Famine

Chapter Three

When Jonah realizes that he may be forced into cryonic exile even without committing a crime, he begins to worry about this Brave New World he now lives in.

Jonah was still reading when he noticed Dr. Estes standing in the doorway.

   “Forgive me, Dr. Estes,” Jonah said in apology, “I hope you have not been waiting long.  A funny thing about history, after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, we all thought that World war Three would be a nuclear free-for-all.”

   “Tensions must have been high during the Cold War, as I believe you called it.”

   “Yes, I was once in West Berlin on business when I bribed my way into the Russian Sector of East Berlin.  Every corner had armed guards to prevent people from escaping what communism called their “Workers’ Paradise.”  Marxism was a self-righteous way to divide up a nation’s wealth so that the masses could have an equal share of the redistributed poverty.  Of course, the elites and army generals were always well-to-do.  The told the rest how they ought to appreciate how they saved them.”

   “ ‘How are the mighty fallen!’ ” she said.

   “So socialism is now but a curiosity for historians?”

   “Most everywhere, but you’d be surprised where it exists.”

   “You’re not here to talk isms, are you, Dr. Estes?”

   “You’re right.  Dr. Boron has reviewed your autobiography.  We discussed your case, and I have convinced him that you ought to continue with your next phase of your transition at the half-way house.”

   Jonah was quite concerned with some gatekeeper in a distant office with power over his freedom. He had never committed a crime or had been caught driving drunk.  He said, “Doctor Estes, nobody ever had to approve me to be born into this world, and now someone has the power to say if I come back to live here?”

   “Dr. Boron is chief of the Regional Committee on Social-Environmental Ecology. I have to report your progress to him on a regular basis.  You’re on trial here.”

   “You mean I really do have to pass some kind of test to enjoy the freedoms I was born with?  I don’t even throw trash on the ground.  I thought ecology was all about making sure someone does not pollute the world’s ability to sustain life, nothing more.”

   “Jonah, failure means exile.”

   By tone of your voice, Dr. Estes, I don’t think that exile means girls hanging on me and having me sip umbrella drinks somewhere in Tahiti or somewhere on the French Riviera and money in a Swiss bank account.”

   “Relax, Jonah, there’s really no substantial problem. You show good potential.  Your history minor in college makes you ideal for a position at the area museum.  Oh, it doesn’t pay much, but a century of accumulating should make living quite comfortable.”

   “You mean comfortable instead of lavish?  So I don’t buy a house on Griffith Avenue after all?

   “You don’t want to live there.  It isn’t what it used to be.”

   “So what do we do now?”

   “I thought you’d never ask. Tomorrow you move into the Goodloe House on Parish Avenue for further integration while an available home of your choice will be prepared in accordance with your needs and specifications.”

   “You mean that I have a choice in something?”

   If Jonah had annoyed Dr. Estes, she didn’t show it.  He was even more uneasy with subtle things he had heard here and there.  It was foreboding, suggesting that he was brought back to live in a culture far more restrictive than Jonah has dreamed possible.  Even in the hospital, the workers should have been more at ease. Maybe he would feel more comfortable later. This may have been his world, but it wasn’t yet his time.

      It may have been as simple as something he called culture shock.  Jonah sensed that he should not push Dr. Estes too hard as long as his freedom was in the hands of others such as hers and Dr. Boron’s. He decided not to draw unnecessary suspicion toward himself. Who knew what else they might find wrong with was normal for Jonah’s time?  They could find anything wrong with someone from the past.  He had no way to know ahead of time about behavior that was now unacceptable. He decided to play along more by asking more questions about his orientation instead.

   “It starts tomorrow with my taking you on a tour of Owensboro.  You’re been provided with clothes already.  If they are not suitable, you may shop for more.  You have an idea already about what people wear nowadays.  After the tour, you may put your bags in the half-way house, and we can take in a nightspot.  We have several. You’re bound to like something.

   “Can I still get a bar-b-q mutton sandwich for lunch?”

   “Yes, the Old Hickory and Moonlite still meet government standards.  We could go to one of them tomorrow for lunch.  I’d love one myself.”

   “I liked nightlife in college before Michelle, my wife, slowed me down some.  I’m pretty awkward now.”

   “You won’t have a drinking problem now.  No returnee with drug and alcohol addictions or dependence.  That doesn’t mean there are no drunks left.  People still have fun at happy hour. We’re not on a date.  I don’t date patients, you know.  I am here for your assistance for the next months as needed and later on an on-call basis.”

   “What about other things of interest nowadays?”

   “If you want, I can schedule you for a tour of Mars’s Cedonia Region.  It turns out that there was really a ‘Face’ there after all left by a dead civilization.  Thousands go there yearly.  Their hotel facilities are booked for the next twenty years.  I recommend booking now if you think you want to go.”

   “I won’t hold my breath in the mean time.  Incidentally, before you pick me up, I’d like some deodorant.  I’ve made extra use of the soap, but I could get pretty ripe without it. Nobody seems to know what it is, even.”

   “You no longer need it.  Your sweat glands under your armpits don’t work.  Scientists determined years ago that people would still be quite safe if they didn’t perspire in selected areas of their bodies.  Now and then someone still smells under the arms, but we can fix that without any real problems.”

   Dr. Estes asked if there was anything else Jonah wanted to know.  “Then I’ll pick you up at 8:30 a.m.  I hope that will be time enough for you to get ready.”

   “I’m kind of anxious to see what you have done with the place.  It seems like forever since I’ve been out.  It has.  See you later, alligator!”

   Dr. Estes smiled after thinking for a while.  Of course, Jonah was making a cryptic reference to early rock star Bill Haley from the 1950’s.  She replied as she was leaving, “After while, crocodile.”

   Jonah pondered what all this business of exile meant. Would they really freeze people for non-criminal behavior?  Was there such a thing as social pollution?  What would that be?  He resolved to guard his speech until he knew.

   Before going to bed, Jonah considered a movie to watch on his wall.  He rejected some things that turned his stomach.  What was entertaining about a story about a man married to his dog?  Porn was alive and well.  Since he didn’t have one of those little sockets he’d seen in someone’s hair, he still had use of a headset.  With it he had use of all his senses.  He could choose a plot, the setting, and even a lover, male or female to have sex with.  Sure enough, Aldous Huxley’s “feelies” described in Brave New World had become a reality. But what irked him even more was that there was no minimum age limit on his choice of lovers.

   When Jonah fell in love with Michelle, he stopped watching stag movies in the dorms.  He searched further for something he could tolerate.

   They had musicals just like there had been in his childhood.  It wasn’t Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers, but in the late 2070’s they had a revival of that form of entertainment. Instruments changed little, only the electronic way their music was reproduced.

   Jonah wasn’t overly religious but he did like old movies by Cecil B. DeMille:  Ten Commandments, King of Kings, Samson and Delilah.  When he requested them, nothing came up.  He tried a few more, he still got nothing.

   After watching a musical, he went to bed.