Part one of a story about a mui tsai, an indentured servant girl, in Hawaii in the early part of the 20th century.

Also some additional episodes to the novel.

Mui Tsai, Part One

“Don’t hit me any more.  I won’t forget.  Next time I’ll come straight home from school,” She tried to roll herself into a ball so that the blows landed on her back and not her arms or legs. Whack.  Yuk Fah bit her tongue; I won’t let her hear me cry she thought, even though she was only ten.

“I’ll make sure you remember this so, you won’t ever forget,” Mistress Lee said as she took aim and whipped the thin bamboo rod down on Yuk Fah’s upper arm.  Whack.  “All you servant girls are like gongs.  You must be hit to work properly.  You’re lucky the law says we have to send you to school.  We didn’t save you from famine so you could play.”  Whack.  “Now get to work.”

Yuk Fah slowly got to her feet, wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands, and glared at her mistress.   

“And don’t you dare give me that look unless you want more!”

She had cried though, when she was bought and taken from her mother two years before.   Although the money would keep her parents and two brothers from starving, at least for a while.

“Mama, Papa, please don’t send me away.“  She clung to her mother’s black trousers.

“Oh Yuk Fah, I wish we could stay together, but there is no food, no money.  We are starving.  You will be going to the Islands of the “Fragrant Mountains” with Master Lee.  There you will have food to eat, if you work diligently for his wife.”  Her mother gently pried her fingers loose.

Mr. Lee had bought fake papers stating she was the daughter of a non-existent wife in China and that, he hoped, would get her into Hawaii.  “She will be taken care of,” he said to her parents.  “As long as she works hard.”

“When she is old enough to marry, please marry her to another Punti,” her father asked.

“I will try to do it,” said Mr. Lee.  “But she is still too young to worry about that.  Now we must go.  The boat will not wait.  Say goodbye to your parents, girl.”

She hung back and he had to pull her out the door. 

“Mama, no, Mama, no – – -,” her voice trailed behind, becoming ever fainter to her family, as she was tugged along the muddy path, past the flooded paddies with another ruined harvest, away from their cottage and out of their lives.

On the steamship carrying her far from China forever, she wept for days, and would not eat.  Master Lee worried that she would sicken before they docked in Honolulu.  After all, he had gone through a lot of trouble to obtain her, spending hard-earned silver, and in Honolulu would run the risk of taking her through immigration with false documents.  He had to threaten her before she would swallow some rice and pickled vegetables.

She was seventeen now, older than when she’d arrived in Honolulu to serve the Lee family.  Therefore she was no longer beaten.  But Mistress Lee’s tongue was as sharp as a sword and she was quick to slash when displeased.

It was six-thirty on a routine morning for her as she walked to City Market on Kekaulike St.  She moved quickly, glancing neither right nor left, ignoring the thin, deeply tanned porters in soiled white undershirts and baggy pants who called out to her, as they crouched with their wooden carrying poles beside cages crammed with chickens and woven baskets heavy with vegetables, “Hey pretty miss, look over here.”  The rancid-sweet smell of rotting fruit and vegetables thrown carelessly into the street was familiar.  She stepped over and around the moldering heaps, making her way over the uneven cobblestone pavement, still wet and slippery from an earlier rain.  Stray dogs wandered among the shoppers, sniffing for scraps, and she watched carefully for their feces.  That would be hard to wash out of the slippers she had sewn for herself out of denim cloth scraps.

  Her mistress’ instructions were explicit as what vegetables and fish to buy for the family dinner.  The daikon was to be small, not old and tough, the bitter melon of medium size, fish — but only mullet or uhu.  And be sure to press the eyes to check for freshness.  If they weren’t fresh, then don’t buy; they’d do without fish.

Yuk Fah, she thought, as she neared the market.  “Jade Flower.”  What a pretty name her mother had given her.  So full of hope for a prosperous future.   That was before poor harvests forced her parents to sell her when she was eight as a mui tsai, practically a slave girl, for fifty silver dollars.  I was worth less than ten dollars for each year of age.  They wouldn’t think of selling one of my brothers. 

At seventeen she had grown into a flower.  Sleek, shiny black hair, a smooth oval face, even arcs of eyebrows above large eyes.  Tall for a woman, and slim.  Her hips had become more womanly; able to some day bear children for some man.  But how could she, a mui tsai with no family, no talent for anything except being a servant, ever find a husband?  And where was the Yuk—the precious jade, the prosperity—promised by her name? 

She was careful not to let her mistress see her stealing glances at herself in the hall mirror, since she would get a sarcastic sneer if that happened.  “What are you looking at?  Do you think you’re good looking?  You’re just a mui tsai.” 

“You looking at your eyes again?  You think they’re beautiful?  They’re so big you must be a mixed breed.”

Well, she had peeked at pictures of her Mistress as a young woman, dressed up in a formal Chinese gown, and Mistress Lee had not been as pretty as she.  And certainly wasn’t today, since she had grown pudgy with middle age.

