by J. F. Krause
Fourth Thursday
“I know. I’m going to be very pleased with what you have to report. You realize I don’t need to approve or not. It’s the group’s decision so I’m going to be fine with it. You know that don’t you?” I’m never going to get used to people wanting my approval.
“Yeah, I know that, and you know that, but nobody else does. They really want you to pat them on their collective head and tell them everything is great. And I understand you get to do that tomorrow. So let’s make sure everything really is great, shall we?” Lydia was like a best friend, mentor and big sister all at the same time.
I also knew that every thing is different now. Nobody who used to be in charge was left, and I was a good, safe alternative.
“If anything, after you got shot, you’re even more important. And with your pallid complexion and that bandage around your head, you almost look old enough to actually pass for someone we can trust to make decisions. By the way, this whole thing was on television. Right from your confrontation with George, you remember that, right? Well, from the confrontation all the way through your getting shot and hauled off to the hospital, this has been on TV. You’re becoming a legend. Sorry about that!” She could see that didn’t go down well with me.
“Ugh. I just want to go home and let this blow over. But, I understand. And thanks for letting me whine.”
“Ok, then. The west coast group met all last week and came up with a lot of questions that needed answering. We followed your three content areas: education and training, goods and services, and government.
For your information, we’ve already begun talks with other countries about some fields of study because we’re planning to have a traveling education system for the time being. Since we have unlimited transportation, at least for now, we’re going to move the students to where the teachers are when it comes to the really specialized training. We plan to have several medical training facilities with students getting their basics at one school and then following the coursework they needed by moving to the school offering their chosen specialties. That way, students can spend time at Stanford, here in California and then move on to Johns Hopkins, or Harvard and then on to Oxford and then to Karolinska as well as a few others. There’s at least one on each continent. Each specialty class will stay together, and we will have classes starting every semester. We could in a relatively short time period have scores of classes and specialties depending on how many people choose to go into the medical profession. That way, we only have to lose some of our doctors at a time. In ten years, we may be able to establish permanent sites, but that will be when we have the numbers to do it.
The same will be true of schools of engineering and other highly technical fields. Depending on the type of specialty, there will be schools all over the world that will participate. Now and then a professor may be asked to relocate if they want to participate in a particular program, but no one will be required to do anything they don’t want to do. The emphasis was not only to train the future practitioners of the profession, but also to preserve the institutions at their original sites.
Of course there will also be an emphasis placed on what we still call vocational training. We need a lot of plumbers, electricians, mechanics, and builders of all sorts. We need skills to be maintained and modified for our new environments.
One of the biggest and most contentious discussions was defense. The proposal was to encourage all high school graduates to spend a year learning self-defense, the proper use of firearms, and generally basic survival skills. They wouldn’t be a peace force since that would still be strictly for older volunteers and would be left up to the individual communities how they wanted to handle that. I don’t think that would have passed except the young people themselves got wind of it and wanted to put it in place. I suspect Todd had a hand in that, by the way. The way it works is the young people will be brought to one central training place where they will live together and be trained together. The kids loved the idea and couldn’t wait to get started. Someone in the group thought it likely that half the girls would come back pregnant. Someone else suggested that that would be a good thing. Like I said, if the young people hadn’t gotten wind of the proposal, it might not have gone anywhere. Now, at least they will give it a try.
The goods and services group had the toughest discussions because they really have to integrate things not only from all over the world but also with the education/training people. We need to preserve transportation, for instance. But we simply cannot build new cars for a long time. We need people to keep the cars we have in good repair, and we need gas and fuel. It will be akin to central planning and that didn’t go over well. Strangely, for all the free cars we will have, fuel will be the deciding factor. The same will be true of airplanes. Jet fuel can still be produced, but we will most likely fall back to small passenger jets and planes with propellers.
Farming will be easier if we have places all over the world to trade with. Some of the more exotic foods we have come to love may be gone, at least for a while, but we will still have access to most, if not all, of the more common ones. We’ll still have coffee and tea, but maybe not as wide a variety of them as before.
