"I saw one today."
"Well."
"Well?"
"De gustibus, as you said. You know the other children will eat it alive, don't you? Your child will. Now Gail...."
It's true that Gail never kicks anyone small enough to kick back. It's also true that Billy bites.
I unclenched my fists and stretched up with a deep breath so as to relax my stomach and improve my posture.
"Hiserean children," I pointed out, "are going to have to be adjusted to our society. As I understand it, they're here to stay. Their sun blew up behind them and personally I think we're lucky they happened to drift here."
"I don't see why it's so lucky. I wish we'd gotten one of the ships full of scientific information. Or their top scientists. Or artists, for that matter. All we got were plain people. If you like to call them people."
"They're at least educated people with good sense. And we've got their ship to take apart and learn things from. And their books and, after all, some music and their gestural art. I should think you artists would find that real avant garde."
"Just hearing you say it like that is enough to kill Hiserean art."