Yuk Fah had felt Master Lee’s eyes on her recently.  Should I encourage him; get him in bed? she wondered.  That would show the Mistress!  But what if she had a baby?  Who would want to marry her then?  She would be forever a mui tsai with the Lees.  Or worse, thrown into the streets by Mistress Lee.  No, better not.  It was not worth the risk just to spite her Mistress.  Besides Master Lee was old as his wife.  Not to her taste.  Yuk Fah became careful to avoid being alone with the Master, to avoid looking directly at him.                   

At the market, she headed to her favorite vegetable stall.  A Babel of loud voices mixed in the air.  Different Chinese dialects—Punti, Hakka, Sai Yup–and Hawaiian and pidgin.  She pushed her way through the crowd, using her straw basket as a wedge.  The cement floor was still wet in places from an early washing before the market opened.  There was the smell of fresh fish from iced tubs on the end aisle mingling with that of ripe bananas from produce stalls.

A Chinese man with a receding hairline stood behind a green wooden stand piled with vegetables and he smiled when he saw her.  “Ah Yuk Fah.  You like one fresh flower in this place.  You even smell good.  What you like today?”  He was a little shorter than she.

“Good morning Mr. Wong,” she said, pleased that he had noticed.  She fingered the small wooden capsule on a black cord that she wore around her neck holding fragrant bak lan blossoms she had picked from the Lee’s garden.  “You get good daikon and small kind bitter melon?”  They used pidgin since they spoke different Chinese dialects.  She thought he was kind and friendly with a nice smile but old, certainly in his thirties.  Still, he probably provided well for his children since his vegetable stall was always busy.

“For you, daikon too tough.  But bitter melon good.  Come this morning.”

Fingering the long, wrinkled melons, she picked six that were a fresh light green, the right size, and nice and firm.  “How much?”

She handed him the coins that her mistress had given her, and put the change back into the drawstring denim pouch hanging from her waist.  Her mistress would count the coins carefully on her return.

“How your kids?” she asked.  She had seen the girl and boy helping their father when school was out during her other visits. 

“Oh my son Moses, him stay third grade, study hard.  Grace, my daughter, she real good student.  Maybe two years more, she go McKinley High School.”

“How come she no come work with you?”  Yuk Fah was surprised and a little envious.  A girl!  And her father was sending her on to more school instead of working?  The Lees had been taken her out of school as soon as she turned twelve and was no longer was required by law to go to school.

“More better she go school.  She can be teacher, nurse.  More better than sell vegetables.”

“Your daughter lucky she get father, think like that.  I hear Dr. Sun Yat-sen say in new China, women should go school too.”  Master Lee had raised money to support Dr. Sun’s revolution, but didn’t agree with him that women should be educated—at least not her, she thought.  “I see you next time, Mr. Wong.  Thank you, ah?”

“See you again soon, Yuk Fah.”

She checked through daikon at several other stands before finding the ones she needed. 

Then it was over to the tubs and trays of fish on ice.  She glanced sideways at Wai Fat, the young fish monger.  So good looking and well built.  What thick black hair.  But she’d heard from some of the other servant girls that he was a womanizer and that he liked to drink and gamble besides.  She picked the mullet up out of the ice to sniff and pressed their eyes.

“No need to do that,” said Wai Fat.  “For good looking girl like you, I only sell fresh kind fish.”  The fishmonger wrapped the two she picked in sheets of the Sun Chung Kwock Bo or New China News.  “You get time off, you come see me,” he said, voice lowered. “No just come here for fish.”   

She hurried off without replying  He had noticed her!  She was at a loss to know what to say, but flattered by his attention.   

Besides she had to get the fish home before they warmed up too much.  It was five long blocks to the Lee’s home on School St. and the sun was up and getting hotter by the minute.

To be continued

Squidzilla

“This old Godzilla movie is better than I expected, Dad”

“Considering that in 1954 special effects were a man in a rubber monster suit, miniature city buildings, and toy-sized cars.  But it’s still fun to watch, though it does also have a serious theme.  Of course the other Japanese monster movies that followed it were more for fun.”

“Yeah, we’ve come a long way since then.  Must have taken a lot of imagination to come up with the idea of a mutant dinosaur awakened by the hydrogen bomb tests and rising out of Tokyo Bay to destroy the city.”

“People were deathly afraid of atomic war in 1954, Johnny.  Especially in Japan with the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.  And Godzilla was a reaction to that fear.  And a warning.”

“Guess they were right to be afraid of nuclear weapons in Japan after they were atom bombed.  Although it did turn out that the peaceful use of atomic power could be pretty dangerous too.  I mean look at that Fukushima reactor disaster they had so many years ago that they’re still trying to deal with.”

 

“That octopus is amazing,” Dr. Kelly.  It’s figured out how to unscrew the top of the jar to get at the crab inside.”

“Octopi and their relatives the squids are among the most intelligent of animals.  Some scientists feel that they can learn by observation just like dogs and apes.  And they even use tools.”

“Who would have thought?  And they don’t even have backbones.”

But they do have very well developed nervous systems.  And huge eyes.  Down in the deepest, darkest depths where the giant ones live, they are active sight hunters.”

