"The hand," said Mrs. His-tara without concern, "will grow back. But
the things within my son...." She, too, began to tremble involuntarily.
"Billy," I began, feeling the blood come through my lower lip, "Billy
and I are...." It was too inadequate to say it.
"It was not Billy," Hi-nin said without rancor. "It was Gail."
"Gail! Gail doesn't bite!" But she had, and I broke down and plain
cried.
"Do not trouble yourself," said Mrs. His-tara. "My son receives from
this a wound that does not heal. On Hiserea he would be forever sick,
you understand. On your world, where everyone is born with this open
wound, it will be his protection. So Mrs. Baden warned me and I think
she is wise."
As soon as I got home, I called up Regina. She looked pale and lifeless
against the gaudy, irresponsible objects in the art shop.
"It wasn't my fault," she said quickly. "I can't drive and watch the
children at the same time. I told you the children would eat...." She
stopped, and for the first time I saw Regina really horrified with
herself.
"Nobody said it was your fault. But don't you think you could have
taken Hi-nin home yourself? To show Mrs. His-tara that--I don't know
what it would show."
It reminded me, somehow, of the time Regina stepped on a lizard and
left it in great pain, pulling itself along by its tiny front paws, and
I had said, "Regina, you can't leave that poor thing suffering," and
she had said, "Well, I didn't step on it on purpose," and I had said,
"Somebody's got to kill it now," and she had said, "I've got a class."
I could still feel the crunch of it under my foot as its tiny life went
out.
"Sorry, Verne," she said, "you got yourself into this," and hung up.
* * * * *
That night Regina called me. "Can you give blood?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "If I stuff myself, I can get the scales up to a hundred
and ten pounds."
"What type?"
"B. Rh positive."
"Thought you told me that once. Gail is in the hospital. They have to
replace every drop of blood in her body. She may die anyhow."
I thought of the little fluff and squeak that was Gail. I eat de crus'
of de toas'.
"What's the matter with her?" I asked fearfully.
"That damn Hiserean child is _poison_. Gail had a little cut inside her
mouth from where she fell off the slide at school."
"I'll be at the hospital in ten minutes," I said, and hung up shakily.
"Dinner is set for seven-thirty," I told Clay and Billy, and rushed out.
The first person I saw at the hospital was not Regina. It was Mrs.
His-tara.
"How did you know?" I asked. Her integument was dull now and there were
patches of scales rubbed off. Her eyes were almost not visible.
"Mrs. Crowley called me," she said. "In any case I would have been
here. There is in Hi-nin also of poison. There remains for him only
the Return Home. We must rejoice for him."
The smile she brought forth was more than I could bear.
"Gail's germs were poison to him?"
"Oh, no. He poisons himself. It is an ancient hormone, from the early
days of our race when we had what your Mrs. Baden so wisely calls
aggression. It is dormant in us since before the accounting of our
history. An adult Hiserean, perhaps, could fight his emotions and cure
himself. Hi-nin has no weapons--so your physicians have explained it to
me, from our scientific books. How can I doubt that they are right?"
How could I doubt it, either? It would be, I thought, rather like a
massive overdose of adrenalin. Psychogenic, of course, but what help
was it to know that? Would there be some organ in Hi-nin a surgeon
could remove? Like the adrenals in humans, perhaps?
Of course not. If they could have, they would have.
* * * * *
I hurried on to find the room where Gail was. She was not pale, as I
had expected, but pink-cheeked and bright-eyed. They were probably
putting in more blood than they were taking out. There were two of the
other mamas from our car pool, waiting their turns.
Regina was sitting by the bed, her face ugly and swollen from crying.
"She looks just fine!" I exclaimed.
"Only in the last fifteen minutes," she said. "When I called you, she
was like ice. Her eyes didn't move."
"We're lucky with Gail. Did you know about Hi-nin?"
"The little animal!" she said. "He's the one that did it."
"He didn't do anything, Regina, and you know it."
"He shouldn't have been in the car pool. He shouldn't be with human
children at all."
"He's going to die," I said quickly, before she had time to say things
she'd have nightmares about later on.
"Sorry," Regina said, because we were all looking at her and because
her child was pink and beautiful and healthy while Hi-nin....
"Regina," I said, "what did you do after it happened?"
