Read Online Worlds Enough and Time by Joe Haldeman - Free Book Online

you’re the one indulging in euphemism. What you felt about him was betrayal, contempt, rage.
O’H ARA :
Yes,
felt!
I’m not a child anymore. Besides, I did finally meet him when I was twenty-one, on Earth. He was just a poor sad little man.
P URCELL :
You never completely leave the child behind. I’m almost eighty-four, and I can remember terrible things that upset me before I was ten.
I’m just asking that you be honest and careful about those buried feelings. Don’t let them color your assessment of my advice.
O’H ARA :
I will try to control my “rage.” (Pauses) There is something in what you say. I’ll take care.
P URCELL :
I want you to have this as a reminder. And a good luck charm.
     
    He slides over the book. Two bold Chinese characters are stamped on the red leather jacket. O’Hara opens it and reads the title.
     
O’H ARA :
The Art of War
, by Sun Tzu?
P URCELL :
Well, it’s not just about war. It’s about using people and supplies. Management. Bluffing. The creative use and abuse of power.
Written more than two thousand years ago, but still useful.
O’H ARA :
Thank you. I didn’t bring any actual books. This is beautiful.
P URCELL :
Very little of what it says is beautiful. It’s a tough, uncompromising book. (He stares at her.)
How many nervous breakdowns have you had?
O’H ARA :
None.
P URCELL :
Your record—
O’H ARA :
I know my record. I’ve been treated for anxiety disorders. (She holds up the Chinese book.) We live in interesting times.
P URCELL :
Twice these “disorders” involved physical collapse. I’d call them nervous break-downs.
O’H ARA :
Doctors don’t. (Purcell shrugs.) In both cases, I was back to work in a day or two. If I thought it was an impediment to public service, I would let the public get along without me.
P URCELL :
I’m not suggesting that it is. As far as I can tell, your actual problem is quite unrelated to anxiety.
O’H ARA :
Good. Is it treatable?
P URCELL :
Selfcorrecting, ultimately. It’s your god-damned superwoman complex.
O’H ARA :
What, you think I have too much confidence to be a good leader? That’s bizarre.
P URCELL :
No, it’s the opposite of that, or the obverse: an inability, or unwillingness, to predict disaster.
O’H ARA :
I went through more disaster in seven months than you have seen in eighty-four years.
P URCELL :
Excepting the sure prospect of one’s death, perhaps. (She starts to say something but he holds his hand up, mollifying.) That’s not fair. I’m sorry.
     
    He drops the hand heavily to the table.
     
P URCELL :
Most of a century involved in calculated debate. It produces reflexes. Like any sport. I have to go.
     
    He gets to his feet with some effort, and at the door looks back with an almost avuncular smile. O’Hara has risen, stepped toward him.
     
P URCELL :
No. Read “Maneuver,” Statement 27.
     
    O’Hara watches him go, then looks it up.
     
O’H ARA :
“When he pretends to flee, do not pursue.”
     

BIG SISTER
     
    Dear Marianne,
    Things sure have been exciting around here since you left. School school and more school. And dear old Mom.
    Could you talk to her? She gave you hell for putting off menarche until you were sixteen and now she’s giving me hell because I want it now. Everybody else in my class is going at it like bunnys and they treat me like a little girl. The school nurse says I wouldn’t have any trouble with the pelvis even if I did get pregnant, which would be a cold day on Mercury. But I guess they do have cold days on Mercury, its Venus where its always hot. God, astronomy! Its just algebra with stars and planets. Chemistry’s just algebra with funny smells. I still don’t know hamster dropping about algebra altho I passed course One the second time around. Now I’m in course Two and adrift between the Galaxys, as the soap says.
    Not that I get to watch.any soaps. The only cube I can watch is educational, until my grades are up there with a normal subhuman. So last night I got