Sunday, December 08, 2013
Customs Far and Wide
Learning His Way
Link-Lunk removed all the athletic memorabilia from his
bedroom, and hung old carpets from the cellar on the
windows. All to approximate the feeling of his cell on
Alderah, where everyone slept thus individually.
He only met Bartley once, as he left for college, but disliked
his feigned warmth.
Many other rooms were available in the huge rambler of
a house, but Mrs Hessel had recommend snug hominess
for Link-Lunk.
There were, of course, no rules in his cell, but scores of
them outside.
None whatsoever on Alderah. Everyone knew how to behave.
When one slipped up, he or she acknowledged it, and apologized
to the next person met.
Sex made all possible. It never intruded on cells, but
everywhere else, yes. Young men and women simply went
at it, any location.
“Who are fathers of the inevitable babies?” he's asked here.
Nobody asks that on his planet, nor cares. The babies
are simply adored.
Well, again, he must familiarize himself with the rules
towards all of that too.
He had already tripped up, the next-door Slaney girl sunbathing.
“I'm afraid he rather leapt on her,” explained Mr Hessel to
Patrolman Max Webberly.
Link-Lunk didn't realize there had been trouble, the girl quickly
enough getting into the spirit, but Mrs Slaney unfortunately
glimpsed them from a severely curtained window.
Patrolman Webberly couldn't have been nicer. Explaining
privately what a sex crime was. And, noting that most of the
town was full of shit, anyway, invited Link-Lunk to a football
game of the New York Giants.
Similar rituals were held on Alderah, the population insane
for them. “Crush the sponges from St Louis!” he roars into
the dark.
“I’m afraid I made a rather friend!” he brags later to Mr Hessel,
starting to employ those favored words as a mark of respect.
Labels: alien, Giants, planet, sex, sex customs