Variety is the victim in this world. We just don’t have the human population to keep up the endless choices we used to have. Group cafeterias may be the norm for a good while. It’s a small sacrifice considering.
And that brings us to the final group, the government group. We kept quoting you and your ‘government is best that governs least’ to them. I know, you were quoting Jefferson or someone, but we just ended up referring to you. It worked in the end, I think, because there wasn’t any real alternative. I think LaWanda really stole the show when she quoted your “We’re all Libertarians now” line. Most of the non-North American types didn’t have a clue what that was. LaWanda was pretty good with her definition and they slowly began to see that community based government was best for now. We came up with a Rights of People List and a Responsibilities of Communities List. Any survivor community that signs off on both of them is a member of the Collaborative Community. If they don’t, we’ll still trade with them, but we won’t defend them or collaborate educationally with them. I think most will sign, primarily because of the education component and the fact that there are some bad people out there. So what do you think?”
“Can I see a list of the Rights and the Responsibilities?”
“Sure. I don’t think even you can get them to change them, though.”
“I just want to see them,” I assured her. “We can add to them for our own community can’t we? That’s still an option isn’t it?”
“Of course. That very thing was discussed. At length. I think you’ll see the responsibilities are pretty nailed down,” she declared.
“Oh, one thing before I forget, we decided to have a common defense force in some things and local defense in others. After the conditioning training, we are going to offer the graduates the opportunity to join the common navy and air force. Combat and police will also be trained jointly, but they will be locally controlled.” Lydia handed me a group of folders, but she had covered most of this from memory. I was very impressed and said so.
“Now, there’s something you have to agree to, or it won’t happen. They want an Executive Manager for the Collaborative Community. They want you to step down from the San Luis Obispo Speakership and take the Executive Manager position.”
“Uh, I, uh. What are you saying?” I was flabbergasted. “I don’t want to do that!”
“Well, if you don’t none of this may happen. You’re really the only person, literally on the planet, right now, that virtually everyone knows. You and Todd, probably. And no, Todd can’t do it, and we aren’t even willing to ask. He can’t wait to go off to training camp for a year, anyway.”
“I don’t want to leave SLO. Not now. I have a home. I have the boys. I have….. I don’t want to do it.” I felt trapped.
“Don’t worry, you won�
��t have to travel much. They all agreed to send people to you if they needed anything. You’ll do every thing by satellite. And yes, we have satellites that we control. They’ll do anything to make you happy. You’ll have your same office, Calloway House, and your personal house. I’ve been asked to take your place as Speaker for SLO, but only if you agree.” She seemed so calm and I was flaming out inside.
“Does Dr. Mary know you were going to tell me this? You could cause me a lot of harm saying stuff like that!” I was grasping at straws, but I wasn’t kidding.
“She’s right outside the door. All I have to do is call her in. Kevin, too. Everyone else is too, for that matter, except for LaWanda. She’ll be here soon, though. Believe it or not, the electricians found a little boy this morning when they were working on Monterrey’s electricity. He’s five and has been living on candy and chips. When they found him, he was so dirty that, aside from his bright blue eyes, no one could tell what he looked like. He’s so malnourished that LaWanda took him in. He’s one of a lot of kids that has a future because you did what needed to be done the first day I met you, Bobby. And you’re not finished.” Lydia had a way of appealing to my responsible streak.
“Let me think about it. You know, I don’t want to do this. Why didn’t anyone stand up for me. I was unconscious!” I was a little pissed. You miss a meeting and get appointed to stuff.
“No you weren’t. This was done yesterday when it was clear you’d probably live.” She was very comforting.
“Is this the reason you came here alone? Where’s Jane?” I asked.
“As a matter of fact, it is. Jane’s outside, too. Like I said, everyone’s outside except for LaWanda. You know, Jane, Anna, Carl, Irma, Marco, and Avery
“Okay, let’s have lunch and I’ll think about it. This involves the kids and I need to talk to Kevin. Was this conversation recorded?”
