Stranger in a Strange Land

it's a couple -- becomes forever part of the Nest. In your case you already are . . , but we've never held the service for you, so everything else is being pushed aside tonight while we welcome you. They did the same for me." Duke got a faraway look. "Ben, it's the most wonderful feeling in the world"
                "But I still don't know what it is, Duke."
                "Uh ...it's a lot of things. Ever been on a real luau of a party, the kind the cops raid and usually ends up in a divorce or two?"
                "Well ... yes."
                "Up to now, brother, you've only been on Sunday School picnics. That's one aspect of it. Have you ever been married?"
                "No."
                "You are married. You just don't know it yet. After tonight there will never again be any doubt in your mind about it." Duke again looked faraway, happily pensive. "Ben, I was married before ... and for a short time it was pretty nice and then it was steady hell on wheels. This time I like it, all the time. Shucks, I love it! And look, Ben, I don't mean just that it's fun to be shacked up with a bunch of bouncy babes. I love them-all my brothers, both sexes. Take Patty-and you willi-Patty mothers all of us . . . and I don't think anybody, man or woman, gets over needing that, even if they think they've outgrown it. Patty . . . well, Patty is just swell! She reminds me of Jubal . . . and that old bastard had better get down here and get the word! My point is that it is not just that Patty is female. Oh, I'm not running down tail-"
                "Who is running down tail?" The voice, a rich contralto, came from behind them.
                Duke swung around. "Not me, you limber Levantine whore! Come here, babe, and kiss your brother Ben."
                "Never charged for it in my life," the woman denied as she glided toward them. "Started giving it away before anybody told me." She kissed Ben carefully and thoroughly. "Thou art God, brother."
                "Thou art God. Share water."
                "Never thirst. And don't ever pay any mind to what Duke says- from the way he behaves he must have been a bottle baby." She leaned over Duke and kissed him even more lingeringly while he patted her ample fundament. Ben noted that she was short, plump, brunette almost to swarthiness, and had a mane of heavy blue-black hair almost to her waist "Duke, did you see anything of a Ladies' Home Journal when you got up?" She reached past his shoulder, took his fork and started eating his scrambled eggs. "Mmm ... good. You didn't cook these, Duke."
                "Ben did. What in the world would I want with a Ladies' Home Journal?"
                "Ben, stir up a couple of dozen more exactly the same way and I'll scramble 'em in relays. There was an article in it I wanted to show Patty, dear."
                "Okay," agreed Ben and got up to do it.
                "Don't you two get any ideas about redecorating this dump or I'm moving out. And leave some of those eggs for me! You think us men can do our work on mush?"
                "Tut, tut, Dukie darling. Water divided is water multiplied. As I was saying, Ben, Duke's complaints never mean anything-as long as he has enough women for two men and enough food for three, he's a perfect little lamb." She shoved one forkful into Duke's mouth, went on eating the rest herself. "So quit making faces, brother; I'm about to cook you a second breakfast. Or will this be your third?"
                "Not even the first, yet. You ate ~. Ruth, I was telling Ben how you and Sam pole-vaulted from Third to Ninth. I think he's uneasy about whether he belongs in the Sharing-Water tonight."
                She pursued the last bite on Duke's plate, then moved over and started preparations to cook. "Duke, you run along and I'll send you out something other than mush. Take your coffee cup and skedaddle. Ben, I was worried, too, when my time came-but don't you be worried, dear, because Michael does not make mistakes. You belong here or you wouldn't be here. You're going to stay?"
                "Uh, I can't. Ready for the first installment?"
                "Pour them in. Then you'll be back. And someday you'll stay. Duke is correct-Sam and I pole-vaulted . . . and it was almost too fast for a middle-aged, prim and proper