Been There, Done That

by Mackey Chandler

  "I’m sure we can accommodate each other," Vic insisted, and didn't make an issue of it.

  That’s what Eileen wanted to hear. “I'll share some confidential information with you just like you shared the story about the gold mining with me," Eileen offered. "On the same terms too."

  Vic just lifted an eyebrow, not sure what was coming, but nodded agreement.

  "My dad knew people connected to the Spacers. One of them was both a spy and a doctor, hired to gather local data for them. He got cut off from contact on The Day. There's no telling if he even survived. The big reason I want to go up there is that the stuff they said on the news about gene therapy, and how it makes you live longer is hokum. Aside from one brief misstep it doesn't make you crazy, and the reason long lifers got sick was because some evil person created a disease just for the purpose of attacking them. So, I know you said you didn't feel you have a place up there, but think long and hard on it, because it could easily double your life. You might want to reevaluate and come up with me," Eileen said. "You may not be a techie, but there have to be other jobs for smart people. I wouldn't argue this with just anybody, they'd think me a nut-case in a minute."

  "Well, that will certainly give us something to talk about, won't it?" Vic asked.

  "Indeed, and if you tire of it I've found I really enjoy cards," she teased. She doubted her card playing skills made the first page of her assets with him.

  "You want to announce anything to your people?" Vic asked, uncomfortable.

  "You're going to come by again between now and fall festival, aren't you?"

  "I certainly planned on it," Vic admitted. “There should be a spring gathering, though there is no date set. I’d planned on coming by sometime in the summer.”

  "Then let me work on them," Eileen said. "If we walk back in there and say we are engaged they'll have a fit, even my mom. I guarantee they'll want to know what we talked about, and I'll tell them I'm thinking of asking you to marry me. They'll have a hard time dealing with that since they expect the reverse. They may tell me you are too old for me. I won't have any trouble with that. I can debate it just fine. If they jump on you, tell them I'm not old enough yet. That will totally kill their ability to pick a fight and argue if you agree with them."

  Eileen stopped talking and frowned. She was silent for so long Vic was trying to formulate a question to politely ask what was wrong.

  “There’s something else you can do for me,” Eileen said.

  “I’ll certainly try,” Vic promised.

  “Do you have a note pad or some paper on you?”

  “Yes, and a mechanical pencil,” Vic said.

  “I want you to write down how to get to your home,” Eileen asked, “just in case I need to do that.”

  Vic wanted to tell her traveling the roads alone was too dangerous. But she’d walked across most of the state already. It seemed insulting to imply she wasn’t well aware of that.

  “I can do better. I’ll draw a map,” Vic offered and started on the task. “I’ll note several families I think would be safe to shelter with along the way.”

  “You have a gun on you don’t you?” Eileen asked.

  “Of course!” Vic said, smiling like that was funny.

  “Well, do you have a back-up pistol too?” she demanded. “One you could spare to leave with me?”

  “I’m amazed how much you have me figured out. I have a full size pistol with three magazines and a smaller framed pistol in a lighter caliber. But it only has the one magazine in it, and a handful of loose cartridges in my pocket.”

  “I can shoot the big one, but I don’t want to send you back out on the road short for your own protection,” Eileen said.

  “I have my rifle in a scabbard with my saddle and bags. I’d go to that for any serious trouble anyway. The smaller pistol would be easier to hide if you are going to carry it. I can’t imagine how you could hide either of them living so close with people day to day. Sooner or later taking a bath or changing clothes somebody is going to discover it.”

  “I’m going to hide it. I have a place and a good plastic bag in my pocket to keep it dry,” Eileen revealed. “I won’t retrieve it until I leave to come meet you, or things get so uncomfortable with the family I just have to leave.”

  “Eileen, are you being abused?” Vic worried. “Tell me if you need rescued right now. I’d take you, not to my house, folks wouldn’t support that. But I know a big family, good people, who would shelter you on my say-so until we can wed.”

  “I’m not being abused in any sense you’d mean. I am being disrespected and if they try to tell me I have to stay home and can’t come to the get-togethers with everybody else because I’d see you there, I will just walk off. They have guns and I could take one of them, but they’re a major asset of the household. They might seriously consider taking one theft, because I never had a gun pre-Day that was considered mine. I don’t want it for them, but for the road if I have to walk away.”

  “My back is to the house,” Vic said. “Is it safe to hand my pistol over and they aren’t spying out the window at us?”

  “Yeah, if you lean forward I think from down there at the house they’d just think you were taking my hand. There’s a reason I took a shorter log section to sit on. They can’t see me much, if at all, beyond you. I know my mom, if dad tried watching with the binoculars she’d give him a real hard time. She’d probably ask him if he was taking up lip reading.”

  “You planned this all out with the bag and the seating,” Vic observed.

  “I planned it out a couple weeks ago,” Eileen assured him.

  Vic leaned forward and placed the pistol and magazines into her hands. He did it smoothly and held the pose for awhile before easing back on his seat and upright, rather than seem furtive about it.

  “What’s this?” Eileen asked. There was a paper cylinder closed with tape along with the gun and magazines.

