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Chapter Six: Trouble
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After a phone conversation with Dr. Pabst, Aed began to understand how the universality of good will he believed in coexisted in an arbitrariness of manners; he restrained himself from knocking on the door before entering, and saw Taberah bright-eyed as he entered.
"Hell!" Taberah said eagerly, jumping up. He had a long tether from his intra-venous tubes, and he was becoming stable on his feet. (He still felt slightly dizzy as he rose.)
"What?" said Aed and the other visitor.
"Hell! Hell!" Then Taberah saw their puzzlement, wondered what was wrong, and then reminded himself of how important pronunciation was. "Hello!" he said.
Aed laughed, and said, "Hello! Taberah, I'd like you to meet my wife, Nathella. She is--"
Taberah grinned, said, "Beautiful!" and jumped up, pressing up against her and kissing her on the lips.
Nathella stood in paralyzed shock for a second, then drew back and ran out of the room, Aed on her heels.
She slowed to a brisk walk after they reached a second corridor, and said, "I don't know why you let him in our house. I don't want to see him again. There are differences between cultures, but that lust is unacceptable in any culture."
Aed said, "I am sorry he did that. I was not expecting that when I brought him in."
They walked on in silence, Nathella setting a fast pace in silent fury.
"You're holding out on me," she said. "You're not telling me something."
"His eyes," Aed said.
"What?" Nathella said.
"Did you see his eyes?" Aed asked.
"I assure you, I was quite occupied with his lips!" she snapped.
"What do you think was in his eyes?"
"Lust. Selfishness. A lack of any caring and decency."
"I saw his eyes," Aed said.
They walked on in silence, now a bit more slowly.
"You're waiting for me to ask you what you saw in his eyes. Out with it," Nathella finally said.
"I was watching his eyes, and I didn't see the faintest trace of greed or lewdness. I saw a rambunctious energy, the same rambunctious energy Clancy uses when he's picking on Fiona."
"Are you saying that what that man did to me was right?"
"No; I'm saying that he didn't know what he was doing."
Jonathan's Corner
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Chapter Six: Trouble
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