49.
here so excited," she began, "I just received the lay-out of the apartment we've been assigned. It's beautiful! It has two outside rooms, one for a living room and one for an office, three bedrooms and a kitchen. I imagine where Morn is the same rank as you, he'll have one like it. It's going to be so bad for him, all alone. I wish he could stay with us."
"Mother, you're a genius!" cried North. "You're an absolute wonder!"
He quickly turned to the communicator and activated the recorder section. When the light came on he looked at the blank screen and spoke.
"Morn, mother came up with a damned good idea. We're going to have an extra room in that big apartment at Academy, and ample servant quarters. How about you staying with us? I don't think there's anything in the regulations against it. And mother and I would be glad for your company. And living quarters are scarce in Academy city. You could probably sub-rent your own apartment. Let us know. We've got a whole month before we have to be in quarters."
North switched off and turned to his mother. "It's wonderful," she said,, "you two are like brothers anyway. I'm sure he'll accept."
"Oh, I hope so," North told her. As he was speaking there was a rap on the door again, and North called "Come in." The young Hashon girl entered the room.
"Pardon, sir," she said, "but may I sleep on your couch tonight, or must I report to quarters? I have to call in."
North knew how the girl hated slave quarters with their rack upon rack of beds.
"You may use the couch," he told her. "We're not expecting company."
The girl bowed politely and left. As the door shut behind her, North's mother turned to him.
"There's another place she'd like to sleep, North, I see that look in her eye whenever she watches you. Sometimes I don't think my son has interest in females, Hashon OR Haven! I've got three sets of parents still asking me to have their daughters in to visit. North, your father and I were married when he entered Academy, and we went to a little one-room apartment together. Aren't you the least bit interested?"
"Of course, mother," North explained, "but I'm also very inexperienced. I've seen alot of tapes in school and heard alot of stories, but I haven't got the courage!"
His mother laughed so hard North thought she would be sick.
"You definitely aren't your father in that way!" she said. "I never did learn where that man got all his experience, but give that little one out there a chance, and you'll have all the experience you'll ever need. She's in love with you, North, and she's just as scared as you are."