“Scary.”   

“Maybe it’s a good thing they have short lives.  Octopi live a few years at best.  Smaller squids live one to two.  Even the giant squids are estimated to perhaps live only five years.  If they lived longer, who knows what they might learn to do and how large they might become?” 

“I’m glad you brought us to the aquarium for the class science field trip, Dr. Kelly.  The giant ones must really grow fast to reach the size they do in such a short time.”

“Yes.  They must eat a lot of prey in order to do that.  Maybe it’s lucky that giant squids are the favorite food of sperm whales.  Keeps their numbers in check.”

“I thought that sometimes the squids won and ate the whales.”

“No, it’s pretty one-sided for the whales.”

NHK News Tokyo:  It was announced today that, after many years and enormous expenses for the clean up efforts, radiation in the countryside surrounding the site of the Fukushima Daiichi reactor disaster has now decreased to levels deemed safe enough for the construction of a memorial park.  However, to insure public safety, rules about limits on the duration of visits to the park as well as age limits for children, are still being formulated.  The actual reactor site, and area immediately adjacent, will continue to be still strictly off limits

CNN News:  Scientists at the University of Washington announced that they have discovered a gene in mice that they speculate might be what governs the life span of not only mice, but possibly all living creatures to a range specific for each species.  They state that it is still too early to say whether or not manipulation of the gene could prolong life.  The study was reported in the journal Nature and is being called the “death gene” by the media. 

JNN News Network:  Fishermen report seeing more pods of dolphin close to shore and in bays and harbors than usual.  The cause of this phenomenon is unknown.

JNN News Network:  The long line trawler Subaru Maru home ported in Shimoda was reported overdue today.  It had an experienced captain and the weather has been calm.  There has been no radio contact for two days and search drones have been dispatched to its last known position.

Perhaps it was it the radiation that leaked into the seawater off Japan.  There was no way of knowing.  A fluke.  A tiny change in the DNA.  A mutation that turned off the “death gene” in the ova of one female giant squid.   And squids lay thousands of eggs.

The blue marlin rocketed out of the dark, blue water off the Kona coast of Hawaii and skated along the surface, too big to get more than half way out of the water, shaking its head furiously before plunging back, stripping out line again.

“Look at that fish, Mr. Cox!” shouted Kawika, the captain of the charter boat.  “It’s huge!  Over a thousand pounds, I’d say.  Terrific luck for the first day of the tournament.”

Jerry Cox settled back in the fighting chair, braced for a long, hard battle, muscles straining against the pull of the giant fish.  “Yeah,” he grunted as he pumped and reeled.

“It’s coming back up,” said Matt, the deckhand.

There was a flurry of frenzied splashing and then the taut line snapped, flying back towards the ship as the severely bent rod whipped straight, vibrating.

“Damn!  Gone!”

“What the hell happened?  Did you see that?” exclaimed Kawika. 

“See what?  The damn line snapped,” said Jerry, disgusted. 

“Something big and red in all that splashing, just before we lost the fish,” said Matt.

“A shark or orca?” asked Jerry.

“Sharks and orcas aren’t red.”

The huge eyes, nearly the size of manhole covers, watched the diving sperm whale.  The squid had seen how sperm whales attacked smaller versions of itself and it knew what to do.  It decoyed the whale within range by hovering motionless, moving its tentacles to attract the whale.  As the whale opened its jaws to attack, the giant squid suddenly jetted out of the way like a matador avoiding the charge of a bull.  Its two tentacles and eight arms seized the whale and held it firmly.  This squid was far larger than what the whale was used to dining on and could not be shaken off.  The squid’s powerful beak tore at the whale’s tail flukes, disabling it so that it could not rise.  As the squid waited for the whale to drown, it warned off other squids attracted to the commotion by flashing out a display on its body and tentacles saying, “Mine.  I fight you.  Get own whale.” 

One of slightly smaller squids flashed back, “Help you catch next whale.  Eat after you?”

“Wait.  I finish, you have.  You help me next whale,” the squid replied even as it began to feed.

ABC News:  Jessica Turner was found drifting earlier today, in a disabled fifty-foot sailboat off San Diego by the Coast Guard, responding to a distress call.  Authorities said Ms Turner was in near-shock when rescued and told an incredible tale of being attacked by some kind of giant squid or octopus.  According to Ms. Turner it pulled her male companion out of the boat.  The animal seemed to stare at her before it sank, clutching the man’s body, but it did not touch her.  The creature was huge, she said.  “And those eyes,” she kept repeating, “Those horrible, gigantic eyes.”  

The Coast Guard and police are investigating what is being called “Squidzilla.”

ABC News:  As a follow up to the story we broadcast two days ago about a couple in a sailboat attacked by a giant octopus or squid, the police have cleared Jessica Turner of any involvement in the presumed death of her companion.  His name has not yet been released pending notification of his family in Hong Kong.

