Freddy Soligen wasn't at home when Joe Mauser called. The Category
Military officer was met, instead, by young Sam Soligen, clothed this
day in the robes of a novitiate of the Temple. Joe remembered now that
Freddy had mentioned the boy in training in Category Religion.
Sam led him back into the living room, switching off the Telly screen
which had been tuned in on one of the fictionalized fracases of the
past. Poor entertainment, when compared to the real thing, for any
fracas buff, but better than nothing. In fact, it was even contended
by some that if you got yourself properly tranked you could get almost
as much emotion from a phony-fracas, as they were called, as for the
genuine.
"Gee, sir," Sam said, "Papa was supposed to be back by now. I don't
know where he is. If you wanta wait--"
Joe shrugged and picked himself a chair. He took in Sam's robes and
made conversation. "Studies tough in the Temple schools?" he asked.
The teen-ager realized it was a make-talk question. He said, "Aw, not
much. A lot of curd about rituals and all. You hafta memorize it."
"Curd, yet," Joe laughed. "You don't sound particularly pious, Sam.
Come to think of it, I suppose any child of Freddy's could hardly
be."
Sam said, his young voice urgent, "Papa said you were on your way up,
Major Mauser. Just like us. Gee, how come you chose Category Military,
instead of Religion?"
Joe Mauser looked at the other. It was his policy to treat young
people either as children or adults. If he was to deal with a
teen-ager as an adult, he didn't believe in pulling punches any more
than had he been dealing with a person of sixty. He said, flatly,
"I've never had much regard for those categories in which a man makes
his living battening on human sorrow or fear, Sam. That includes in my
book such fields as religion, undertakers and their affiliates, and
even most doctors, for that matter." He added, to explain the last
inclusion, "They profit too much from illness, for my satisfaction."
Major Mauser was enough of a current celebrity for practically
anything he said to be impressive to young Sam Soligen. That youngster
blinked. He said, "Well, gee, don't you believe in any gods at all? If
you believe in any god at all, you gotta have a religious category,
and that means priests."
"Why?" Joe said. Inwardly, he was amused at himself for getting into a
debate with this youngster and even a trifle ashamed of needling the
boy about his chosen field. But he said, "If there are gods, I doubt
if they'd intrust a priesthood to threaten their created humanity with
hellfire."