«Hmm! I'm beginning to think I'm just a boarder there.»
«You expect us to run it without bothering you. But it's a shame you didn't let us all travel together. We got here hours ago — you must have had trouble.»
«I did. Anne, once I get home I don't intend to set foot off the place again in my life … and I'm going to yank out the telephone and take a sledgehammer to the babble box.»
«Yes, Boss.»
«This time I mean it.» He glanced at the giant babble box. «Do those commercials go on forever? Where's my god-daughter ? Don't tell me you left her with McClintock's idiot sons!»
«Of course not. She's here. She even has her own nursemaid, thank God.»
«I want to see her.»
«Patty will show her to you. I'm bored with her — she was a little beast all the way down. Patty dear! Jubal wants to see Abby.»
The tattooed woman checked an unhurried dash through the room. «Certainly, Jubal. I'm not busy. Down this way.
«I've got the kids in my room,» she explained, while Jubal strove to keep up, «so that Honey Bun can watch them.»
Jubal was mildly startled to see what Patricia meant. The boa was arranged on a bed in squared-off loops that formed a nest — a twin nest, as one bight of the snake had been pulled across to bisect the square, making two crib-sized pockets, each padded with a baby blanket and each containing a baby.
The ophidian nursemaid raised her head inquiringly as they came in. Patty stroked it and said, «It's all right, dear. Father Jubal wants to see them. Pet her a little, and let her grok you, so she will know you next time.»
Jubal cootchy-cooed at his favorite girl friend when she gurgled at him and kicked, then petted the snake. It was the handsomest specimen of
The snake rubbed her head against his hand like a cat. Patty picked up Abby, said, «Honey Bun, why didn't you tell me? She tells me at once if one of them gets tangled up, or needs help, since she can't do much except nudge them back if they try to crawl out. But she just can't grok that a wet baby ought to be changed — Honey Bun doesn't see anything wrong about that. And neither does Abby.»
«I know. We call her “Old Faithful.” Who's the other cutie pie?»
«That's Fatima Michele. I thought you knew.»
«Are they here? I thought they were in Beirut!»
«Why, they did come from one of those foreign parts. Maryam told me but it wouldn't mean anything to me; I've never been anywhere. I grok all places are alike — just people. There, do you want to hold Abigail while I check Fatima?»
Jubal did and assured her that she was the most beautiful girl in the world, then assured Fatima of the same thing. He was sincere each time and the girls believed him — Jubal had said the same thing on countless occasions starting in the Hard ing administration, had always meant it and had always been believed.
Regretfully he left, after petting Honey Bun and telling her the same thing.
They ran into Fatima's mother. «Boss honey!» She kissed him and patted his tummy. «I see they've kept you fed.»
«Some. I've been smooching with your daughter. She's an angel doll, Miriam.»
«Pretty good baby, huh? We're going to sell her down to Rio.»
«I thought the market was better in Yemen?»
«Stinky says not. Got to sell her to make room.» She put his hand on her belly. «Feel? Stinky and I are making a boy — got no time for daughters.»
«Maryam,» Patricia said chidingly, «That's no way to talk.»
«Sorry, Patty. I won't talk that way about your baby. Aunt Patty is a lady, and groks I'm not.»
«I grok you aren't, too, you little hellion. But if Fatima is for sale, I'll give you twice your best commercial offer.»
«Take it up with Aunt Patty; I'm merely allowed to see her occasionally.»
«And you don't bulge, so you may want to keep her yourself. Let me see your eyes. Mmm … could be.»
«Is. Mike grokked it most carefully and tells Stinky he's made a boy.»
«How can Mike grok that? I'm not even sure you're pregnant.»
«Oh, she is, Jubal,» Patricia confirmed.
Miriam looked at him serenely. «Still the skeptic, Boss? Mike grokked it while we were still in Beirut, before Stinky and I were sure we had caught. So Mike phoned us. So Stinky told the university that we were taking a sabbatical. So here we are.»
«Doing what?»
«Working. Harder than you made me work, Boss — my husband is a slave driver.»
«Doing what?»
«They're writing a Martian dictionary,» Patty told him.
«Martian to English? That must be difficult.»
«Oh, no!» Miriam looked almost shocked. «That would be impossible. A Martian dictionary in Martian. There's never been one; Martians don't need such things. My part is just clerical; I type what they do. Mike and Stinky — mostly Stinky — worked out a phonetic script for Martian, eighty-one characters. So we had an I.B.M. typer worked over, using both upper and lower case — Boss darling, I'm ruined as a secretary; I type touch system in Martian now. Will you love me anyhow? When you shout “Front”! and I'm not good for anything? I can still cook … and I'm told I have other talents.»
«I'll dictate in Martian.»
«You will, when Mike and Stinky get through with you. I grok. Eh, Patty?»
«You speak rightly, my brother.»
They returned to the living room, Caxton joined them and suggested finding a quieter place, led Jubal down a passage and into another living room. «You seem to have most of this floor.»
«All of it,» agreed Ben. «Four suites — the Secretarial, the Presidential, the Royal, and Owner's Cabin, opened into one and not accessible other than by our own landing flat … except through a foyer that is not very safe. You were warned about that?»
«Yes.»
«We don't need much room right now … but we may; people are trickling in.»
«Ben, how can you hide so openly? The hotel staff will give you away.»
«The staff doesn't come up here. You see, Mike owns this hotel.»
«So much the worse, I would think.»
«Not unless our doughty police chief has Mr. Douglas on his payroll. Mike has it through about four links of dummies — and Douglas doesn't snoop into why Mike orders a thing. Douglas doesn't hate me since Os Kilgallen took over my column, I think, but he doesn't want to surrender control. The owner of record is one of our clandestine Ninth-Circlers. So the owner takes this floor for the season and the manager doesn't ask why — he likes his job. It's a good hide-out. Till Mike groks where we will go.»
«Sounds like Mike had anticipated a need.»
«I'm sure he did. Two weeks ago Mike cleared out the nestlings' nest — except Maryam and her baby; Maryam is needed. Mike sent parents with children to other cities — places he means to open temples, I think — and when the time came, there were about a dozen of us to move. No sweat.»
«But you barely got out with your lives. You lost all your personal possessions?»
«Oh, everything important was saved. Stuff like Stinky's language tapes and a trick typer that Maryam uses — even that horrible Madame-Tussaud of you. And Mike grabbed some clothes and cash.»
Jubal objected, «You say
«His body was in jail, curled up in withdrawal. But he was with us. You understand?»
«I don't grok.»
«Rapport. He was inside Jill's head, mostly, but we were all closely together. Jubal, I can't explain it; you