"_Do!_ It scared the hell out of me--that creature shaking all over and
Gail screaming. At first I didn't know what had happened. Then I saw
that _thing_ flopping around on the front seat and I screamed and threw
it out of the window. And then I noticed Hi-nin's wrist, or whatever
you call it. I said, 'Oh, God, I _knew_ you'd get us in trouble!' But
the creature didn't say anything. He just sat there. And I let the
other children off and brought Hi-nin to you because I didn't want to
get involved with that Mrs. Baden."
"And Gail?"
"She seemed all right. She just climbed in the back with the other
children and pretty soon they were all laughing."
"And all that time little Hi-nin.... Regina, didn't you even pat him or
hold him or kiss it for him or anything?"
"_Kiss_ it!"
At that moment Mrs. His-tara came in, with Mrs. Baden and a doctor
behind her. I should have known. Mrs. Baden didn't leave people to
fight battles alone.
Mrs. His-tara looked at Mrs. Baden, but Mrs. Baden only nodded and
smiled encouragingly at her.
* * * * *
The doctor was gently pulling the needle out of Gail's vein. The room
was silent. Even Gail sat large-eyed and solemn.
"Mrs. Crowley," Mrs. His-tara began, obviously dragging each word up
with great effort, "would it be accurate to tell my son that Gail has
received no hurt from him? We must, you see, prepare him for the Return
Home."
Regina looked around at us and at Gail. She hadn't dared let herself
look at Mrs. His-tara yet.
"Doctor!" Regina called suddenly. "Look at Gail's mouth!"
Even from where I was, I could see it. A scaly growth along both lips.
"That's a temporary effect of the serum," the doctor said. "We tried an
antitoxin before we decided to change the blood. It is nothing to worry
about."
"Oh."
"Mrs. Crowley," Mrs. His-tara began again, "it is much to ask, but at
such a moment, much is required. If you could come yourself, and if
Gail could endure to be carried...."
But Gail did, indeed, look queer, and she stretched out her arms not to
her mother but to Mrs. His-tara.
"The tides," Mrs. His-tara said, "have cast us up a miracle."
She gathered Gail into the boneless cradle of her curved arms.
Regina took her sunglasses out of her purse and hid her eyes. "Mind
your own damned business," she told Mrs. Baden and me.
"It _is_ our damned business," I whispered to Mrs. Baden, and she held
my arm as we followed Regina down the hall.
Mrs. His-tara threaded her way through a cordon of other Hisereans who
must have been flown in for the occasion. I couldn't see the children,
but I could hear them.
"Him cold!" said Gail. "Him scared!"
"He's scared of you," Regina said. "We're sorry, Gail. Tell him we're
sorry. We didn't understand."
Gail laughed. A loud and healthy laugh.
"Gail sorry," she said. "Me thought you was to eat."
There was a small sound. I thought it was from Hi-nin and I held Mrs.
Baden's hand as though it were my only link to a sane world.
"Dat a joke," Gail said. "Hi-nin 'posed to laugh!"
Then there was a silence and Regina started to say something but Mrs.
His-tara whispered, "Please! It is a thought between the children."
Then there was a small, quiet laugh from Hi-nin. "In truth," he said
with that oh, so familiar lisp, "it is funny."
"Me don't do it again," Gail said, solemn now.
* * * * *
When I got home it was so late that the stars were sliding down the sky
and I just knew Clay wouldn't have thought to turn the parking lights
on. But he had.
Furthermore, he was still up.
"Were you worried?" I asked delightedly.
"No. Regina called a couple of hours ago."
"_Regina?_"
"She said she was concerned about the expression on your face."
Clay handed me a present, all wrapped in gold stickum with an
electronic butterfly bouncing airily around on it.
I peeled the paper off carefully, to save it for Billy, and set the
butterfly on the sticky side.
Inside the box was a gorgeous blue fluffy affair of no apparent utility.
"Oh, _Clay_!" I gasped. "I can't wear anything like _this_!" I slipped
out of my paper clothes and the gown slithered around me.
Hastily, I pulled the pins out of my hair, brushed it back and smeared
on some lipstick.
"I look silly," I said. "I'm all the wrong type." My little crayola
note was still stuck in the mirror. Phooey to me. "You're laughing at
me."
"I'm not. You don't really look respectable at all, Verne."