Page 303 - Enders_Game_Full_Book
P. 303

"I'm trying." Why else do you think I have wandered from world to world for all these years, if not to find a place for you?
<Faster faster faster faster.>
I've got to find a place where we won't kill you again the moment you appear. You're still in too many human nightmares. Not that many people really believe my book. They may condemn the Xenocide, but they'd do it again.
<In all our life, you are the first person we've known who wasn't ourself. We never had to be understanding because we always understood. Now that we are just this single self, you are the only eyes and arms and legs we have. Forgive us if we are impatient.>
He laughed. *Me* forgive *you*.
<Your people are fools. We know the truth. We know who killed us, and it wasn't you.> It was me.
<You were a tool.>
It was me.
<We forgive you.>
When you walk on the face of a world again, then forgiveness comes.
Chapter 5 -- Valentine
Today I let slip that Libo is my son. Only Bark heard me say it, but within an hour it was apparently common knowledge. They gathered around me and made Selvagem ask me if it was true, was I really a father "already." Selvagem then put Libo's and my hands together; on impulse I gave Libo a hug, and they made the clicking noises of astonishment and, I think, awe. I could see from that moment on that my prestige among them had risen considerably.
The conclusion is inescapable. The piggies that we've known so far are not a whole community, or even typical males. They are either juveniles or old bachelors. Not a one of them has ever sired any children. Not a one has even mated, as nearly as we can figure.
There isn't a human society I've heard of where bachelor groups like this are anything but outcasts, without power or prestige. No wonder they speak of the females with that odd mixtures of worship and contempt, one minute not daring to make a decision without their consent, the next minute





















































































   301   302   303   304   305