Sears Institute marine biologist Dr. Wilhelm Octavian gave his opinion that from the description given by Ms. Turner, the attacker was most likely a giant squid and not an octopus.  If she was correct in her estimation of the size of the creature’s eyes, he said, it would be far larger than the largest known giant squid.  Dr. Octavian stated that, although a popular subject of fiction and folklore, there have been no documented cases of unprovoked attacks on ships or people by these creatures previously.

December has more than its share of parties and dining out.  To start the month here is a story of a restaurant with some spice.  

Also I’ve added two new episodes of Stranger in the Mind:  on 9/17 Bob and Karen watch football; on 9/20 Bob faces an emergency at the SuC (or County). 

 

A Cold Dish

The Chinese restaurant was busy on this Friday night.  Anna stood behind the counter dressed in a stylish, high collared yellow silk tunic and white pants.  A flat pale green jade pendant on a gold chain hung around her neck and her left arm rested easily on top of the cash register.  Her face was carefully made up and her hair stylishly coifed and tinted.  Anna smiled slightly as she watched and listened to the dinner throng. Business had certainly picked up in the eleven months since she’d been forced to take over managing the restaurant.  I’ve done well, she thought with well-earned satisfaction.  He used to tell me that I didn’t have the brains or the talent to run things, that I was only a good hostess and waitress.  Well, I showed him.  I guess I showed everybody.

Lily, one of the waitresses, approached.  “Table five is ready for their check.”

“No desserts?”

“Not tonight.”

She quickly totaled the bill, and handed it back.  “Be sure to thank them for coming, and remember to give them the flyer about our second wine pairing dinner next month.”

She looked at the reservation book.  A party of four was ten minutes late.  Not regular customers.  She’d give them five more minutes before giving the table to the walk-in couple that was.  She smiled at them and walked over to tell them that she’d comp them dessert for being patient.  Lily returned with a charge card and Anna ran it up and gave the card and charge slip back to the waitress.

When Lily brought the signed slip back, Anna was gratified to see that the table had tipped a bit over twenty percent.  Means that they liked the food and Lily’s service, she thought.  They’ll tell their friends.  Word of mouth is the best advertising.

Strange how things work, she thought, as she watched Lau Leong, his graying hair short-cropped, busy out on the floor with his tables.  He glanced up from his work and saw her looking at him and smiled.  She stared back without returning his smile then looked away.  Old fool, she thought, not sure whether she meant him or herself.  Thinks he can still pour on the charm.  She looked up to see him approaching. 

“Table ten said the chicken is cold,” he said.  “I told them that it’s supposed to be served cold.”  He smiled, waiting for her approval. 

“Yes, I guess that’s what you would do,” she said without changing her expression.  “But we’re doing things a little differently now.  Tell them that you’re sorry, that it was a mistake, and that you’ll take it back to the kitchen.”   She turned to one of the waitresses who had arrived with a charge card.  She processed it, then handed it back to the waitress with a smile.  “Be sure to give them…”

“I know, I already gave them the wine pairing flyer,” laughed the waitress.

“Wine pairing.” Lau Leong said.  “We never did that in the old days.”

“I try to see what the public is looking for, and then try it out.  The owner of the wineshop in the next block agreed to work with Chinese food,” she replied.  “And you need to get back to your tables.”  She watched him walk back to his tables and talk with the guests.  She heard them laugh at something he said, before he carried the chicken back to the kitchen.  He is still a pretty smooth talker, she thought.

The four at table fifteen got up to leave.  I’m lucky to have faithful customers like Mrs. Roy, she thought, looking at them.  Been coming to eat ever since we opened. 

Mrs. Roy waved at her and stopped to chat on her way out.  “Very enjoyable dinner as usual, Anna.  And you look very chic tonight.  She lowered her voice and whispered, “How is it–working with him, I mean?”  She nodded her head in Lau Leong’s direction.  “I thought that you had lost your mind when I heard about it”

“He’s got a good way with the customers, and he works hard.  So we are getting along fine.”

“Ah.  You’re being coy.  That’s all right, you can tell me some other time.  But you are an absolute saint in my book.”   She patted Anna’s shoulder and went out the front door.

She knows he is staying with me, Anna thought.  I know what you really want to know–where is the old fool sleeping?   Well, they can all keep guessing.  She glanced at the clock.  Five minutes and the late party still hadn’t showed or called.  She smiled at the waiting couple.  “Thank you for being so patient.  We’re just unusually busy tonight.  I’ll get you seated now.  I hope you enjoy your dinner.”

“Thanks for working us in Anna.  We’ll be sure to call ahead next time.”

Anna walked them to their table, seated them, and handed them menus.  “Suzy will be your waitress tonight.  She’ll be by after you’ve had a chance to look at the menu.”

She returned to the front desk.  Lau Leong stopped as he came back from the kitchen with the now-hot chicken.  “Look Anna, if you want to take a break, I’ll be happy to take over for you for a while at the register.”

She felt surprise, then anger, and bit her tongue to keep from saying do you think I am stupid?  Instead, she heard herself say in a calm voice, “Thank you, but that’s not necessary.” 

Take over at the register!  Are you out of your mind?  She thought.  You fool me one time, shame on you; you fool me two times, shame on me.  Even the children thought I was crazy to take you back in.

