Tika patiently explained that the Elf-Mothers were from an even cross section of human society, and that they each continued to live the lifestyle of ...their people of origin. Thus, the territories of the wild people who hunted the surface of the region were divided as the surface of the world was. The Lakeside Zone was occupied by English speaking Tiger People, and half the zone next to it was home to Chinese speaking Tiger People, with a narrow strip of Japanese Tiger People between them. The. "We're gonna start," I said to them, "by doing exactly what each of you couples was doing last night, when I videotaped you in your rooms."Marie and I hadn't taped them, of course. We'd just watched them through peepholes we had made earlier at the motel, and then TOLD them they were on tape. We threatened to expose what they had done either to the police (in the case of the mother and her underage son) or to all of their neighbors (in the cases of the newlywed and his transsexual wife, and the. It was a very small efficiency but the rent was well within the budget for a temp agency worker, which was what my Mom and Dad thought I was doing. The apartment manager was meeting me in... I checked the time and wished the taxi driver would drive faster. Opening the envelope, I counted the tip Charlie had given me. I was very pleased with the number of crisp Benjamins I slipped into my book bag.The place I hoped to rent would be where my Mom could come to visit. No way would she believe I was. She grabbed a battery flashlight and wentdown another level to the kitchen, where,uncharacteristically, she poured herself a waterglass of wine and drank half of it in one draft. Shelighted an oil lamp, topped off the wine glass, andwent back to her bedroom. She lay there, proppedon pillows, and sipped her wine and thought aboutwhat she had seen. Why was she frightened? Onthe other hand, who wouldn't be? She checked theweather radio more of the same, winds from thenortheast at 20 to 30.