Dorcas's plate sailed out to the kitchen, returned, loaded. Jubal decided that Dorcas had not been concealing talents from him - the plate was much more heavily filled than she would have chosen herself; he knew her appetite.
'Very good sauce,' agreed Sam. 'I salvaged some that hit me in the mouth. What is it? Or shouldn't I ask?'
'Chopped policeman,' Tony answered.
Nobody laughed. For a queasy instant Jubal wondered if the joke was a joke. Then he recalled that these his water brothers smiled a lot but rarely laughed - and besides, policeman should be good healthy food. But the sauce couldn't be 'long pig' in any case, or it would taste like pork. This sauce had a distinct beef flavor to it.
He changed the subject. 'The thing I like best about this religion-'
'Is it a religion?' Sam inquired.
'Well, church. Call it a church. You did.'
'It is a church,' agreed Sam. 'It fills every function of a church, and its quasi-theology does, I admit, match up fairly well with some real religions. Faiths. I jumped in because I used to be a stalwart atheist - and now I'm a high priest and I don't know what I aim'
'I understood you to say you were Jewish.'
'I am. From a long line of rabbis. So I wound up atheist. Now look at me. But my cousin Saul and my wife Ruth are both Jews in the religious sense - and talk to Saul; you'll find it's no handicap to this discipline. A help, probably? as Ruth, once she broke past the first barrier, progressed faster than I did; she was a priestess quite a while before I became a priest. But she's the spiritual sort; she thinks with her gonads. Me, I have to do it the hard way, between my ears.'
'The discipline,' repeated Jubal. 'That's what I like best about it. The faith I was reared in didn't require anybody to know anything. Just confess your sins and be saved, and there you were, safe in the arms of Jesus. A man could be too stupid to hit the floor with his hat? and yet he could be conclusively presumed to be one of God's elect, guaranteed au eternity of bliss, because he had been 'converted.' He might or might not become a Bible student; even that wasn't necessary? and he certainly didn't have to know, or even try to know, anything else. This church doesn't accept 'conversion' as I grok it-'
'You grok correctly.'
'A person must start with a willingness to learn and follow it with some long, hard study. I grok that is salutary, in itself.'
'More than salutary,' agreed Sam. 'Indispensable. The concepts can't be thought about without the language, and the discipline that results in this horn-of-plenty of benefits - from how to live without fighting to how to please your wife - all derive from the conceptual logic? understanding who you are, why you're here, how you tick - and behaving accordingly. Happiness is a matter of functioning the way a human being is organized to function? but the words in English are a mere tautology, empty. In Martian they are a complete set of working instructions. Did I mention that I had a cancer when I came here?'
'Eh? No, you didn't.'
'Didn't know it myself. Michael grokked it, sent me out for the usual X rays and so forth so that I would be sure. Then we got to work on it together. 'Faith' healing. A miracle. The clinic called it 'spontaneous remission' which I grok means 'I got well.''
Jubal nodded. 'Professional double-talk. Some cancers go away, we don't know why.'
'I know why this one went away. By then I was beginning to control my own body. With Mike's help I repaired the damage. Now I can do it without his help. Want to feel a heart stop beating?'
'Thanks, I have observed it in Mike, many times. My esteemed colleague, Croaker Nelson, would not be sitting across from us if what you are talking about was 'faith healing.' It's voluntary control of the body. I grok.'
'Sorry. We all know that you do. We know.'
'Mmm? I dislike to call Mike a liar because he isn't. But the lad happens to be prejudiced in my case.'
Sam shook his head. 'I've been talking with you all through dinner. I wanted to check it myself, despite what Mike said. You grok. I'm wondering what new things you could disclose to us if you troubled to learn the language?'
'Nothing. I'm an old man with little to contribute to anything.'
