Feeling a new sense of security and purpose in her life, Vicki fussed over Christine's comfort, cuddling up with her to share the warmth of her fur, and petting Christine intermittently with her velvety hands. 

     "Are you comfortable?" asked Vicki. 

     "Yes," said Christine.  "I'm very cozy and content."

     "Good," said Vicki.  "Then I'll answer your questions now.  I'll tell you anything you want to know."

     "Tell me about Perry, then," said Christine.  "What is his story?"

     "I guess it was about 20 years ago that Sir Jon and Sonny came to this town," Vicki began.  "They came with their two little children, one of which was a cute little boy with a terrible respiratory problem.  And he wasn't expected to live. 

     "Just like that poor mutant child Perry is helping right now, his own illness is the result of odd random mutations that often occur in our people.  He has a genetic fault that effects his lungs.  Often it lies dormant and he can function normally, but certain things like stress or great disappointment can trigger attacks. 

     "When he was little the problem was much worse.  He had attacks almost all the time.  And the doctors thought it was inevitable that he'd have a fatal attack.  But his sister loved him so much that whenever he had an attack she would crawl into bed with him and hold him.  And it was noticed that being held by someone who loved him caused his attacks to recede much faster.  So Sir Jon hit upon the idea that if he could find a perfect match for Perry, a little spaniel girl of similar breed who would fall instantly in love with him, that might save his life. 

     "So Sir Jon searched the world until he found another spaniel couple, just like him and Sonny, who had a little girl the right age.  They lived right here in Suburbia.  And that's why Sir Jon moved his family here from Camelot."

     "What about the house?" asked Christine.  "Was it here already when they moved."

     "Well, I was just a little girl at the time," said Vicki.  "But it seems to me when I first knew Perry his folks lived in an apartment.  And there was a very tall fence around this lot that no one could see into while the house was being built.  And when the house was ready for them to move into they took the fence down."

     "Didn't anyone think that was a little weird?" asked Christine. 

     "Sir Jon was extremely wealthy and extremely eccentric," Vicki explained.  "Moving his entire world so that his son could be near his perfect match was considered about as eccentric a thing as anyone had ever heard of.  After that nobody was surprised by anything he did. 

     "Sir Jon paid that other family and this entire town enormous amounts of money to go along with his plan.  The money he invested in Suburbia built the finest hospitals and research centers that have done much to alleviate the suffering from the random mutations that plague our people.  His generosity seemed to know no bounds.  And all that he asked from us in return was that we all love his son and help him survive. 

     "The people of Suburbia were so grateful that they not only regarded Perry as the adored golden boy, they also asked Sir Jon to be their mayor and lead them by virtue of his great kindness and compassion.  He's been our leader ever since.  And because of him our town has become the envy of the entire world.  He sees that we have all the most modern science, but guards constantly against science damaging our environment.  We feel very grateful that he came to us, and so it is easy for us to forgive his eccentricities.  He's a funny character sometimes, but we love him."

     "It sounds like you have a very loving world," said Christine. 

     "That too is somewhat to do with Sir Jon," said Vicki.  "In other towns conditions are not so good."

     "Other towns?" asked Christine.  "Are there only towns? No cities or countries?"

     "As far as we know," Vicki explained.  "This continent that we live on is the only one where life re-evolved after the elder race of humans destroyed everything in their genetic war.  Explorers have visited the other continents, but we don't have a big enough population to make it worth colonizing them. 

     "There are about 50 population centers, or towns, like this one spread out all over this continent.  And the populations of these towns are so small that there are great distances between them.  I hear that some of those towns have leaders who aren't nice at all.  And the people who live in those towns endure much hardship."

     "Is there no one ruler of all the towns?" asked Christine. 

     "No," said Vicki.  "All are independent.  But still they all envy Suburbia, because we have Sir Jon, and there's no one else like him on the planet."

     "Does anyone ever wonder why he's so different?" asked Christine. 

     "We all know that there's something special about him," said Vicki.  "But we don't want to risk our good fortune by questioning it.  Maybe he's an alien like you, or an angel sent to us by the gods, or just a really wise, kind and eccentric person.  We don't really care which."

     "Just like nobody seems to care that I'm an alien," said Christine. 

     "We know from the documents of the elder race that they had dealings with humans on other planets," Vicki explained.  "So we've always kind of expected that someday we'd be visited by alien humans.  We just prayed that they wouldn't come to destroy us or enslave us."

     "I wonder what's become of the galactic empire this far into the future?" mused Christine. 

     "I don't know of any such thing," said Vicki. 

     "That's ok," said Christine.  "I'm glad you don't know.  Please go on with your story.  Tell me about the little girl."

     "Her name was Dorothy," said Vicki.  "Her family had moved here from the town of Oz."

     "Gee, I never would have guessed that," said Christine, sarcastically. 

     "We were friends when we were little," Vicki continued.  "I was sitting beside her in school the day Perry joined our class.  She looked totally stunned when she saw him.  She had no choice but to fall in love with him."

     "Did she know who he was?" asked Christine.  "Him being the golden boy and all?"

     "No," said Vicki.  "Almost everyone in the town was in on it, but nothing was said to Dorothy, Perry or the other children.  Sir Jon felt that it was important they should find each other, and that things should happen naturally.  But it was no coincidence that the only empty seat in the classroom was the one on the other side of Dorothy.  I don't think she heard another word the teacher said that whole day.  It was like she had big hearts in front of her eyes. 

     "Perry was kind of shy, but Dorothy pursued him and made friends with him.  And she insisted that he should join our gang."

     "Gang?" asked Christine. 

     "Yes," Vicki explained.  "It's always fun for kids to feel they belong to something.  So in our society they form gangs, build clubhouses, organize activities for themselves.  Don't kids do that in your society?"

     "In my society when kids form gangs it's because they want to cause trouble," said Christine. 

     "Yes," said Vicki.  "I remember there was a gang of reptile kids who were like that.  They were always making trouble, but our gang was mostly nice kids who wanted to do nice things.  So when Dorothy suggested that we invite a handicapped child like Perry to join us, it was the kind of thing we normally did. 

     "But there was this cat named Jasper in our gang who was very athletic.  He didn't like Perry at first.  He felt having someone like Perry around would slow the gang down.  So he was rude to Perry and somewhat bullyish.  One day he got mad and knocked Perry down, and Perry had one of his attacks. 

     "Most of the others got scared and ran away, because by then it had gotten around that we'd be in trouble if we hurt him.  That was another thing that bugged Jasper about Perry.  He didn't see where Perry deserved to get so much special treatment. 

     "But Dorothy and I stayed with Perry.  And we managed to get him home.  But by then he was much worse.  His family was acting like it was the worst attack he'd ever had.  And his sister was just beside herself with worry. 

     "They got him laid out in his bed and tried to relax him.  His sister laid down with him.  And Sir Jon asked Dorothy if she might like to help comfort him, too.  So she laid down on the other side of him.  She stroked his fur and spoke softly to him about all the fun things she wanted to share with him.  And soon he relaxed, and his breathing gradually returned to normal.  And he was ok.  But even when Lorri felt she didn't need to stay there anymore, Dorothy didn't want to leave him.  She didn't want to leave him, ever.