Then I remembered Hi-nin. I couldn't be furious. I was going to have to
get Regina's cooperation.
I picked up Gail and went into the bedroom. "I do not dislike Regina
Crowley," I wrote with black crayola on a piece of note paper. I
stuck it into a crevice of my mirror and gave Gail my bare-shoulder
decorations to play with while I concentrated on thinking up reasons
why I should not dislike Regina Crowley.
"I do," Clay said, sneaking up so quietly I jumped two feet.
"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."
"Just hearing you say it like that is enough to kill Hiserean art."
"Regina, I know you think I'm a prig, but that isn't the point. And if
it matters to you, I'm _not_ a prig."
"Do you wear boudoir slips?" Regina was biting a real smile.
"No, I don't. But I'd like to."
"Then why don't you?"
"Because I put one on once and I thought I looked absolutely
devastating and you know what my husband said?"
"I won't try to guess Clay's bon mot."
"He said, 'What did you put that on for?'"
* * * * *
Regina laughed until she popped a snap on her paper house dress. "But
seriously," she said finally, "if he didn't know, why didn't you tell
him?"
"That's not the point. The point is I am not the boudoir-slip type. My
unmentionables are unmentionable for esthetic reasons only."