“Well, someone didn’t wake me up. Plus, I had to eat my salad so I arrived late for work.” Des teased Anna right back. “What are you building now?”
“A bureau to put the quilts in, this is the size, I would like to make for the children’s rooms.” Des walked over and watched Anna finish gluing it together.
Sato, Fienu, and Tanake arrived together. “Come, look at the bureau!” Des called out.
“What is a bureau?” Tanake asked.
Anna smiled. “This is a bureau, which you use to store clothes in. You put the shirts in one drawer, the pants in another, socks and under clothes in another. When you get up in the morning, you open the drawers, and take out what you’re going to wear for the day.”
“Do you put them back in at night?” Sato asked.
Anna laughed. “No, you put them back in after they have been washed. Why don’t you guys have bureaus?”
Des shrugged. “We don’t have that many clothes. Our special ornamental clothes for feasts and such are stored in a hanging closet. Our daily wraps easily fit on the shelves.”
“What closet? We don’t have a closet.”
“Personal cabins have closets.” Des smiled.
“Are there closets in the children’s rooms?” Anna asked.
Des shook his head. “Only in the eldest rooms and the hall parents’ rooms.”
“So the children will need bureaus?” Fienu asked.
Anna nodded. “I actually sized this smaller than normal one for the children. Even the youngest could use the bottom drawer, if they work together to open and close it.”
“Will one drawer be enough?” Des asked.
Anna shook her head. “Probably not, but I have got something else designed for the youngest. Let’s sit down and eat. After we eat, I’ll make one of everything that I have planned for the children’s rooms. It won’t take long and you can see what you think.”
“Good idea!” Des nodded.
They sat and ate. Anna decided it would be a good time to ask. “What am I supposed to do with the hunter’s cloth?”
“Most people use it to make ornamental clothes. Some hunters make wraps from it to wear on the hunt.” Des said.
“What are you making with yours Sato?”
“I’m making a shirt for the feast.”
“I liked that shirt I wore to the first feast. If I have time, could I use that as a pattern to make one out of the hunter’s cloth?”
Tanake answered. “I made that shirt for Des. I have a pattern. If you trust me with the cloth, I would like to make the shirt. It is considered a great honor to work with hunter’s cloth. I have never gotten too.”
Anna got up and walked into the bedroom. She came back out with the hunter’s cloth and handed it to Tanake. “Of course, I trust you with it. Thank you, I probably wouldn’t have the time to do it myself.”
Tanake ran his hands over the cloth. “It is made out of soft denua fiber and takosund scale fibers. It feels soft, but is very durable. A knife thrust can’t pierce four layers of hunter’s cloth. I will need to sharpen my scissors many times to cut the pattern.” Tanake unfolded the top layer. “There is too much cloth here for just a shirt. Do you want pants too?” Tanake looked hopeful.
“If you have the time, I would appreciate it.” Anna smiled brightly at him. “Do you want to go home and work on it now?”
Tanake shook his head. “I would like to work on the children’s clothes tonight. Tomorrow cool, I will work on the hunter’s cloth.”
“All right, I’m going to make the stuff to show you guys.” Anna walked over to the supply processor. She ordered up the boards needed for the step bureau first. The guys went over and started sewing on the clothes. It amused her, seeing four guys sewing. Especially since the smallest one Fienu stood about five foot eleven and Tanake topped seven feet. Tanake’s hands were longer than the pants his nimble fingers stitched together.
Anna finished the step bureau. She ordered up the low bureau next. They went together very easily; the interweaving edges where the boards joined just needed a little glue, then push them together, and presto. All the drawers had slots instead of handles. The bureau top had rounded edges in case a little one bumped against it.
Anna made the keepsake box last. Its width spanned more than the near full size bureau. A dowel hinge along the back edge of the box allowed the lids to lift. Each had a small long piece of wood mounted on a swing dowel on the inside edge. You lifted the lid up, gravity swung the piece of wood down. You put it in a special slotted board, glued to the inner side lip of the box. It held the lid open.