  Even now, a month later, she wasn’t sure why she did it.  Maybe she was sorry for him.  And maybe it was because he’d been a good father and provider all those years before.  And maybe it was something else she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

Yes, I knew he saw other women from time to time when he was young, she thought.  But they came and went.  Not like this time when he went kind of crazy.  Damn young chippy from Suzhou.  They say the prettiest girls come from Suzhou.  Well, she was.  Why’d we hire her?  Turned his head all around.  Guess men get like that when they’re afraid of growing old.  Got him to steal from the register and run away with her.  Then, no more money, no more honey.  So he came crawling back.  She recalled with satisfaction the day he called to beg for another chance.

He came up to the desk to get a bill totaled.  She was pleased when he returned with the signed charge slip.  “Very good,” she said to him.  “They tipped you well.  I’ll mark that off your debt.”

“Anna,” he said half-joking.  “It’s going to take a long, long time to work it off with tips.”

“You should have thought of that when you were stealing all those months before you ran out on me with that slut.”  She got herself under control again.  “Just keep taking care of your tables and you’ll do fine.” 

And in the meantime, she thought, everyone sees you as a poor old fool who was taken and had to come crawling back to the wife he deserted.  And everyone sees me as a saint.  That’s what Mrs. Roy said tonight.  That’s pretty good, the old fool and the betrayed wife who became a saint.  And a good businesswoman as well.  Everyone knows what you did, and they see you out on the floor waiting tables now, working for me.  And me behind the register, the boss, instead of you.

12/10.  No short story today, but two more episodes added to Stranger.  Bob’s patient is not doing well and he asks Sal to take a look.

12/17.  A story called — Gaia — and two episodes added to “Stranger.”  Bob’s patient may be damaged by his infection and the Kennedy-Nixon Debates begin, as September comes to a close.

Gaia

In Greek mythology, Gaia was the primal earth-mother of everything.  Her name has been given to the concept that the earth is a self-regulating, super-organism; that all life on earth interacts with all  the non-living elements of the earth–rocks, seas, soil, waters, and the atmosphere–to maintain the  biosphere or conditions for life on the planet.

On every continent certain mountains have been called sacred as well as special rocks and rivers.  Living things too.  Trees and plants—the Tree of Knowledge, the holly, the burning bush, groves of oaks.  And animals of land, sea, and air as gods or demigods —shark, raven, bull, and snake among them.  So there is a long history of Man feeling not only that he is a part of Nature, but feeling that Nature, both animate and inanimate, is sacred.  

However there is a counter-theme that appeared early in human history, of Man as subjugator.  God said of Adam, “…let (him) have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth…”  Humanity did not really assume the role of dominator of the earth and its life-forms until the Industrial Revolution.  But as technology began to evolve at an ever more rapid rate, accelerated by wars, Man began to more and more impact both the non-living and living parts of the earth.

The planet follows its ponderous, stately, circular path around the sun, its slow deep thoughts exchanged only with distant solitary siblings.  It does not know when it became sentient, any more than a baby remembers when she gained awareness.  Certainly not when it first condensed out of the whirling stellar cloud that circled the newly formed sun.  Or while it was being constantly bombarded by in-falling asteroids and comets that brought water and minerals and organic compounds, adding to its mass while kneading its ever-changing molten surface.  Not even when it was struck a glancing blow by a careening Mars-sized planetoid that splashed a large part of its surface into space to eventually form its one moon. 

But after a half a billion years, the molten surface cooled and became solid.  Its orbit and those of its companions became more stable.  At some point life appeared and, once established in the new seas, began to flourish and evolve.  Plants made the transition to land first and greened the bare rock.  Animals followed to feed on the plants—and each other.  And at some time during this period, the planet became aware of itself and all that was on it’s surface, and its place in space.

Life on its surface was not a given and at five times in the history of the planet, there were mass extinctions of life in the sea and on land for a variety of reasons.  The flame of life flickered each time but did not go out and, following each extinction episode, life again flowered and diversified.

The planet was aware of the one hundred and sixty-five million year reign of the dinosaurs, but they, like all the plants and animals that came before, lived on the surface and did not bother its consciousness.  However, the five mile wide asteroid that screamed-flaming through its atmosphere to blast a crater deep and wide into its crust jolted it wide awake out of its meditations, while eliminating the dinosaurs and much other life.  The atmosphere gradually cleared, new life forms like the mammals were able to expand and take over from the dinosaurs, and the planet settled back into its own deep thoughts.

Four million years ago, one of these mammals in Africa began to walk on two legs and over many, many millennia evolved into Homo sapiens.  The planet scarcely noticed this new puny animal, for so many life forms had appeared, flourished for a time, and then vanished.  Man as a hunter-gatherer was not that different from other animals in terms of his impact on the biosphere.  And even when he began to settle into villages, then cities, his efforts at plant cultivation and animal husbandry that went on for thousands of years, scarcely scratched the surface of the planet, and the planet, while aware, was unperturbed.

