Book of Questionable Facts - 2113
In the morning the door to the dormitory was opened and we streamed out to breakfast. Some kind of gruel, bland but not bad.
Tros found me after eating. He looked in a foul mood.
“What’s wrong?”
“We played dice last night and I lost a whole drachma. I had been up more than 2 drachmas but I got greedy and lost it all, then I tried to win it back…”
“Sorry Tros. This has been an unlucky trip for us both. I will pay you back that oblo. I promise.”
But no amount of cajoling could cheer him up. I’m not much of a gambler, but I can see the lure to a desperate man. Of course, we were all desperate men. Me, Tros, the men from the dormitory, Tros’ wife and daughter. All the slaves really. All of us desperate and all of us hoping for some odd chance at rescue. I could see why the slave owners offered this chance at freedom. It gave us hope and kept us working. I wondered how many slaves really succeeded in buying their freedom. I doubted it was many.
We untied Malthake and fed and watered her. She was in a bad mood too and butted Tros with her head so that he fell in the dirt. So, we set off all three of us under our own personal storm clouds.
I was feeling up to walking so we trudged along with Tros and I on either side of Malthake. After about an hour, we came to a cross road and turned.
Up until this point we had been moving generally north, now we were heading south, back to the city.
“Are we going back to Athens?” I couldn’t keep the note of hope from my voice
“No, but Cleon’s farm is closer to the city. I took the long route so that you would have some idea what to expect before you arrived.”
I felt a tear start in my eye and my throat close up. No friends among slaves? Tros may have been the best friend I’ve had in my life. He was thoughtful and helpful and kind. He took care of me, a stranger, and never asked for or expected thanks.
I was silent a long time and only croaked out “Thank you”.
He shrugged.
We walked along. Each man (and maybe donkey) lost in his own thoughts. I needed to find a way to pay back Tros and help him free his family.
I ran through everything I knew, looking for a way to lift myself up. How can I know so much and yet be able to do so little?
Atoms are made of protons and neutrons and the number of protons determines the chemical properties of the element. Each atom normally has as many electrons as protons (to balance the charges). Useless!
Plants convert sunlight to energy in cellular organelles called chloroplasts. The energy is used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen and somehow they use this process to create sugars out of carbon dioxide from the air. Useless!
DNA controls genetic heredity. Double helix, punnett square. Useless!
Pythagorean Theorem – A2 + B2 = C2. Do they already know that? Anyway what’s it used for? Useless!
I was feeling desperate. Each step brought me closer to the next, and I was certain last, phase in my soon to be short unpleasant life.
But as I was descending into gloom, Tros was raising into the light. He was soon walking faster and looking back at me impatiently. He started to whistle a formless tune and occasionally break into a little song.
About mid-day we stopped to eat and water and feed Malthake.
“We’re about an hour from Cleon’s farm. When we get there, you wait in the cart and I’ll go find Belos. I’ll explain to him about your shoulder and ask him to give you light work for a week or so. Now, I have to warn you about Ampelios. He is one of Belos’ men. He likes to teach new slaves who’s the boss. If he comes at you and hits you and you fall down right away, he’ll just keep beating you. He needs to feel like he’s beaten the defiance out of you, even if you never had any defiance to start with. You need to hit back and put up a fight then let him hit you a few times and then fall down and beg for mercy. Then he’ll feel like he’s taught you how things work and after that he’s basically a good guy.”
I listened in horror. I hated this plan! When I’d been hit before I didn’t have a choice about falling down or not and there was no way I could have gotten up. I could feel the sweat running down my back and my hands were shaking. “What if he hits me like the last guy and I can’t get up. What if I can’t fight back? I’ve never hit anyone in my life!”
“There is a first time for everything.”
“What if I can’t fight back?”
He shrugged. “Fight back. Not fighting back is a mistake. I know him.”
“But what if I can’t?” I was on the edge of hysteria
“Do it. Find a way. He wants to see you fight and lose. You have to do it.”
“What if I just ran away right now?”
“I’d catch you. You can’t outrun me. I like you Robert. But you’re my responsibility until we reach Cleon’s. Who knows what they’d do to me, and to my family. I’m sorry, I can’t take that chance. Besides, they’d just catch you and then the punishment would be much worse. It’s a hard lot to be a slave. Don’t make it harder than you have to.”
I tossed a rock angrily into the trees. “Ok, let’s go! I haven’t had my daily beating! No point putting it off!”
He shrugged again and got to his feet and we headed off to Cleon’s
It was more than an hour and the sun was heading down when we arrived. I sat in the cart and talked with Malthake. She was a good listener if nothing else.
As Tros walked across the field a young woman ran up to him and launched herself into his arms, literally flying the last 3 feet. They hugged for a long time and then after several minutes a young girl joined them and the adults crouched down into a group hug.
It was good to see them happy in the midst of this insanity.
They walked off together and I watched them until they were out of sight behind a stand of trees. I hugged Malthake, just to have someone to hug. She tried to bite me, but, still, it was a nice moment for us.
About a half hour later Tros returned with a big ugly man. He was heavily muscled and had a scar across his left eye (although the eye worked ok) and had only a flap of skin where his nose should have been.
