Now it was Candy who started to laugh. And the leaping fish joined in, jumping higher and higher in their delight.

"Do you think they get the joke?" Malingo said.

Candy looked skyward. "I think today the whole world gets the joke," she said.

"Good answer," Malingo replied.

"Look at that," Candy said, pointing up into the heavens. "We must be moving toward a Night Hour. I see stars."

The wind had carried all the clouds off toward the southwest. The sky was now a pristine blue, darkening to purple overhead.

"Beautiful," she said.

Staring up at the pinpricks of starlight, Candy remembered how she had first noticed that the constellations were different here from the way they were in the world she'd come from. Different stars; different destinies.

"Is there such a thing as Abaratian astrology?" she said to Malingo.

"Of course."

"So if I learned to read the stars, I'd maybe discover my future up there. It would solve a lot of problems."

"And spoil a lot of mysteries," Malingo said.

"Better not to know?"

"Better to find out when the time's right. Everything to its Hour."

"You're right of course," Candy said.

Perhaps a wiser eye than hers would be able to read tomorrow in tonight's stars, but where was the fun in that? It was better not to know. Better to be alive in the Here and the Now—in this bright, laughing moment—and let the Hours to come take care of themselves.