The Girl With the Jade Green Eyes Read Online Free

and he doesn’t ladle out spoonfuls of uranium. The agency in charge of uranium used to be the Atomic Energy Commission, but it has been divided into two separate agencies. Neither could act on your request without referring it to other interested agencies, such as the Department of Defense…” As she listened, he wove his way through a maze of bureaucracies that might be concerned with her request. “The man who would know offhand which agency to take you to would have to be a lawyer specializing in political science.”
    “So there’s nothing you can do?”
    She spoke with a sympathy and understanding for his plight that made him more concerned with hers.
    “There’s something I can do. It’s called ‘passing the buck.’ I can take you to my leader in the National Park Service and let him figure out what to do. Have you any written authorization from your planet’s government to make the request?”
    “My planet no longer exists,” she reminded him.
    “That’s only a technicality,” he told her. “The government needs documents. I’m not officially alive unless I produce a birth certificate and not dead until I have a death certificate.”
    He thought for a moment and said hopefully, “There may be another way. In my capacity as a civil servant I could act as an official witness to authenticate your arrival on earth, but to make the deposition I’d have to see the space vehicle you arrived in and officially attest to your need of radioactive uranium.”
    “I would take you inside the vehicle, Breedlove, because I trust you, but first I must ask you: How long will this take?”
    “I’d hope to get it done within the next three weeks because, after that, this meadow will be swarming with campers and fishermen.”
    Her question had been voiced with concern, and his answer seemed to relieve her.
    “It must not be much longer, or we may never leave.”
    “Would this environment be fatal?”
    “No. Already my people love your planet, so beautiful and so like our own. It has given us hope. But we are people of light, Breedlove, and the day will soon come when the light from your sun will bid us to stay. This must not be.”
    The gravity of her manner disturbed him. Trying to cheer her, he said, “If you don’t get away, there’s an earth ritual I’d like to be the first to introduce to you. It’s called ‘courting.’ Young men call on young women in their parlors with the intention of proposing marriage or a reasonable facsimile.”
    “Then I must show you my parlor.” She smiled.
    “First let me call my office. I’m expected back by noon.”
    “Can you spend another night on the mound and join my people in our twilight ceremony? It will teach you much about us.”
    “I’d be delighted. Was it your people who cropped the grass?”
    “We ate it.”
    He had grown so accustomed to her oddities he only glanced around and commented, “I hope the wire grass didn’t upset your stomachs, and you should leave enough for me to clean my pans.”
    He radioed Peterson and requested permission to stay overnight to conduct a survey of the trout population in Jones Creek. Peterson agreed and wished him luck.
    “Thank you for being discreet, Breedlove.”
    “I want to keep you secret until we’ve made plans. If it became known you had landed here, there’d be claim jumpers all over the place, and I want to keep you for myself. You’re my chance to go down in history. Now, take me to your leader.”
    “We have no leader, Breedlove. We are all as one.”
    “What do you know about the qualities of light, Breedlove?”
    Her question came as they neared the aspen grove on the far side of the creek.
    “Not much,” he admitted. “I’m no scientist. But I read a lot. I just finished an article about lasers. A laser beams light amplified by the stimulated emission of radiation, but don’t ask me what that means.”
    “Then maybe you can best understand when I tell you that what you don’t see before