"A girl!" I hooted. "You have any idea of some of the places I have to
go to get stories?"
"Yes. I have always deplored the necessity. But a great many of them
have been closed lately, and the rest are being run in a much more
seemly manner. And she wouldn't be the only reporter. I hesitate to
give you any better opinion of yourself than you have already, but it
would take at least three people to do the work you've been doing.
When you get back from Terra, you'll find the _Times_ will have a very
respectable reportorial staff."
"What'll I be, then?" I wondered.
"Editor," Dad told me. "I'll retire and go into politics full time.
And if Fenris is going to develop the way I believe it will, the
editor of the _Times_ will need a much better education than I have."
I kept on eating, to give myself an excuse for silence. He was right,
I knew that. But college on Terra; why, that would be at least four
years, maybe five, and then a year for the round trip....
"Walt, this doesn't have to be settled right away," Dad said. "You
won't be going on the _Simon Bolivar_, along with Ravick and Belsher.
And that reminds me. Have you talked to Bish lately? He'd be hurt if
you didn't see him before he left."
* * * * *
The truth was, I'd been avoiding Bish, and not just because I knew how
busy he was. My face felt like a tallow-wax fire every time I thought
of how I'd been trying to reform him, and I didn't quite know what I'd
be able to say to him if I met him again.
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