Moonstar by David Gerrold Page B

together?”
    â€œUh huh.”
    â€œIt’s—it’s nice.”
    â€œNo, I mean—what do you do?”
    â€œYou know. You’ve seen pictures like everybody else.”
    Jobe shrugged. “It’s not the same.” She could visualize a man and a woman making love—but she could not visualize a specific man and woman. More important, she could not visualize anyone she knew actually participating in sex. What did Potto and Porro do when they slept together? The question would have been indiscreet, had it not been for Jobe’s incorrigible innocence and naiveté.
    â€œWe do what feels good. We touch. All over.”
    â€œLike I’m touching you?”
    â€œKind of.” Potto pulled away then, embarrassed. “The touching is nice, Jobe, but it isn’t all. There’s also sharing.” And then, softer, “Being touched back is even nicer—that’s an even bigger kind of sharing. Put on your kilt. Let’s go home.”
    â€œOK.”
    â€œYou’ll find out what it’s like yourself, Jobe. You’re almost old enough.”
    â€œOK,” Jobe said. She had put the matter out of her mind for now. She was still a child enough to be mercurial in her attention, fleeting insectlike from moment to moment; but insectlike, she would return to pollinate a subject that intrigued her, until an answer grew to fruition—and more and more this business of bodies and what people did with them was becoming very important. But for the moment all her surface questions had been answered, and the deeper ones could lie unspoken for a while longer. Germinating.
    They pushed the boat into the water and Jobe hopped onto the canvas frame, then pulled Potto aboard too. “I think you’ll choose for Dakka,” she said unexpectedly.
    â€œI will choose what I will choose,” Potto answered. Then, realizing she’d been too brusque, she added, “If I choose for Dakka, you can be one of my wives.”
    â€œI’m going to choose for Dakka too,” Jobe said. It was a reflex statement. If Kaspe, Olin and Potto were all going to be males, then so would Jobe.
    Potto seemed genuinely disappointed. “Oh no,” she said. “You’ll make a much better female.”
    Jobe shrugged, not fully understanding all the ramifications of gender. “Well, that’s all right. Even if I do choose for Dakka. I’ll still sleep with you. If you want.”
    Potto grinned at Jobe’s innocence. “I’ll be too busy sleeping with my wives.” She grinned. But she leaned over and kissed her. “I’m glad you’re all right. If you had drowned, I’d have missed you.”
    â€œYou’d have gotten yelled at too.”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œGrandpere Kuvig was born the same day that the Bundt Circle was opened for settlement. She was born to Kossar’s sibling, Pola, when they lived at Strille on Weeping Crescent, under the Tartch umbrella, northeast of Nona. When she was nine, Suko’s mother married into the circle, bringing eight-year old Suko with her. The Lagin Shield was already nine years growing then, and those who sailed the Lagin waters, mapping and surveying for its eventual colonization, were reporting back that there was already visible dimming of the Godheart at the zenith, and its mean temperature was failing too.
    â€œWhen blush came to Kuvig just a few years later, she chose for Dakka; there had been some expectation that she and Suko would be lovers and that Suko would be Rethrik, but Suko had met Thoma—who had already chosen Reethe, so Suko chose for Dakka too. There was some question then about Suko’s right to have Thoma marry into the circle, so Suko married out and Kuvig followed. If Suko’s lover could not marry in, then neither would a mate of Kuvig be allowed to. There was another reason, too—the family had been planning to become a mercantile, and Kuvig