Part 42 (1/2)

”Ishtar datter mi-did you not know, petsan mi-mi? Nay, I am nurse only. But studying I am and Ishtar hope-tells that I will be a.s.sistant technician in half handful of years. Good-nay?”

”Good, I suppose. But what a loss to the art!”

”Blandjor,” she said happily, tousling my wet hair. ”Even though rejuvenated-did you note?-here the art pays no living. Too many willing ones, sweeter and younger and prettier.” The twins had stayed with us, listening and quiet for a moment. Tamara reached out both arms, hugged them to her. ”Example. These my granddaughters. Eager to grow tall so they can lie down and be short.” She kissed each of them. ”And red curls they have. I not have.”

I started to say that age and red curls did not matter, then realized that a compliment to Tamara so phrased could cause chins to quiver. But I did not need to speak; the spout had opened again: ”Aunt Tammy, we are not not eager-” eager-”

”-just willing and practical-”

”-and anyhow he he won't marry us-” won't marry us-”

”-he just teases about it-”

”-and you can't can't be our grandmother-” be our grandmother-”

”-'cause that would make you our Buddy Boy's grandmother-”

”-which is illogical, impossible, and ridiculous-”

”-so you have to be our 'Aunt Tammy.' ”

I found their logic doubly enthymematic if not a total non sequitur non sequitur, but I agreed with it because the notion of Tamara being the Senior's grandmother was one I could not face. So I changed the subject: ”Tamara dear, would you let me take off your sandals and then you come join us in the soak? Or shall I get out and get dry?”

She did not have to answer: ”We gotta run get ready-”

”-cause Mama Hamadryad has finished her face and started her nipples-”

”-so if we don't hurry, we'll have to come to dinner with our hides bare naked-”

”-and for a party that would never never do-” do-”

”-and you two had better hurry too-” too-”

”-or Buddy Boy will throw it to the pigs. Scuse!”

I climbed out and let Tamara dry me-unnecessary as there was a blowdry at hand. But if Tamara offers me anything my answer is Yes. It took a while; we ”wasted” time on touch and talk. (Is there a better way to spend time?) When I was dry and wondering if I should try the cosmetics bench (I don't use cosmetics much, just depilatories), one of the twins came rus.h.i.+ng back with a garment for me, a blue chlamys. She said breathlessly, ”Lazarus says try this or what would you like?-but that you needn't wear anything if you don't want to 'cause it's a hot night and you count as family because you're Minerva's father, one of them.”

I thought I had them keyed now by freckle pattern. ”Thank you, Lorelei; I'll wear it.” I've always felt that a napkin was enough to wear in dining at home in a properly tempered house-or outdoors in private on a warm night. But, as guest of honor even though ”family,” I could not go bare when they were taking the trouble to be festively formal.

”You're welcome, but I'm Captain Lazuli, but that's all right, she's me. Scuse!” She vanished.

I put it on; we went into the garden and retrieved Tamara's gown-and it matched what I was wearing. The same shade of blue, I mean, and a Golden-Age-of-h.e.l.las flavor to it. Hers was about two grams of blue fog. The bodice fastened at the right shoulder and came diagonally down to her waist at the left. Its skirt was longer than mine-but that was appropriate; Greek men of their Golden Age did wear their skirts shorter than did women, instead of the reverse that is more usual on Secundus. (I did not know as yet what was customary on Tertius.) We matched, and I was pleased.

Accident? ”Accidents” around the Senior are usually planned.

We ate in the garden, a couch for each couple, arranged in hexagon with the fountain as the sixth side. Athene made the water dance and danced lights in it, to match whatever she was playing. All the womenfolk but Tamara helped with the primary serving; Lori and Lazi played Hebe from then on-it was impossible to keep them nailed to their couch anyhow. As the feast started, Ira was with Minerva, Lazarus with Ishtar, Galahad with Hamadryad, and the twins together. But the women moved around like chessmen, sharing a couch, a few bites, a little cuddling, then moving on-all but Tamara, whose firm-soft, rounded bottom lay against my lap the entire feast. It was just as well that she did not move; I'm not shy but prefer not to show the gallant reflex unless I need it at once-and I was very conscious of her dear body warm against me.

But while Lazarus started the repast with Ishtar, the next time I looked his way it was Minerva who reclined against him-and next, one of the twins, which one I am not sure. And so on.

I won't describe the feast except to say that I did not expect it in a young colony and to add that I have paid high prices for poorer food in famous restaurants in New Rome.

All but Lazarus and his sisters were wearing colorful, pseudo-Grecian garments. But Lazarus was dressed as a Scottish chieftain of two and a half millennia ago-the kilt, bonnet, sporran, dirk, claymore, etc. The sword he laid aside but handy, as if expecting to need it. I can state firmly that he was never ent.i.tled to dress as a chief by the rules of those longlost clans. There is doubt that he is ent.i.tled to wear any Scottish dress. He once said that he was ”half Scotch and half soda,” but on another occasion he told Ira Weatheral that he had first worn the kilt at a time (shortly before the flight of the New Frontiers New Frontiers) when the style was popular in his home country-found that he liked it, and thereafter wore the kilt when local custom permitted.

