Stranger in a Strange Land

“Jubal, this time it definitely did not feel like stereovision. Jill picked me out with her eyes and smiled at me. Oh, I know, if the person being photographed looks directly at the cameras, then the eyes meet yours no matter where you’re seated. But if Mike has it smoothed out this well, he had better patent it. Jill was dressed in an outlandish costume—priestess outfit, I suppose, but not like the others. Mike started intoning something to her and to us, partly in English… stuff about the Mother of All, the unity of many, and started calling her by a series of names… and with each name her costume changed—”

* * *

Ben Caxton came quickly alert when the lights came up behind the High Priest and he saw Jill Boardman posed, above and behind the priest. He blinked and made sure that he had not again been fooled by lighting and distance—this was Jill. She looked back at him and smiled. He half listened to the invocation while thinking that he had been convinced that the space behind the Man from Mars was surely a stereo tank, or some gitumick. But he could almost swear that he could walk up those steps and pinch her. He was tempted to do so—then reminded himself that it would be a crummy trick to ruin Mike’s show. Wait till it was over and Jill was free—

“Cybele!”—and Jill’s costume suddenly changed—again

“Frigg!”

“Gel!”

“Devil!”

“Ishtar!”

“Maryam!”

“Mother Eve! Mater Deus Magna! Loving and Beloved, Life Undying—”

Caxton stopped hearing the words… for Jill suddenly was Mother Eve, clothed only in her own glory. The light spread and he saw that she was standing gently at rest in a Garden, beside a tree around and on which was twined a great serpent.

Jill smiled at them all, turned a little, reached up and smoothed the serpent’s head turned back and opened her arms to all of them. The first of the candidates moved forward to enter the Garden. Patty returned and touched Caxton on the shoulder. “Ben, I’m back. Come with me, dear.”

Caxton was reluctant, he wanted to stay and drink in the glorious vision of Jill… he wanted to do more than that; he wanted to join that procession and go where she was. But he found himself getting up and leaving with Patricia. He looked back and saw Mike about to put his arms around and kiss the first woman in the line… turned to follow Patricia outside and failed to see the candidates’ robe vanish as Mike kissed her—and did not see what followed at once, when Jill kissed the first male candidate for elevation to the eighth circle… and his robe vanished.

“We have to go long way ’round,” Patty explained, “to give them time to get clear and on into the Temple of the Eighth Circle. Oh, it wouldn’t actually hurt to barge in, but it would waste Michael’s time, getting them back in the mood—and he does work so very hard.”

“Where are we going now?”

“To pick up Honey Bun. Then back to the Nest. Unless you want to take part in the initiation to the Eighth Circle. You can, you know, since you’re Ninth Circle. But you haven’t learned Martian yet; you’d find it very confusing.”

“Well—I’d like to see Jill. When will she be free?”

“Oh. She told me to tell you that she was going to duck upstairs and see you. Down this way, Ben.”

A door opened and Ben found himself in the garden he had seen. The serpent was still festooned on the tree; she raised her head as they came in. “There, there, dears,” Patricia said to her. “You were Mama’s good girl, weren’t you?” She gently unwrapped the boa and flaked it down into a basket, tail first. “Duke brought her down for me but I have to arrange her on the tree and tell her to stay there and not go wandering off. You were lucky, Ben; a transition service from Seventh to Eighth happens very seldom—Michael won’t hold it until there are enough candidates ready to build and hold the mood… although we used to supply people out of the Innermost Circle to help the first candidates from outside through.”

Ben carried Honey Bun for Patty until they reached the top level and learned that a fourteen-foot snake is quite a load; the basket had steel braces and needed them. As soon as they were that high, Patricia stopped. “Put her down, Ben.” She took off her robe and handed it to him, then go out the snake and draped it around her. “This is Honey Bun’s reward for being a good girl; she expects to cuddle up to Mama. I’ve got a class starting almost at once, so I’ll walk the rest of the way with her on me and let her stay on me until the last possible second. It’s not a goodness to disappoint a snake; they’re just like babies. They can’t grok in fullness, except that Honey Bun groks Mama… and Michael, of course.”

They walked the fifty yards or so to the entrance to the Nest proper and at its door Patricia let Ben take off her sandals for her after he removed his shoes. He wondered how she could balance on one foot under such a load… and noticed, too, that she had gotten rid of her socks or stockings at some point—no doubt while she was out arranging Honey Bun’s stage appearance.