Rosel George Brown

“ Juba said, "refuse to have anything to do with it at all. You could simply go away and...." She stood up and the spoon clattered to the floor and she could feel the bowl of milk spill cold and sticky along her thigh. Because that's just what you can't do. You can't pull the thread of your life out of the general weaving.
She looked at her adversary, and he was as close to her as the darkness is to the evening.
"No," he said. "Life flows. A person's life or a civilization's life or all humanity's life. If it cannot flow forward it flows backward. ”

“ Well, I tell you that a Man's nature is built into his very chromosomes, and you should know that."
"I know, mother." For Juba was educated.
"There was a reason once, why men should be as they are. Nature is not gentle and if nature is left to herself, the timid do not survive. But if bloodlust was once a virtue, it is no longer a virtue, and if men will end up killing each other off, let us not also be killed." ”

“ Grantham is not a doddering old grandfather but a young and handsome man. And all he thought about my bare shoulder was that it ought to be covered.
"You just run along," Mrs. Baden said. "We'll let Billy strangle the pneumatic dog and everything will be just fine. Oh, and dear—I don't know whether you've noticed it—you don't have on a dress."
I went home and sat in front of the mirror feeling miserable in several different directions. If Regina Raymond Crowley appeared in public dressed only in a boudoir slip, people would think all sorts of wicked things. ”

“ Regina sighed resignedly. "Verne, people can talk you into anything. There are times when you have to be firm. I work, girl. That's why I put Gail in Playplace. I can't leave here until twelve o'clock." ”

“ It is difficult to make conversation with a man.
Finally Juba gave up trying to think of something interesting to say and asked, "What is your way of life, that you should be going around by yourself in a space ship?"
"My way of life?" He laughed. "It becomes a way of life, doesn't it? Whatever we do ends up enveloping us, doesn't it?" ”

“ Gail doesn't bite!" But she had, and I broke down and plain cried.
"Do not trouble yourself," said Mrs. His-tara. "My son receives from this a wound that does not heal. On Hiserea he would be forever sick, you understand. On your world, where everyone is born with this open wound, it will be his protection. So Mrs. Baden warned me and I think she is wise."
As soon as I got home, I called up Regina. She looked pale and lifeless against the gaudy, irresponsible objects in the art shop.
"It wasn't my fault," she said quickly. "I can't drive and watch the children at the same time. ”

“ Under Billy's leadership, several other children began to cry, and all in all it was not a well-integrated, love-sharing group that I lifted down from the heli at Playplace.
"The children always sense it, don't they," Mrs. Baden said with her gentle smile, "when we don't feel comfortable about a situation?" ”

“ Rule d—A man's ego is his most precious possession.
"You are very strong," Juba said, her eyes downcast, for he was bare again to the waist, and it had come to her that she would like to string her fingers through the hair on his chest. ”

“ You don't realize how expensive and cumbersome and logistically difficult it is to set up the simplest station on an abnormal planet. Tons of equipment are needed just to compensate for a few degrees too much temperature, or a few degrees too little, or excessive natural radiation, or a slight off balance of atmosphere. Or even if a planet is apparently habitable, there's no way of being absolutely sure until there have been people actually living on it for a while. There isn't time for all this. Can't you just believe me?"
"I believe you," Juba said, "and the answer is no. ”

“ You don't really look respectable at all, Verne."
I ran into the dining area. "Regina told you about the boudoir slip!"
I heard Clay stumble over a chair in the dark.
"Obscenity!" he said. "All right, she did. So what? I think you look like a call girl."
I ran into the living room and hid behind the sofa. "Do you really, truly think so?"
"Absolutely!" Another chair clattered and Clay toed the living room lights. "Ah!" he said. "I've got you cornered. You look like a chorus girl. You look like an easy pickup. You look like a dirty little—"
"Stop," I cried, "while you're still winning!" ”