The industrial revolution changed all that.  As cities grew larger, the actions of man began to alter the natural order.  Man came to believe the earth and all that was on it was there for his exploitation, for had that not been ordained?

Ever more factories spewed out black smoke to foul the previously clear air.  Mines and wells  spread over the earth and bored further and further into the planet to extract coal and ore and oil.  The waters became polluted.  The exploitation of the bounties of the sea pushed them to and sometimes beyond the limits of their capacity to recover.  Species on land and sea were driven to extinction.  The very temperature of the planet began to rise as this process gained speed.

The planet consulted its siblings. 

The second planet from the sun expressed concern.  “I too once had water, but then a run-away ‘greenhouse’ effect raised my temperature to where now even lead is molten on my surface and my atmosphere is full of sulfuric acid rain.  You are unique within our family to hold life.  Don’t repeat my fate and lose what you have on your surface.”

“Not the only one,” said the distant seventh planet.  “One of my moons shelters life in it’s waters.”

“And on one of my moons too,” added the sixth panet.

“But not on your surfaces,” replied Number Two.

The fourth planet from the sun suggested patience, “These humans are a new kind of animal on you.  Others types of animals have come and gone.  The dinosaurs that you were so fond of, were with you for 165 million of your circuits of our sun and then they were suddenly gone.  You have time to see what these humans will do.”

The largest planet, the fifth one, favored action.  “Time?  They have been with you for but a short time and yet they have done more to harm you and the other beings that share your surface than any life form you have ever had.  I would hasten their departure.”

“How could I do that, Number Five?”

“They are actually doing a pretty good job of hurrying their own end right now.  You may have to put up with some short term pain and loss, but if you can increase the rate by which your seas rise and add some major storms, earthquakes, eruptions, and tidal waves, create more deserts, you can destroy their technology-based society.  Once they lose that, then they cannot harm you anymore.  And then you can begin the healing process.”

“Thank you, for all your comments my siblings, I have much to ponder.”

———————————-

“Hey Ron, do you believe in climate change?”

“No Willy, not really.  I mean I don’t believe that we humans are responsible.”

“Well, what do you think is going on then with all this crazy weather we’ve been having?  The scientists say the ice at the North and South poles is melting faster and faster and the seas are rising.”

“Those scientists always exaggerate things to get more money for their research.  I wouldn’t believe everything they say.  I mean they keep talking about the ‘Big One’ in California, and it hasn’t happened yet.”

“Well, I read that some think the whole half of California west of the San Andreas fault could break off into the sea when it happens.”

“If it happens!  See.  Fear mongering.  Don’t believe everything you read or hear.  There’s a lot of fake stuff out there.  We’ve had ice ages and then warm periods before when all the ice has melted, so it’s a natural cycle.”

“Ron, I know you don’t believe we’re speeding it up, but just suppose the scientists are right?”

“My gut feeling is that they are not.  And I’ve done very well following my gut before.  But if this time I am wrong—which is highly unlikely—then those scientists are going to have to earn their research money and figure out how to fix it.”

————————-

2017 Wildfires rage in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, northern and southern California

2017 Hurricane Harvey

2017 Hurricane Irma

2017 Hurricane Maria

2017 Earthquake – Mexico

2017 Earthquake – Iran

2011 Fukushima earthquake and nuclear powerplant disaster

2010 Golf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon oil spill

2005 Hurricane Katrina

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami

 

2015 Paris Climate Accord reached

2017 USA announces intent to withdraw from Climate Accord

     

  

Nov. 26th.

Still working on a short story.  But I did add another day in the life of Robert Morton in the serial.  There should be another episode ready in a day or two.

(There is also a new episode for the serial novel, Stranger in the Mind.)

(Like a story on the radio)

(Background echoing crowd noises with louder garbled announcements from time to time)

“Grandpa, I’ve heard so much about Grand Central Station.  It really is grand and yet so old fashioned.  Look way up there at the ceiling.  Wow.  It looks just like it does on National Geographic Virtual.  Thanks taking me on this trip to New York.”

“Yes Tommy.  I remembered how my grandpa took me to New York City on the train for the first time when I was your age, and I wanted to do the same for you.  Of course back then, the trip from Boston took almost four hours and now the Mag-lev does it in just seventy minutes.”

“Yes.  Things were whizzing by so fast outside I got dizzy looking out the windows.”

  (A stranger’s voice)  “Watch where you’re going kid!”

“Sorry mister.”

“One thing about New Yorkers, Tommy, they are always in a hurry and sometimes a little rude, so you have to pay attention as you walk along.  And on the sidewalks outside the station, it gets even more busy and more crowded.”

(Two pairs of footsteps, one faster and lighter, one slower and heavier, on a hard floor as background to their conversation)

“I’ve been looking forward to going to the Museum of Natural History.  We did the virtual tour at school, but I want to see it for real.”

“Tommy, I’m very glad to hear you say that.  So much of what we do now is simulated or virtual  that I think it’s good that you want to visit the real thing.”

“That’s what Mom said too.  How are we going to get there?  By subway?”

“Let’s save the subway for later.  Since this is your first trip to the City, let’s go by UberYellow so you can see how New York looks above ground.”

