New Apples in the Garden

by Kris Neville

said. Maybe it'll get easier after the end ofthe month."

  "You said it was all that new construction work in the Valley that'smaking you so shorthanded."

  "That's part of it."

  "They're not scheduled to finish until ... when, sometime next year,isn't it?"

  "The end of '81 right now."

  "Eddie! Listen to me! I hardly ever see you any more. You're not goingto have to put in all this overtime for the next two years!"

  "Of course not," Eddie said. "Maybe after this month, that's all, andthe work load will level off."

  * * * * *

  Larry, dressed for bed, came in. "Eddie?"

  "Your father's tired."

  "I want to ask him something."

  "What is it, Larry?" Eddie asked.

  "Eddie, you know the little culture I was running for science class?Something's wrong. Will you look at it?"

  "Daddy's...."

  "I'll look at it, Lois." Eddie accompanied his son to his son's room.

  "What do you think is wrong, Dad?"

  "Well, let's see...."

  "What is it?" Larry asked. "What made it stop growing?"

  Eddie did not answer for a minute. Then: "You start with one or two ...well, it's like this, Larry. I'm afraid it's dead. They growexponentially. Figure out how much money you'd have at the end of a monthif you started with just a penny and doubled your money every day. In justa little while, you'd have all the money in the world. Figure it outsometime. Things that grow exponentially, they just don't know when toquit. And your culture, here, it grew until the environment could nolonger support it and all at once the food was eaten up and it died."

  "I ... see.... Something like that could just grow until it took overthe whole world, couldn't it?"

  Again Eddie was silent for a moment. Then he rumpled his son's hair."That's science fiction, Larry."

  * * * * *

  Later, while they were listening to FM, there was a news breakreporting a fire out of control in South Los Angeles.

  "That's near Becky's, I'll bet," she said. "I better phone."

  The phone was still out of order.

  "I sure feel cut off without a phone."

  After an interlude of music, Lois said, "Larry wants to be anengineer, now. I guess after what you said, maybe that's a pretty goodthing."

  Eddie looked up from his cigarette. "Why this all of a sudden?"

  "One of his teachers told him what you said--there's a growingengineering shortage."

  "I thought he wanted to be an astronaut."

  "You know Larry. That was last week. His teacher said we're not goingto start up the space program again. It's too expensive. We just don'thave the technical man-power and materials to spare."

  "We are in.... But these kids, young kids they're turning out--theyaren't getting the education today. And if anything, I sometimes thinkit almost makes our jobs even worse, correcting their mistakes. Isometimes wonder where it's all going to stop."

  There was more news from the fire front.

  Fire fighters were having a very difficult time. Two water mains hadbroken and the pressure was dropping. The fire was reported to havebeen caused by the explosion of a gas main. Rising winds did notpromise to abate until dawn.

  "I sure wish I could get through to Beck," Lois said. "Oh, I guess Itold you, did I? Her sister has hypoglycemia, they found out. That'swhy she's been tired all the time."

  "Never heard of it."

  "Low blood sugar. It's caused by an overactive gland on the pancreas.And treatment is just the opposite of what you'd think, too. I'll betyou'd never guess. If you increase the amount of sugar in the diet,the gland becomes just that much more active to get rid of it and thehypoglycemia gets worse. It's what I'll bet you engineers call afeedback. Isn't that what you call it? Well ... the way doctors treatit is to _reduce_ the amount of sugar you eat. And after a little bit,the pancreas gets back its normal function, and the patient gets well.I told you you'd never guess!"

  After a long time, Eddie said, very softly, "Oh."

  * * * * *

  Just after midnight, they went to bed.

  "I've been ..." Lois began and then stopped. "I don't know. Jumpy. Themarket was up again today. Another all-time high. Do you thinkthere'll be another Crash? Like 'way back in 1929."

  She could feel him lying tense beside her in the darkness. "No," hesaid slowly, "I don't think so. I don't think there'll be a Crash."

  In spite of the warmth of the room, she could not suppress aninvoluntary shudder whose cause was nameless. Suddenly, she did notwant to ask any more questions.

  The wind was rattling the windows.

  * * * * *