Chapter 9
On the drive into town he instructed her how to act and what to be wary of. He told her to speak only if spoken to and to make no references to her life in the future or the fact that she thought that Roy's time period was so backward.
She laughed that he had to operate the car all of the time. She told him that they just told the sky transporters where they wanted to go and it would take them there. She was also amazed that he made it all of the way to town without breaking down. Her history books had said that the cars of this time period were very unreliable and needed to be constantly refueled.
The town was a small place of only 50,000 people. There were the usual shops on the main street and fast food places outside of town. Recently a new shopping center had been built out side of town and he told her that they had best pick up some clothes for her while they were in town. All she had was the one set of clothes that his old girl friend had left at the house. He had stopped at a shoe store not far from the cabin and got her a pair of shoes to wear.
He took her hand and they walked down the street arm in arm. They stopped at every store and looked at the merchandise in the window. She was fascinated with the stores. She told him that everyone in her time got everything that they needed to live on when they started their professions. They used no money and you weren't allowed to give away or trade any of your goods. He watched her and was pleased that she was following his instructions very well. She investigated everything but make no comments about how things were done in her time. As they passed the bank, he felt her tense.
"What's wrong?"
She looked away from the direction that she had been looking and pretended to be interested in another store window.
"There's a dark person over there. How did he get to your country?"
Roy laughed, "You'll see a lot of them. Maybe since the MDD won't ever be invented we just might find a way for the races to co-exist. By the way, we call them blacks or African-Americans."
That was the last incident until they passed a Chinese restaurant. He felt her tense and he stopped and took her into the restaurant. A young oriental girl seated them and Thea clung to his arm. After the girl took their drink order and left the menus, she turned toward the kitchen after stopping at another table.
"I have never even seen pictures of the yellow people. I expected them to be really yellow. Our history books tell us that they are a violent people."
"Remember what I told you about your leaders. That fact was probably because they had some motive for putting down Orientals."
When it came time to order, he ordered for them, as he was sure that she would have no idea what she was ordering. She ate the dinner and seemed to enjoy it. After they had finished he ordered another cup of tea so that they could sit and talk for a while. Since no one was sitting near them, he did not have to watch his words unless he talked really loud.
"How do you like to eat our food? Isn't it better than the nutrition pills?"
"Yes, I did not know that food tastes good. There are so many different tastes. I can see why people become fat. It is possible to eat for enjoyment instead of refueling the body. I don't miss the nutrition capsules."
He made a motion with his hand to quiet her as the waitress came to him with the check. After the waitress dropped the check on the table they continued to talk for a while.
"We're going to have to buy you some clothes. You just can't keep wearing the same set that you have on. What I would suggest is that we stop by J. C. Penny at the mall and pick up a catalog. That way you can get an idea of what the women of today wear. I'm sure that the clothes of today are a lot different than what you are used to.
They went to the mall and walked and window-shopped at every one of the stores. The J. C. Penny store was an anchor store at the end of the mall and they went into the store and bought a catalog. As they walked back toward the car they passed a pet shop. Thea looked at him as if the puppies playing in the window were something from outer space.
"What are those things?'
He smiled at her consternation, "They're puppies, people buy them as pets."
She looked at him strangely and he could see that she did not comprehend what a pet was. He let her watch for a while and saw that she was amused at the antics of the puppies.
"Don't your people have pets?"
"No, this is the first time that I have seen an animal other than humans. We did not have animals on the space colony that I was launched from. There are very few animals left on earth. It has caused us some problems. We found out that we needed animals too late. We have become caretakers of the earth since there are not enough animals to perform the functions that they used to provide."
She watched the puppies playing and would laugh when one of them would be knocked over backwards by another. He explained about people and pets as best as he could. She was shocked that people would touch an animal and even have one in their house.
An older man and woman had been watching her tapping on the glass to get the puppies to come over and jump up on the glass. They had a German Shepard on a leash. The dog appeared to be about 6 months old and seemed to be very well trained. They walked over and stood next to Thea.
