A Conversation with Cronici

The Glider captain released Vilinitiz into the custody of one of the burgesses of the town, Cronici Threespar. Cronici had gray hair, crows feet at the corners of his eyes, and a slight stoop. He was perhaps a head shorter than Vilinitiz. His wife, Vimini, was a little more than half Vilinitiz's size - short for a glider, but not unusually so. Both had reached the age where they had dropped their wings for the final time. They all sat down at the Threespar's house to a simple dinner of jerked meat and berries on plain pewter plates.

Vilinitiz and the gliders had a conversation, in which it was obvious that both he and his hosts were politely trying to draw information out of each other while volunteering as little as they could in return. Vilinitiz declared that he had come from the Eveningland (to use Cronici's term for "west"), but was a sort of travelling salesman, who sold "services". The Threespars told Vilinitiz that they would be his caretakers while he was in the town. They informed him that, of course, he was being watched by the town patrol, but if he let everyone know what he was going to do in advance then there should be no trouble.

A Burgess apparently had more responsibilities than a citizen. All Gliders became citizens after the last wing drop around the age of fifty- six. Gliders who had distinguished themselves in some way could be nominated by the citizens as Burgesses, who did much of the civic work. Apparently there was a physiological phenomenon called the "second spring" that Gliders underwent shortly after their last wing drop - a burst of energy that would last anywhere from four to ten years, before they resumed aging. Vilinitiz noticed that there were only a few Gliders older than forty years at White River. It had been about thirty years since the war, and so Gliders of Cronici's age were rare.

The Threespars invited Vilinitiz to a night of entertainment that was held once a week. One of Cronici's duties as Burgess was to serve as a censor for the town's entertainment. Cronici talked at length about how a good censor never went too far. It paid to talk to the author and suggest the problems and let the author re-write the story. Cronici was known as a fairly "loose" censor, as he liked good comedy, and would let material that was "in the foothills," as he like to call it, pass if it was well done.

1. Vilinitiz and the Threespars go to a play.

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