He returned to Waldo and knelt down beside him. Grasping one of Waldo’s hands in both of his, he began to knead it very gently. ‘Let the mind be quiet)’ he directed. ‘Feel for the power. The Other World is close and full of power. Feel it.’ The massage was very pleasant to Waldo’s tired muscles
The salve, or the touch of the old man’s hand, produced a warm, relaxing tingle. If he were younger, thought Waldo, I would hire him as a masseur. He has a magnetic touch
Schneider straightened up again and said, ‘There – that betters you? Now you rest while I some coffee make.
Waldo settled back contentedly. He was very tired. Not only was the trip itself a nervous strain, but he was still in the grip of this damnable, thick gravitational field, like a fly trapped in honey. Gramps Schneider’s ministrations had left him relaxed and sleepy. He must have dozed, for the last thing he remembered was seeing Schneider drop an eggshell into the coffeepot. Then the old man was standing before him, holding the pot in one hand and a steaming cup in the other. He set them down, got three pillows, which he placed at Waldo’s back, then offered him the coffee. Waldo laboriously reached out both hands to take it. Schneider held it back. ‘No,’ he reproved, ‘one hand makes plenty. Do as I showed. Reach into the Other World for the strength.’ He took Waldo’s right hand and placed it on the handle of the cup, steadying Waldo’s hand with his own. With his other hand he stroked Waldo’s right arm gently, from shoulder to fingertips. Again the warm tingle
Waldo was surprised to find himself holding the cup alone. It was a pleasant triumph; at the time he left Earth, seventeen years before, it had been his invariable habit never to attempt to grasp anything with only one hand. In Freehold, of course, he frequently handled small objects one-handed, without the use of waldoes. The years of practice must have improved his control. Excellent! So, feeling rather cocky, he drank the cupful with one hand, using extreme care not to slop it on himself. It was good coffee, too, he was bound to admit – quite as good as the sort he himself made from the most expensive syrup extract – better, perhaps
When Schneider offered him coffeecake, brown with sugar and cinnamon and freshly rewarmed, he swaggeringly accepted it with his left hand, without asking to be relieved of the cup. He continued to eat and drink, between bites and sips resting and steadying his forearms on the edges of the tank
The conclusion of the Kaffeeklatsch seemed a good time to broach the matter of the deKalbs. Schneider admitted knowing McLeod and recalled, somewhat vaguely it seemed, the incident in which he had restored to service McLeod’s broomstick. ‘Hugh Donald is a good boy,’ he said. ‘Machines I do not like, but it pleasures me to fix things for boys.
‘Grandfather,’ asked Waldo, ‘will you tell me how you fixed Hugh Donald McLeod’s ship?
‘Have you such a ship you wish me to fix?
‘I have many such ships which I have agreed to fix, but I must tell you that I have been unable to do so. I have come to you to find out the right way.
Schneider considered this. ‘That is difficult. I could show you, but it is not so much what you do as how you think about it. That makes only with practice.
Waldo must have looked puzzled, for the old man looked at him and added, ‘It is said that there are two ways of looking at everything. That is true and less than true, for there are many ways. Some of them are good ways and some are bad. One of the ancients said that everything either is, or is not. That is less than true, for a thing can both be and not he. With practice one can see it both ways. Sometimes a thing which is for this world is a thing which is not for the Other World. Which is important, since we live in the Other World.