His mechanical voice stated - 'Protein toast' and he rolled away.
The place was deserted, not many opting for the the latest in processed foods, but it was cheap and filling. Hell, the other stuff would kill you too, so might as well try something new.
There were shiny red walls with white stripes and a black and white checkerboard floor. The tables and chairs looked like retro soda shop and the music was all 1950's. It was fun and lively and if I didn't get sick, I would bring my friends.
The food tasted like cheese toast and then there was real Coca Cola. I tapped the menu and ordered fried starch and the bot was there rapidly with scalding hot, what looked like french fries. I would order these together next time! He scanned my forehead for debit points and I checked my comp unit and saw I had only spent three debits, so less than the old dollar, cool!
I took my trash to the receptacle and the bot thanked me and asked if I would do a survey for free credits on my next meal. He held out what looked like a large computer tablet with the questions.
Number 1: Do you have a garden? No
Number 2: Do you ever cook at home? Rarely
Number 3: Did you enjoy your visit to the AutoBot Cafe? Yes
I left and walked the short distance to my home. I lived in the back of an old shoe repair shop and inhaled the aroma of old shoe polishes, over a century old. It smelled wonderful. I had read the brochures of the shop and the polish was applied to leather shoes. I then had to look up leather and was disgusted and threw the brochure away.
Leather came from the time of meat eaters and animal killers. It was horrible. I shared my tiny home with many animals, free to come and go. I fed them from supplies dropped off weekly. I was told I had dogs and cats and something called a bird. We didn't quite know how to interact except when I slept and then I would feel the dog and cat get into bed with me and the cat would vibrate me with a soothing vibration, someone had told me was a purr. It was lovely.
I am female and older than most, at 33, but I am used to the stares. They say I am just healthy and could live to even 35 years old. I really do have a garden, but they are illegal, so I had to lie. I had found, in the the shoe shop, a wooden box of Heirloom seeds and studied them. I planted one seed as directed and grew a small plant called tomato. I ate all the red fruit and saved some of its seeds.
I am now growing a lettuce. It looks like leaves, but it is said to be good for you, so I will eat it too. The bird likes bits of the stuff I grow, but the cat and dog eat their kibble.
I don't cook at home, for there is no room to cook. My place is 10 feet by 10 feet, they said, but nice and warm with my own water and toilet and a thing called a sink to wash tings or myself. I found tiny bars of soap in the shoe shop too and it was said it was for washing, so I washed everything with it.
As you walk in, the door opens just enough for me to squeeze in, which is good since I am tiny at 98 pounds. No big folks could get in. Behind the door was my sink and toilet. Straight ahead was my bed, called a futon, that I could lift up and hang on the wall should I like to walk or have more space.
Next to the bed was a standing light and the other side of the room were pallets for the animals and a bird cage. I had a slit window for a little sun.
The Realtor told me the shop came with the home, but I had to enter through the attic (my choice) or the front door. I preferred the attic so no one knew there was anything in it. The windows were painted black and the door was braced from the inside.
I had been investigating the store for several years, starting at the left front corner. It was quite and adventure.
I stretched on the futon and before I knew it the animals were in bed with me. We all moaned in comfort and were fast asleep.
Back To Work
My job was at the aquarium and I did anything assigned to me; anything to work there. It was surreal! Water everywhere; all around, above and below your feet. I mopped, scrubbed, swept, emptied trash. I think my title was janitor, an upper level position someone of my age, but I never complained or missed work so they allowed me to work the position.
I watched the fish eat green stuff in the aquarium under the guise of cleaning the glass. It looked like my lettuce. I asked one of the keepers what the fish was eating and he looked it up on his wrist display. "Sea grass. Why?"
"Some eat pellets and see some eat the green stuff, so was just wondering." He nodded. "They all eat a little of the green stuff at times." He walked off.
"Ann Shoe to the office please." I gathered my equipment and loaded my cleaning cart and headed to the office. I parked outside and removed my gloves. The door opened for me automatically.
"Shoe, Ann age thirty three years old. You are oldest employee and are doing a wonderful job. You have to go for another physical though, due to your age."
"Yes, Ma'am, I am ready." She handed me a sheath of papers.
"Go now, then. Your area is sparkling, as usual." I nodded, put my work cart away and went to the medical clinic.
I had to sit awhile and decided to read my file. It was boring. All it said was, 'Health, excellent' all the way down to childhood.
"Shoe, Ann?" I stood and followed the MedBot. I was weighed and measured and had every body fluid examined. I sat in a paper covering while awaited the human doctor.
"Ann, hello again! I am always surprised to see you! We would love to know how you are living so long and are in excellent health."