That night he went all out and added a fierce mustache to match his finery.

His twin sisters were dressed exactly as he was. I am still wondering whether all this was to honor me, to impress me, or to amuse me. Perhaps all three.

I would happily have spent those three hours in quiet, feeding Tamara and letting her feed me, bathed in the peace of soul that comes from touching her, but the closed happiness circle (and closed it was; Athene's voice now came from the fountain) showed that the Senior expected us to share company, talking and listening in turn, as ritually as in any protocol-bound salon in New Rome. And so we did, in shared and gentle harmony-with the twins adding unexpected grace notes but usually managing to restrain their exuberance and be ”grown-up.” The Senior started it, using Ira as Stimulator. ”Ira, what would you say if a G.o.d came through that entranceway?”

”I'd tell him to wipe his feet. Ishtar doesn't permit G.o.ds with dirty feet in this house.”

”But all G.o.ds have feet of clay.”

”That wasn't what you said yesterday.”

”This is not yesterday, Ira. I've seen a thousand G.o.ds and all had feet of clay. All were swindles, first”-Lazarus ticked it with his fingers-”to benefit the shamans; second, to benefit the kings; and third, always always to benefit the shamans. Then I met the thousand-and-first.” The Senior paused. to benefit the shamans. Then I met the thousand-and-first.” The Senior paused.

Ira looked at me. ”At this point I am supposed to say, 'Do tell!' or some such insincerity, then the rest of you chime, 'Yes, yes, Lazarus!'-which has its merit; the rest of us would have at least twenty uninterrupted minutes for swilling and guzzling.

”But I'm going to fool him. He's leading up to how he killed the G.o.ds of the Jockaira with nothing but a toy gun and moral superiority. Since that lie is already in his memoirs in four conflicting versions, why should we be burdened with a fifth?”

”It was not a toy gun; it was a Mark Nineteen Remington Blaster at full charge, a superior weapon in its day-and after I carved them up, the stench was worse than Hormone Hall the morning after payday. And my superiority is never moral; it lies always in doing it first before he does it to me. But the point of the story Ira won't let me tell is that those globs were real G.o.ds because neither shamans nor kings were cut in on the loot; they were swindled, too. Those doggie people were property property, solely for the benefit of their G.o.ds-G.o.ds in the sense that a man can be a G.o.d to a dog-which I had suspected first time around, when they drove poor Slayton Ford right out of his think tank and nearly killed him. But the second time, some eight or nine hundred years later, Andy Libby and I proved proved that this was so. 'How?' you ask-” that this was so. 'How?' you ask-”

”We didn't ask.”

”Thank you, Ira. Because after all that time the Jockaira had not changed in any way. in any way. Their speech, customs, buildings, you name it-were frozen. This can happen only with domesticated animals. A wild animal, such as man, changes his ways as conditions change; he adjusts. I've often thought I would like to go back and see if the doggie people managed to go feral after they lost their owners. Or did they simply lie down and die? But I wasn't too tempted; Andy and I were lucky to get off that planet still with our gonads, the way they were yapping at our heels.” Their speech, customs, buildings, you name it-were frozen. This can happen only with domesticated animals. A wild animal, such as man, changes his ways as conditions change; he adjusts. I've often thought I would like to go back and see if the doggie people managed to go feral after they lost their owners. Or did they simply lie down and die? But I wasn't too tempted; Andy and I were lucky to get off that planet still with our gonads, the way they were yapping at our heels.”

”See what I mean, Justin? Version number three had the Jockaira falling into a coma the instant their masters were burned out-and Libby doesn't figure into that version at all.”

”Papa Ira, you don't understand Buddy Boy-”

”-he doesn't tell lies-”

”-he's a creative artist-”

”-speaking in parables-”

”-and he emanc.i.p.ated emanc.i.p.ated those Jabberwockies-” those Jabberwockies-”

”-who were cruelly cruelly oppressed.” oppressed.”

Ira Weatheral said, ”Justin, I had trouble coping with one Lazarus Long. But three of him? I surrender. Come here, Lori, and let me nibble your ear. Minerva, my lovely, let go of that, wash your pretty hands, then see if Justin needs more wine. Justin, you are the only one with news to impart. What news on the Bourse?”

”Falling steadily. If you own partic.i.p.ations on Secundus, you had better have me carry back instructions to your broker. Lazarus, I noticed that you cla.s.sed 'man' as a wild animal-”

”He is. You can kill him, but you can't tame him. The worst bloodbaths in history derive from attempting to tame him.”