Stranger in a Strange Land

you're becoming Martian."
                "I'm happy, dear. You probably iust haven't noticed me laughing."
                "If you laughed clear down on Market Street, I would hear it. I grok. Once I quit being frightened by it I always noticed it-you, especially~ If I grokked it, then I would grok people-I think. Then I could help somebody like Pat . . . either teach her what I know, or learn from her what she knows. Or both. We could talk and understand each other."
                "Mike, all you need to do for Patty is to see her occasionally. 'Why don't we, dear? Let's get out of this dreary fog. She's home now; the carnie is closed for the season. Drop south and see her . . . and I've always wanted to see Baja California; we could go on south into warmer weather-and take her with us, that would be fun!"
                "All right."
                She stood up. "Let me get a dress on. Do you want to save any of those books? Instead of one of your usual quick housecleanings I could ship them to Jubal."
                He flipped his fingers at them and all were gone but Patricia's gift. "Just this one and we'll take it with us; Pat would notice. But, Jill, right now I need to go out to the zoo."
                "All right."
                "I want to spit back at a camel and ask him what he's so sour about. Maybe camels are the real 'Old Ones' on this planet . . . and that's what is wrong with the place."
                "Two jokes in one day, Mike."
                "I ain't laughing. And neither are you. Nor is the camel. Maybe he groks why. Come on. is this dress all right? Do you want underCloth& I noticed you were wearing some when i moved those other clothes."
                "Please, dear. It's windy and chilly outdoors."
                "Up easy." He levitated her a couple of feet. "Pants. Stockings. Garter belt. Shoes. Down you go and lift your arms. Bra? You don't need a bra. And now the dress-and you're decent again. And you're pretty, whatever that is. You look good. Maybe I can get a job as a lady's maid if I'm not good for anything else. Baths, shampoos, massages, hair styling, make-up, dressing for all occasions-I've even learned to do your nails in a fashion that suits you. Will that be all, Madom?"
                "You're a perfect lady's maid, dear. But I'm going to keep you myself."
                "Yes, I grok I am. You look so good I think I'll toss it all away again and give you a massage. The growing closer kind."
                "Yes, Michael!"
                "I thought you had learned waiting? First you have to take me to the zoo and buy mc peanuts~"
                "Yes, Mike. Jill will buy you peanuts."
                It was cold and windy out at Golden Gate Park but Mike did not notice it and Jill had learned that she didn't have to be cold or uncomfortable if she did not wish it. Nevertheless it was pleasant to relax her control by going into the warm monkey house. Aside from its heat Jill did not like the monkey house too well-monkeys and apes were too much like people, too depressingly human. She was, she thought, finished forever with any sort of prissiness; she had grown to cherish an ascetic, almost Martian joy in all things physical The public copulations and evacuations of these simian prisoners did not trouble her as they once had; these poor penned people possessed no privacy, they were not at fault. She could now watch such without repugnance; her own impregnable fastidiousness untouched. No, it was that they were "Human, All Too Human", every action, every expression, every puzzled troubled look reminded her of what she liked least about her own race.
                Jill preferred the Lion House-the great males arrogant and sure of themselves even in captivity-the placid motherliness of the big females, the lordly beauty of Bengal tigers with jungle staring out of their eyes, the little leopards~swift and deadly, the reek of musk that airconditioners could not purge. Mike usually shared her tastes for other exhibits, too; he would spend hours in the Aviary, or the Reptile House, or in watching seals- once he had told her that, if one had to be hatched on this planet to be a sea lion would be of greatest goodness.
                When he had first seen a zoo, Mike had been much upset; Jill had been forced to order