They arched their backs and hissed as soon as they laid eyes on him and then took refuge under the couch.They arched their backs and hissed as soon as they laid eyes on him and then took refuge under the couch. But he held several tempting morsels for each of them just beyond their hiding place and meowed softly. They poked their heads out cautiously and began to nibble. Within ten minutes they were purring softly on his lap. "I see now, Brad, that we were attracted to each other for simi- lar reasons: there is a small species much like your native monkeys that we keep for domestic pets on my home world. I've always liked them but they're too small to do anything with without hurting them. I didn't have a chance to do anything about my fantasies until I came to your world." "How would your own people feel about your proclivities?" I asked. "I didn't know how your culture might feel about gays when I approached you last night." "Our culture has no problem with it," he answered. "Of course, as a prince of the royal house, I am expected to produce sons of my own to carry on the royal line. But there is a lesbian prin- cess I know, a second cousin. We have agreed that we will marry when the time comes and that she will receive my sperm by artifi- cial insemination. No one will care what we do outside our marriage as long as the next generation of Taurids comes along." Another fear was allayed after I had put dinner on the table. With those powerful teeth and jaws, he would have been able to gobble his food directly from the plate. But whatever cultural forces had operated during his people's long climb to civiliza- tion had apparently produced the custom of eating with utensils, or else he had been carefully trained in their use before being sent to negotiate with Earthlings. He manipulated the knives and forks and used his napkin as correctly as any member of Earth's social upper crust could have. "I wasn't sure your people would use knives and forks, since your jaws and teeth haven't shrunk like ours," I finally ventured. "The custom of eating with utensils has been long established on Ailouros," he replied with a smile, "although our own eating utensils are somewhat different from yours. I was trained in the correct use of your own implements before I came here, of course." After dinner, we took our liqueurs into the living room. Kontar lit a cigar as he sat down on the couch and handed one to me. |