“And how about the Statue of Liberty, grandpa?  Will we be able to see her today too?” 

“Maybe not today, Tommy.  I think once you get to the Museum. you’ll want to spend the whole day there.  At least that’s the way I felt the first time, and so did your Mom when I took her.  And anyway, to visit the Statue, we’ll have to look at the tide schedule.  With the rise in sea level and the high dikes built up around around the island, the tour boats can only dock there at low and medium tides.”

(Hiss of station doors opening to the street, street noises, car tires on wet pavement, voices)

“Okay Tommy, now that we’re outside, let me check the headsup display in my glasses and see if I can find an Ubey (UberYellow cab) close by.”

“Look grandpa, there’s a yellow car right across the street and the sign on it says it’s a cab.  Ah, but it’s got someone sitting in it already.”

“What is that?!  Why it looks like an old Yellow cab from when I was a kid.  And I don’t think that’s a passenger, I think that old man man is sitting in what used to be the driver’s seat!”

“Do you think that it’s for real?  I mean an Ubey?  The man saw me pointing at him and he looks like he’s asking if we want him to come over, grandpa.”

“Well this is an exciting start to our visit.  Yes, let’s get him over.  I’ll wave to him.  A real old-time Yellow Cab with a driver!”

(Sound of car pulling up to the curb, on wet pavement.  Window rolling down.)

“Are you for hire?”

“Sure.  You think I’m sitting around in the rain outside the station to wash my cab?  Where do you want to go?”

“To the Museum of Natural History.”

“Okay, get in.”

(Sound of car door opening, two people getting in, then door slamming)

(Sound of meter being started.  Then the sound of a gasoline motor starting up)

“Why’s the car making that weird sound, grandpa?”

“That’s the sound of the car’s gasoline motor, Tommy.  Most all cars before electrics had engines like that.”

“Oh yeah.  We learned about them in our history of science class.”

“But this is a treat, riding with you today.  Takes me back to my childhood.  There can’t be many honest-to-God cabbies still working.”

“You’re right, there aren’t.  In fact there’s maybe just me.  Now we can talk or ride in silence while you work, socialize, or play games on your gizmo.  If you want to talk, let me know if you want me to agree or disagree with you.”

“Just some questions.  How come you’re still driving even after Uber bought out Yellow Cab?And how come you’re still driving this old gas guzzler when the cab companies went to self-driving, all-electric cars?  In fact, where do you gas up?”

“Okay, one thing at a time.  I paid off my taxi medallion a long time before the prices on them went bust and so I didn’t have to worry about making payments on them like some of the guys who went into hock to buy one and then couldn’t keep up the payments.  Even when them Uber pirates horned in and the politicos did nothing to help us cabbies, I could make a living, just not as good as before.”

“But Uber bought out Yellow Cab.”

“Remember, I had my medallion, so I run independent.  I had to laugh when Uber went to a fleet of self-driving cars and screwed—sorry about that, kid—”

“That’s okay, I hear that at school a lot.”

“Okay.  So where was I?  Oh yeah, Uber fu— ah— ruined all their Uber drivers like them guys did to us cabbies.  Now all of them are out of work too.  Like they say, ‘what goes around, comes around.’”

“So how come you kept driving—you could have retired and gone to Florida?”

“What, to hurricane and flood alley, and rain all the time?  With the Warming, it’s like a steaming jungle down there now with all them pythons, alligators, and Caymans.   No thanks.  I’m a city guy—no better place.  And what am I going to do if I stop driving?  Out here on the streets I get to meet people like you.  You know, real people who like to talk and ask questions.”

“How do you get gas?  Everything is electric or hydrogen.”

“Eh, this is New York City.  Not Dinksville.  Where are you from, by the way.”

“Boston.”

“Okay, that’s pretty big.  Like a suburb of New York.  But you guys are so Enviro up there, you probably don’t have gas stations any more.  Well here in the City, we still got a few—but not cheap.  In fact I get fares like you who take me just to kind of remember what riding a real cab was like.  And for you too kid, to learn.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve never been in an old gasoline car before.  You keep it fixed up pretty good.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty handy with tools and there’s guys around who help me keep her running.  It’s like long ago when we didn’t get along with Cuba and them Cubans kept their old cars going for 50-60 years.”

“Wait, we didn’t get along with Cuba?”

“It’s a long story, kid, but yeah, you’ll probably learn about it in school sometime.  Like when they talk about how people and governments make mistakes and then don’t want to admit it.”

“But that’s so stupid.”

“Kid, just remember that as you get older and you’ll be smarter than 90% of people.”

“That’s good advice, Tommy.  (Pause)  You know, I notice people in other cars staring at you as we go by.  You get that a lot?”

“Oh yeah.  I’m used to it.  Not many drivers still around and in a non-electric.”

“With all the cars are driverless and computer controlled, isn’t it hard for you, to be driving manually?”

“You know that old saying, ‘in the country of the blind, the sighted man is king?’  Well now, I like to think that in a city full of computer cars, the driving man is king, because them car computers will do anything to avoid a ding or anything close to one.  So I don’t have to really look out for other cars; them other cars all look out for me.”

