4
As he walked out the door, he saw, coming in the gate, the rest of theclan returning from work. The children were rushing to meet them,whooping their greetings. The whole scene was one of happy chaos. Out infront was Paul, his round, cherubic face beaming with delight. He bentdown to whisper something in little Randy's ear which sent that boy offshrieking with delight. Behind him was Sam, Polly, and Herb.
Sam's face was dark and his eyes deepset. Generally, he looked sullenand dour. But those who knew him, could also see the twinkle in his eyeand knew that he had a subtle and penetrating sense of humor. The kidsliked him, and both Alice and Ken, aged five and six, were crowdingaround him now while he gravely asked them something.
Polly, beside him, was peering around delightedly, sparkling with thegeneral excitement. Her eyes were darting all around looking, Tom knew,not for any one thing or person, but simply to absorb it all.
On Polly's other side was Herb. The mechanic of the crowd, he had aneager interest that was somewhat boyish. His happiest moments were spentunder the car or bus with his face all smeared with grease. With people,he lacked the touch that he had with machines. There was an awkwardness,almost an uncouthness, that would have been tragic, Tom thought,anywhere but in the haven of a clan.
Behind them, Joan walked with Mike. Her face was still earnest andintense, and Tom thought that she was probably expounding some theory ofthe art. He felt sorry for Mike, but, then, Mike was a chap that invitedthat sort of thing. He seemed to be chronically unable to express adisinterest in anything and, as a consequence, was the one on which mostof them poured out their troubles and their ideas. But, then, perhaps hewas interested. Maybe he was interested in the people even when he wasnot in the ideas.
Finally, there came Esther and Pete. Esther was the feminine organizerof the clan. She it was that planned the details of what should happenwhen, and who should do what. The others were just as glad to leavethese matters to her. She had a passion for fairness that made themtrust her distribution of the chores. And she had the will to get thingsorganized, the wish to see things settled long in advance. Tom saw shewas talking earnestly to Pete; he wondered what project she was workingon.
Pete was the philosopher of the clan. With a somewhat pixyish mind, hewas afraid of no thoughts, and took nothing at all for granted. As towhether he was a really deep thinker, or just one who liked to play withlogic and semantics, Tom did not know. Perhaps it was too soon to tell.Philosophers are not made at the age of twenty-five, but only when theyhave lived their lives, and are ready to profit fully by its experience.At the moment, Tom saw, he was looking rather bored by Esther, andseemed to welcome the onrushing crowd of kids.
Tom looked at them all. Whom should he talk to? he wondered. Or shouldhe talk to any of them? There was no longer in him the same drive aboutthe problem. In some way he did not yet understand, his talks with Sandyand with Betsy had boiled off some of the urgency. And yet, the problemstill was urgent. Ricky still meant to bring it up at caucus, and Tomstill had to know what his own response would be. It was with somethingof a shock that he realized that he did not know--but the fact was thathe did not. And he did not even know why he was uncertain. The problemhad seemed so clear when Ricky had first mentioned it; but now, now itwas not clear at all.
Tom waited until they all had washed off the dust of the road and combedtheir hair and changed their dresses. In the meantime, he mixed themcocktails ready for their return. And when they had once more assembled,he let them trade around the items of the day's news. It was not untilhe saw Pete wander off to gaze out the window at the gathering sunsetthat he made any move.
When he saw that Pete was alone, he went over to stand beside him. "Whatdo you know, Pete," he said.
Pete turned to face him. "Hi, Tom. You look puzzled tonight. Not yourusual fatherly self. What's up?"
Tom shrugged. "It's this Marcia business that's bothering me," he said."Ricky's going to caucus it tonight, and I been trying to figure itout."
"What's his rush?" Pete asked. "Or is Ricky just being impetuous?"
"No," Tom said. "There's a reason for it. Graves has got to make hisarrangements soon, so he's been putting the pressure on for us to decidequick. If we don't decide tonight, we are apt to be left out."
"Oh?" Pete's voice was noncommittal.
"What do you think of it?" Tom asked. "Should we take her in or not?"
"Well, I don't know," Pete stalled. "The reasons why we should arepretty obvious. It will solve some of our worries if we do. What are thereasons why we shouldn't?"
"I don't know," Tom said. "It just seems wrong to me. Seems like we'd begiving up too much of our ... well, our ideals. Maybe I'm being oldfashioned, but it just seems immoral to me, somehow."
Pete leaned against the window frame. "You mean it's like marrying awoman for her money? Sort of gigolo-like?"
Tom nodded. "Yes, I guess that's it," he said. "I suppose what'sbothering me is that the idea of the clan is to make the family the samething as the economic unit; but this seems like it's being too damneconomic about it, too mercenary. It just doesn't seem right."
Pete said nothing for a long moment while he meditated. "Well, that'sone way of looking at it," he said, finally. "But on the other hand,maybe you got to stop and think this thing through. Why is it bad tomarry a woman for her money? It occurs to me that a monogamisticmarriage of that sort is bad--and I think it probably _is_ bad--becauseit inevitably leads to living a lie. You got to fool the woman, becauseotherwise she doesn't get anything out of the marriage. If the marriageis to mean anything, both the man and the woman have got to get out ofit some sense of belonging; that's what the marriage is for. Now the manmay get the belonging, the security, from the money. But the wife--shecan't get anything out of it unless he can fool her. She's already gotthe money, so that doesn't mean anything to her; and she's got what themoney can buy.
"Unless he can fool her into thinking that he really loves her forherself alone, she doesn't get anything at all out of it. So, he's gotto fool her. And the worst of it is that, if he doesn't succeed, she'llwalk out on him with her money; then he'll lose what he's after, too--sohe's got good reason for being afraid. The situation is necessarilyunstable; it's almost bound to lead to grief of one kind or another. So,that kind of a marriage is bad."
"Why's this any different?" Tom asked.
"For one thing, because we can't live a lie," Pete said. "Living a lieof that sort requires great concentration and continuous effort. Withthe clan, no one person can concentrate on any one other. The lie, if itever got started, would be a very short-lived one; and I don't think itwould ever get started. Not only is it pretty obvious when a new girl isadded to a clan, that we can't all be so desperately in love with her;it isn't necessary. A person joins the clan. She's getting a new way oflife, and a whole new group of friends. Until she's been in the clan awhile, these are not more than friends; it takes time really tointegrate a person into a clan. But, at least they are friends--peoplewho will help you to stand against the world.
"So she does get something out of the clan. She gets a sense ofbelonging, and it doesn't depend on any one person but on thegroup-structure of the clan. The clan is there to belong to, regardlessof any one individual. But with a monogamistic marriage, the structureis lost when either person pulls out. So this thing means that, in thefirst place, the clan can't live a lie, and, in the second, that thereis no need for the lie, anyway. Finally, this means that the situationis quite different from a monogamistic marriage for money. Even if, bychance, the thing is unstable, there is still no reason for fear."
"You think this thing's all right, then?" Tom asked.
"Didn't say that," Pete smiled. "I don't think it's particularlyimmoral, but that doesn't say it's all right; I don't know. I haven'treally thought it out. But what I am saying is that you can't just takeover the old ethics into the clan. We got to create a new code and wegot to start from the bottom."
"I guess you're right," Tom said. He s
tared thoughtfully out the windowfor a moment. Then he shrugged and turned away. "But it doesn't helpmuch," he added to himself as he wandered toward the dining room.