Johnson.'
'Oh, yes.' Harshaw reflected that he himself still retained un-Martian notions of food, subconsciously at least. 'Mike, I wouldn't worry about wasting that 'food.' They probably would have been tough and poor flavor. I doubt if a meat inspector would have passed them. In fact,' he added, recalling the Federation convention about 'long pig,' 'I am certain that they would have been condemned as unfit for food. So don't worry about it. Besides, as you say, it was a necessity. You grokked the fullness and acted rightly.'
'I am much comforted,' Mike answered with great relief in his voice. 'Only an Old One can always be sure of right action at a cusp? and I have much learning to learn and much growing to grow before I may join the Old Ones. Jubal? May I move it? I am tiring.'
'You want to make it go away now? Go ahead.'
'But now I cannot.'
'Eh? Why not?'
'Your head is no longer under it. I do not grok wrongness in its being, where it is.'
'Oh. All right. Move it.' Harshaw continued to watch it, expecting that it would float to the spot now over his head and thus regain a wrongness. Instead the ash tray moved downward at a slow, steady speed, moved sideways until it was close above his desk top, hovered for a moment, then slid to an empty spot and came in to an almost noiseless landing.
'Thank you, Jubal,' said Smith.
'Eh? Thank YOU, Son!' Jubal picked up the ash tray, examined it curiously. It was neither hot nor cold nor did it make his fingers tingle - it was as ugly, over-decorated, commonplace, and dirty as it had been five minutes earlier. 'Yes, thank you. For the most amazing experience I've had since the day the hired girl took me up into the attic.' He looked up. 'Anne, you trained at Rhine.'
'Yes.'
'Have you seen levitation before?'
She hesitated slightly. 'I've seen what was called telekinesis with dice - but I'm no mathematician and I could not testify that what I saw was telekinesis.'
'Hell's bells, you wouldn't testify that the sun had risen if the day was cloudy.'
'How could I? Somebody might be supplying artificial light from above the cloud layer. One of my classmates could apparently levitate objects about the mass of a paper clip - but he had to be just three drinks drunk and sometimes he couldn't do it at all. I was never able to examine the phenomenon closely enough to be competent to testify about it partly because I usually had three drinks in me by then, too.'
'Then you've never seen anything like this?'
'No.'
'Mmm?I'm through with you professionally; I'm convinced. But if you want to stay and see what else happens, hang up your robe and drag up a chair.'
'Thanks, I will - both. But, in view of the lecture you gave Jill about mosques and synagogues, I'll go to my room first. I wouldn't want to cause a hiatus in the indoctrination.'
'Suit yourself. While you're out, wake up Duke and tell him I want the cameras serviced again.'
'Yes, Boss. Don't let anything startling happen until I get back.' Anne headed for the door.
'No promises. Mike, sit down here at my desk. You, too, Jill - gather 'round. Now, Mike, can you pick up that ash tray? Show me.'
'Yes, Jubal.' Smith reached out and took it in his hand.
'No, no!'
'I did wrongly?'
'No, it was my mistake. Mike, put it back down. I want to know if you can lift that ash tray without touching it?'
'Yes, Jubal.'
'Well? Are you too tired?'
'No, Jubal. I am not too tired.'
'Then what's the matter? Does it have to have a 'wrongness' about it?'
'No, Jubal.'
'Jubal,' Jill interrupted, 'you haven't told him to do it - you've just asked him if he could.'
'Oh.' Jubal looked as sheepish as he was capable of looking, which was not much. 'I should learn. Mike, will you please, without touching it with your hands, lift that ash tray a foot above the desk?'
'Yes, Jubal.' The ash tray raised, floated steadily above the desk. 'Will you measure, Jubal?' Mike said anxiously. 'If I did wrongly, I will move it up or down.'
'That's just fine! Can you hold it there? If you get tired, tell me.'
'I can. I will tell.'
'Can you lift something else at the same time? Say this pencil? If you can, then do it.'
'Yes, Jubal,' The pencil ranged itself neatly by the ash tray.
By request, Mike added other small articles from the desk to the layer of floating objects. Anne returned, pulled up a chair and watched the performance without speaking. Duke came in, carrying a step ladder, glanced at the group, then looked a second time, but said nothing and set the ladder in one corner. At last Mike said uncertainly, 'I am not sure, Jubal. I-' He stopped and seemed to search for a word. 'I am idiot in these things.'
'Don't wear yourself out.'
'I can think one more. I hope.' A paper weight across the desk from Mike stirred, lifted - and all the dozen-odd floating objects fell down at once. Mike seemed about to weep although no tears formed. 'Jubal, I am sorry. I am utmostly sorry.'
Harshaw patted his shoulder. 'You should be proud, not sorry. Son, you don't seem to realize it, but what you just did is-' Jubal searched for a comparison, rapidly discarded the many that sprang to his mind because he realized that they touched nothing in Mike's experience. 'What you did is much harder than tying shoestrings, much more wonderful to us than doing a one-and-a-half gainer perfectly. You did it, uh, 'brightly, brightly, and with beauty.' You grok?'
Mike looked surprised. 'I am not sure, Jubal. I should not feel shame?'
'You must not feel shame. You should feel proud.'
'Yes, Jubal,' he answered contentedly. 'I feel proud.'
'Good. Mike, I cannot lift even one ash tray without touching it.'
Smith looked startled. 'You cannot?'
'No. Can you teach me?'
'Yes, Jubal. You-' Smith stopped speaking, looked embarrassed. 'I again have not words. I am sorry. But I will read and I will read and I will read, until I find the words. Then I will teach my brother.'
'Don't set your heart on it.'
'Beg pardon?'
'Mike, don't be disappointed if you do not find the right words. You may not find them in the English language.'
Smith considered this quite a long time. 'Then I will teach my brother the language of my nest.'
'Maybe. I would like to try - but you may have arrived about fifty years too late.'
'I have acted wrongly?'
'Not at all. I'm proud of you. You might start by trying to teach Jill your language.'
'It hurts my throat,' put in Jill.
'Try gargling with aspirin.' Jubal looked at her. 'That's a silly excuse, nurse - but it occurs to me that this gives me an excuse to put you on the payroll? for I doubt if they will ever take you back at Bethesda. All right, you're my staff research assistant for Martian linguistics which includes such extra duties as may be necessary. Take that up with the girls. Anne, put her on the payroll - and be sure it gets entered in the tax records.'
'She's been doing her share in the kitchen since the day after she got here. Shall I date it back?'
Jubal shrugged. 'Don't bother me with details.'
'But, Jubal,' Jill protested shrilly, 'I don't think I can learn Martian!'
'You can try, can't you? That's all Columbus did.'
'But-'
