noon
I was still wondering about Murell when somebody behind me greeted me , and I turned around . It was Tom Kivelson . Tom and I are buddies , when he 's in port . He 's just a shade older than I am ; he was eighteen around noon , and my eighteenth birthday wo n't come till midnight , Fenris Standard Sundial Time . His father is Joe Kivelson , the skipper of the _ Javelin _ ; Tom is sort of junior engineer , second gunner , and about third harpooner . We went to school together , which is to say a couple of years at Professor Hartzenbosch 's , learning to read and write and put figures together . That is all the schooling anybody on Fenris gets , although Joe Kivelson sent Tom 's older sister , Linda , to school on Terra .