children?

I herded the children through the Germ Detection Booth and Gail was returned to me with an incipient streptococcus infection.

"Couldn't you give her the shot here?" I asked. "I've just got her in a good mood, and if I have to turn around and take her back home ... and besides, her mother works. There won't be anyone there."

"Verne, dear, we can't risk giving the shot until the child is perfectly adjusted to Playplace. You see, she'd connect the pain of the shot with coming to school and then she might never adjust." Mrs. Baden managed to give me her entire attention and hold a two-and-a-half-year-old child on one shoulder and greet each entering child and break up a fight between two ill-matched four-year-olds, all at the same time.

"Me stay at school," Gail said resolutely.

There was a scream from the other side of the booth. That was Billy's best friend. I waited for the other scream. That was Billy.

"Normal aggression," Mrs. Baden said with a smile.

I picked up Gail. Act first, talk later.

"Oh, there she is," Mrs. Baden said, taking my elbow with what could only be a third hand.

Having heard we'd have a Hiserean child in Billy's group, I managed not to look surprised.

"Mrs. His-tara, this is Verne Barrat. Her Billy will be in Hi-nin's group."

I was immediately frozen with indecision. Should I shake hands? Merely smile? Nod? Her hands looked wavery and boneless. I might injure them inadvertently.

I settled on a really good smile, all the way back to my bridge. "I am so delighted to meet you," I said. I felt as though the good will of the entire World Conference rested on my shoulders.

Her face lighted up with the most sincere look of pleasure I've ever seen. "I am glad to furnish you this delight," she said, with a good deal of lisping over the dentals, because Hisereans have fore-shortened teeth. She embraced me wholeheartedly and gave me a scaly kiss on the cheek.

My first thought was that I was a success and my second thought was, Oh, God, what'll happen when Billy gets hold of little Hi-nin? Hisereans, as I understood it, simply didn't have this "normal aggression." Indeed, I 

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