  “A roll of quarters, the real old silver ones. If you do have to walk away folks will take that over paper money. You could buy stuff with the ammo too, but it’s too precious to trade for something common like a meal,” Vic suggested.

  “Thank you,” Eileen said. “I consider all this my betrothal gift.”

  “I’ll tell them you are too young just like you suggested if they try to argue,” Vic agreed. “But I'll also tell them I'd be a fool to turn you down flat for the future," Vic said. "Let them argue with that. That’s your gun now, even if something happens we can’t marry. No adult should be without one in this post-Day world. Now, if you tell me what size you wear, I'll try to have a ring for you."

  "That's so sweet, but I have no idea. I'm still growing so much what would fit today might be tight by next fall!" Eileen said, holding her hand up to show him.

  Vic smiled and assured her that was just fine.

  * * *

  The construction of the Hringhorni didn’t have to be inferred from watching supply orders and spying on shipments. It was in the open now on the edge of controlled space ten kilometers from Home. Having to deal with Traffic Control for having materials and modules moved to the site was plenty enough trouble without trying to control all the little movements of scooters and workers tightly enough to make Home Control happy.

  This wasn’t a scooter Dave could build in his shop and fit in a lift, though sub-assemblies could be made in pressure and taken over to be fitted. The expense went up now because the build required full time security until everything was sealed up and in the final hull. The nose had a fairing for privacy that projected out from under the forward viewports to accommodate the jump drive machinery. Jeff didn’t want to give any hint about its form.

  That undoubtedly had people talking because it wasn’t an aerodynamic lander so it didn’t need a nose cone. Jeff had no idea what they might conclude he needed to hide, and when his device was installed the nose would be draped with a security tent and everything hidden from prying eyes very carefully.

  * * *

&nbs
p; After Vic’s visit there was an uneasy truce for a few weeks. There wasn’t as much light hearted chatter as before, though Eileen was neither punished nor frozen out of their conversations. It’s just, where before they brought things up about what they intended to do or take to the next gathering, now instead of saying it, they looked at her and frowned, because it just reminded them she intended to leave them, and on terms they didn’t approve.

  Like so many disapproving parents they failed to consider what sort of relationship they expected to have with her after she left, and ruined the time she had left with them to no purpose. For Eileen it left her resentful that her parents didn’t seem to remember that she had found and insisted they investigate the wrecked semi that had been the key to their survival. It had allowed them to winter over safely on the journey to get her to her grandparent’s cabin.

  The evening news had the sort of extra news they got on occasion, gossip really. The news from Nevada, was pretty much the same as the guy who flew stuff in on his light plane was saying, that Texas was expanding west into Arizona, and Utah was doing the same from the north while making Federal officials very unwelcome. To the point many were taking a hint and leaving the state. Nevada didn’t have enough people to argue with anybody. Las Vegas was pretty much a ghost town and the pilot was embarrassed to say that right now, pretty much nobody wanted to bother to take them over from any direction. They were in a sort of limbo with a lot of agencies and services simply not functional.

  That started a discussion of how long they would be in semi-isolation themselves. It looked like it might be several years before the roads were safe, open and maintained, with patrols and fuel available with any certainty. When getting to a hospital for a really severe injury wouldn’t be pointless due to the travel time and difficulty involved.

  Somehow her father found this all a reason to put off marriage. Eileen asked how long he thought would be sufficient, perhaps until she was thirty? She pointed out people had been getting married since before hospitals or gas stations or most other modern sources of safety and convenience. That they got married and walked across the continent behind wagons. That cycled everything back to the real issue.

  "He's too old for you," her father said, just as she expected. "He could die on you, or worse last just long enough to leave you children to take care of, and then die on you."

  "Young and stupid can do the same. I can name you a few who already have a reputation for reckless. As you just said, there's no EMS to call now, and they act like it doesn't matter. Vic has demonstrated he could deal with life both before and after The Day. If he croaks at least he has something to leave me besides some memories," Eileen pointed out.

  "Folks will think you're a gold digger," Jonathan warned, from down table.

  Eileen looked shocked before she remembered what that meant to his generation. Then she laughed, twice as hard because she was laughing at herself for thinking he meant the currently out of vogue term quite literally.

  "I see you're really worried about that," he said, embarrassed at her attitude.

  "Grandfather, I'm practical. I didn't see a single young fellow at the fall festival that had a lick of sense. None of them have their own land and won't unless they squat somewhere. The few who might inherit land I don't even trust to be able to keep it. Their brains are still stuck pre-Day and half of them haven't got a clue which way to turn a bolt to loosen it or how to sharpen a knife. They want to marry for sex, a cook, and somebody to wash their clothes. A servant in other words, I suspect that damn near a slave is how it will really work for some of the poor girls who don’t figure that out."

  Her grandpa didn't chastise her for swearing. He knew it for the truth.

  "The boys my age, notice I don't say men, all talk a good talk about equality. That seems to mean they don't have to display any manners. I don't really want to be treated like one of the boys. I want to be treated better."

  "Folks will think ill of you for chasing after an older man," her grandpa insisted.

