Chapter 6
Roy finished an outline of his plan to assimilate her into his time. He fixed them a sandwich for lunch and had to teach her to eat a sandwich! She made several snide comments to the effect that eating food was very inefficient and wasteful. He was amazed that in her time people existed on pills she called nutrition capsules and he didn't even want to think about what they contained. They seemed to have a pill for everything.
After they had finished eating, he started to question her about how the women of her time took care of the everyday tasks such as hygiene, sleep, drinking water and everything that women in his time did. He found that when he explained to her how the people of today took showers or baths she told him that his way was very wasteful of water. In her time it only took about 15 seconds of water use to complete the daily hygiene regimen.
Drinking water was provided to each person in a monthly allotment. If a person used their allotment before the end of the month, they had to go to the water commission for re-education and an emergency allotment. After the second time, the person would only receive half of the daily allotment. She had never heard of anyone going back for a 1/3rd time. She told him that water usage on her space capsule was even more strictly controlled. There was impossible for her to overuse her water ration, as it was not available to her except at the scheduled time.
Hunger, anxiety, fear, and happiness could be adjusted or even eliminated by the proper pills. Most of the body's functions were checked in the home upon awakening and the computer would dispense the pill to adjust or correct the function that was deemed improper or malfunctioning.
He finally had to stop her. He couldn't stand it any more. What a horrible way to live!
"Thea, I think that with a couple of weeks intensive work we can prepare you to function in my world. I know we're backward when it comes to technology, but I think there are a lot of things about my world that are better. It would be like me going back to the 1400's and trying to get along. It would be rough but I could do it. I think that I could con the people of the 1400's into believing that I came from the 1400's. The main thing you'll have to realize is that you can't keep telling people that you know a better way and what they are doing is so backward. Remember, no giant leaps in technology. It's going to be hard for you. You'll just have to grit your teeth and put up with it."
She nodded, "But how do you travel? I haven't seen any sky transporters since I came to this backward place."
"We get around by cars, buses, airplanes and trains. We'll go over that later. That's my car outside."
She snickered, "Does it still run?"
"What do you mean does it still run? That's a 2003 Lincoln Navigator. It runs very well."
She could see that he was upset, "I'm sorry. On earth, people travel by sky transporters. We haven't had roads for 300 years. I remember that those automobiles had to be replaced because they polluted so much."
He snorted, "On earth? You are on earth remember?"
She got up and stomped into the living room and sat down in front of the television. Every so often she would change the channel. She found out how to increase the volume and ran it up to a level that was uncomfortable.
He went out on the porch and sat down in the rocker. This was a real mess. He knew that they both had to be careful or the government would pick her up and try to glean every bit of information that they could from her. Then they would use the knowledge for "changing the world for the better." It's amazing how petty government workers knew what was good for the world and the common people didn't.
It dawned on him that he was downing government workers and he was one of them. He was not ashamed that he worked for the government. He had done his job and had made a lot of contributions to the weapons programs that he had worked on. He knew of many that didn't. Many figured that their main job was to protect their job at all costs. Often a job grew way past what it was originally intended to be. The more professional ones finagled the job to where they became so entrenched that no one knew what their tasks really were or if the job was really needed. Often the main task of a government worker was generating paper to prove to the world that they were needed.
Many times Congress would pass a bill and the bill would be a few pages long and could be incorporated into a department that was already in existence and could use existing workers. Then the beaurocrats got hold of the bill, they would study it with a new committee. The committee would recommend that a new agency be created. The cabinet head would realize that by creating an agency, he could have a lot of jobs staffed with grateful people that would be loyal to him should he ever aspire to higher office. Eventually a new agency would be created to administer the bill and it would employ thousands of new government workers. These workers would create regulations to make sure that the intent of the bill was carried out. Usually, the regulations far exceeded what the Congressional bill intended. The problem was that the regulations became law and people went to jail because they ran afoul of the regulations.
Roy knew that he had better stop thinking about the government. He always got mad when he dwelled on it too long. If the public only knew...
He walked back into the house and saw that she was watching a soap opera. The man and woman had fallen into each other's arms and were passionately kissing.
She turned to him, "What are they doing? Is he trying to steal her food? I didn't see her put any food into her mouth. Why would he try to steal her food?"
It took him a while to figure out what she was saying. He explained to her that they were kissing. That it was a form of affection and men and women quite often kissed to show affection and that even friends and relatives did it.
"Will you show me how this kissing works?"
He went through the mechanics of kissing, telling her how the man and woman would sometimes use their tongue while kissing. He explained why friends and relatives sometimes kissed and how their kiss was different than lover's kisses. He leaned over her chair and kissed her softly; trying to make it the best kiss he had ever given a girl.
After they had kissed she looked at him, "That was not unpleasant, but so unnecessary. All you had to do is tell me that you had affection for me and we could have continued with our work or whatever else we were doing."
She continued watching the television. The actors who had been kissing went into the bedroom. The actress started to unbutton her blouse; looking at the actor suggestively. The commercial came on and after 5 commercials the bedroom scene continued. The actor and actress had apparently made love and were now talking.
"These are less wealthy people?" she asked.
He looked at her quizzically, "Why do you say that?"
"They both have to sleep in the same bed. They cannot afford a bed for each of them."
He walked out into the kitchen and plopped down in the chair. He knew that this was going to be a job. There was just so much that she had to learn right now and it was going to be hard. Many things, such as kissing, the people of our time have grown up with. How could he teach this woman what she needed to know in such a short time?
Roy decided that she needed much more indoctrination before he could take her into town to see how she would act. He spent all day and all evening coaching her on what his world was like. She fought him every step of the way. Everything him showed her or told her, she had a better way in her world and she would straighten out these backward people. By the evening of the third day he was starting to get through to her. He felt that she was finally starting to realize that she was never going to go back to her time.
He fixed soup and a salad for dinner and attempted to study with her some more. She picked at the soup and started to accuse him of fixing soup just so he could get a little extra water. She started a litany about how precious water had to be conserved, as the potable water on earth was being wasted.
They ate dinner and watched a little television. He turned on the ice hockey game and she got up and walked into the small bedroom she had been sleeping in. As she walked into the bedroom he smiled.
"I guess nothing has changed in that regard. Women still don't
understand sports," he mused.