I told her every detail of my life, except my plants, and she recorded every word.
"Maybe having pets is good for you. You speak of such relaxation when you sleep with them. We will try that on a group and see if that helps. How do you like the new fried starch at the cafe? Good, huh?"
"Delicious! I might put on a few pounds." She smiled.
"You are quite small and weigh so little. Maybe a lower weight is also helping you?"
She dismissed me with a note to take to work tomorrow. I was to go home to my pets now after a picked up a free dinner at the cafe. She gave me a voucher for anything I wanted. I wondered what the animals would like...
I ordered the 'cheese toast and fried starch and a coca cola for me and then two different proteins for the animals. I skipped home and people stared, so I slowed to an old woman's pace.
We all sat on the futon and shared the feast, but not before I went to the attic and grabbed some lettuce for me and bird. I should grow more up there. There was a skylight, so I couldn't let things be seen by the drones, but they needed sunshine, I had learned. I would have to ask my friend, Bob Book.
It was early, so I walked to his home, an old book store. I traded him shoe items for books.
He was delighted to have company and offered me a sweet, but I declined. My stomach didn't like sweets. He also had a secret, so I had told him mine. He was making sweets to sell.
"Do you have a book, or know, of glass that sunshine can get through, but the drones can't see through?"
"Hm, let me think about that one wile you get a free book for turning down a sweet!" I chose a gardening book, but had to hide it in my fake pouch in my overhauls. Luckily it was small. I thanked him and left ready for a new book.
Cat, dog and I opened the book, once I had disguised the cover with another book; drone check being due anytime now, and I began to read. I was so glad I had water in my home and was able to use soil from the basement, rich and almost black and it smelled wonderful. Now for the sunshine... I could use lamps, but power was monitored. I would have to wait for Bob.
I really just needed a way that the drones would see something else. A hologram! I would ask Bob. I would prefer being able to slide the window up on one side since glass filtered some of the rays they needed. Well, time to sleep on it.
Back to Medical
"Please, have a seat." Said the doctor. "We have some interesting findings on you and I would like to ask a few more questions. First, I see that you like to take walks, long walks on the weekend. Where do you go?"
"To where the plants begin, but I never cross the border, of course."
"Do you touch them?" I nodded.
"Have you ever eaten any part of one?" I knew not to lie, for I could see a monitor reading me.
"I pinched a leaf once and it smelled so good, I munched some. I think it is called mint? I do that once in awhile to different things I see."
"Aren't you scared to try them?"
"Not really. Some seem safe and some don't. Like some colored things... you see birds eat one kind, but then another animal won't. I guess I just know."
"Would you be willing to go with a researcher and show him what you have tried and what you think you shouldn't try?"
"Sure! When?"
"Now?" I nodded.
I met the researcher at the back dock and we rode in a vehicle. I had never been in one before. It was quite small with a cloth roof and open sides. He fastened a belt around me so I wouldn't fall out.
I told him where to stop and he pulled over with multiple sample bags and scissors.
"Can you show me some you have tried and some you won't?"
I found the mint first and he moaned at the scent, cutting off a large sprig for the bag and tagging the plant with a red marker that said MINT.
I showed him the different types of mint; different scents and then a plunk distracted us. A squirrel had dropped a nut.
"Oh! These are great! This is a nut. You crack the hard shell and eat what is inside."
The border was just a foot away, so we could go no further, but I showed him different berries that I hadn't tried.
UNTRIED BERRIES he marked each and gathered some.
"Some birds eat, some don't. Squirrels won't eat them." We went back to the vehicle.
"Let's have lunch before we go back, okay?" I nodded. Maybe he knew a new place.
We went to his home. It was a trailer.
"What is your first name Mr. or Dr. Trailer?"
"Mr. and it is Tom." He smiled and led me behind the trailer. I stopped and gasped. He had a garden!
"Don't get excited! It is for the lab and the fish, but I was wondering if you had tried any of these before in the wild."
Scared about saying to much, I pointed to the lettuce. "It didn't make me sick and I even took a pinch home to my bird who loved it."
"Anything else look familiar?" I wondered if it was a test.
I knew all the pictures and wondered if they could tell I had a tomato before. I saw a tiny bush of cherry tomatoes and pointed.
"All the creatures were eating from that kind of bush one day, so I had a tiny one. It was delicious. It is a tomato, I think. Have you never tried any of these?"
"Oh, no! We are all too scared, but with your advanced years and your lab work being so good, we decided to ask. The highly processed, uh, food, is not very good for us."
"It makes me sick sometimes."
"I have been given a grant, debits, to start growing real food and I wanted to ask you about your experience."
"I will reveal, only to you, what I know, but only with an secured oath of secrecy. I am too old to go to prison." He nodded.
