GODS OF RIVERWORLD

29

Alice gave her Mad Tea Party on April 1, April Fool's Day.

It was also a farewell party, not for Alice, who was staying, but for the "decor" of her world and the androids in it. Tired of the Wonderland cum Looking-Glass motif, she intended to change it. Her guests would have a last look at it, and some time later she would have the Computer remove most of it and replace it with whatever she ordered. As of the moment, she said, she had several ideas for the redecorating. What she hoped was that during the party the guests would give her more ideas.

First, though, she had to make up a guest list, and this caused problems from the begi

Alice could be very stubborn. But she was very fond of Li Po, even if she did think that he drank too much and was altogether too lecherous. Also, he was entertaining, and he seemed determined to be accompanied by his friends. In the end, she gave in and extended a blanket invitation to the Chinese.

Frigate said that he and Sophie would be very happy to attend. However, Sophie, who was very gregarious, had by now resurrected ten men and ten women, with his permission, of course. They were very good friends she had known in New York City, Los Angeles, and, believe it or not, please restrain your laughter, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Puzzled, Alice asked why he thought she would laugh. Frigate sighed and said, "Kalamazoo was, like some other American place-names, Peoria, Podunk, and downtown Burbank, a risible word, a poke in the ribs and a snigger. Like the English Gotham of the later Middle Ages, the German Schildburg, the town of Chelm in Yiddish stories, the Boeotia of the ancient Greeks. Well, Kalamazoo and the other American cities are not quite like the others I mentioned. The difference is ..."

Alice listened politely, then said, "You intended to ask me if I would invite Sophie's friends, but you wandered off. Yes, they are welcome, since there are only twenty of them."

Frigate thanked her, but she could detect some hesitancy in his voice. Whereas Sophie was gregarious, he was, not anti-gregarious, but non-gregarious. No doubt he had been glad that he and Sophie now had some companions. On the other hand, he was begi

De Marbot and Behn also wanted to bring the people they had resurrected recently. Alice said that they could come, but when she had cut off their screens, she sighed. Originally, she had pla

Burton, at least, was no problem in terms of numbers. He and Star Spoon had not as yet brought anybody else in.

"Oh, yes," she said. "I have a surprise."

"For all of us or just for me?" he said.

"Oh, for everybody, though it may affect you more than the others."

"I know you, Alice," he said, smiling and, as so often, looking like Mephistopheles himself when he did so. "I know your expressions. You have just regretted adding that last phrase. You're ashamed that you did so. What is the surprise, another man?"

"Go to hell," Alice said, and she told the Computer to cut them off. She had changed in many ways. Never, never on Earth, no matter how angered, would she have said that to anyone. Not even her husband.

After pacing back and forth a while to allow herself to settle down, she called Nur. He said, "Greetings, Alice. It's a pleasure to see you. Could I call you back in a moment? I'm talking to Tom Turpin. There's ..." He hesitated, then said, "Never mind that."

"I'm sorry to interrupt," she said. "But I just ... that's all right. I'll call back within the half-hour."

She bit her lip as she wondered if she should invite William Gull and his fellow Dowists. He had been, after all, physician in ordinary to Queen Victoria and a baronet. Yet she had long ago rid herself of the class distinctions that had governed her on Earth and for quite a while on the Riverworld, so his high co

Finally, she called him. He was pleased to be asked, almost pathetically so.

"I'm also inviting A

"Oh, of course not," he said. "It is your party, and Mrs. Stride and I get along well now, though we have certain disagreements on theology. Mrs. Crook and Mrs. Kelly are rather cool, understandably so, but I hope to bring them around some day. I assure you that I will not spoil this social function by any unseemly behavior."

Alice then called the three women, and they said they would be delighted. Could they bring their "beans" with them? Though reluctant to have them, Alice smiled and said they would be welcome. So, that made one hundred and fifty-one guests, since Gull would bring his woman and thirty-two others. Stride and Crook would each bring a man, and Kelly would, as usual, have a man on each arm.

The second time she tried Nur, he was ready to talk to her. He thanked her for the invitation and said that he and Ayesha would be happy to come. He had just had a rather intense conversation with Tom Turpin. Both of them were disturbed because of the two women who had become pregnant. The first birth would occur in four months; the second, two weeks later.

"Tom has told the women many times that the babies will have no wathans. Since the Ethicals did not intend to have babies here, they made no provisions for creating wathans. I asked the Computer if it had the schematics for making a wathan generator, and it said that there was no such thing in its records. That means, as you perhaps remember, that the babies, lacking wathans, will hence lack self-consciousness. For all exterior purposes, they will behave just as babies with wathans will. But they will not be self-conscious. They'll be biological machines, very superior machines, but still machines."

"Yes, I know," Alice said. "But what can one do?"

"If those women want to bear and raise what will be the equivalent of androids, that would be only their business, if that was all there was to it. However, their example may stimulate others to imitate them, to have babies also. Eventually, this tower will be jammed with people, a good part of whom will be soulless. What happens when the overcrowding causes fights for space? War. Suffering. Death. I don't have to fill in the picture for you."

"Yes, but ..." Alice said.

"Turpin has threatened to kick them out if they bear the children. They don't care. They'll just go to an apartment with their men and live there. But this little trouble will lead to great trouble. Somebody ... we ... will have to take drastic action to stop this and make sure that it doesn't happen again."