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the age of eleven, but Meggie, being very immature in many ways, did not.
    Once, our home planet was a land of many bright colors, thus the name Chroma, but by the time Meggie and I were born, it had become a bleak and dying world, with its air, soil, and water contaminated beyond salvation. In fact, pollution poisoning killed off our people in great numbers, with Dad and Grandmama being among those who perished.
    Though Chroma’s technology was highly sophisticated, our fine scientists could not reverse the damage done to the environment. Attempting to make amends for this dismal failure, they developed the ultimate vehicle for dimensional and space travel—the Carriage. This grand creation was unique in that it was programmed to seek out the hidden passages and secret gateways of the universe, making it possible for its occupants to navigate astronomical distances in short periods of time.
    With the Carriage, Chromians could leave the sad ruins of our once-splendid civilization and migrate in small groups to other, more promising worlds, where we could assimilate undetected into society.
    Mom and Gramps chose Earth for its natural beauty,and the United States of America for its magnificent Constitution. The English language was also a plus. Mom learned it as a child from her teacher, who had learned it from his space travels. Mom taught English to Gramps, then to me and Meggie, along with Chromish, when we first began to speak.
    As for our bodies, it was always a mystery to me why Earthlings imagined that someone alien to their planet would have to be grotesque. In Chroma kindergarten I learned that advanced life is similar all over the universe, except for some rare mutations on the far edges of the known galaxies. In fact, the major difference in appearance we found between ourselves and the Earthlings was size. Chromian adults were, on the average, about six inches shorter than Earthlings, and weighed much less. A petite figure was considered a trait of beauty and was desired by both men and women.
    After much debate and soul-searching, Mom requested the services of Chroma’s physicians, who were among the most skilled in the universe, to treat each of us with growth enzymes, so that we would not be considered oddities among the natives of Earth. Mom and Gramps assumed these new bodies with great misgivings, because they seemed, as Meggie’s friend Kitty Singer might say, “Ooo-ooo, gross!” In only a matter of months, the change was complete and permanent. Meggie and I were too young to care very much, soon forgetting how we had looked before, and the adults, out of necessity, learned, in time, to adjust.
    I was five and Meggie three when we arrived in theCarriage on the shores of California, USA, North America, Earth, expecting to find security and happiness—as we surely did for a time. Through all the amazing years of living on Earth, we did not speak of our secret even with each other, but harbored it close to our hearts. At times it seemed Meggie might have forgotten Chroma completely, and it was best, I thought, if she could forget who we really were. But I was wrong. She remembered much more than I suspected. In fact, I thought perhaps her memories of Chroma and the attack of the madman created her fears of being hunted like an animal.
    Now here we are once again, homeless. The Carriage, however, cuts through the blackness with such stunning sureness that I feel strangely safe. If somebody were out there watching our flight, this superb vehicle might appear to be a glass rocket. But of course it’s not glass at all. It’s made from a fine and complex synthetic, unknown on Earth.
    A dim light from the control panel allows us to see each other, and the Carriage temperature is perfectly regulated so that we are comfortable. Mom and Gramps appear almost to be in shock. They are still standing at the controls, but not touching anything, just staring ahead. Meggie and I sit huddled