Anna called the guys over and showed them everything. “I would like each child to take this keepsake box with them as they go from youngest, to young tai’twain, to eldest, to adults. They would put their baby quilt in here when they outgrow it along with other things special to them.”
“I would like to have one of these.” Des said as he played with the lid on the keepsake box. “Where does it go in a bedroom?”
“Two of them fit at the foot of the bed, one for each child, one with drawers on the right side, the other on the left side.”
Sato nodded. “So you would need four boxes and four steps for each room.”
“Yes, the steps won’t be needed in the eldest rooms. But I might put a full sized bureau in there. This stuff here is what would go in the youngest rooms, four of each.” Anna pointed to everything.
“Will it all fit?” Fienu asked.
“According to the floor plan, it will fit with plenty of room. The boxes go at the foot of the bed. The low bureaus go against the wall at the head of the bed. The steps go against the middle of the bed. The larger bureaus go against the opposite wall.”
Des nodded. “I went and walked through children’s hall last week. Four of these will fit easily in any of the rooms.”
Fienu grinned. “Walking around children’s hall, huh… You wouldn’t by chance happen to be dreaming thirty-six months ahead, would you Des?”
Des grinned. “Maybe, I am dreaming ahead to a hall full of laughter, love, and children.”
Tanake laughed. “I have been sewing children’s clothes at home. I am dreaming about forty-three or forty-four months ahead.”
“Oh yeah, that reminds me!” Anna exclaimed. “Des, Gresa and Kali want to be added to the list.”
Des chuckled. “When did they ask?”
“On the morning that the Elders approved the hunt, Kali asked me, before the Elders showed up. Why?”
“Because they beat Jatlo and Toruska then, Jatlo didn’t ask until that evening.” Des smiled. “He says Tanake turned out so well, he wants another child.”
“We are never going to catch up. The list keeps growing way faster, than it shrinks.”
Sato chuckled, laughed, and then grinned devilishly. “With that in mind, I would like to reserve the thirty-fifth spot. I wish to have more than one child. ’
“I… ah… Oh… I… oh...” Anna sputtered incoherently. Des laughed and laughed. He leaned against Tanake and shook with laughter. “This isn’t funny, Des!” Anna stamped her foot, something she had never done before. She stamped her foot again, crossed her arms, and glared at Des. Des continued to laugh until his eyes watered.
Tanake spoke quietly. “Can I reserve the fortieth spot?” He smiled shyly at Anna. “Please...”
Anna rolled her eyes and sighed. “The thirty-fifth spot goes to Sato and Fienu, the fortieth spot to Tanake and Doru. Now that my sex life has been planned for the next four annuals or so, I’m going to bed.”
Des choked. Tanake slapped him on the back. Des sputtered for a few moments, then broke back out laughing. For a moment, he sounded just like a car trying to start in the middle of the winter.
Anna climbed into bed and pulled the blankets over her head. Sleep eluded her as her mind whirled. It had just dawned on her; the fortieth spot meant forty children. She could visualize five or six kids, even stretch her imagination to nine or ten kids, but fort
y kids! My God! By the time they were born, it would be forty kids under seven annuals old.
Anna pictured Des walking through children’s hall, dreaming of it full. He wanted them to fill it. How could she mother over forty children? How could you even keep their names straight?
Des crawled under the blankets and pulled Anna into his arms. His mind touched hers. We will stop having children, when you wish to stop having children. We will have plenty of help. There are the hall parents, teachers, and the blood parents. Even if they don’t wish to be hall parents, they still want to spend time with the children. All of the blood parents are offered rooms in children’s hall. We are on a spaceship, sweetheart, not a planet. Even the parents, who decide not to stay in the children’s hall, will be close. If Wolfe becomes a sub-clan, Jao and the elders can’t live in a Wolfe hall. They need to live in a Satorae part of the ship. But since Wolfe will be a sub-clan of Satorae, everyone else can live in Wolfe’s children’s hall. They just need to work for Satorae to stay Satorae.
