Time Enough for Love: The Lives of Lazarus Long by Robert A. Heinlein

Author:Robert A. Heinlein
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Space and time, Fiction
ISBN: 9780441810765
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1988-02-14T10:00:00+00:00

Minerva, Dora was just plain nice to be around, always. It wasn’t her physical beauty . . which wasn’t that outstanding by the usual criteria in any case—although she was utterly beautiful to me. Nor was it her enthusiastic interest in sharing “Eros”—although she was indeed enthusiastic, ready any time, and always on a short fuse. And skilled at it and got more so. Sex is a learned art, as much so as ice skating or tightwire walking or fancy diving; it is not instinct. Oh, two animals couple by instinct, but it takes intelligence and patient willingness to turn copulation into a high and lively art. Dora was good at it and got better and better, always eager to learn, free of fetishes or silly preconceptions, patiently willing to practice anything she learned or was taught—and with it that spiritual quality that turns sweaty exercise into a living sacrament.

But Minerva, love is what still goes on when you are not horny.

Dora was good company at any time, but the tougher things were, the better companion she was. Oh, she fretted about broken eggs because chickens were her responsibility; she did not complain that she was thirsty. Instead of nagging me to do something about that rooster, she figured out what had to be done and did it—shoved all the hens in with the other rooster, tied the feet of the egg breaker and laid him aside while she moved the partition between the cages, then the smaller rooster was in solitary confinement and we lost no more eggs.

But the truly tough parts lay ahead of us; she did not fret at all during those, or ever turn balky when I did not have time to explain. Minerva, much of the trek was slow death, other parts were sudden dangers that could have been quick death. She was endlessly patient in the former, always kept her head and helped in the latter. Dear, you are awesomely learned—but you are a city girl and you’ve always been on a civilized planet; perhaps I had better explain some things.

Maybe you have been asking yourself: “Is this trip necessary?” —and, if it is, why do it the hard way?

“Necessary—” Having done something a Howard should never do, namely, marry an ephemeral, I had three choices:

Take her to live among Howards. Dora rejected that . . although I would have tried to talk her out of it if she had said Yes. A short-timer alone in a community of the long-lived is almost certain to go into suicidal depression; I had seen it first in my friend Slayton Ford and I’ve seen it many times since then. I did not want this to happen to Dora. Whether the number of her years was ten or a thousand, I wanted her to enjoy them.

Or we could stay in Top Dollar or—the same thing—near one of the villages of that small piece of the planet that was settled then. I almost chose this, as the “Bill Smith” dodge would work for that—for a time.

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