'I insist on reserving my opinion. All the rest of the First Called have had to tackle the language to make any real progress. Even the three you've kept with you have had some powerful coaching, being kept in trance during most of the short days and the few occasions we've had them with us. All but you? and you don't really need it. Unless you want to wipe spaghetti from your face without a towel, which I grok you aren't interested in anyhow.'
'Only to observe it.'
Most of the others had left the table, leaving quietly and without formality when they wished. Ruth came over and stood by them. 'Are you two going to sit here all night? Or shall we move you out with the dishes?'
'I'm henpecked. Come on, Jubal.' Sam stopped to kiss his wife.
They stopped only momentarily in the room with the stereo tank. 'Anything new?' asked Sam.
'The county attorney,' someone said, 'has been orating in an attempt to prove that all of today's disasters are our doing? without admitting that he doesn't have the slightest notion how any of it was done.'
'Poor fellow. He's bitten a wooden leg and his teeth hurt.' They went on through and found a quieter living room; Sam said, 'I had been saying that these troubles can be expected - and they will get much worse before we can expect to control enough public opinion to be tolerated. But Mike is in no hurry. So we close down the Church of All Worlds - it is closed down. So we move and open the congregation of the One Faith - and we get kicked out again. Then we reopen elsewhere as the Temple of the Great Pyramid - that one will bring flocking the foolish fat and fatuous females, and some of them will end up neither fat nor foolish - and when we have the Medical Association and the local bar and the newspapers and the boss politicos snapping at our heels there - why, we open the Brotherhood of Baptism somewhere else. Each one means solid progress, a hard core of disciplined who can't be hurt - Mike started here hardly over a year ago, uncertain himself, and with only the help of three untrained priestesses-by-courtesy. Now we've got a solid Nest? plus a lot of fairly advanced pilgrims we can get in touch with later and let rejoin us. And someday, someday, we'll be too strong to persecute.'
'Well,' agreed Jubal, 'it could work. Jesus made quite a splash with only twelve disciples. In due course.'
Sam grinned happily. 'A Jew boy. Thanks for mentioning Him. He's the outstanding success story of my tribe - and we all know it, even though many of us don't talk about Him. But He was a Jew boy that made good and I'm proud of Him, being a Jew boy myself. Please to note that Jesus didn't try to get it all done by next Wednesday. He was patient. He set up a sound organization and let it grow. Mike is patient, too. Patience is so much part of the discipline that it isn't even patience; it's automatic. No sweat. Never any sweat.'
'A sound attitude at any time.'
'Not an attitude. The functioning of the discipline. Jubal? I grok you are tired. Would you wish to become untired? Or would you rather go to bed? If you don't, our brothers will keep you up all night, talking. Most of us don't sleep much, you know.'
Jubal yawned. 'I think I'll choose a long, hot soak and about eight hours of sleep. I'll visit with our brothers tomorrow? and other days.'
'And many other days,' agreed Sam.
Jubal found his own room, was immediately joined by Patty, who again insisted on drawing his tub, then turned back his bed, neatly, without touching it, placed his setup for drinks (fresh ice cubes) by his bed, and fixed one and placed it on the shelf of the tub. Jubal did not try to hurry her out; she had arrived displaying all her pictures. He knew enough about the syndrome which can lead to full tattooing to be quite sure that if he did not now remark on them and ask to be allowed to examine them, she would be very hurt even though she might conceal it.
Nor did he display or feel any of the fret that Ben had felt on an earlier, similar occasion; he went right ahead and undressed, making nothing of it - and discovered with wryly bitter pride that it did not matter to him in the least even though it had been many years since the last time he had allowed anyone, man or woman, to see him naked. It seemed to matter not at all to Patty and even less to him. She simply made sure that the tub was just right before allowing him to step into it.
Then she remained and told him what each picture was and in what sequence to view them.
Jubal was properly awed and appropriately complimentary, while completely the impersonal art critic. But it was, he admitted to himself, the goddamdest display of virtuosity with a needle he had ever seen - it made his fully
