Tuition at the College-on-the-Hill is fourteen thousand dollars, Sunday brunch included. I sense there is a connectionbetween this powerful number and the way the students arrange themselves physically in the reading areas of thelibrary. They sit on broad cushioned seats in various kinds of ungainly posture, clearly calculated to be theidentifying signs of some kinship group or secret organization. They are fetal, splayed, knock-kneed, arched,square-knotted, sometimes almost upside-down. The positions are so studied they amount to a classical mime. Thereis an element of overrefinement and inbreeding. Sometimes I feel I've wandered into a Far Eastern dream, too remoteto be interpreted. But it is only the language of economic class they are speaking, in one of its allowable outwardforms, like the convocation of station wagons at the start of the year.

　　Denise watched her mother pull the little cellophane ribbon on a bonus pack of sixteen individually wrapped units ofchewing gum. Her eyes narrowed as she turned back to the address books on the kitchen table before her. Theeleven-year-old face was an expert mask of restrained exasperation.

　　She waited a long moment, then said evenly, "That stuff causes cancer in laboratory animals in case you didn'tknow.""You wanted me to chew sugarless gum, Denise. It was your idea.""There was no warning on the pack then. They put a warning, which I would have a hard time believing you didn'tsee."She was transcribing names and phone numbers from an old book to a new one. There were no addresses. Her friendshad phone numbers only, a race of people with a seven-bit analog consciousness.

　　"I'm happy to do it either way," Babette said. "It's totally up to you. Either I chew gum with sugar and artificialcoloring or I chew sugarless and colorless gum that's harmful to rats."Steffie got off the phone. "Don't chew at all," she said. "Did you ever think of that?"Babette was breaking eggs into a wooden salad bowl. She gave me a look that wondered how the girl could talk onthe phone and listen to us at the same time. I wanted to say because she finds us interesting.

　　Babette said to the girls, "Look, either I chew gum or I smoke. If you want me to start smoking again, take away mychewing gum and my Mentho-Lyptus.""Why do you have to do one or the other?" Steffie said. "Why not do neither one?""Why not do both?" Denise said, the face carefully emptying itself of expression. "That's what you want, isn't it? Weall get to do what we want, don't we? Except if we want to go to school tomorrow we can't because they're fumigatingthe place or whatever."The phone rang; Steffie grabbed it.

　　"I'm not a criminal," Babette said. "All I want to do is chew a pathetic little tasteless chunk of gum now and then.""Well it's not that simple," Denise said.

　　"It's not a crime either. I chew about two of those little chunks a day.""Well you can't anymore.""Well I can, Denise. I want to. Chewing happens to relax me. You're making a fuss over nothing."Steffie managed to get our attention by the sheer pleading force of the look on her face. Her hand was over themouthpiece of the phone. She did not speak but only formed the words.

　　The Stovers want to come over.

　　"Parents or children?" Babette said.

　　My daughter shrugged.

　　"We don't want them," Babette said.

　　"Keep them out," Denise said.

　　What do I say?

　　"Say anything you want.""Just keep them out of here.""They're boring.""Tell them to stay home."Steffie retreated with the phone, appearing to shield it with her body, her eyes full of fear and excitement.

　　"A little gum can't possibly hurt," Babette said.

　　"I guess you're right. Never mind. Just a warning on the pack."Steffie hung up. "Just hazardous to your health," she said.

　　"Just rats," Denise said. "I guess you're right. Never mind.""Maybe she thinks they died in their sleep.""Just useless rodents, so what's the difference?""What's the difference, what's the fuss?" Steffie said.

　　"Plus I'd like to believe she chews only two pieces a day, the way she forgets things.""What do I forget?" Babette said.

　　"It's all right," Denise said. "Never mind.""What do I forget?""Go ahead and chew. Never mind the warning. I don't care."I scooped Wilder off a chair and gave him a noisy kiss on the ear and he shrank away in delight. Then I put him on thecounter and went upstairs to find Heinrich. He was in his room studying the deployment of plastic chessmen.

　　"Still playing with the fellow in prison? How's it going?""Pretty good. I think I got him cornered.""What do you know about this fellow? I've been meaning to ask.""Like who did he kill? That's the big ............