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"I'll let you know when that happens. I'll enroll in your class."
"We make each other think better," he said. "Together, we're smarter. And when you consider how incredibly bright we both are apart, it's downright scary to combine us."
"Intellectual nuclear fusion," she said, mocking the idea.
Only it wasn't mockery, was it? It was quite possibly true.
"Of course, our relationship is grossly unbalanced," said John Paul.
"In what way?" she asked, suspecting that he would find some clever way of saying that he was smarter or more creative.
"Because I'm in love with you," said John Paul, "and you still think I'm an
annoying student."
She knew what she ought to feel. She ought to find his attentions touching and sweet. She also knew what she ought to do. She should immediately tell him that while she was flattered by his feelings, they would never lead to anything because she didn't have those feelings toward him and never would.
Only she didn't know that. Not for sure. There was something breathtaking about his declaring himself like this.
"We only met today," she said.
"And what I feel is only the first stirring of love," he said. "If you treat me like a hairball, then of course I'll get over it. But I don't want to get over it. I want to keep getting to know you better and better, so I can love you more and more. I think you're a match for me, and more than a match. Where else am I ever going to find a woman who just might be smarter than I am?"
"Since when is that what a man is looking for?"
"Only stupid men trying to seem smart need to be with dumb women. Only weak men trying to look strong are attracted to compliant women. Surely there's something about that in Human Community."
"So you saw me this morning and--"
"I heard you this morning, I talked with you, you made me think, I made you think, and it was electric. It was just as electric a moment ago as we sat here trying to outguess the Hegemony. I think they ought to be scared to death, having the two of us sitting here together plotting against them."
"Is that what we were doing?"
"We both hate them," said John Paul.
"I don't know that I do," said Theresa. "My father does. But I'm not my father."
"You hate the Hegemony because it isn't what it pretends to be," said John Paul. "If it were really a government of the whole human race, with a commitment to democracy and fairness and growth and freedom, then neither of us would oppose it. Instead it's merely a temporary alliance which leaves a lot of evil governments intact underneath its umbrella. And now that we know that those governments are manipulating things to try to make sure the Hegemony never becomes the thing we want it to be, then what are two brilliant kids like us to do, except plot to overthrow the present Hegemony and put something better in its place?"
"I'm not interested in politics."
"You live and breathe politics," said John Paul. "You just call it 'community studies' and pretend you're only interested in observing and understanding. But someday you'll have children and they'll live in this world and you already care very much what kind of world they live in."
She didn't like this at all. "What makes you think I intend ever to have children?"
He just chuckled.
"I'm certainly not going to have them," she said, "in order to flout the population laws."
"Come on," said John Paul. "I've already read the textbook. It's one of the basic principles of community studies. Even people who think they don't want to reproduce still make most of their decisions as if they were active reproducers."
"With exceptions."
"Pathological ones," said John Paul. "You're healthy."
"Are all Polish men as arrogant and intrusive and rude as you?"
"Few measure up to my standards, but most try."