Thea looked down when she felt the dog brush up against her leg. She looked at the dog curiously and the dog stared back at her. Thea looked at Roy as if asking what she should do.
"Is the dog friendly?" he asked the man holding the leash.
The man nodded and smiled. Roy bent down and petted the dog. He looked at Thea and asked her if she wanted to pet him. She reached down and stroked the dog's back as she had seen Roy do. The dog immediately moved closer to her and sat at her feet as she petted him. She was grinning from ear to ear. She had never touched an animal before and here this animal seemed to like her.
"Were you thinking about getting a dog?" the man asked.
"I don't know. She's never had a dog and I don't know if she could put up with the training and housebreaking."
The old woman spoke up, "We were just coming to see if the pet shop would consider selling Thor for us. I broke my hip a couple of months ago and we're going to move into a retirement community. They don't allow dogs. We don't want to sell him. We're afraid that the pet shop will sell him to just anybody. We want him to have a good home. He seems to like your wife. Would you consider giving him a good home? He's been housebroken and we've invested in a lot of training for him. He's a good watch dog and he will obey if you give an attack command."
Roy watched Thea playing with the dog. She had crouched down to talk to the dog and Thor was sitting beside her allowing her to pet him. He was being on his best behavior for her.
Roy smiled at the woman and smiled, "The dog is a conman. Look at him. He's being extra good just so he can go home with Thea."
The woman grinned and looked at her husband with a joyful look on her face.
"How much do you want for him?" Roy asked.
The woman held up her hand, "We don't want any money. We just want him to have a good home."
Roy pulled out his checkbook, "I insist. I know that you're going to need every cent you have. Tell me how much you want for the dog."
"Well, we bought him from a relative of ours. She breeds German Shepard's. We only had to pay 200 dollars for him. He has all of his shots and we brought his papers with him in case the pet shop agreed to sell him for us."
Roy asked for the woman's name. He used the glass store front as a desk and wrote a check to the woman for 500 dollars and handed it to her
"No, this is too much. We only paid 200 dollars."
"Look you bought the dog. How about all of the training? I'm sure that you have over 300 dollars invested there. I'm getting a bargain; you've done all of the hard work for me. I'm getting a handsome dog already trained and housebroken."
The old man and woman thanked him and petted Thor and tried to talk to him. The dog ignored them like he knew that he belonged to Thea now.
Roy handed them his business card after he wrote his satellite phone number on it.
"This is my phone number. You can check on Thor any time you wish. If you can't come to see him, I'll bring him to you. The number on the back is my satellite phone. That is the number you should probably use. I have a place on the lake and I might be staying here more than in town."
He got the name of the retirement community they were moving to and promised to call them and let them know how Thor was doing.
They thanked him again and walked away, looking back at Thor. Thea was still petting the dog. She was so engrossed in this new experience that she had not understood what Roy was doing when he bought the dog.
He picked up the leash and told her they had to go. He handed her the leash and started to walk out of the mall. Thea stood, holding the dog and staring at him.
He walked back to her, "Hold the dog's leash and walk with me out of the mall. I'll explain what I'm doing when we get to the car."
She started to walk with him and the dog immediately fell in step with her. He followed at her knee. He seemed to be perfectly trained.
When they got to the car, he held open the back door. The dog looked at Thea as if to wait for her Ok to get in the car. She pulled on the leash and the dog jumped in the back seat and sat in the middle of the seat as if he was waiting for his chauffer to take him where he wanted to go.
Roy and Thea got in the car, Thea turned to watch the dog and smiled when she saw how regally he sat on the seat.
"Thea, I hadn't thought about buying a dog. This dog seems to like
you already. I started to consider buying the dog when the woman told
me that it had been trained. I won't be able to be with you always, so
the dog will be able to protect you if you get in trouble. I'll show
you what I mean later. There's a Pet Smart on the way home. I'll stop
and get what we need to keep him happy."