We drove back to the the Aquarium and he led me to the legal office where an AttorneyBot sat at a desk. We discussed the matter with him and he sent for a SweeperBot to make sure the room was sealed from transmissions. It was.
The AttorneyBot had us slide our hands in an apparatus and it was like we were shaking hands. It was pleasant at first, holding a warm human hand.
"Tell Mr. Trailer what he must swear to." I felt a buzzing on my hand and began to speak.
"You must swear not to reveal what I show you at my house, any part of my house or anything in my house without permission. Also, anything I said to you regarding the matters of today and how they apply to the future endeavors. Do you so swear?"
We braced ourselves. "I so swear." A electric buzz seared the backside of each of our pinkie fingers OATH. We were branded. It released us and we were handed a soothing bandage.
"Time to test the Oath, Mr. Trailer. What did Miss Shoe show you today? Now try to answer the question honestly of what she would NOT want you to say."
"Miss Shoe showed me..." He yelped in pain and his finger flared red.
"Good."
"May I ask a question?"
"Yes, Miss Shoe."
"What if he were to lose that finger in an accident?"
"It transfers to the next finger and can be moved all over the body. It is permanent."
"Thank you." Tom and I stood and bowed.
Our fingers were all ready healing. "I hear this is how they do marriages too! Ouch!" we both laughed and went back to work after I told him we would set up an appointment for the weekend. He agreed.
The Weekend Meeting
"I am so sorry, but I brought coffee and fried sugar dough." I smiled and we made room for him on the futon and even the animals liked a bit of the sugar dough. The cat and dog went out and he spread out a big pad of paper and even had a pouch of writing utensils. I gasped.
"Where do you get those and are they expensive?" He pulled off a section of the tablet and gave me two utensils.
I hugged them to me. I had always wanted to learn how to write.
I watched him write quickly, but had no idea what it said, so I was glad we had done the oath. He didn't write like typing, but a different way, something called cursive.
"Where would you like to start?" I asked.
"Seeds? Have you heard of those?" I gestured him to follow me and we went to the shoe shop up front. I opened the wooden case and showed him the sealed jars of packs of heirloom seeds.
"Oh my gosh! This is what was supposed to be passed on from person to person as people died, so we would always have fresh food!"
"They came with the house." I smiled.
He closed it tightly again and followed me to the attic. I showed him my mini garden and handed him a cherry tomato. I took one too and he ate them with joy. I gave him a little lettuce too.
"Soil, seed, water, sun and then food."
"Where do you get healthy soil?" He followed again.
When he saw the heaps of dark rich soil he smelled it. "How do you keep it from ruining?" I showed him how I turned and mixed it with a pitchfork.
"How did you learn to do all this?"
"A friend lends or gives me plant books on organic gardening?"
"Organic?"
"No chemicals, like what we eat all the time." I showed him my hidden stack of books and he wrote down titles to research, if he could find them.
"I will get to work and I think the first thing I want to do is find a place, maybe your roof, where we can grow more plants and see what happens. What do you think? How would you like that as your new job and teach others as well if it is all approved?"
"I would love it!" I let him out and was excited. Cat, dog and I took a nap dreaming of a new life.
My New Job
They had moved us to a hotel, a fancy place that delivered food, but I began to feel sick, so Tom would bring anything growing so I could maintain my health.
I now entered in the front door and the back door was just for emergencies and the animal door. The office and living section were separated by a curtain that could be pulled back and there was a drop down table for eating.
The stairs to the roof were wide and deep now, with a conveyor system from the basement for soil. The roof, except the top was surrounded by smart concrete wall; I could see out, but no one could see in, except the drones, but they were part of the program now. The whole roof was a garden, with a table and chairs and watering system. The drones monitored the plants each twelve hours, but I still talked to them and even sang to them.
This behavior was reported and Tom came to see it.
"Why are you talking and singing to plants?"
"They are alive and it helps them grow." He nodded and made a note.
I showed him how to prune for shorter plants and all sorts of things I had read and learned. He recorded it all.
There was a group of select older citizens, 30 years old, to add fresh food to their diets and they began to flourish as I did.
The medical tests were all improving on them and the medical team wanted to try children and see how they fared. They too were vibrant and not Bot playing round balls of inactivity.
It was decided.
The Announcement
"We are honoring Ms. Shoe-Trailer as the Citizen of the Year for her contribution of fresh and healthy foods in our formerly processed food world."
I stood and bowed slightly.
"I will be glad to teach everyone to have their own home garden!" The crowd applauded.
Now
The AutoBot Cafe sat quiet as the aging and healthy population jogged by...
No comments:
Post a Comment