"Your parents were both here when you were born?"
"Uh-huh."
"Then you grew up with them." Hendley felt a different envy. "I was taken away from mine after the first few years. I hardly remember them. That's the way it's done outside. I didn't see much of them after I was six. From then on it was schools, work training—you never had that."
"Oh, I had schools," the young Freeman protested. "The best. Nothing's too good for a Freeman, you know." He laughed. "Those school computers—they tried to drill it into us. I guess I didn't learn as much as I should have, but I was exposed to it, anyway. As for my parents, I never saw much of them. They were always too busy getting their jolts. This was all new to them when I was a kid. Like with you."
"Jolts?"
"Laughies. Fun. Pleasure-pures. You know."
"Are they still here? I mean—alive?"
"They're around somewhere," the young man said indifferently. "I saw the old boy on a hunt about six or seven suns ago."
"A hunt! That's where that girl—" Hendley broke off. "I heard someone talking about a hunting party. What's that all about?"
"You don't know about the hunt?" The young man looked at Hendley oddly.