Stranger in a Strange Land

«I think you told the truth, Jill. But a dream is a true experience of a sort and so is a hypnotic delusion. But what happens in this room during the next hour will be seen by a Fair Witness and by cameras which are — » He pressed a button. « — rolling now. I don't think Anne can by hypnotized when she's on duty and I'll lay odds that cameras can't be. We will find out what kind of truth we're dealing with — after which we can consider how to force the powers-that-be to drop the other shoe … and maybe figure a way to help Ben, too. Go get Mike.»

Mike's delay was not mysterious. He had tied his left shoe-string to his right — had stood up, tripped himself, fallen flat, and jerked the knots almost hopelessly tight. He spent the rest of the time analyzing his predicament and slowly getting the snarl untied and the strings correctly tied. He was not aware that he had taken long but was troubled that he had failed to repeat correctly something which Jill had taught him. He confessed his failure even though he had it repaired when she came to fetch him.

She soothed him, combed his hair, herded him in. Harshaw looked up. «Hi, son. Sit down.»

«Hi, Jubal,» Valentine Michael Smith answered gravely, sat down — waited.

Harshaw said, «Well, boy, what have you learned today?»

Smith smiled happily, then answered — as always with a pause. «I have today learned to do a one-and-a-half gainer. That is a jumping, a dive, for entering our water by — »

«I know, I saw you. Keep your toes pointed, knees straight, and feet together.»

Smith looked unhappy. «I rightly did not it do?»

«You did it very rightly, for a first time. Watch Dorcas.»

Smith considered this. «The water groks Dorcas. It cherishes him.»

«“Her.” Dorcas is “her,” not “him.”»

«“Her,”» Smith corrected. «Then my speaking was false? I have read in Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, published in Springfield, Massachusetts, that the masculine gender includes the feminine gender in speaking. In Hagworth's Law of Contracts, Fifth Edition, Chicago, Illinois, 1978, on page 1012, it says — »

«Hold it,» Harshaw said hastily. «Masculine forms do include the feminine, when you are speaking in general — but not when talking about a particular person. Dorcas is always “she” or “her” — never “he” or “him.”»

«I will remember.»

«You had better — or you may provoke Dorcas into proving just how female she is.» Harshaw blinked thoughtfully. «Jill, is the lad sleeping with you? Or one of you?»

She hesitated, then answered flatly, «So far as I know, Mike doesn't sleep.»

«You evaded my question.»

«Then you can assume that I intended to. However, he is not sleeping with me.»

«Mmm … damn it, my interest is scientific. Mike, what else have you learned?»

«I have learned two ways to tie my shoes. One way is only good for lying down. The other way is good for walking. And I have learned conjugations. I am, thou art[2], he is, we are, you are, they are, I was, thou wast — »

«Okay, that's enough. What else?»

Mike smiled delightedly. «To yesterday I am learning to drive the tractor, brightly, brightly, and with beauty.»

«Eh?» Jubal turned to Jill. «When was this?»

«Yesterday while you were napping, Jubal. It's all right — Duke was careful not to let him get hurt.»

«Umm … well, obviously he didn't. Mike, have you been reading?»

«Yes, Jubal.»

«What?»

«I have read,» Mike recited, «three more volumes of the Encyclopedia, Maryb to Mushe, Mushr to Ozon, P to Planti. You have told me not to read too much of the Encyclopedia at one reading, so I then stopped. I then read the Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by Master William Shakespeare of London. I then read the Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt as translated into English by Arthur Machen. I then read The Art of Cross-Examination by Francis Wellman. I then tried to grok what I had read until Jill told me that I must come to breakfast.»

«And did you grok it?»

Smith looked troubled. «Jubal, I do not know.»

«Something bothering you?»

«I do not grok all fullness of what I read. In the history written by Master William Shakespeare I found myself full of happiness at the death of Romeo. Then I read on and learned that he had discorporated too soon — or so I thought I grokked. Why?»

«He was a blithering young idiot.»

«Beg pardon?»

«I don't know, Mike.»

Smith considered this. Then he muttered in Martian and added, «I am only an egg.»

«Eh? You say that when you want to ask a favor, Mike. What is it?»

Smith hesitated. Then he blurted, «Jubal my brother, would please you ask Romeo why he discorporated? I cannot ask him; I am only an egg. But you can — and then you could teach me the grokking of it.»