The Clarkl Soup Kitchens (15 page)

Actually, Ferdy had been fired for running an import and export business on the side. His employer did not believe Ferdy had been totally dedicated to the employer’s success in
Peru
.

Ferdy probably never told Mrs. Aperson the complete story, but he certainly told me a wild tale of deceit and theft. Of course, he was entirely blameless, to hear him tell it.

Ferdy stayed for about eight weeks, long enough for Mrs. Aperson to be tired of his self-aggrandizement and for me to be pregnant again.

Little Louisa lived for less than four days. The doctor came again, and, this time, I could hear her shouting at Mrs. Aperson as they sat at the dining room table.

Again, Mrs. Aperson wrapped the tiny baby in a silk blanket and placed her in the attic.

November 12, 2142
– Mr. Roderick is gone, back to
West Virginia
to his retirement and his grandchildren. I believe he was over seventy when he left.

The work is very routine now. I have twelve contacts here on Clarkl, and I gather a report from each of them each day. If the report is not here by
midday
, I call and make empty threats.

Then, I put all the numbers into a very simple computer program, and the program summarizes information for the contract manager on Earth.

Each dining room is responsible for reporting on the number of meals served, by hour. These Clarklians don’t seem to have much of a separation between the meals, so we don’t know what is breakfast for them. We serve various choices based on our own ideas. If they like what is offered, they eat it and sometimes call friends to join them. If they don’t like what is offered, they pick at their food and keep going back to the buffet line to see if anything more interesting has appeared.

I also collect information about which dishes are prepared and when they are on the serving lines. If a stack of pancakes appears at
9:00 a.m.
and is gone by
9:15
, the dining room tells me that.

Then, I enter all this information into another computer program. I suspect important decisions are made about what the farms are producing based on the data I am inputting.

It is easy for me to see what is admired and what is not. The baked corn dish with nutmeg is a favorite, and so is apple pie. Anything with wild rice disappears from the serving line immediately. Anything with broccoli sits all day.

The deadlines are very strict. I have been able to keep up with the schedules because the dining rooms are very good about sending information to me. I suspect each dining room manager wants to look good since a few bonuses are sent out each year for production.

The farms are usually on the receiving end of the big bonuses. The people working on the farms are younger, perhaps in their thirties and forties, while the dining room help is older, some well into their seventies. The younger people seem always more interested in the bonuses and the older people seem always more interested in how soon they can leave for home.

December 15, 2142
– I’m still keeping on top of the job, sending daily reports to Earth.

Still no note from Ferdy. Nothing. Maybe as Christmas draws closer I will hear from him.

I have been thinking about his wedding and how he found his bride.

Of course, I always hoped he would select me, but I knew I would have to win the Irish Sweepstakes to keep him. Year after year passed, and the hope stayed alive inside me. The reality of my situation stayed alive, too.

As my college days drew to a close, we saw less and less of each other. While I was going to classes, we would meet about once a week in downtown
Pittsburgh
, usually in a cheap hotel. He was always a great romantic, with a flower in his hand and a ready hug. Seeing Ferdy was the highlight of my week, something to look forward to after days of housework and cooking and reading.

I finished my college work when I was thirty-four, and Ferdy found his wife that year. She was the daughter of the chairman of a charity board, and Ferdy did some fundraising for that charity.

He always went to every fundraising event in a tuxedo, without any woman on his arm. After ten or fifteen different events for this charity, the woman condescended to speak to Ferdy. They went to dinner the next evening.

I never met him after that. He certainly was polite to me when he came to visit Mrs. Aperson, but it was all over between us.

Right after he met this woman, he called on us. Mrs. Aperson sent me from the room while she talked to him, and, as I understand it, he proposed the next day. This was in 2129.

I remember how depressed I was in 2129 and 2130. The wedding was scheduled for November of 2129, and I dreaded having to smile broadly while my lover agreed to keep himself only unto another woman.

The bride and her family cut Mrs. Aperson and me out of nearly every function. Surely they must have known who had paid for her three-carat engagement ring.

In 2130 Ferdy’s bride talked her father into taking Ferdy into his firm as some kind of a roving manager, a person who would travel around to inspect the company’s several sites. This lasted for about eight months, until the bride’s father realized Ferdy was spending his money on high living and not actually showing up to do inspections. After that, Ferdy and the missus lived off her trust fund.

Three children came in the next several years, and their appearance solidified Ferdy’s place in his bride’s family. They became resigned to the fact that this bum was there for keeps.

We saw the family about once a year after the children came. Ferdy and his bride brought the children to Mrs. Aperson’s house on the Saturday evening before Christmas to allow Mrs. Aperson to give the children their gifts. I cannot remember any gifts coming into the house for Mrs. Aperson or me.

February 1, 2143
– A nice message from Mr. Roderick yesterday. He is almost home and having fun winning money at poker on the spacecraft.

Every day is just about the same here. I create my daily report and that day’s special report.

In the few months I have been here, I can see a trend toward more meals served in several of the dining rooms. I am hoping to correlate the increase in traffic to some favorite dish, but I can’t see the pattern yet.

Our dining room manager, an older lady with an untidy bun, has a heuristic method for predicting what will go over well.

“It’s sweet things,” she insists. “They start to look for sweets as soon as they approach the serving line. There is always a terrible crowd around pancake syrup or the like. We can’t keep that pineapple upside down cake for more than five minutes.”

