"Oh, _there_ she is," Mrs. Baden said, taking my elbow with what could
only be a third hand.
Having heard we'd have a Hiserean child in Billy's group, I managed not
to look surprised.
"Mrs. His-tara, this is Verne Barrat. Her Billy will be in Hi-nin's
group."
I was immediately frozen with indecision. Should I shake hands? Merely
smile? Nod? Her hands looked wavery and boneless. I might injure them
inadvertently.
I settled on a really good smile, all the way back to my bridge. "I am
so delighted to meet you," I said. I felt as though the good will of
the entire World Conference rested on my shoulders.
Her face lighted up with the most sincere look of pleasure I've ever
seen. "I am glad to furnish you this delight," she said, with a good
deal of lisping over the dentals, because Hisereans have fore-shortened
teeth. She embraced me wholeheartedly and gave me a scaly kiss on the
cheek.
My first thought was that I was a success and my second thought
was, Oh, God, what'll happen when Billy gets hold of little Hi-nin?
Hisereans, as I understood it, simply didn't have this "normal
aggression." Indeed, I sometimes have trouble believing it's really
normal.
"I was thinking," Mrs. Baden said, putting down the
two-and-a-half-year-old and plucking a venturesome little girl in Human
Fly Shoes from the side of the building, "that you all might enjoy
having Hi-nin in your car pool."
"Oh, we'd love to," I said eagerly. "We've got five mamas and eight
children already, of course, but I'm sure everyone--"
"It would trouble you!" Mrs. His-tara exclaimed. Her eye stalks
retracted and tears poured down her cheeks. "I do not want to be of
difficulty," she said.
* * * * *
Since she had no apparent handkerchief and wore some sort of
permanent-looking native dress, I tore a square out of my paper morning
dress for her.
"You are too good!" she sobbed, fresh tears pouring out.
"No, no. I already tore out two for the children. I always get my
skirts longer in cold weather because children are so careless about
carrying--"
"Then we'll consider the car pool settled?" Mrs. Baden asked, coming in
tactfully.
"Naturally," I said, mentally shredding my previous sentence. "We would
feel so honored to have Hi-nin--"
"Do not _think_ of putting yourself out. We do not have a helicopter,
of course, but Hi-nin and I can so easily walk."
I was rapidly becoming unable to think of anything at all because Gail
was trying to use me for a merry-go-round and I kept switching her from
hand to hand and I could hear her beginning to build up the ba-bas.
"My car pool," I said, "would be terribly sad to think of Hi-nin
walking."
"You would?"
"_Terribly._"
"In such a case--if it will give you pleasure for me to accept?"
"It would," I said fervently, holding Gail under one arm as she was
beginning to kick.
And on the way home all the second thoughts began.
_I_ would be glad to have Hi-nin in the car pool. Four of the other
mamas were like me, amazed that anyone was willing to put up with
her child all the way to and from Playplace. I could count on them to
cooperate. But Gail's mama.... I'd gone to Western State Preparation
for Living with Regina Raymond Crowley.
I landed on the Crowley home and tooted for five minutes before I
remembered that Regina was at work.
"_Ma_-ma!" Gail began.
"Wouldn't you like to come to Verne's house," I asked, "and we can call
up your mama?"
"No." Well, I asked, didn't I?
I was carrying Gail down the steps from my roof when I bumped
unexpectedly into Clay.
"What is that!" he exclaimed, and Gail became again flying blonde hair
and kicking feet.
"Regina's child," I said. "What are you doing home?"
"Accountant sent me back. Twenty-five and a half hours is the maximum
this week. Good thing, too. I've got a headache." He eyed Gail
meaningfully. She was obviously not the sort of thing the doctor orders
for a headache.
"I can't help it, honey," I said, sitting down on a step to tear
another handkerchief square from my skirt. "I'm going to call Regina at
work now."
"Don't you have a chairman to take care of things like that?"
"I am the chairman," I said proudly.
"Why in heaven's name did you let yourself get roped into something
like that?"
"I was _selected_ by Mrs. Baden!"
"Obscenity," said Clay. It is his privilege, of course, to use this
word.
* * * * *
The arty little store where Regina works has a telephane as well as a
telephone, and in color, at that. So I could see Regina in full color,
taking her own good time about switching on the sound. She switched on
as a sort of afterthought and tilted her nose at me. I don't suppose
she can really tilt her nose up and down, but she always gives that
impression.
"Gail has an incipient streptococcus infection," I said. "They sent her
home."
"_Ma_-ma!" Gail cried.
"Why didn't they give her a shot there? That's what they did with my
niece last year."