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But disregarding all that, he still had a human perspective That no one would deny He could feel hu perfection He knehat it meant to love, and to be lonely, ah, yes, he knew that above all things, and he felt it s That's why he didn't pay attention to the words

And another thing Thehe became

When he'd first appeared in this time-to himself and others- he hadn't looked huhway in Greece towards Athens, his bones enht rubbery veins, the whole sealed beneath a layer of toughened white skin He'd terrified people How they had fled froines of their little cars But he'd read their minds-seen himself as they saw him-and he understood, and he was so sorry, of course

In Athens, he'd gotten gloves, a loose wool garment with plastic buttons, and these funny s around his face with only holes for his eyes and ray felt hat

They still stared but they didn't run screah the thick crowds in Omonia Square and no one paid him any mind How nice the es had been just as vital, when students came there from all over the world to study philosophy and art He could look up at the Acropolis and see the Parthenon as it had been then, perfect, the house of the goddess Not the ruin it was today

The Greeks as alere a splendid people, gentle and trusting, though they were darker of hair and skin now on account of their Turkish blood They didn'tvoice, ie perfectly-except for a few apparently hilarious mistakes-they loved him And in private, he had noticed that his flesh was slowly filling out It was hard as a rock to the touch Yet it was changing Finally, one night when he unwrapped the ragged covering, he had seen the contours of a human face So this is what he looked like, was it?

Big black eyes with fine soft wrinkles at the corners and rather s mouth The nose was neat and finely made; he didn't disdain it And the eyebrows: he liked these best of all because they were very black and straight, not broken or bushy, and they were drawn high enough above his eyes so that he had an open expression, a look of veiled wonder that othersmale face

After that he'd gone about uncovered, wearing modem shirts and pants But he had to keep to the shadows He was just too smooth and too white

He said his name was Khayotten it And he had been called Benjamin once, later, he knew that, too There were other namesBut when? Khayot He could drao tiny pictures that meant Khayman, but where these symbols had come from he had no idea

His strength puzzled hih plaster walls, lift an automobile and hurl it into a nearby field Yet he was curiously brittle and light He drove a long thin knife right through his own hand Such a strange sensation! And blood everywhere Then the wounds closed and he had to open theain to pull the knife out

As for the lightness, well, there was nothing that he could not cliravity had no control over hi a tall building in the ently to the street below

Lovely, this He knew he could traverse great distances if only he dared Why, surely he had once done it,into the very clouds But thenmaybe not

He had other powers as well Each evening as he awakened, he found hi to voices from al! over the world He lay in the darkness bathed in sound He heard people speaking in Greek, English, Rohter, cries of pain And if he lay very still, he could hear thoughts froeration that frightened him He did not knohere these voices came from Or why one voice drowned out another Why, it was as if he were God and he were listening to prayers

And now and then, quite distinct from the human voices, there came to hi, feeling, sending a warning? Fa

r away their powerful silvery cries, yet he could easily separate them from the human warp and woof