“No. Did you want it recorded?”
“Good Heavens, no!”
Lydia smiled. “I’ll get everyone.”
Lunch was all small talk. I didn’t want to talk about anything related to my being the executive manager of anything other than SLO. While we were all eating, LaWanda returned with news about her new child. She was clearly revved up. LaWanda had never experienced motherhood, and now she had a towheaded future surfer boy who would need a skilled dietitian if his month of eating nothing but sugar, fat, and salt wasn’t going to leave some permanent damage.
Finally, I was ready to get back to business. “Okay, doctor, how’m I doing. Physically, I mean. Yesterday, you didn’t want me even talking to anyone at all, and now, suddenly I’m the leader of the free world? This is crazy!”
“You’re doing much better today than anyone expected, and yes, you’re too weak to be up and about, but some things just won’t wait.” Mary stopped and looked over at Lydia, and I realized Lydia had already been taking my place for the last week and a half and that there was more going on than a simple report.
Lydia continued, “The Mediterranean communities are very worried. They need help right now, which probably isn’t going to happen. There are small groups of bad men, and let’s be honest, they are men, who have started what amounts to a bunch of pirate attacks that masquerade as miniature holy wars. Nothing is as we remember it. Rome is organized, but Sicily isn’t. Malta has already experienced what amounts to a slaver raid from someplace in North Africa. Fortunately, there weren’t enough raiders to do much damage and the locals knew where to hide. Tunis is barely holding out against these men because they have to always be looking over their shoulders at who is trying to kill them. These are tiny little attacks against tiny survivor groups. Europe is pulling together as fast they can, but there is a confidence factor that’s missing.
All the survivors everywhere are just regular people. We don’t have charismatic leadership because all of them died. Instead, we have a name, a single person that managed to get talked about and listened to because there was no one else to talk about and listen to. Like it or not, you are the name, the voice, and now the face, of normalcy and hope.
We know you don’t want to do this. We know you feel inadequate, and we know you don’t like being in the spotlight. But like it or not, everyone trusts you. We trust you. I trust you. Thanks to Todd’s broadcasts, you’re everyone’s favorite teacher. And right now, everyone is a scared kid who needs a favorite teacher to tell them what to do.
And we know, because you’ve told us often enough: you’re too young, you’re not experienced enough, you’re too shy and unsure of yourself; and you probably don’t have any idea what you’re doing. And you’re right, you’re probably not the most qualified person to deal with this, but you’re the most likely to succeed. Sorry to be blunt. And while I’m being blunt, you’re also honest, considerate, kind, and genuinely smart. I can go on, but we all know you’re the person we need to do this right now, and so will you when you think about it.” As I’ve mentioned before, Lydia is like a sister and best friend combined.
I looked around the room and saw nothing but agreement with Lydia. Even Kevin was solemnly nodding his head. Seeing Kevin agreeing, I felt sadness for some reason. I wanted to say no and keep things the way they were, but even Kevin was saying that was not to be.
Before I could answer, Lydia was talking again. “Bobby, we know you want things to stay the same, and we’ll all be here to help, but we haven’t been given many choices lately. And by the way, everyone knows you’re gay. It was discussed at length yesterday, and it was all recorded. Sorry about that, but everyone’s good with it. That’s how bad this is. We also know you have a thing for Kevin, and Kevin has a thing for you. Sorry guys, but someone has to say something sooner than later since neither of you seem willing to, and we don’t have any more time to wait while you two play footsie with each other. We’ll let you talk it over because you need to. And then you need to let us know what you’re decision is. Soon.”
I looked at Kevin, and he seemed as caught off guard as I was. Did he feel about me the way I felt about him? From his expression, I couldn’t tell. Then, he smiled! I knew, and I knew what to do next.
But I had to ask one thing: “How did you know I was gay?”
Lydia couldn’t wait to answer. “Please. I’ve known ever since you asked directions back at the Nixon Library. Straight men don’t ask directions!”