"So do I," I said, gazing wearily at my note. "But I have to have her in a good mood. You see, there's this Hiserean child and since I'm chairman of the car pool, I have to--" "_Don't_ tell me about it," Clay said. "My advice to you is get elephantiasis of your steering foot and give the whole thing up now." He glanced meaningfully at Gail, who couldn't possibly be bothering him. She was playing quietly on the floor, pulling the suction disks off my jewelry and sticking them on her legs. When I finally got Gail home, she sped into her mother's arms and I couldn't help being a little irritated because I had been practically swinging from the ceiling dust controls to ingratiate myself, and her mama just said, "Oh, hi," and Gail was satisfied. "By the way," I said, watching Regina hang up her dark blue hand-woven jacket, "you wouldn't mind picking up an extra child tomorrow, would you?" "Mind! Certainly I mind. I've got as much as I can do with my job and Gail and eight children in the heli already." "It's a Hiserean child," I said. "The mother is so lovely, Regina. She didn't want us to go to any trouble." "That's fine. Because I'm not going to go to any trouble." I put my fists behind my back. "Of course I understand, Regina. I think it's remarkable that you manage to do so much. And keep up with your art things as you do. But don't you think it would be an interesting experience to have a Hiserean child in the pool?" * * * * * Regina pulled off her hand-woven wrap-skirt and I was shocked to see she wore a real boudoir slip to work. "Everybody to their own interesting experiences," she said, laughing at me. This was obviously one of her triple-level remarks. "De gustibus," I said, to show I know a few arty things myself, "non disputandum est." "You have such moments, Verne! Have you ever seen a Hiserean child?" "I saw one today." "Well." "Well?" "De gustibus, as you said. You know the other children will eat it alive, don't you? _Your_ child will. Now Gail...." It's true that Gail never kicks anyone small enough to kick back. It's also true that Billy bites. I unclenched my fists and stretched up with a deep breath so as to relax my stomach and improve my posture. "Hiserean children," I pointed out, "are going to have to be adjusted to our society. As I understand it, they're here to stay. Their sun blew up behind them and personally I think we're lucky they happened to drift here." "I don't see why it's so lucky. I wish we'd gotten one of the ships full of scientific information. Or their top scientists. Or artists, for that matter. All _we_ got were plain people. If you like to call them people." "They're at least educated people with good sense. And we've got their ship to take apart and learn things from. And their books and, after all, some music and their gestural art. I should think you artists would find that real avant garde."