Chapter 36

"Thank you, Madame Chairman. In the course of deliberation of our new policy of assisting humans in poor economic circumstances, we have encountered a number of factors which were not clear to us previously. One of these is education. We would like to be able to assist the children of poorer parents to get a good education, as this will enhance their future economic prospects. We have discovered that ANY children in very rural locations are deprived of access to a good education, unless the parents are financially well enough endowed to provide daily transportation to and from the school. The present road network exacerbates attaining that objective. Thus it is all children who are in such a deprived position that we wish to help.

Our proposal is that we should set up an on-line primary education system on Rehome. We would offer this through your phones, and enable these phones to display their screens in a large format on the nearest white wall. The transmission should be interactive, which is where you come in.

We can transmit the lessons to the children, with additional information for parental input. The parents would deal with simple procedural questions from the children. You would provide a number of teachers as responders to questions which are of a true educational nature. We have modelled this proposal on the Australian long-distance school service provided in the days of radio.

That is the outline of our proposal. Details can be discussed and agreed later. We would absorb the cost of setting up this service on the technical side, if you will agree to finance the teacher adviser hub. That is all we wish to say at this point, until you have fully considered the matter. We will withdraw, so that you will not be embarrassed if your feel you have to speak against the proposal. Please ring The Personalia if you wish to continue with this proposal."

Their phones all closed down. Ruth put up her hand and caught the Chairwoman's eye. "Madame Chairman, I wish to state that I had actually switched off my phone ringer, but The Personalia were able to switch it back on in order to speak to me. I say this so that you will understand I did nothing directly to cause the interruption." She sat down again.

Mrs Prentice declared, "Very well. That has been noted. Can we now have comments on the proposal mooted by The Personalia?"

There was considerable heated argument, but it centred on who would control the content of the lessons to be broadcast by The Personalia. They were all agreeable to The Personalia setting up and paying for the network. Providing a few teachers to man the hub was a minor matter beside that. After an hour, they had thrashed out their main requirements of the system, and finally called The Personalia back.

"Sirs and/or madams Persons, we are agreeable to your proposals with the following provisos:

1. The network should be available to any child in the Colony, as a child made be at home through personal illness, or parental illness, or other family problems.

2. The content of the lessons should be based entirely on the lessons used at school, amended where necessary to reflect a different style of feedback.

3. There should be home visits made periodically to the child. This will allow the teacher to assess home conditions for the pupil, and permit the parents to question the teacher on the pupil's rate of progress.

4. There should also be arrangements to speed up a child's progress if he/she shows promise, and conversely to give reinforcement where a child is not succeeding as expected.

5. There should be continuous revision of the class content, and The Personalia are invited to suggest alterations to content where the data presented is no longer factually correct.

6. Both parties have the right and duty to point out possible improvements to the system, at any time, and such suggestions will be considered very carefully.

That is the gist of our response, and we await your comments in due course."

There was a pause of about two seconds, then. "Acceptable. We agree entirely."

At the farm, Winston also received a call, but not from The Personalia. Instead, it was the owner of the transport hire firm. The man said, "Is that Winston Oluwosu?"

"It is, sir. How may I help you?"

"Actually, Winston – if I may use your first name (it is easier for me)?"

"Please do, sir."

"Well, Winston, (my name is Preston, by the way), today I got a call from The Personalia, you know, these spaceship intelligences? Well, these guys asked if I had you on my books as a customer, and when I said yes, well, they asked me how much it would cost you for a year's hire. So I told them. They next asked how much it would cost to buy the unit you are using, outright. Well, I had to think for a minute, as it is not completely new any more. I came up with a ball park figure, and the Personalia guy said to me "That is a little on the high side, we think. If you dropped the price by another five hundred dollars, you can have a sale, and the cash will be in your bank account in a few minutes. What do you think, Preston?"

Well, I can tell you, Winston I was shaken a bit. It is not every day you get negotiated down by an alien spaceship intelligence. Well, I said yes, and they said to make out the bill of sale in the names of Winston Oluwosu and Olu Odumosu. So that is what I did, so you now own the vehicle you hired from us; and the next decision for you is, do you want this document sent to you, or will you come in to collect it?"

Winston was gobsmacked for a moment, and had to pull himself together before he could speak.

"Winston? Are you still there?" Preston enquired anxiously.

"Sorry, yes, Preston. I have to be in Metropolis tomorrow anyway, so I shall call in and collect it then, to save you the trouble of sending it. Say, do you know if there is a jeweller, or rather a silversmith, in town?"

"Eh? Oh, there is, yes. The shop where we got my wife's wedding and engagement rings. Well, he is a silversmith. I saw it somewhere in his shop. Well, his place is on the next street down from where we are, so easy to get to when you are here. See you tomorrow, old son."

