"By the way, Ram," continued Reith, "Hindi is not a language I know. What was that sentence you uttered so impressively at the end of the ceremony? A Hindu blessing?"
"Well—not exactly. I merely said—the nearest English idiom would be: 'Better luck this time around!' "
A Krishnan year later, four friends sat under the tree, which grew beside a handsome swimming pool. They were Fergus Reith; a very pregnant Alicia Dyckman Reith; Percy Mjipa, now Terran consul at Majbur; and his massive wife Victoria, almost as tall and just as black as he. Mjipa was saying, "... the office in Majbur has gone to pot since ibn-Ayub got himself murdered. He would try to mingle with natives of all classes on a familiar basis. Some Krishnans are fine people; but you'd jolly well better keep a little distance from them. If you don't..." Mjipa drew a finger across his throat.
Victoria hastily changed the subject as Reith's new Krishnan secretary appeared, bearing a tray of refreshments. "And where's your son? I haven't seen him around."
Reith answered, "Alister's running a tour, all on his own. His clients are three rich Mexican widows."
Mjipa commented: "Shouldn't think so small a party would prove profitable."
"It isn't; but the boy needed to start somewhere. Guiding on this planet takes special skills and resourcefulness, which can only be developed by experience."
Alicia added: "You should see how Fergus trained him for this tour! He and Juanita Strachan and I would sit feeing Alister and all scream outrageous complaints and demands in Spanish. Then we'd rate the lad on how adroitly he handled each one."
"Actually," said Reith, "Alister's three widows seem to be nice old ladies who won't give him trouble. Most tourists are easy enough to manage; and with a bit of luck Alister and Timásh will be able to handle all my tour groups during the next few months, while I stay home to help with the blessed event."
"Lish, my dear," said Mjipa, "I seem to remember that in Zhamanak, you said you were married to your career and didn't want a husband or children knocking holes in your work schedule."
Alicia, beaming with the smug satisfaction of mothers-to-be, raised her chin with a touch of her old arrogance. "Don't you go thinking I've given up my researches just because I'm a wife and mother! In fact, I've just sent off the manuscript of my latest book, and I'll go back to professional work full-time when the kids are grown."
"What book is this?" asked Victoria Mjipa.
"On the marriage system in the republic of Katai-Jhogorai, where all husbands and wives are expected to take lovers and show no jealousy. Next comes my ghosting of Tony Fallon's memoirs."
"Don't whitewash him!" said Mjipa.
"Indeed not! He knows I won't write the book unless he confesses his whole rascally past."
Reith said: "Speaking of the past, Lish and I have a peculiar problem."
"Yes?" said the Mjipas in unison.
"It'll soon be twenty-five Terran years since Lish and I were married for the first time. Now, do you dunk we should celebrate our silver wedding anniversary next year? Or should we count the years we were divorced as time out, and celebrate—oh, about twenty-three Terran years hence? Or should we go by the Krishnan calendar—twenty-five local years from the beginning, whether or not we called time out?"
"That's not all," said Alicia, laughing. "Fergus, being a self-centered male, dunks only of things from his point of view. To me, because of my space-shuttling, we were first married about four and a half Terran years ago."
"Great Bákh!" exclaimed Mjipa. "I can see at least eight possible dates for your silver wedding anniversary! Why not celebrate all eight? Think of all the gifts you could cadge!"
"That's an idea," said Reith, grinning. "If we counted all the possible anniversaries—crystal, china, and so forth—and figured eight dates for each, we could celebrate nearly every moon from now on."
"I'm surprised you keep track of such things, Fergus," said Victoria Mjipa, "since so few Americans nowadays get past their tenth year with the same spouse."
Percy Mjipa lit his pipe. "Trouble with you Americans is, you think your Declaration of Independence promised you happiness. It doesn't, of course; merely the pursuit thereof. So when the pink fog thins and your spouse shows the normal quota of faults and foibles, you feel cheated. Then your average American dumps his or her mate, picks another, and goes through the same dreary charade over and over.
"Oh, hell, I oughtn't to run on this way, like a bloody moralist. Besides, I've let my pipe go out again."
"What's wrong with moralists?" said Alicia. "We need them to balance the hedonists."
"Hm!" said Mjipa. "Maybe you've got something there." He turned to the others. "When we get our Novocife college off the pad, Lish and I might give a course in cultural relativism."
"I'd like that!" said Alicia. Eagerly she asked, "Think I might get a full professorship?"
"Better yet," said Mjipa. "The Committee wants you to head the Sociology Department, as soon as family responsibilities allow." He looked at his watch, a native Krishnan timepiece, thumb-thick and saucer-sized, with a single hand and a loud tick. "Must be going. Thanks for a wonderful visit."
Victoria added her thanks as her husband handed her into his trap. He touched the aya with his whip, and the little vehicle wheeled down Reith's driveway.
Out of hearing, Victoria Mjipa said: "Alicia has changed, and I don't think it's just the pregnancy."
"Certainly she's changed," said Mjipa. "Had to if she didn't want all that fancy psychotherapy to be a swindle."
"Somehow I found her more likable but less interesting. She's never dull; but she's lost some of the fire that used to fascinate people but make them a little afraid of her, too."
Mjipa blew a smoke ring. "True, ray dear. Alicia's old fiery self lit the romance of the century under Fergus and then burned it to ashes. If, by giving up that volcanic temperament, she can now five in loving domesticity with her man, I'd say she's made a sound trade. And that's about the best that anyone can expect out of life."
Addendum
While the reader may pronounce the Krishnan names in the story as he likes, we have the following renditions in mind: a and d as in "add" and "wad" respectively; other vowels as in Spanish. The acute accent on the é at the ends of words is put there merely to indicate that the letter is not silent, as it often is in English. Among the consonants, k and q are sounded as in "keep" and "quote"; gh-French uvular r; kh = German ch in ach; ' = a glottal stop or cough. Words ending in a consonant or a diphthong are stressed on the last syllable; others usually on the next to the last. Examples: Qirib - "keer-EEB" (with a guttural k); Mishé = "MEE-sheh"; Khoruz = "khaw-ROOZ"; Qou = "KO"; Vázni = "VOZ-nee."
Portuguese, like French, has nasal vowels, indicated here by a line over the letter. Herculeu Castanhoso = "air-koo-LEH-oo kush-TAH-nyew-soo"; João Matos = ZHWOW MAH-toosh; Viagens Interplanetarias = "vee-AH-zhaysh ee-tair-pla-neh-TAH-ree-ush."
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That's Show Biz!
Reith pulled on the aya's reins and set the brake on the carriage. Across the road ahead shambled three huge Krishnan beasts: a female bishtar and two young. The adult bishtar was of elephantine size and build with six legs and a hide covered with glossy fur of purpled brown with cream-colored spots. The head resembled that of a tapir, though vastly larger, with small trumpet-shaped ears and a long muzzle ending in a pair of stubby, meter-long trunks.