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CHAPTER 1

The day was sunny, bright and fresh after two days of rain. I stepped out
of my house onto the Neighborhood lawn, still wondering if I'd been wise
letting myself be talked into attending the Neighborhood party. After a week
and a half of being back on Central, I still wasn't in a party mood.

The blue, blue sky stretched far and wide above me as I walked; a small
breeze chased around here and there, stirring my hair; the lawn was cool and
green and thick as far as the eye could see. I wore a dress of pale yellow
that billowed around me to the ground, making me feel as if I were floating,
and my neighbors turned where they stood or sat, smiling and waving and
waiting for me to join them. The success of my assignment had been made public
three days earlier, but the rain had kept me from being mobbed by admirers
right from the beginning. I'd had to turn the call off to save my sanity, and
that in itself was a new experience. But then, one of my rewards was that I
saw everything in a new light.

"Terry, come sit over here," Leebril Conrad called, her face animated
behind the alternating pink and orange diagonal stripes of her face makeup.

"Not on a Neighborhood chair, if you please, Lee," Sam Raymond put in
dryly. "Save it for your own furniture."

"Samprey Raymond, you stop teasing me!" Lee pouted as everyone within
hearing laughed. "Just because you're Neighborhood Chairman doesn't mean you
can tease everyone-isn't that right, Terry?

A large number of eyes turned in my direction, and I could feel the sudden
wall of expectation arising from each mind behind those eyes. I was supposed
to say something monumental and historic, something legend would some day be
built on.

"What suddenly makes me an expert on Neighborhood Chairmen?" I asked,
watching Lee tug at the skirt of the Alderanean leisure suit she wore. She was
short and plump and the brief leisure suit looked terrible on her, but she'd
worn leisure suits before without caring how she looked-as long as she was
dressed in the height of fashion.

"Notoriety makes the acclaimed an expert on everything." Sam grinned,
stepping back to give me access to a chair if I wanted it. "If you plan on
staying home for a while, I'll probably end up losing the Chairmanship to
you."

"Not to me," I denied with a headshake. "I'm not Chairman material. And
even if I were, tomorrow I'm off on another assignment, so your position is
safe."

Sam echoed everyone else's disappointment at hearing the news, but he
seemed relieved even as he protested his displeasure. It was the main reason
I'd said what I had, even though I hadn't originally intended making an

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