“You are pleased?” asked the First Lady, puzzled.
“Ai,” Benita said. “Ay-eye pronounced Ah-ee. See, that’s what I mean about their gender. It’s a neutral pronoun. Chiddy and Vess are athyci, fourth caste, and their pronouns are ai, ais, and aisos . . .”
“Benita,” interrupted the president, rubbing his forehead wearily. “Would you be willing to do something for us?”
“If I can,” she said, suddenly embarrassed at the way she’d been going on and on.
“All my instincts say these people are good people. They have done wonders for us. Drugs, terrorism, the inhumane treatment of women, all being solved.”
The FL said, “Forced marriage of young girls has stopped. Selling young women into the sex trade has stopped. Genital mutilation has stopped. The last several days we’ve been getting reports that some people who try to drive cars are unable to do so. The cars won’t start unless the person in question has knowledge equivalent to a GED. It affects all age groups. It’s amazing.”
The president nodded. “All this . . . it’s so valuable to us. The dream of peace. The dream of progress without conflict. We feel, that is, the First Lady and I feel, that if things go on as they are for a while, say a few years, we’ll have a breakthrough of expectations.
If we did a happiness index here in the U.S., people would be less worried and more contented than they’ve ever been. You’d think every politician in the country would rejoice, but they claim it’s all a hoax, that the real motives behind it are nefarious, and I can’t prove they’re wrong! We know what they can do, but we know nothing about them as people. Until we know something about them as people, we can’t answer the charges that our opponents make against them.”
He stopped, leaned forward and took Benita’s hand. “Will you ask them to show you their world?”
“Ask them to take me to Pistach-home?” she said, astonished.
“Yes. Ask them if they will. The FBI will provide some small recording devices to take with you, sealed, and when you get back, you can give these recordings to the committees in Congress that are kicking up the worst of it, so it won’t be your word alone. We can publicize your findings in the media. Maybe then, they’ll quit playing games and let us get on with . . . with . . . Excuse me.” He got up hastily and left the room.
The FL got up and went to the window, murmuring, “He thinks the arrival of the Pistach is the most exciting event in the history of mankind, but his own advisors are telling him he’s being played for a fool, he ought to order a full-scale mobilization. Congress is like a dozen armed camps, all fighting each other, one side blaming another for de-funding NASA just when we need it. American Jewry is furious because of Jerusalem. Some conservative Islamic Americans are furious because of Infectious Ugly. Evidently the ugly-plague has started here, too, among immigrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan and even India. My husband … he genuinely likes people. He has a warm and trusting nature toward people, and he wants to trust the envoys, but his own people are making it impossible.”
“You want me to ask this favor of Chiddy and Vess?”
“Yes. Please. You shouldn’t go alone, though. There are idiots over there on the hill who would probably listen to a man where they wouldn’t listen to you.”
“Chad could go,” Benita said. “We get along well together.”
“But not too well,” the FL cautioned, giving Benita and Chad a searching look.
“No, ma’am,” he responded in an angry tone.
Benita said, “You could always have the CIA design me a chastity belt before I leave, if that’s important. Or is my sex life a domestic matter for the FBI?”
“Don’t be angry, either of you. You know what we’re up against. We’ve had more than one commentator accuse the president of carrying on with Benita!”
“I’ve never been alone with him, ma’am.”
“Oh, I know that! He’s careful these days not to be alone with anyone, regardless of what sex they are. He has a chaperon around when he plays with the dog!”