“Everyone misses having children around. Children’s hall will overflow with teachers and parents. We won’t be raising children alone, love. Our children will have four blood parents, two hall parents, at least two life teachers, and three trade teachers apiece. They will spend at least an hour every warm and cool with their life teachers. They spend either two hours every warm or every cool with a trade teacher. Their lives are full and busy. You can spend as much time as you wish with them. But you won’t have to worry about having enough time for them all. There is always someone available for every child.”
“The older children love teaching the younger children. I loved spending time with Kambu and Telluri. I used to take them to the garden and show them how to harvest. It took all three of us to carry a harvest basket. We picked mostly belao and catronu, because they couldn’t reach very high. But we loved doing it together. Golsidan children are just like Golsidan adults. They love to spend time together.”
“Des, I can’t even imagine forty children. If we do like you want, carry a child, then wait a week and carry another. Twenty-five children would be on the way before the first one is born.”
“How about, we just take it one at a time? You have seen how much Sato and Fienu want a child. You know they will spend all of their energy and time on the child when it is born. They are not even carrying yet and they spend every other cool here. Did you know, they took the quilts home and finished them in the warms? Not just the baby quilts, but the big ones too. I let them draw the cloth up here on Wolfe name. They have taken home cloth and the youngest patterns now. Do you think their child will ever lack for affection or time?” Anna shook her head.
“Next is Jao and Caso. When you finish carrying this child, we invite them over, every other cool. We work on things for the children. We talk. We get to know them. If we decide they will make good parents, we sign a contract and you carry their child. We take it one set of parents at a time, one child at a time.”
Anna nodded. Getting to know the parents, knowing that they would give time and love to the child calmed her fears. Des and herself only made up half of the equation. These children would have four parents. She already knew Sato and Fienu, Tanake and Doru, would make great parents. She already knew Gresa was a teacher, who desperately wished for students. She knew how dedicated Mapao and Kesti were to each other. They would be no less dedicated to their child. Dasie and Brema were both unselfish and brave. Liso and Tava were compassionate and caring. Jatlo and Toruska were loyal, hard-working, honest, and intelligent. Jao and Caso were the ones she knew the least about. They would get to know them. Anna sighed and relaxed.
Better love. Tanake said Jatlo wanted you to call first thing when you wake up tomorrow. Now sleep! Anna woke up early feeling great, both physically and mentally. Des slept soundly and his mind said he felt tired still so she slid out from under his arm and off the bed. She ate a huge breakfast.
She logged onto the trade site and found a message from Jatlo. “Call me first thing in the warm and check the processor percentages.” Seventy-five minutes remained until the warm, so she checked the processor percentages.
Holy shit! The last time she checked the tough denua totaled in at ninety-five percent full. Now, it read as one hundred percent with nineteen cubes already packaged. The invalid shift must have hit the denua jackpot at Midsoutheast 4, 5, and 6. Anna gaped at their numbers. They managed to process more than six cubes in a day by feeding into all the supply processors in Midsoutheast 1 through 7. They even had a processing crew working during the cool. She definitely wouldn’t call these people invalids.
This denua had already been split fifty-fifty with Satorae so Anna could put it on commodities. She checked the commodities numbers. There was tough denua fiber listed as available. The mechanics were still using huge amounts. But they could only make up and install so many filters in a day. The mechanics were eating up seventy percent of what went on to commodities daily. The invalid shift was out producing them.
Well, she’d have to store those cubes. A processor could kick three cubes out onto its storage cart. If its cart was full and it needed to make another cube, it would shut down until the cart was emptied. The nearest supply depot that held Satorae verified supplies was East 6 supply depot. She decided to spread these cubes out between the depots. She checked the elevator and hallway schematics. The cubes would go on the bottom level of the appropriate rack because the depots stood empty.
After Anna finished storing the cubes, she got an idea. She logged onto the central supply command page. She ordered, approved, and signed that all of today’s denua tough fiber was to be saved completely for Wolfe use.
