notice if you were
there or not. You're an adult, you can take care of yourself. Do you see where
I'm going with this?"

George assumed it was a rhetorical question.

"Right. What I'm thinking is, there's no reason that both of you shouldn't have
your own son. This is Pleasure Island, after all. No one should be sad on
Pleasure Island. You've worked hard and well for us for a long time here. We can
take care of you."

George felt an uncomfortable sensation in his stomach, a knot of guilt like
rising vomit.

"I thought about having another cabin built in the woods, but that's no good. I
think that you and Bill need your own space. So let me bounce my current thought
off you: we'll put you up in the new Monster's Arms, that's the hotel we're
building for HorrorZone. It's way ahead of schedule, almost finished now.
There's a penthouse suite that you can take for as long as you like. It's only
temporary, just until you and Bill have had some time to raise up your sons.
Then, we'll get the whole family together back at the cabin."

The guilt rose higher, choking George.

"Don't worry about eating, either. I've briefed the house chef on your tastes,
and he'll send up three squares every day; everything a growing boy needs." He
flashed a grin.

"And forget about Bill. I'll smooth things over with him. He'll see that it's
for the best."

Finally, George had something to say. "What about Joe?"

Orville had been almost dancing as he spoke, enchanted with his own words. He
pulled up short when George spoke. "What about him?"

"I want to live with him again," George said.

"He's gone, you know that." Orville pointed his fingers alongside his ears.
"Hee-haw, hee-haw. The monthly ferry will take him to the mainland tomorrow."

"I don't care about that," George said. "I want him there."

Orville said, "I don't think that's such a good idea, George. You're going away
to concentrate on _you_ -- Joe's a handful, even now. I don't want you
distracted."

George said, "I want Joe."

Orville stared at him. George set his face into a blank mask. Finally, Orville
said, "If that's what you want, that's what you'll get."

#

George didn't have anything to fetch from the cabin, and Orville thought it
would be best if he spoke to Bill alone, so he sent George to the stables to get
Joe.

The donkey stables were beyond Ops, at the very edge of the island, opposite the
docks where the ferries brought new boys in. A different ki