"I...didn't know you had such a big...", she struggled through
her mental fog for the right word,"...tattoo.
What happened to us, Mister Wilkins"?
" I'm not sure...I seem to have lost...my keys."
They both wavered to their feet.
Priscilla blurted out,"Wow,...Stars"!
Wilkins supposed it was from getting up too quickly.
He didn't know where to put his hands.
"They'll go away."
Then he noticed that she was pointing behind him.
He turned.
The hanger door was open. Through it, Wilkins could see a
vast sweep of stars. Low on the horizon, a ruddy red star
was bleeding a thick rope of gas into a smaller brilliant spot of
blueish light.
"Wow, indeed".
They stepped out onto a vast plane. There were trees in the distance, they looked wrong.
A moon hung overhead, but it wasn't Earth's Moon.
He muttered,"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore"?
"What does it mean, Mister Wilkins"? She was still a bit dazed.
"I have no idea, but call me Anson".
"Okay, ah, Anson, but what does 'NKV' mean"?
"It was an old fraternity I pretended to belong to. You should
never get drunk with frat boys."
She thanked him for the advise.
It was hard work for him to keep staring very carefully directly
at Priscilla's eyes. She was a handsome young woman. And he was
old enough to be her grandfather.
"Look, it's kinda cold here.
Let's try to find something to put on."
"Yeah", she snorted," And,maybe I can make us some coffee."
Wilkins made a note to himself that his left knee wasn't
clicking when he stepped, as it had for thirty years.
"Priscilla, you seem to be taking this all in stride".
She shook her head,"I bluff well".
They walked around the outside of the hanger. There was another
mystery waiting for them.