“Belos, this is Cleon’s new slave, Robert. I’m delivering him to you as promised.”
Belos without saying anything poked my shoulder hard and I let out a yelp. He looked me over critically and finally said “If this is what was promised, it was a piss poor promise.”
He turned to me “Do what you’re told, when you’re told, work hard, work fast and keep your mouth shut and we’ll be fine.” He fingered the leather whip he had on his belt “Give me the least bit of trouble…” he trailed off leaving the threat unsaid and crystal clear.
He called to a slave boy “Take the new slave down to the vineyards and show him how to kill bugs. You get light duty for now. Don’t make me regret my generosity.”
I followed the boy and Tros and Belos went off together.
The boy, who looked about 7, led me off to the vineyards “I’m Gelo. What’s your name?”
“Hi Gelo, I’m Robert. Nice to meet you.”
“Robert, that’s a weird name. Where are you from? You talk funny.”
“I and my name and my accent are from far away and we’re not so strange where I come from.” Gelo seemed healthy and happy and his cheerfulness lifted my mood. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad.
“I’m from right here. I was born on the farm. There’s only two of us, kids born on the farm. But Cilo’s just a little kid. I’m the only big kid born here.” He was puffed up with pride at the fact.
“Do your mother and father live here too?”
“Yeah! You met my dad, Belos. He’s the boss of the whole farm! That means if you’re going to live here you gotta do what he says. My mom died when I was just a baby. I hardly remember her. I’ve got a new mom! Kind of, well it’s a secret. In fact, forget I said anything.” He looked at me worried that he had said too much.
I nodded that I wo
uld keep his secret. He seemed unsatisfied. “You got to swear.”
“Ok, I swear, although I don’t really know anything. So your secret is safe.”
“You gotta swear by Zeus and all the gods!” He looked at me as a thought dawned on him. “You got gods where you come from?”
“Yes, but they are different.”
“Then you gotta swear by them!”
“I don’t really believe in them.”
“Arg! Then you gotta swear by Zeus and all the gods!”
“Ok, I swear by Zeus and all the gods I won’t tell anyone your secret.”
This seemed to satisfy him and we continued on to the vineyards. He kept up a steady stream of chatter, about the things that interest 7 year old boys, mostly toads.
Once we reached the vineyards he introduced me to a woman who seemed to be in charge. Melite was a woman in her late 30’s. Her skin was dark and tough looking from long exposure to the sun. She wore a cloth over her head and the escaping hairs were just beginning to show some grey.
“Melite, this is Robert, he’s from far away and he’s going to live here on the farm now. He talks funny and dad said that I should show him how to kill bugs.”
Melite grunted a greeting and turned back to her work weeding the vines. Gelo waited a few moments and when she realized we were still there she said “Well, show him how to kill the damn bugs then!” She waived her hand to indicate that we should do it far from her. Still Gelo didn’t move. “What, Gelo, what?”
“Don’t ya want to hear him talk? He talks real funny!”
She sighed, but finally “Yes, talk for me please.”
“Hi I’m Robert.”
“That’s wasn’t enough words to really tell” Suddenly Melite was taking part in the game.
“I hope we’ll be friends. Now if Gelo doesn’t show me my work his father will be angry.” I really was nervous that Belos would come up any second and find us chatting rather than working.
“You’re right Gelo, he does talk funny. Where you from stranger?”
“I’m from America, it’s far away, across the western sea.”
She gave me an odd look, like she had expected something more normal. “That so? Well, you’ll have to tell me about it someday. Right now, Gelo, show him how to kill the bugs. Do it over here close to me so I can make sure you’re doing it right.”
“Arg, Melite, I know how to kill bugs!”
“I know you do, just stay close for a while.”
So, Gelo and I bent over and he showed me the bugs. There were lots of different bugs to learn. Bugs to kill, bugs not to kill. We basically just crushed the ones to kill with our fingers. Gelo enjoyed it more than I did. Anytime I killed the wrong kind of bug he would scream in frustration and explain to me AGAIN how to tell the good bugs from the bad bugs.
The work wasn’t, as promised, very hard and I could almost imagine that I was living on a large commune and voluntarily killing bugs to protect our plants, almost, except for the occasional whip-bearing overseers who passed. Although I didn’t see them use the whips (that day) I could feel the threat and even my toes trembled. I remember how I used to dread when my boss would come into my office to watch me work, this was a thousand times worse.
Gelo wasn’t in the least bit put off by the overseers, perhaps because his father was the head. He did keep me entertained however. I’d never really had much exposure to 7 year olds in my life and I was surprised how much I enjoyed his company. Perhaps because he was the only non-threatening person I currently knew. At any rate, he seemed to have an endless supply of little games and tricks and the time certainly passed more quickly with him there.
When the sun was low Melite called to us that it was time to head back in. As I stood up for the first time in several hours, my back spasmed with pain. I felt a wash of despair. Even the easy work was going to kill me and the overseers with whips didn’t look like the understanding type.
Again the ridiculousness of my situation struck me. Was there nothing I could offer these people to better my situation?
