Apples and Serpents in Paradise

Waste

Nash sat on Charlie's desk watching him play with some new equipment. A large reel to reel recorder. He had other items in his shop. A machine with three screens and mysterious dials and switches. Including a couple toggle switches. There were three movie cameras.

"I came over to see if you were all right." King turned to Nash and smiled.

"Why wouldn't I be all right?" King turned back to the cables he was unraveling.

"During the war I had to kill a few men. Japs. Despite being a correspondent I had to fight sometimes. To survive." Nash said.

"I've killed men before." King stopped what he was doing and stood up to look at Nash. "I know what you mean. Killing isn't something you forget. If you hold it in it gnaws at you. If you talk about it, it's hard. Only people like you and me really understand what we had to do. It isn't a club I want to be part of."

"I know. All the same. If you do need to talk, it helps to know that someone is there to talk to." Nash stood up to leave.

"Do you need to talk about it?" King surprised Nash. Nash's reaction was more of a surprise to him. He sat back on the desk and began to talk as King worked on whatever project he was cooking up.

"I don't regret killing Amio." King said when Nash had finished talking. "From what Flo has told me he was a vicious man. The world is better without him. I just don't see what Flo saw in the man to begin with."

"Flo seems to like greasers. She might view men like Amio as real men. A lot of women want men who take charge, are aggressive, and sometimes a little evil." Nash replied.

"I think men should be judge by their conduct. Men should be appreciated for their understanding, gentleness, and respect they give not only women, but each other." King was now connecting the cables to the box with the screens, the recorder, and the movie cameras.

"Some people would regard such qualities in a man as a weakness." Nash had tried to balance these things these days, it was difficult.

"That just makes them cowards. Afraid to show some compassion when it's necessary." King flicked on the switches on the box.

Screens turned on, but were blank. King moved his camera, a large bulky thing on a sturdy metal tripod. He adjusted the knobs that allowed the camera to swivel and move up and down.

"Needs more light." Charlie went over to a wall to flick a light switch. Spots overhead switched on to light up a corner where a sofa, coffee table, and a side chair had been set up.

One of the screens lit up with a picture of the scene. Charlie looked at the small screen on the huge camera that he manipulated. He locked the camera in place with the knobs and went over to the box again.

"What is it?" Nash asked.

"It's called video tape." King gestured to the cameras. "These are the cameras that transmit the images. That box is the production board, that allows us to direct and edit the images and change from one camera view to another. That recorder is the video recorder itself."

"It doesn't look very different from a regular tape recorder." Nash commented.

"It performs a similar function." King said.

"You're not planning to create a television studio? No one on the island has a television. You can't be serious?" Nash comprehended suddenly what King was planning. He couldn't believe the ambition the man had. Who would he broadcast to?

"We only need a couple of televisions to start with." King assured Nash. "Our islanders will love being able to see new things. Programs with islanders in them, telling them news from the island. Maybe some short video plays."

"This is a foolish waste of money." Nash shook his head. It was typical of King to spend the obvious amount of money he had to expend on this equipment to create a product that no one would be able to see and appreciate. "There are no televisions on the island. Nobody will see your broadcasts."

"Not yet. People said the same thing about radio. No one had radios. Now, all of the islanders have one." King said. "This isn't new equipment either. The VTR broke down on one of the major news networks and they went for a newer model. They wanted to get rid of it and sold it to me for a tenth of the price. As for the other equipment, it cost me another two thousand dollars but was worth it."

"What did the VTR originally cost?" Nash asked, curious.

"Fifty thousand. Produced by Ampex. The new VTR that will replace the one I bought will be in color." King pointed to the bulky, huge machine. "Some day it won't look like that, it will be the size of a suitcase."

Nash took a closer look at the VTR. It wasn't a recorder on a table. The recorder and table were all one machine. A huge bulky monster that must have taken four men to situate in Nash's office. A monster machine that only recorded in black and white. Nash wondered how big the color machines were.

"I hope it's worth it." Nash said.