Heinlein, Robert A – Friday

Swelp me, had Goldie been male, I would have had my sterility reversed and happily have raised children and sweet peas and cats.

Burt and Anna left for Alabama early in this period and we all made careful arrangements not to lose track of each other. They did not intend to live there but Anna felt that she owed her daughter a visit (and owed herself, I think, a chance to show off her new husband). Thereafter they intended to sign up with a military or quasimilitary, one that would take both of them and contract to keep them together. In combat. Yes. Both were tired of desk work; both were willing to take a bust in grade to leave staff and join a combat

Host MotherÄUnlimited License, Bonded by TransAmerica

and/or Lloyd’sÄno extra charge for multiple births up to

quadruplets. Fee by arrangement. Standard interview

fee with physical examination by your-choice physiometricist.

BABIES UNLIMITED, Inc.

LV 7962M 4/3

team. “Better one crowded hour of life than a cycle of Cathay.” Maybe so. It was their life.

I kept in touch at the Labor Mart because the day was coming when I not only would want to ship out but would have to ship out. Goldie was working quite steadily and she tried to insist on paying all the household expenses. I laid my ears back and insisted on paying half right down the middle. Since I was keeping track of every buck, I knew exactly what it cost to live in Las Vegas. Too much, even in a crackerbox. When Goldie left, I could live there a few months, then I would be broke.

But I would not do so. A honeymoon cottage is a no-good place to live alone.

I continued to try to reach Georges and Ian and Janet, and Betty and Freddie, but I limited myself to twice a month; the terminal charges were considerable.

Twice a week I spent half a day at the Labor Mart, checking everything. I no longer expected to find a courier job even half as good as the one I had had with Boss but I still checked the multinationalsÄwho did indeed use experienced couriers. And I checked all other job opportunities, looking for something, anything, to match my decidedly odd talents. Boss had hinted that I was some sort of a supermanÄif so, I can testify that there is very little demand for supermen.

I considered going to school to become a croupier or dealerÄ then moved that possibility to the bottom of the pile. A skilled dealer or stick man or wheel man can work for many years at good wages

but to me it would be a treadmill. A way to stay alive but not a life. Better to join up as a private and buck for field rank.

But there were other possibilities I had never thought about. Consider these:

WANTED: 90-day wife for off-planet vacation.

All expenses, luxury 9 +, guild bonus scale. Phys. range

S/Vv’, temperament sanguine 8, amativeness scale 7 or above.

Client holds procreation license Chicago Imperium, will

surrender it to holiday wife if she becomes pregnant or both

will undergo 120-day sterilization, her choice.

See Amelia Trent, Licensed Sex Broker,

#18/20 New Cortez Mezzanine.

URGENTLY NEEDEDÄTwo Time-Space Engineers, any sex,

experienced in n-dimensional design. Must be willing to

risk nonreversible temporal dislocation.

ParticipationÄAmenitiesÄAssurance

Terms to be negotiated

Babcock and Wilcox, Ltd.

Care Wall Street Journal, LV Lbr Mrt

I could try to sign with Babies Unlimited or I could freelance. My conditional sterility would be a selling point, as the thing customers of host mothers are most leery of is the host mother who slips one over on the clientÄgets pregnant on her own just before submitting herself for hosting. Sterility is no handicap as bringing down an ovum is not the purpose; the technologist simply manipulates to change the body chemistry to make the field ripe for implantation. Ovulation is simply a nuisance.

Having babies for other people could be only a stopgapÄbut a possible one; it paid well.

Not a bad deal for someone who wanted a three-months’ vacation and enjoyed Russian roulette. To me, pregnancy was no danger and my horny scale rating is higher than sevenÄmuch! But the doxy bonus scale in the Free State is not high enough to make the accumulated pay enough to justify losing chances at more permanent workÄand that faceless client was almost certainly a crashing bore or he wouldn’t consider hiring a stranger for his holiday bed.