  "I think you’re more worried what they will think of you or the rest of the family for not reining me in. Young love was fine when you could go to school and not face any real adult responsibilities until you got to graduate school. That's not going to hack it again for a good long while. Or do you think I should be chasing some fellow who is waiting for things to normalize so he can get his MBA like he planned and start making a good salary?

  "Who exactly would you pick for me? We're not so far out of the valley that some young guy couldn't ride up here and display some interest if he had a mind to. There's not even one of them with the gumption to do that, because they're afraid of facing you two. They're probably even afraid of facing Mom."

  Indeed, her grandmother finally spoke up. "If you have to market Eileen to get any interest, there is a sad lack of appreciation evident. I suppose next thing you'll want to be talking about dowries?"

  Neither man felt it safe to reply to that, and the sharp look Eileen's mother, Cindy, gave them didn't pass unnoticed. Feelings were running so high, and trending higher, that they dropped the topic for the evening. Eileen missed the easy banter and close feeling that was missing now, but neither was she willing to pretend she was nine years old and had no idea what she wanted from life either.

  The possibility they might be scared of her moving off, out of easy reach, and they would lose the security she represented for them as they got older, never occurred to her, and they’d never have said it aloud even if they admitted it to themselves.

  Besides hospitals and drug stores there weren’t any functioning nursing homes and pension checks didn’t get deposited to a local bank to replenish your credit card. Those things might be slow coming back too.

  Anybody male who would take the easy way of joining their household and being a very junior partner for years and years instead of making his own way wouldn’t attract her at all.

  * * *

  “Lindsey explained how her certificates work, dear. That’s really quite an interesting system. I like how they have to return it for verification so you have control of the process,” Diana said. “The application I’d apply it to is even simpler, because I don’t have to return a new certificate of authenticity, it’s for a payment system and once payment is made I’m done with that customer.”

  “You don’t have to see my bit pieces then?” Eric asked, disappointed. “Let me at least show you the video of them being made.”

  “Alright, but let’s have a bite first,” Diana said. “We were waiting on you.”

  “That’s amazing,” Diana said later, tactfully, “but I’ll be honest and hope you take it for sincere help instead of criticism, Dear. Most non-technical people are very… superficial. They like neat enclosures and controls that look like they were custom made for a machine. You could have the very best pad in the world,” she said, hefting the device on which she’d watched the video, “but if it was clunky with sharp corners, screw heads sticking out, and plain ugly colors nobody would value it. You’ll want to learn to pretty things up for when you need to make a presentation to investors. They won’t believe it’s dependable and efficient if it doesn’t look a lot more polished.”

  “Or, I can try really hard not to deal with superficial people,” Eric said, but he wasn’t arguing, he was really considering it as an easier solution that making an attractive housing.

  “Maybe that’s easier done here on Home than on Earth,” Diana allowed. “But I watched a couple of my husbands present proposals to very rich clients, and as my dear grandmother used to say, some of the richest of them didn’t have the sense God gave a goose.”

  “I don’t know much about geese,” Eric allowed, “pretty bad?”

  “Indeed. I won’t ruin your evening with depressing stories. Let’s just say that I have no trouble wrapping my head around it when April starts talking about Earth Think, and there are reasons things are such a mess down there.”

  Eric nodded. “I appreciate your in
struction.”

  Diana looked at him sharply, but he appeared to mean it.

  “I’m looking to sell lottery tickets. Do you think you could run them through your machine? Would you be interested? Or would your mom want to stop it because it’s gambling?”

  Eric took another bite of strudel and considered it.

  “If I can make a little money off it, of course I’m interested. I can’t run it through the present machine, because I have it running full time and it is barely keeping up. We really should build another one so if this breaks down we can rebuild it instead of just rushing to fix the thing that busted.

  “If you make the lottery tickets the same width and thickness I can just copy the machine. But if they’re much different it’ll take a whole new design. I might be able to make a printer and embosser that can be adjusted to different sized jobs. We probably learned enough doing this one to succeed at that.”

  “Who are we?” Diana demanded.

  “I’ve got people,” Eric said. “Employees not partners, so you don’t have to worry I might make a deal and a partner veto it.”

  “Not my worry at all, but you’re right, they’re not my concern,” Diana said.

  “As far as my mom, she doesn’t even know I make the bits. I’d love to brag on them and other stuff to her, but you see what happened with Lindsey. She might figure what’s mine is mine and what’s Eric’s is mine too. I don’t see how because Jeff wouldn’t pay it to her and I’d just stop making them anyhow, but I’m scared to see how angry she could be if she just tells me to fork it over and I refuse.”

  No wonder the kid wanted to show off his machine, Diana realized.

  “I think I have a couple tickets in my purse, just to show you what they look like.” Diana came back with it and started digging everything out on the table.

  Eric watched amazed. That changed to disbelief when the pile of things on the table grew bigger than the purse. It must work something like compressing a data file Eric decided. The key seemed to be tissue paper as a media.

  “Here they are. One was a ten buck winner, but it isn’t worth driving all the way back down the mountain for ten bucks,” Diana complained.