Chapter 9

On the drive into town he instructed her how to act and what to be wary of. He told her to speak only if spoken to and to make no references to her life in the future or the fact that she thought that Roy's time period was so backward.

She laughed that he had to operate the car all of the time. She told him that they just told the sky transporters where they wanted to go and it would take them there. She was also amazed that he made it all of the way to town without breaking down. Her history books had said that the cars of this time period were very unreliable and needed to be constantly refueled.

The town was a small place of only 50,000 people. There were the usual shops on the main street and fast food places outside of town. Recently a new shopping center had been built out side of town and he told her that they had best pick up some clothes for her while they were in town. All she had was the one set of clothes that his old girl friend had left at the house. He had stopped at a shoe store not far from the cabin and got her a pair of shoes to wear.

He took her hand and they walked down the street arm in arm. They stopped at every store and looked at the merchandise in the window. She was fascinated with the stores. She told him that everyone in her time got everything that they needed to live on when they started their professions. They used no money and you weren't allowed to give away or trade any of your goods. He watched her and was pleased that she was following his instructions very well. She investigated everything but make no comments about how things were done in her time. As they passed the bank, he felt her tense.

"What's wrong?"

She looked away from the direction that she had been looking and pretended to be interested in another store window.

"There's a dark person over there. How did he get to your country?"

Roy laughed, "You'll see a lot of them. Maybe since the MDD won't ever be invented we just might find a way for the races to co-exist. By the way, we call them blacks or African-Americans."

That was the last incident until they passed a Chinese restaurant. He felt her tense and he stopped and took her into the restaurant. A young oriental girl seated them and Thea clung to his arm. After the girl took their drink order and left the menus, she turned toward the kitchen after stopping at another table.

"I have never even seen pictures of the yellow people. I expected them to be really yellow. Our history books tell us that they are a violent people."

"Remember what I told you about your leaders. That fact was probably because they had some motive for putting down Orientals."

When it came time to order, he ordered for them, as he was sure that she would have no idea what she was ordering. She ate the dinner and seemed to enjoy it. After they had finished he ordered another cup of tea so that they could sit and talk for a while. Since no one was sitting near them, he did not have to watch his words unless he talked really loud.

"How do you like to eat our food? Isn't it better than the nutrition pills?"

"Yes, I did not know that food tastes good. There are so many different tastes. I can see why people become fat. It is possible to eat for enjoyment instead of refueling the body. I don't miss the nutrition capsules."

He made a motion with his hand to quiet her as the waitress came to him with the check. After the waitress dropped the check on the table they continued to talk for a while.

"We're going to have to buy you some clothes. You just can't keep wearing the same set that you have on. What I would suggest is that we stop by J. C. Penny at the mall and pick up a catalog. That way you can get an idea of what the women of today wear. I'm sure that the clothes of today are a lot different than what you are used to.

They went to the mall and walked and window-shopped at every one of the stores. The J. C. Penny store was an anchor store at the end of the mall and they went into the store and bought a catalog. As they walked back toward the car they passed a pet shop. Thea looked at him as if the puppies playing in the window were something from outer space.

"What are those things?'

He smiled at her consternation, "They're puppies, people buy them as pets."

She looked at him strangely and he could see that she did not comprehend what a pet was. He let her watch for a while and saw that she was amused at the antics of the puppies.

"Don't your people have pets?"

"No, this is the first time that I have seen an animal other than humans. We did not have animals on the space colony that I was launched from. There are very few animals left on earth. It has caused us some problems. We found out that we needed animals too late. We have become caretakers of the earth since there are not enough animals to perform the functions that they used to provide."

She watched the puppies playing and would laugh when one of them would be knocked over backwards by another. He explained about people and pets as best as he could. She was shocked that people would touch an animal and even have one in their house.