Mitochondria were the power plant of cells. The once had been free living bacteria but now were the oxygen processing part of the cells of complex life (eukaryotic cell!). Useless!
The earth has a molten iron core and the earth’s magnetic field is caused by the motion of that iron core. Useless!
You can make stainless steel by adding other metals, like vanadium (I used to have a vanadium steel kitchen knife), nickel and maybe chromium. That seems like something useful. There certainly would be value in stainless steel – but even though I know that iron ores tend to be red, I have no idea how to find and refine nickel, vanadium or chromium. I don’t really know anything about them, except that the American nickel has no actual nickel in it and, maybe, the Canadian one does. Useless!
I followed Gelo and Melite and about 15 other slaves, mostly women, but a couple of other men in from the vineyard.
It was getting dark by the time we reached the cluster of buildings. Just like the other farm we had visited the slaves lined up to receive their bowl of gruel, some hard bread and a drink of water from the communal barrel. The gruel was actually pretty good (as gruel goes), with some chunks of fresh vegetables and some kind of seasoning. Like all the food here (now?), it lacked salt, but country food was definitely better than city food in my experience.
Gelo, who seemed to have appointed himself as my guide, introduced me to a large number of the other slaves who were sitting near us as we ate. I was famished and exhausted and my back hurt and my shoulder hurt and I was racking my brain for any kind of idea to save myself from this nightmare, so I didn’t really learn anybody’s name but the slaves all seemed friendly enough and even though Gelo told everybody that I was from far away and talked funny, nobody bothered me. I suppose they were all too tired, just like I was.
As we were finishing our dinner, I saw Tros approaching with a woman and young girl and I stood up to greet them. “Robert! I want to introduce you to my wife Eleni and my daughter Cilo.”
“A pleasure to meet you Eleni, Tros has told me all about you. And hello Cilo. I hope we can be friends.” I held out my hand to her, but she was suddenly shy and hid behind her father.
“Nice to meet you too. Robert is it?” She tried my name a few times and finally seemed satisfied with her ability to pronounce it.
Tros asked them to wait a bit while he spoke to me in private and they withdrew a ways. “Robert, in case I don’t see you in the morning, this is goodbye.” He held out his hand and I shook it.
“Thanks for everything Tros. I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll be back by in a few weeks. Listen, I want you to do me a favor.”
“Whatever I can.”
“I want you to keep an eye on Eleni and Cilo.”
“What does that mean? I think they need to keep an eye on me.”
“Just make sure everything is all right. I think they wouldn’t want to worry me with their problems. I just want to know.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what he was asking, but I promised to keep an eye out for them the best I could.
He clasped me on the shoulder and pulled back immediately as I winced in pain. “Sorry.” He shook my hand again. “Good luck. Remember what I told you. Oh, and I promised Cilo you’d tell her a story. See you soon.” And he stopped to look me directly in the eye. “My friend.”
Then he was gone back to his family and it was time for me to go into the dormitory.
This dormitory was older, or at least more dilapidated or poorly built. It was also smaller and more crowded. I watched as other men took blankets from a pile by the door, so I took one too and found a space to lie down. In the close quarters the smell of sweaty and dirty bodies was almost overpowering. Nobody talked to me so I just kept quiet and tried to sleep. There was relatively little noise or conversation and I was getting used to sleeping in the dirt, so I was soon asleep.
I woke in the night and needed to pee, but I was
afraid to use the chamber pots, because I didn’t want to wake anyone by moving around (and possibly stepping on someone in the dark). I lay awake for a while, and finally fell back to sleep. The morning came too soon and before I knew it the door was open and men were moving out.
Gelo and Cilo joined me at breakfast and took me back to the vineyards. Melite was there too, and directed us to work close by her.
My back screamed as I bent to the task, but the sight of an overseer patrolling the vineyards keep me from complaining.
Gelo and Cilo spent more time playing than working, but they were fast bug killers.
From time to time a slave with a pail of water passed. The first time I was a little worried about the communal water pail and the spread of germs, but soon I was so thirsty I couldn’t waste a thought on hygiene.
Germ theory of disease. Wildly important, changed history, but I couldn’t think of a way to use it. Useless!
After about 3 hours, Melite called a break and we sat in what shade there was from the vines to rest for a few minutes. Cilo sat beside me. “My dad says you’ll tell me a story.”
“Ok, I will, because I promised your dad.”
So, I told them all about New York and our world. At least as much as I could tell in the few minutes before Melite told us to get back to work.
As we returned to the bug killing Cilo and Gelo worked close to me and asked me constant questions about my home.
“How can people fly from city to city?”
“Can you really talk to people without being next to them?”
“Is a car as fast as a horse? I saw a horse once and it was super-fast!”
And on and on.
Soon, I noticed Melite listening too.
About mid-day a woman passed with some pieces of barley bread and we took another break.
Gelo and Cilo begged a story. I didn’t want to tell them my version of Casablanca, feeling that war stories and love stories and war-love stories probably wouldn’t interest them. I racked my brain for something good, not wanting to disappoint them. Cilo had pointed out that my description of life in the modern era didn’t really count as a story since nothing happened and it had no heroes.
A New York Lawyer in the Court of Pericles Page 6