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IT WAS STARTING TO rain again. Kes unfolded his umbrella and raised it. How long had people been using umbrellas? The simple technology had to be thousands of years old, and now here were Concordians, light years from Earth, still using them on an alien planet.
A few other parents were waiting to pick up their children outside the school gates. The line of moms and dads in autocars stretched down the road. Those men and women wouldn’t be getting wet today, but he didn’t mind a few raindrops. He liked the short walk home with Miki, listening to her chatter about her day.
The school bell rang and the postures of the waiting parents shifted. The children would be out soon.
Beyond the single-story building, vegetation covered the ground to the horizon, the Concordian equivalent
