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Doctor Crumberg and the Pursuit of HungrinessPage 4"Think
of the time you'd save! With a dispenser you could reclaim the
proportion of your life you spend cooking and take up a valid
contribution to society. There are many openings for researchers of
varied backgrounds and one such as yours would surely-"
"I enjoy cooking. And there's no nobler cause than to feed ones family, is there now, doctor?"
Crumberg
set his jaw. "We'll prosecute, you know. Open-air agriculture is
expressly forbidden by international legislation for the preservation
of Earth's atmosphere and terraforming. We'll shut you down and make
you pay for your dispenser."
"You've et at ar table," Carl
pointed out. "Bleeve that's called c'nsumption o' unsanctiton'd organic
produce. Sue us and yer sue yerself. Accomplice," he finished with a huge wink.
Ah!
How could he have been so stupid! Crumberg flushed an indignant shade
of red and struggled to his feet, snatching up his briefcase from the
floor. "Sir, since you are so stubbornly opposed to reason I feel our
business has concluded for the present."
"I disagree," said Jacinta. All eyes turned to her. "It is you
who has refused to see reason here, doctor, and it is for this reason
that our business has not concluded for the present. If you will not
conclude the discussion you have brought into our home then I will
ensure it is taken with you back to yours."
"I'm sorry? I'm afraid I don't understand..."
"I
am coming with you. This matter must be resolved. It is a simple matter
and I have faith, doctor, that it is not beyond your capacity."
They
stared at each other for a long moment. Carl and Rose shared a glance
too, communicating much more than the steely, unyielding
confrontational glare match going on between their daughter and
visitor. Yes, their glance
agreed, it was alright for her to go with him. He was not the type to
try anything untoward, and Jacinta was certainly not the type to let
him. It was very likely that the bullheaded doctor would give up his
pursuit of enforcing the will of his organisation on small town
homesteads once he realised the full scope of Jacinta's dedication to
the principle. Let her have a couple of days in Geneva City: God knew
she could do with the perspective it would give.
"Preposterous," said the doctor. "And quite impossible."
"On
the contrary, sir. Quite possible and entirely expected. Surely you
didn't think you could come here, pick a fight and run away? Now who's
the monster?"
Crumberg was shocked. He looked to Rose,
then Carl for support. He found none. In their set expressions he saw
their daughter's decision reinforced with steel. He wondered what would
happen if he tried to pull a fast one. Probably not worth thinking
about. Still, there was an opportunity to be had...
"Very well. I am relieved that you are taking this seriously. Do you speak on behalf of your family?"
Carl nodded.
"Excellent.
Well then let's leave now and I'll take you on a tour of WOSF.
Honestly, once you understand who we are and what we do you'll come
around right away I'm sure. If you need to bring anything I'll wait
here while you fetch it," Crumberg added, graciously. Jacinta and Rose
departed, to pack and consult. It occurred to Crumberg that he now sat
in the room with a man whose daughter he was about to take away from
the family to his own care for an unspecified period. The gravity of it
sank in like a handmade shoe in mud. He wriggled uncomfortably.
Carl's
merciless stare said more than words could have. There was no need for
anything else. Jacinta was his daughter, that stare said, and if
anything, anything untoward
were to happen to her Crumberg would answer to Carl. It was not a
pleasant thought, and he made a note to take extra special care of
Jacinta for the duration of her, well, argument. Perhaps, he mused, if
she proved herself not to be entirely impossible he'd offer her a job
as his aide. Surely she couldn't be worse than the young fellow who
currently held that position, and getting her to work for WOSF might be
a subtle way of reversing the dirty trick her parents had played on him
by getting him to eat that bowl of stew.
After an eternity
of awkwardness Jacinta emerged from the dark hallway with a bulging
suitcase in tow. Crumberg balked at the size of it, although in his
experience women were liable to do what they wanted with their own
things including bringing them everywhere they went. It was not as if
his jetcar didn't have space for it.
They left without
much fanfare, the stoic country folk apparently having little interest
in extended goodbyes. Carl kept his eyes fixed on Crumberg the whole
time and it was a great relief when the gull wing door finally came
down and sealed him back into familiar, high tech reality.
The
car lurched off, even more heavily than usual due to the bumpy country
ground giving a less even launch surface than the smooth Genevan
plascrete roads it usually launched from.
"Funny," he said.
"What?"
asked Jacinta. She was eagerly taking in the details of the vehicle's
interior, and had discovered how to work the infopad in the back seat.
"Normally
take-off makes me sick." To his surprise not only had he not vomited
but he didn't feel even the slightest inclination to. "Probably some
quirk of the local soil."
Without taking her eyes from the
flexible touchscreen embedded on the back of Crumberg's seat, and
despite never having seen a jetcar before in her life, Jacinta replied,
"That's because of the food you just ate. Good earthgrown food
stays down."
As the car whisked them high into the
atmosphere, homebound for Geneva City, Dr. Crumberg conceded quietly to
himself that maybe these backward yokels had a point after all.
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