into Kane's face. "Nothing to worry about, Kane boy," he heard Phil say in a muffled joy. "We're the gang." "'It's always fair weather, the Sunhill Gang is always together,'" Laura was crooning. The red-faced fat man next to Kane laughed and then Kane saw that the red-faced man whose name seemed to be Ben and the woman on his lap whom he called Jenny, were kissing one another. There was something embarrassingly intimate about the way they did it. It was suddenly much more than a mere spontaneous show of affection. Kane looked away. Beyond a certain point, he felt that love-making was something that should be reserved for privacy. That sort of thing might be expected to change, of course. Customs changed, and as Kane recalled, one could say the trend had been somewhat in that direction. There were two drivers up front. That was a change too. Every cab had had two drivers, a man and a woman. It was all a bit overdone, Kane thought. Still, they were friends of Phil's. A friend of yours is a friend of mine. But it affected Kane adversely. He felt uneasy. He didn't really know them at all. In fact, he scarcely even knew Phil. "We're so glad with you," the girl on Kane's lap said. She crushed her lips over his mouth and pressed her body against him. Kane couldn't say that was affecting him adversely. In fact, if there weren't all these other people around— "We're nice together," Laura breathed against his lips. Everyone was so damn glad to see him. All they needed were banners, little pins. Official Welcoming Party to Greet the Arrival of Professor Larry Kane. Kane managed to look out the window as they crossed the Tri-Borough Bridge at 125th Street and started up the East River Drive. "Things haven't changed much," Kane said. "Not nearly so much traffic though." "The saucers," Phil said. "Most of the traffic's up in the air." "We're looking at things," Laura said. "Great old town," Ben said and laughed, on and on. Jenny laughed too, then said. "It looks just the same almost as when we left."
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