Chapter 6

I noticed that Weena was wearing pads above and below in the morning. "Take extras, just in case," I said as I went downstairs to start coffee.

Mona was still amused by Kevin's "clever letter," she said. I had stopped in on my way to Scitech, as I wanted to take a box of beetles and a "kit" with me. If I got a group of older kids, I wanted to talk about collecting.

I got another primary class in the morning, but I was scheduled for a group of 14-year-olds after lunch. I'd see what I could do as a proselytiser.

The primaries were the same as the group on Tuesday. Nearly the same questions. At lunch I made a point of sitting opposite Angela. "I told Weena that I'd met you. You will phone, won't you?"

I got a weak smile. "Tomorrow evening or Saturday."

"I've met a couple other College girls," I said.

"Who?"

"Someone very loud named Gert..." Her laugh startled the lunchroom. " ... and Alicia and — uh — Cameron."

"Etta Candy and two movie stars."

"Well, not quite. Gert is married to an insurance agent. Alicia is married to a banker; Cam is certainly the 'star' type. I got introduced to a few other old girls, but I don't recall their names."

"What did you think of Gert?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Cheap. Over made up; under dressed."

"You win. Tell Weena I'll call. I've gotta run."

"Will do."

The 'older' group was a delight. One girl wanted to know what the chemical composition of chitin was. One boy wanted to know which elements of the rhinoceros beetle were 'real' and which were secondary sexual characters.

I spent a few minutes on polysaccharides and the N-Acetylglucosamine units that repeat to form long chains in beta-1,4 linkage and then said that as far as I knew the only use the beetle had for his horns and spines was sexual, much like the larger feathers of the peacock compared with the pea hen.

"Do all animals differ by sex?"

"Well, I'd say 'gender, ' but the answer is 'yes.' The trouble is that it's not always obvious as to gender. We can easily tell with mammals and most birds; but lizards and amphibians can be hard to distinguish without a serious examination. Snakes have hardly any gender differences. And many invertebrates are even more difficult. Now, who knows what it's called when the male and the female are quite different?"

"Sexual dimorphism," offered the same boy.

"Right. Now here in this box are some beetles I collected when I was a boy. Do any of you collect things?" They all did: stamps, stone, shells, pressed flowers, doll clothes, and spiders were among the items mentioned. "Well, I was in the pastoral area of Queensland. So insects were the things that fascinated me. First, beetles; then, ants. So I brought in one of my first boxes of beetles."

They were interested — curious. And I pointed at things and talked about them for about half an hour: a rhinoceros beetle, a transverse ladybug, a few scarabs, a Christmas beetle, several jewels, and my prize black-and-turquoise weevil.

When it was time for them to go, I was asked if I could come to visit their school.

"Where is it?"

"Brookton."

"Yes, I could come there, if I'm invited. Here, give this to your teacher." I gave him a business card.

"Wow. Thanks."

When I got home, Weena was already there.

"Are you OK?"

"I had my first contractions, and the girls told me to go. But I timed them and they were far apart. And then they went away."