and the audience had begun to clap, Herb Asher said to his wife, "You never heard 'Shall I Sue' before. Nobody else sings it but Linda Fox."
"You just like to gape at her nipples," Rybys said.
To Herb Asher the little boy said, "Would you take me to the men's room, Mr. Asher?"
"Now?" he said, dismayed. "Can't you wait until she's through singing?"
The boy said, "Now, Mr. Asher."
With reluctance he led Manny through the maze of tables to the doors at the rear of the lounge. But before they had entered the men's room Manny stopped him.
"You can see her better from here," Manny said.
It was true. He was now much closer to the stage. He and the boy stood together in silence as Linda Fox sang "Weep You No More Sad Fountains."
When the song ended, Manny said, "You don't remember, do you? She has enchanted you. Wake up, Herbert Asher. You know me well, and I know you. Linda Fox does not sing her songs at an obscure cocktail lounge in Hollywood; she is famous throughout the galaxy. She is the most important entertainer of this decade. The chief prelate and the procurator maximus invite her to-"
"She's going to sing again," Herb Asher interrupted. He barely heard the boy's words and they made no sense to him. A babbling boy, he thought, making it hard for me to hear Linda Fox. Just what I need.
After the song had ended, Manny said, "Herbert, Herbert; do you want to meet her? Is that what you want?"
"What?" he murmured, his eyes-his attention-fixed on Linda Fox. God, he thought; what a figure she has. She's practi- cally falling out of her dress. He thought, I wish my wife was built like that.
"She will come this way," Manny said, "when she finishes. Stand here, Herb Asher, and she will pass directly by you."
"You're joking," he said.
"No," Manny said. "You will have what you want most in the world ... that which you dreamed of as you lay on your bunk in your dome."
"What dome?" he said.
Manny said, " 'How you have fallen from heaven, bright morning star, felled-'
"You mean one of those colony-planet domes?" Herb Asher said.
"I can't make you listen, can I?" Manny said. "If I could say to you-"
"She is coming this way," Herb Asher said. "How did you know?" He moved a few steps toward her. Linda Fox walked rapidly, with small steps, a gentle expression on her face.
"Thank you," she was saying to people who spoke to her. For a moment she stopped to give her autograph to a black youth nattily dressed.
Tapping Herb Asher on the shoulder a waitress said, "You're going to have to take that boy out of here, sir; we can't have minors in here."
"Sorry," Herb Asher said.
"Right now," the waitress said.
"Okay," he said; he took Manny by the shoulder and, with unhappy reluctance, led him back toward their table. And, as he turned away, he saw out of the corner of his eye the Fox pass by the spot at which he and the boy had stood. Manny had been right. A few more seconds and he would have been able to speak a few words to her. And, perhaps, she would have an swered.
Manny said, "It is her desire to trick you, Herb Asher. She offered it to you and took it away again. If you want to meet Linda Fox I will see that you do; I promise you. Remember this, because it will come to pass. I will not see you cheated."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Herb said, "but if I could meet her-"
"You will," Manny said.
"You're a strange kid," Herb Asher said. As they passed below a light fixture he noticed something that startled him; he halted and, taking hold of Manny, he moved him directly under the light. You look like Rybys, he thought. For an instant a flash of memory jarred him; his mind seemed to open up, as if vast spaces, open spaces, a universe of stars, had flooded into it.