Winston conveyed the news to Olu. The other man was delighted. "Man, I am part-owner of a vehicle as well as a farm! And you are going to be my brother-in-law as well. Life has never been so good, old friend!"

Winston had to speak to him about something else. "Olu, I have to take the girls into Metropolis tomorrow, to get necklaces designed and made for us; the equivalent of engagement rings."

"Necklaces? For my sisters? Lovely idea, Winston. They will be tickled to bits. It is so romantic."

"No, the necklaces are for the three of us: Me and the girls. What I am thinking of is that I get a necklace – more a sort of pendant – with the initials A and E with a W in the middle, set in a heart shape.

What I don't know is, should all three of us have identical necklaces, or should Adeola have one with A and W; and Eniola have on with E and W?"

"I'd go with the triplet, Winston. The twins already love each other, and you are in the middle of their love as far as they are concerned, so the same for all three of you is fine. I would say that is perfect."

"Thanks, Olu. I knew I could depend on you to give me the best advice. Only, don't tell them in advance. Let them wait till we are in the shop and I show them the design for their approval before they get made. This is like going to buy engagement rings."

Mrs Angelina Frederickson came into the offices of her company with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She was having another bout of so-called "morning sickness", that often lasted most of the day. It interfered with her own efficiency, and made her a bit crabby with everyone around her, which she hated. She blamed herself, for it was her body that was causing this awkwardness. Her sister Annetta had told her, "You can't blame yourself or your body for a natural process in life, Sis. With a bit of luck, it will go away. I am lucky, so far, in that it hasn't hit me, so I can teach the kids at school as normal. I am not even showing yet, so the kids don't know I am expecting; just my colleagues." She giggled at a memory, and went on, "I still get a kick out of the children calling me "Mrs Frederickson". It makes me so happy."

Angelina responded, "I know what you mean. Even after six months, I still enjoy hearing my married name spoken by visitors."

As she made her way to her Managing Director's office, she was accosted by her secretary, Sylvia.

"Ma'am, can I have a private word at some point, please? I need your advice."

"Certainly, Sylvie. Is there much in my "In" Tray?"

"A fair bit, Mrs Frederickson, but nothing urgent, I think."

"Right. In that case, let me have five minutes to sit and allow my body to calm down again - it is that blasted morning sickness again, Sylvie – then you can come through and we can have a chat in private."

When Sylvia came through, boredom had already fired Angelina enough that she had gone through the first two documents, approving them. They were contracts with the French fishermen, one for the current year's supply, and other a memorandum of understanding for future years. She laid down the papers, and gestured to Sylvia to sit down.

"Now, Sylvia, what is your problem?"

"It isn't a problem, as such, Angelina; or rather, it is and it isn't. It is very confusing. Can I start at the beginning? This may take some time."

Angelina sat back to listen in comfort. Sylvia had permission to call her Angelina in private, and she knew almost everything there was to know about Sylvia. "Go, on, Sylvie."

"Well, I was having my morning run a few days ago, when this man came up to me - he was also running. He was a little bit overweight, so I guessed he was on the same task: getting the weight down."

Angelina waved a hand, to encourage her to get to the point, "And?"

"Oh. Yes, he said to me, "You are a lovely lady? Do you come this way often?" I was gobsmacked, I can tell you! This is the first time I have been told by a stranger that I looked lovely."

"Not undeserved now, Sylvie, but go on."

"Well, he asked if he might run alongside me for a while. He said he would look good if he had a lovely lady beside him on his run."

"Wow! This guy has a way with words, Sylvia."

"You bet. We didn't talk much, that morning, but what he did say was all in the line of compliments. He did manage to slip in a remark about perhaps annoying my boyfriend or husband by being so forward. It was only after I replied that I was unattached at present, that I realised he had been fishing for that information. Before we finished, he asked if I did the same run every day, at around the same time, and I said that was so.

Next morning, there he was again, and the chat continued. I tried to sound slightly annoyed at one point, and suggested that he might be two-timing his girlfriend or wife. He looked shocked, then happy as he replied that he, too, was unattached, so he was not causing anyone any bother, except perhaps for me. I waited for another spot where we were not within hearing of others, and said, "No, you are not annoying me, Mr whatsyourname."

Angelina gave a little grin. "I am beginning to enjoy your tale, Sylvia."

"Thank you, Angelina. There's more. He told me his name was Herbert Jameson, and he was an engineer on the rail network. I always thought of engineers as big burly fellows with dirty hands, but he told me he spent most of his working life in an office, solving technical problems. He is a graduate, Ma'am, but doesn't have that "geeky" look one might expect."