Read Online Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein - Free Book Online Page A

It was well loaded with follow-up stories on the return of the Champion. with pictures of Secretary General Douglas pinning medals on the crew, interviews with Captain van Tromp and other members of his brave company, pictures of Martians and Martian cities. There was very little about Smith, merely a medical bulletin that he was improving slowly but satisfactorily from the effects of his trip.
                Ben came out and dropped some sheets of onion skin in her lap. "Here's another newspaper you might like to see," he remarked and left agan.
                Jill soon saw that the other "newspaper" was a transcription of what her first wire had picked up. As typed out, it was marked "First Voice," "Second Voice," and so on, but Ben had gone back and written in names wherever he had been able to make attributions later. He had written across the top: "All voices, identified or not, are masculine."
                Most of the items were of no interest. They simply showed that Smith had been fed, or washed, or massaged, and that each morning and afternoon he had been required to get up and exercise under the supervision of a voice identified as "Doctor Nelson" and a second voice marked "second doctor." Jill decided that this must be Dr. Thaddeus.
                But one longish passage had nothing to do with the physical care of the patient. Jill read it and reread it:
                Doctor Nelson: How are you feeling, boy? Are you strong enough to talk for a while?
                Smith: Yes.
                Doctor Nelson: A man wants to talk to you.
                Smith: (pause) Who? (Caxton had written in: All of Smith's speeches are preceded by long pauses, some longer than others.)
                Nelson: This man is our great (untranscribable guttural word-Martian?). He is our oldest Old One. Will you talk with him?
                Smith: (very long pause) I am great happy. The Old One will talk and I will listen and grow.
                Nelson: No, no! He wants to ask you questions.
                Smith: I cannot teach an Old One.
                Nelson: The Old One wishes it. Will you let him ask you questions?
                Smith: Yes.
                (Background noises, short delay.)
                Nelson: This way, sir. Uh, I have Doctor Mahmoud standing by, ready to translate for you.
                Jill read "New Voice." Caxton had scratched this out and had written in: "Secretary General Douglasilt"
                Secretary General: I won't need him. You say Smith understands English.
                Nelson: Well, yes and no, Your Excellency. He knows quite a number of words, but, as Mahmoud says, he doesn't have any cultural context to hang the words on. It can be rather confusing.
                Secretary General: Oh, we'll get along all right, I'm sure. When I was a youngster I hitchhiked all through Brazil, without knowing a word of Portuguese when I started. Now, if you will just introduce us-then leave us alone.
                Nelson: Sir? I think I had better stay with my patient.
                Secretary General: Really, Doctor? I'm afraid I must insist. Sorry.
                Nelson: And I am afraid that I must insist. Sorry, sir. Medical ethics-
                Secretary General: (interrupting) As a lawyer, I know a little something of medical jurisprudence-so don't give me that "medical ethics" mumbo-jumbo, really. Did this patient select you?
                Nelson: Not exactly, but- 
                Secretary General: Just as I thought. Has he had any opportunity to make a choice of physicians? I doubt it. His present status is that of ward of the state. I am acting as his next of kin, defacto-and, you will find, de jure as well. I wish to interview him