Robert Heinlein - Time Enough For Love

"Tamara healed the sickness in my soul, just by being with me...and somehow this renewed her own interest in life, and she took another rejuvenation and is young again and has already added another baby to the Maureen-Nancy line and is pregnant still again. You and Tamara are so much alike, Maureen; she's just love with some skin around it- and so are you. But-" Lazarus paused and frowned.

"Maureen, I don't know how to convince you that I'm telling the truth. You'll know it when Woodie's sixth birthday comes around and they blow every whistle and ring every bell and the newsboys shout: 'Extra! Extra! Germany surrenders!' But that'll be too late to help you. I want to stop your worries now!"

"I've stopped worrying, dear one. It sounds wonderful and impossible...and I believe you."

"Do you? I've offered no proof; I've told you a tale impossible on the face of it."

"Nevertheless, I believe it. When Woodrow is six on the seventh of November-"

"No, the eleventh!"

"Yes, Lazarus. But how did you know that his birthday is the eleventh?"

"Why, you told me yourself."

"Dear, I said be was born in November; I did not say what day. Then I deliberately misstated it-and you corrected me at once."

"Well, maybe Ira told me. Or one of the children. Most likely Woodie himself."

"Woodrow does not know the date of his birthday. Wake him and ask him."

"I'd rather not wake him until we get home."

"What is my birthday, dear one?"

"The Fourth of July, 1882."

"What is Marie's birthday?"

"I think she is nine. I don't know the date."

"The other children?"

"I'm not sure."

"My father's birthday?"

"Maureen, is there some point to this? August second, 1852."

"Beloved Lazarus who calls himself 'Theodore,' I have a firm rule with my children. I keep each one from knowing the date of his birth as long as possible so that he won't advertise it and thereby blackmail people for presents. When one is old -enough for school and needs to know the date, he is old enough to be told why, and I make it bluntly plain that if he drops hints ahead of time-no birthday cake, no birthday party. I haven't had to use that penalty; they are all intelligent.

"Last year Woodrow was too young for it to be a problem; his birthday came as a surprise to him. He still does not know the exact date-so I strongly believe. Lazarus, you know the birthdays of your direct ancestors...because you looked them up in the Foundation records. Since you can't tell me the birthdays of my other children, I assume that I've found that proof."

"You know I have had access to the records. I could have looked up any birthday last year."

"Pooh. Why did you bother with the birth date of one child and skip the other seven? How would you know my father's birthday if he had not been of special interest to you? It won't wash, Beloved. You intended to seek out your ancestors and you came prepared for it. I no longer think that you showed up at our church by accident; you went there to find me- and I'm flattered. You probably did the same with Father- at his pool-hall 'chess club.' How did you do it? Private detectives? I doubt that our church or that pool hall can be looked up in the Foundation records."

"Something like that. Yes, gentle ancestress, I looked for an acceptable way to meet you. I would have spent years on it had it been necessary...because I couldn't twist your doorbell and say, 'Hi there! I'm descended from you. May I come in?' You would have called the police."

"I hope I would not have, darling-but thank you for finding a gentler way. Oh, Lazarus, I love you so!-and believe every word and I'm no longer worried -about Brian; I know he'll come back to me! Uh...I'm feeling very brazen again and more passionate than ever and I want to know something. About your family."

"I'm delighted to talk about them. I love them."

"I was most flattered to be compared with your wife Tamara. Darling, you don't have to tell me this: Does it ever happen that two husbands sleep with one wife?"

"Oh, certainly. But it's more likely to be one husband-Galahad-another of your descendants, Grandmother-Galahad and two of our wives; Galahad is the original tireless tomcat."

"That sounds like fun, but it's the other combination that intrigued me. Beloved, my idea of heaven would be to take both you and Brian to bed at once-and do my best to make you both happy. Not that I ever can. But I can dream about it...and will."

"Why not out in the woods and strip down for both of us, just to your 'French postcard' costume? As long as you're dreaming."

"Ooooh! Yes, I'll put that into my dream-and now I'm about to go off like a firecracker!"

"I'd better take you home."

"I think you had better. I'm terribly happy and quite unworried-and will stay so-and very passionate. For you. For Brian. For being a French postcard in the woods. In daylight."

"Maureen, if you can sell the idea to Brian...well, I'll be around until the second of August, l926."

"Well...we'll see. I want to!" She added, "Am I permitted to tell him? Who you are and where you're from-the future-and your prediction that he won't be hurt?"

"Maureen, tell anyone you wish. But you won't be believed."

She sighed. I suppose so. Besides, if Brian did believe it and thereby believed that he had a charmed life-it might make him careless. I'm proud that he is going to fight for us but I don't want him to take unnecessary risks."

"I think you're right, Maureen."

"Theodore...my mind has been so busy with all these strange things that I missed something. Now that I know who you are- This isn't your country, and it's not your war-so why did you volunteer?"

Lazarus hesitated, then told the truth: "I wanted you to be proud of me."

"Oh!"

"No, I don't belong here and it's not my war. But it's your war, Maureen. Others are fighting for other reasons-I'll be fighting for Maureen. Not 'to make the world safe for democracy-this war won't accomplish that, even though the Allies are going to win. For Maureen."

"Oh! Oh! I'm crying again-I can't help it."

"Stop it at once."

"Yes, my warrior. Lazarus? You will come back? You must have some way to know."

"Huh? Dear, don't worry about me. People have tried to kill me in all sorts of ways-I've outlived them all. I'm the wary old cat who always has a tree within reach."

"You didn't answer me."

He sighed. "Maureen, I know Brian will come home; it's in the Foundation's records. He will live to a ripe old age and don't ask how long as I won't answer. And so will you, and I won't answer that either; it is not good to know too much about the future. But me? I can't know my future. It is not in the records. How could it be? I haven't finished it yet. But I can tell you this: This is not my first war, but about the fifteenth. They didn't get me in the others, and they'll have to move fast to kill me in this one. Beloved, I am your warrior-but to kill Hun for you, not for them to kill me. I'll do my duty, but I'm not going to try some crazy stunt to win a medal- not old Lazarus."

"Then you don't know."

"No, I don't. But I promise you this: I won't stick my head up when I don't need to. I won't go into a German dugout without tossing a grenade in ahead of me. I won't assume that a German is dead because he appears to be-I'll make sure he's dead; I don't mind wasting a bullet on a corpse. Especially one who is playing 'possum. I'm an old soldier, and that's how one gets to be an old soldier-by being a pessimist. I know all the tricks. Darling, having quieted your worries about Brian, it would be silly to get you worried about me. Don't!"

She sighed. "I'll try not to. If you turn down this street, we can pick up Prospect, then across Linwood to Benton."

"I'll get you home. Let's talk about love, not war. Our girl Nancy-Is the Foundation now using a pregnancy rule? For first marriages?"