Anna checked the food processors and found that the ones in East 5 and 6, and process rooms 1 and 2 of East 7 had made cubes about the size of a suitcase. The supply cubes equaled about the size of a washing machine. Each food processor could store ten cubes on its cart. Wolfe had made cubes, because Wolfe only possessed sixteen garden sections to store the harvest in East 1 through 8 and Midsoutheast 1 through 8. Satorae had sixty-six garden sections to store theirs in and wouldn’t make cubes for quite a while. She put a hundred and twelve food cubes in the supply depots, splitting them up between supply depots East 2 through 6. She left East 1 alone, because they called it home for now.
Anna approved and signed another order on the central supply command. A hundred food cubes to be stored just for Wolfe use from Wolfe’s next harvest. After filling the order, the harvest would revert to the regular Satorae - Wolfe split.
Anna checked the digital, still too early to call Jatlo. She ran up to East 4 and started pushing packaged goods to Heroes’ Hall and putting them in the supply closets and coolers. At four after seventeen, she called Jatlo.
“We have a meeting at two, in Heroes’ Hall entrance room with the Phsatorae and Elders to discuss the takosund percentage splits and the feast preparation.”
Anna groaned. “We already went over the percentage split, the night of the hunt.”
“That was about the Hunters percentage, which is five percent of the total. Traditionally twenty percent fills the Hunt Chiefs orders and five percent gets split proportionally between the hunters. The more successful the hunter, the bigger the share of the five percent they receive. We are going to discuss the splitting of the other seventy-five percent between Wolfe and Satorae.”
Anna groaned again. “Do I have to be there? I won’t understand half of what’s going on. You handled the first takosund split.”
“No! I handled the first takosund verification. You already agreed to the fifty-fifty split with Satorae. You need to be there.” Jatlo said sternly.
“Okay. But you will have to explain what is going on.”
Jatlo laughed. “I will mind everything to you in detail.”
Anna groaned as she rang off. She went back to work storing the packaged goods. When she finished that, she went on to bottling dyes, gesar syrup, and glue. She did four more batches of gesar fl
atbread, which finished up what they needed for the feast. She rolled the racks, full of clean pans to East 4. She carried down the products needed to make tienara biscuits. Tamsi arrived at ten of two. Anna asked her to start making up biscuits. “I’ll bake them when I return from my meeting, which will hopefully be short.” Tamsi chuckled as Anna trotted out.
Jatlo stood waiting in the corridor. The Phsatorae and Elders came around the corner. They filed into the entrance hall. Kantuia, who Anna suspected, disliked meetings as much as she did, came right to the point. “We figured the percentages up as twenty percent to the Hunt Chiefs divide, five percent to the Hunters Share, and because of the verification of Wolfe’s share forty-nine point one five percent will go to Satorae, and twenty-five point eight five percent will go to Wolfe.” Kantuia shrugged. “That is figuring in the fifty-fifty split, easier to do it all at once.”
“I agree it is easier to figure it all at once.” Anna said.
Jatlo yelled at Anna mentally. Don’t say anything else! Don’t agree! Their figures are wrong!
Anna turned and stared at Jatlo. “Trade chief Jatlo, what were those percentages you were explaining to me earlier?” She gave Jatlo a way to state his percentage figures.
“Twenty percent to the Hunt Chiefs divide and five percent to the Hunter’s Share, those get taken out first, then ten percent to Wolfe for equipment usage. The remaining sixty-five percent is split proportionally by the Hunters percentages of seventy-nine point six to Wolfe, and twenty point four percent Satorae, which makes it fifty-one point seven percent Wolfe and thirteen point three percent Satorae. If we verify the total Wolfe share, it comes to thirty point eight five percent Wolfe and forty-four point one five percent Satorae.” Jatlo smiled. “That was what I wanted to explain to you. By agreeing to use Wolfe equipment to try a new experimental hunting technique; Satorae agreed to the traditional ten percent equipment usage fee, if the hunt succeeded. You already know about the hunters percentages. You agreed to them after the hunt.”
“Yes, Sato’s percentage actually denotes Satorae’s percentage right.”
Phwolfe Song (Golsidan Revival Series Book 1) Page 37