Stranger in a Strange Land

together."
                Jubal hastily abandoned this line of inquiry, too. "So Mike is awake at last. That's why your eyes are shining so."
                "Only partly. Of course, we are always delighted when Mike isn't withdrawn, it's jolly ... but he's never really away. Jubal, I grok that you have not grokked the fullness of our way of Sharing-Water. But waiting will fill. Nor did Mike grok it, at first-he thought it was only for quickening of eggs, as it is on Mars."
                "Well ... that's the primary purpose, the obvious purpose. Babies. Which makes it rather silly behavior on the part of a person, namely me, who has no intention and no wish, at my age, to cause such increase."
                She shook her head. "Babies are the obvious result ... but not the primary purpose at all. Babies give meaning to the future, and that is a great goodness. But only three or four or a dozen times in a woman's life is a baby quickened in her . . . out of the thousands of times she can share herself-and that is the primary use for what we can do so often but would need to do so seldom if it were only for reproduction. It is sharing and growing closer, forever and always. Jubal, Mike grokked this because on Mars the two things-quickening of eggs, and sharing-closer-are entirely separate . . . and he grokked, too, that our way is best. What a happy thing it is not to have been hatched a Martian . . . to be human and a woman!"
                He looked at her closely. "Child, are you pregnant?"
                "Yes, Jubal. I grokked at last that waiting had ended and I was free to be. Most of the Nest have not needed to wait-but Dawn and I have been quite busy. But when we grokked this cusp coming, I grokked that there would be a waiting after the cusp-and you can see that there will certainly be. Mike will not rebuild the Temple overnight-so this high priestess will be unhurried in building a baby. Waiting always fills."
                From this high-flown mishmash Jubal abstracted the central fact or Jill's belief concerning such a possible fact. Well, she no doubt had had plenty of opportunity. He resolved to keep an eye on the matter and try to bring her home for it, if possible. Mike's superman methods were all very well, but it wouldn't hurt to have the best modern equipment and techniques at hand, too. Losing Jill to eclampsia or some other mishap was something he did not intend to let happen, even if he had to get tough with the kids.
                He wondered about another such possibility, decided not to mention it. "Where's Dawn? And where's Mike? The place seems awfully quiet." No one had come through the hail they were in and he heard no voices and yet that odd feeling of happy expectancy was even stronger than it had been the night before. He would have expected a certain release from tension after the ceremony he had apparently joined in himself- unbeknownst-but the place was more charged up than ever. It suddenly reminded him of how he had felt, as a very small boy, when waiting for his first circus parade . . . and someone had called out: "There come the elephants!"
                Jubal felt as if, were he just a little taller, he could see the elephants, past the excited crowd. Yet there was no crowd.
                "Dawn told me to give you a kiss for her; she'll be busy for the next three hours, about. And Mike is busy, too-he went back into withdrawal."
                "Oh."
                "Don't sound so disappointed; he'll be free soon. He's making a special effort so that he will be free on your account . . . and to let all of us be free, too. Duke spent all night scouring the city for the high-speed tape recorders we use for the dictionary and now we've got everybody who can possibly do it being jammed full of Martian phonic symbols and then Mike will be through and can visit. Dawn has just started dictating; I finished one session, ducked out to say good-morning to you . . . and am about to go back and get poured full of my last part of the chore, so I'll be gone just a little longer than Dawn will be. And here's Dawn's kiss-the first one was just from me." She put her arms around his neck and again put her mouth greedily to his-at last said, "My goodness! Why did we wait so long? 'Bye for a little!"
                Jubal found a sparse few in the big dining room. Duke looked up,