I don’t see it. It looks more like certain vegetables, or perhaps the lack of certain vegetables. Corn is big. Broccoli is not. Corn fritters in a sweet dipping sauce are always a better draw than cake or pie.

March 3, 2143
– Still working about seven hours a day, with a couple of afternoons off each week. I don’t have any trouble with going back to my cabin after I have filed my reports, but I know the kitchen people are working twelve or fourteen hours each day.

Still no message from Ferdy. I expected something at Christmas.

Kaufmann’s agreed to do my shopping for the children, and I have just received my statement for December. I spent over $300 on Ferdy’s children, and I received nothing in return.

It was exciting seeing Ferdy from time to time in
Pittsburgh
. I could always imagine he was ready to leave his bride and resume our affair. Here, though, with no message and no gift, I have to come to grips with the thought he has abandoned me.

Certainly Ferdy was the reason I was anxious to come on this assignment to Clarkl. The promise of having my big house paid off in ten years was very enticing. I assumed Ferdy would be more likely to leave his marriage for a woman with a big house and a small income than for one with a huge mortgage and no job. In addition, in ten years, the children will be nearly grown, with only one of them under twenty.

I am more besotted than ever here. I think about him all the time.

If there were any man of interest here, perhaps I could move on. I had that rough man in the spacecraft, but he was not acceptable as a long-term partner. I have had no interest from anybody else, except a shy remark from Mr. Roderick about my taking care of him when I return.

Is it all over? I feel cheated.

April 27, 2143
– I have developed a little computer program that facilitates my input, and I am now working only about six hours each day, with the two afternoons off each week.

The managers are getting better, too, with preparing their numbers. It is rare I have to call one of them.

I think Mr. Roderick liked to talk to the managers, and they waited for his call each day. As for me, all this chitchat keeps me from my major activity of daydreaming.

Ferdy surely knows I am waiting to hear from him. His birthday is in about a month, and Kaufmann’s has instructions about a silk jumpsuit, made to measure. I can’t believe he will accept such a fine gift without a message. Kaufmann’s has my code here, and they have been instructed to send it with the birthday gift.

Maybe his bride is laughing at me. Maybe she knows how much I care for him and realizes he will never leave her and her trust fund.

June 16, 2143
– So far, I have saved about $3,000. I was paid the monthly stipend while I was on the spacecraft, so I have been paid for about a year and have spent only half of my earnings.

There is nothing to buy here. The dining room manager has a closet with toiletries for sale, and she usually takes about $75 a month from me. My laundry costs another $20. Room and board, terrible as they are, are free.

A merchant visited the compound about a week ago, and I bought a Clarklian-made blanket. It is very colorful and is made of what feels like linen.

I would like another electric blanket, but there are none for sale. The dining room manager said she would put my request on her next order of supplies, due in about six weeks.

August 21, 2143
– I still have few friends here. I keep to myself, except for those occasions when people invite me to play cards. I am too good a player for frequent invitations, but when the game cannot go on without a player I am included.

Still no message from Ferdy. The bill from Kaufmann’s shows the silk jumpsuit was ordered and picked up.

October 17, 2143
– Work remains very easy. I usually work only five hours a day, except for those days when I have a half-day holiday.

I continue to be consumed by reflections about my life with Ferdy and Mrs. Aperson. It is as if my life here on Clarkl is a waiting period, a time to rest between great passions.

Julia has been haunting me this last week. That most beautiful of children is more in my heart than ever before.

I remember how we lay together on the day she was begun, in a cheap hotel in
Wilkinsburg
. Ferdy had picked me up in his old car after my chemistry class, and we drove to the hotel in near silence. That day he had lost another job, and we had very little to celebrate.

I had had too many hopes for Ferdy’s success with this job. The manager was an old friend of the Judge’s, someone who had known the Judge before his first wife died and long before he married Mrs. Aperson. The fact that Ferdy was ill suited to sitting in an office all day did not dampen my spirits.

“We don’t seem to have complementary work habits,” the Judge’s friend had concluded as he showed Ferdy the door.

Actually, Ferdy did not have much trouble finding jobs. He had a wonderful charm that gave people the idea he would fit into their workgroups, and he expressed himself so eloquently on any subject that hiring managers were convinced he would show up early and work late. For Ferdy, they continually broke the first rule of hiring: never take on anybody who has been laid off from another job.

That afternoon we were hungry for each other. Ferdy needed to feel he was good at something, and I needed him to feel I was sympathetic about his troubles.

Within a week or so, Ferdy was shipped out, by another gullible hiring manager, for a two-year assignment in
Alaska
. Right after he left, I discovered Julia was on her way.

Mrs. Aperson was not happy. “Ferdy’s left us with another mess,” she concluded.

For that pregnancy, I did not see the doctor. Mrs. Aperson made sure I took the vitamins the doctor had recommended for my earlier pregnancies. After the sixth month, I took a semester off from my studies, telling my advisor I needed a vacation.

Mrs. Aperson and her sister delivered the baby. Julia was beautiful and not at all red. She lived for two weeks.

Again, Mrs. Aperson wrapped her in a silk blanket and placed her in a plastic airtight bag. I took her to the attic to join her siblings.

The next day, I saw my advisor and started my work for my junior year in college.

February 21, 2144
– The dining rooms are busy, with more Clarklians coming each month than the month before.

I rarely see any of them. I walk from my cabin to the office in our compound and back to my cabin each day, and the Clarklians never come there. The traveling merchant comes about once a quarter, and that entity always has the dining room manager handle the questions and the money.