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measures of alcohol."
Mixed-sex murmurs this time, all shocked.
"Halfway through the second glass, he met & a young and flashy woman named Hetaera!" Barry
pressed the button, and Lacey's head rose into view with a whine, makeup so heavy she must have
applied it with a trowel, eyelids half-closed, lazy, inviting smile on her lips.
The noise from the audience was mostly male, and in tones of awe, with a seasoning of angry
female voices. Barry gave them a ten-count, then started mouthing again. "She batted her long eyelashes
at Everyman, coaxed him to buy her a drink, then another and another, as she listened to his sad tale of
home life gone wrong, of a wife turned to a scold while the bartender came by & " Barry pressed the
patch, and up came Winston, with his famous evil leer. ".,. to tell them it was happy hour, and they could
get as drunk as they wanted at a bargain price."
Winston inclined his head toward Charlie and Lacey.
"Everyman paid happily, and paid and paid, as his speech grew slurred and he began to weep."
The male voices turned to tones of contempt.
"Hetaera leaned over and whispered to him that his life did not have to be this way, that he could
leave his shrew of a wife and come to her, where there would be more . .. consolation & waiting, and
more, and more & "
The hubbub broke out anew, in tones of outrage with an undertone of longing. It began to turn ugly,
though, and a female voice cried out, clarion clear, "Why does it always have to be the woman's fault?"
"I was wondering about that myself!" a basso voice bawled in answer, and a furious argument
broke out.
The deacons turned from one to another, alarmed and on the verge of panic. One of them turned
away to the aisle and waved to Langan, who nodded and went out.
Barry held his position like a statue, but glanced over at Mamie. I could almost imagine him saying,
"Hold your places, friends. I don't understand what is happening or why, but it will no doubt blow over."
Mamie responded tartly, and I expect it was, "Blow up, you mean."
"You there!" the enraged female voice cried. "You, Every woman! It's a lie, isn't it? It's the man
who leaves the woman, not the woman who drives him away!"
Mamie glanced at Barry; then her eye hardened, and she called out, "It is indeed. This nonsense
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about the shrewish wife is just a male excuse to justify their doing what they want."
Barry turned to her, remonstrating nervously, but a male voice cried out of the audience, "It's the
fault of women who can't be content with their lot! Give them more baubles to lust after, and they'll
hound a man to his death!"
"A fine excuse for a lazy layabout who doesn't want to work more than he has to!" a different
female voice cried.
"Come now, Mamie!" Charles pitched his voice to carry over the crowd. "You know very well that
not all women are perfect, and that some do become covetous nags!"
"Some, yes, Charles Publican but your script presents them as being the norm!"
"Can you deny that there are many on Terra and the old worlds who live in sin?" a male voice
bellowed.
"I can indeed," Winston called out. "They live in houses."
There was a stunned silence; then a shout of laughter erupted. It was a brave try, but even as the
laughter was dying, an angry rumble was starting.
"Perhaps where you come from, Winston," Mamie said sweetly. "In my neighborhood, most live in
apartments!"
"But they are sinners!" the male voice cried. "Sinners all!"
"Not all by any means," Barry protested. "Not even most. Wherever there are people, though, there
will be some sinners."
The deacons nodded, relieved, but the angry voice bellowed out, "Nonsense! I've been there, and
I've seen it!"
Every deacon went rigid.
"You can't tell the good women from the bad, they wear so much paint, and so little clothing!
They're decked out in all manner of cheap finery and fake baubles!"
"The finery is anything but cheap," Mamie snapped, "and the baubles are often real gems."
Feminine incredulity this time, mixed with anger that finally found voice in a woman's cry. "Why
can't we have such things?"
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"They're vanities and sinful!" a male voice shouted back.
"But you pant hard enough after the women who wear them, don't you? No better than any of your
kind!"
"Aye!" another woman shouted. "You only go space-faring to get away from your duties at home!"
"If you women would try to make yourself prettier and more agreeable," a tenor called, "we
wouldn't have to!"
"How can we, without your face paint and finery?" a woman demanded.
"Why can't we have machines to keep our houses clean, and schools to mind the children," another
woman cried, "while we go out and earn, too?"
I stared I didn't remember Barry saying anything about day care or household robots. He hadn't
even mentioned a vacuum cleaner!
"Be still, you discontented cacklers!" the basso bellowed in full rage. "Be grateful for what you
have, and do not seek more!"
"Ever the old song!" a woman shrilled. "Never mind that everybody has such things, back on Terra!
Is that why our ancestors fled from there? Because women had life too easy?"
"You!" the basso roared. "You players! Do you see what misery you have wrought, you with your
sinful ways and vain luxuries!"
Everything considered, I was very glad that, just then, the houselights came blazing on, and Langan
led the Watch in.
The audience paid them no attention.
"Better for us you had never come!"
"Aye!" an older woman's voice shrilled. "What are you doing here, but corrupting our young people
with notions of vanities? Get you gone!"
"Aye, get out!" a man roared.
"Perhaps that would be the path of prudence." Deacon Joram came up to Barry, frowning.
"No, let them stay!" several young women cried. 'Tell us more of the wonders on Terra!"
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" 'Tis the deacons who have done this!" an angry young man bellowed, "the deacons who have
denied us these delights, who have barred us even from hearing of them!"
"Aye!" another man yelled. "What do you have to say for yourselves, sirs?"
"Surely suppressing news is tantamount to lying!" an older man called. "Can you really be holy if
you suppress the truth?"
"We have never suppressed the truth!" The deacon chairman stepped up on the platform, turning in
indignation.
"Suppressed the facts, then!" a younger man cried.
"Why would you not even let us hear about these marvelous machines that wash dishes and sweep
floors?" a woman cried.
"Why would you not let us know that women, too, can earn money even after their children are
born?" a young wife called. "Why would you not let us learn that women can even rise to govern?"
"This is not our way, on Citadel!" the chairman protested, hands upraised. "It never has been!"
"Aye, so that the men can keep all the power to themselves and grind the women down!"
"Aye, so that men should never know that they do not have to marry!"
"Not to marry is to invite sin!" Deacon Joram shouted. "If a man must satisfy his concupiscence,
better that he satisfy it within the bonds of marriage!" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]