“ Her eyes didn't move."
"We're lucky with Gail. Did you know about Hi-nin?"
"The little animal!" she said. "He's the one that did it."
"He didn't do anything, Regina, and you know it."
"He shouldn't have been in the car pool. He shouldn't be with human children at all."
"He's going to die," I said quickly, before she had time to say things she'd have nightmares about later on.
"Sorry," Regina said, because we were all looking at her and because her child was pink and beautiful and healthy while Hi-nin....
"Regina," I said, "what did you do after it happened?" ”

“ They have no understanding."
"Neither have men. They are like your baby sister, Diana, who is reasonable until it no longer suits her, and then the only difference between her and an animal is that she has more cunning." ”

“ Gail is in the hospital. They have to replace every drop of blood in her body. She may die anyhow."
I thought of the little fluff and squeak that was Gail. I eat de crus' of de toas'.
"What's the matter with her?" I asked fearfully.
"That damn Hiserean child is poison. Gail had a little cut inside her mouth from where she fell off the slide at school."
"I'll be at the hospital in ten minutes," I said, and hung up shakily. "Dinner is set for seven-thirty," I told Clay and Billy, and rushed out.
The first person I saw at the hospital was not Regina. It was Mrs. His-tara. ”

“ I'm looking for a communications base halfway between a certain strategic enemy outpost and a certain strategic allied outpost."
"Why?"
"Why? I don't know why. Does the grain of sand know where the beach ends? And if I did know, what would it matter?"
"But why this planet? There are other systems. Even other planets in this system." The moss curled under her feet and pricked at her. She was not doing this right. What did she care about his war? ”

“ We managed to reach Playplace without incident, except for a man who called me an obscenity. The children and I, however, called him a great, big alligator head and on the whole, I think, we won. After all, how can a man possibly be right when faced with a woman and eight tiny children?
I herded the children through the Germ Detection Booth and Gail was returned to me with an incipient streptococcus infection. ”

“ Regina laughed again. "Really, Verne, you're not half bad when you try."
"If you honestly think I'm not half bad, could you do it just as a favor to me? Pick up Hi-nin when you have the car pool?"
"The Hiserean child? No."
"Please, Regina. I'd do it for you except that the children would notice and it would get back to Mrs. His-tara. If there's anything I could do for you in return—"
"What could you possibly do?"
"I don't know. But I can't go back and tell that dear creature our car pool doesn't want her."
"Stop looking so intense. That's what keeps you from being the boudoir-slip type. ”

“ It's true that Gail never kicks anyone small enough to kick back. It's also true that Billy bites.
I unclenched my fists and stretched up with a deep breath so as to relax my stomach and improve my posture.
"Hiserean children," I pointed out, "are going to have to be adjusted to our society. As I understand it, they're here to stay. ”

“ For she was taught from childhood to be reasonable above all things. And, having spoken with this Man, having found him courteous and educated, she could not believe he was beyond redemption simply because he was a Man. ”

“ Hastily, I pulled the pins out of my hair, brushed it back and smeared on some lipstick.
"I look silly," I said. "I'm all the wrong type." My little crayola note was still stuck in the mirror. Phooey to me. "You're laughing at me." ”

“ Mrs. His-tara exclaimed. Her eye stalks retracted and tears poured down her cheeks. "I do not want to be of difficulty," she said.
Since she had no apparent handkerchief and wore some sort of permanent-looking native dress, I tore a square out of my paper morning dress for her.
"You are too good!" she sobbed, fresh tears pouring out.
"No, no. I already tore out two for the children. I always get my skirts longer in cold weather because children are so careless about carrying—"
"Then we'll consider the car pool settled?" Mrs. Baden asked, coming in tactfully. ”

“ Psychogenic, of course, but what help was it to know that? Would there be some organ in Hi-nin a surgeon could remove? Like the adrenals in humans, perhaps?
Of course not. If they could have, they would have.
I hurried on to find the room where Gail was. She was not pale, as I had expected, but pink-cheeked and bright-eyed. They were probably putting in more blood than they were taking out. There were two of the other mamas from our car pool, waiting their turns.
Regina was sitting by the bed, her face ugly and swollen from crying. ”