“But what about the pedestrians?”

“They all have personal protective apps built into their phones, so they get stopped before they can step into danger.  I could drive like an idiot and the street would open up in front of me like Moses parting the Red Sea.  Except that with surveillence cams and enforcement drones everywhere, I would get nailed before I went a block.”

“The streets are so quiet now.  There used to be so much horn blowing.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s an improvement.  With the traffic lights all computer controlled to even out the traffic flow and cars that always maintain the right speed and distance from each other, there are almost no traffic jams now even at rush hours.  And no accidents, except when a car has a software glitch.”

(A short pause in the conversation.)

“What do you like on Broadway?”

“He’s your grandson, right?”

“Yes, Tommy’s my grandson.”

“I hear Lion King VI is pretty good.  Both the kids and adults seem to enjoy it.  You can pick the avatar you want to be.”

“Look, I think I see the Museum, grandpa!”

“Yes, that’s it, Tommy.”

(Sound of car coming to a stop)

“And here we are.  The meter takes all the payment cards.  Just stick your card in the slot on the meter and then it’ll give you a receipt too.”

(Sound of meter pinging, then car door opening)

“Nice talking with you two.  Have a good time at the museum.”

“Yes, and I hope you can keep driving for a long time more.  You said Lion King VI, right?”

“Right. and thanks for the tip.  Bye.”

(Sound of car driving away)

 

        Before going on to the overconsumption of Thanksgiving and the frenetic rush of Christmas, here’s a look back at the holiday just past.

He approached the concrete walkway leading across the lawn towards his home at dusk.  Sales trips were getting harder to take now that he was getting along in years and he was glad to be back home.  

The “For Sale” sign on the front lawn stopped him.  What the heck is going on, he thought with irritation and just a slight feeling of disorientation.  There must be a mistake.  Or somebody must have put this up as prank.  Yeah, with Halloween just around the corner, some kid or kids must have jumped the gun and gotten an early start.  Tricks!  Didn’t Martha see them and put a stop to this nonsense?  He put his carryon and sample case down on the walkway and angrily walked over to the sign, pulled it out of the ground, and tossed it aside behind the front hedge.  I’ll put it out with the trash for the next pickup.  If I find out who did this, I’ll show them a thing or two about treats or tricks. 

Looking more closely around the front yard, he noted that the grass had grown a lot taller during the week that he’d been gone.  When we skyped, Martha didn’t say anything about it raining a lot.

He walked up the front stairs and put down his bags while he fumbled out his key.  It didn’t seem to quite fit in the lock at first and he pulled it back to see whether it was the right one.  After reinserting it and jiggling it back and forth, the lock finally turned and he swung the door open.  Funny Martha didn’t hear all of this commotion with the lock and come to the door.  The house was dark and silent.  Hey Martha, I’m home.  Didn’t you hear me rattling the lock?  Still silent and dark.  He switched on the hall light.  Where’s the runner on the floor?  And where’s the bench by the wall.  And the pictures?

He proceeded to the living room.  The air smelled stale and he turned on the light.  The room was empty.  What happen to all  the furniture?  Where’s Martha?  What’s going on? Confused and now anxious, beginning to sweat profusely, he went from room to room calling out to his wife and turning on the lights.  Each room was empty of furnishings.  Martha and I had an argument before leaving.  I didn’t think it was any big deal.  She didn’t mention it again when we skyped.  Could she have just walked out with everything while I was gone?  Maybe it was a much bigger deal to her than I thought.  Oh my God, is that what’s happened?  Or did something happen to her while I was gone and no one notified me?  That’s not possible.  What is going on?!

He searched his memory.  Wait, how did I get home from the airport?  And what flight did I take back?  Was I in Chicago yesterday or was that on another trip?  When did I leave on this trip?  He searched his pockets for the ticket stubs and found none.  Why can’t I remember?  What’s happening to me?  Am I having a stroke?  Was it in the summer, in July when I left; isn’t that right?  Or was that another trip?  I think it’s October now, just before Halloween.  Now how do I know that?  He looked around—no chair—and sat down heavily on the floor, drenched in a cold sweat.

What was he remembering?  —-A jumble of sounds, sensations, and sights began to jostle in his memory—-

Swaying, bumpy ride  Blaring siren This is the front desk, how may we help you? A dark unfamiliar generic room

Blinding bright lights.

The feeling of heavy pressure on the front of his chest. 

Please come to my room, I think I need help.

That’s twenty minutes and there’s been no response.  Should we keep going?

What is all of that about?  Confused, he pushed himself up from the floor and made his way to the bathroom to wash the sweat off his face, to gather his thoughts.  He glanced up to look at himself in the mirror over the sink and saw only the door and room behind him. 

Where’s my reflection?  I can’t see me!  What happened to me?  Then the realization dawned—-

I came home all right.  And I’ll never leave the house again.  I guess whoever buys my home will get me with it.  This Halloween, the neighborhood kids will have a real haunted house.