BOOK 2: COMMUNITY / CH. 18: THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING

FRIDAY, 28TH JULY

It took until Friday for Enoch's clearance to come through. It actually arrived mid afternoon, by which time of course Enoch was asleep. Karen and George had established an almost normal routine by then. In the morning George would work on his programming and Karen would help Ivan with whatever needed doing in the lab.

Then she and George would eat together, then let Ivan use them as guinea-pigs in his experiments on the power. Normally they'd eat down in his kitchen but of course today was Friday, also known as pizza day. As the pizzas came out of the oven, Karen realised that George still hadn't arrived. She'd been talking to Sarah about last minute wedding related things she could help with. There really wasn't much left to do, but it seemed Sarah needed to talk. George was normally so punctual that Karen checked on his skin to see if he was OK.

He seemed to be frustrated. “Sarah, George is late, and I guess there's something going wrong with his program. If it's OK, I'll go and drag him away in person.”

She went to what was becoming known as George's lair. Karen couldn't remember who had named the computer terminal the dragon, but someone had said that George was fighting the dragon, and the name had stuck. George was fighting valiantly, but there was a problem in one line of code, and he just couldn't see it. He heard the door open and saw his favourite person in the whole world looking at him curiously.

“George, are you OK?”

“There's something wrong with this line of code. Or with the compiler, which I'm beginning to think.”

“Oh, what happens?”

“The subroutine gets called, does its stuff perfectly, but by the time the answer it gives gets to the variable it's changed beyond recognition. Either I've got a typing error in there which I can't see, or something's seriously confused.”

“And you've been staring at it all morning, ignoring your basic needs for fresh air, company, pizza and kisses?”

“Yes.”

“So come away, give me a kiss and we'll let time do its work on the problem. Maybe you just need fresh eyes to see it.”

“Yes, could you look? I think I'm going blind.”

“George love, I don't even know what backwards quotation marks do in this language, how can I understand the line?”

“What do backwards quotes have to do with anything?” George was tired, she could tell.

“George! I want my kiss, now, here!”

“But I don't understand.”

“I know. You've been staring at that screen too long. Now come on. Please, George love?”

He didn't move, but kept on staring at the screen.

“Desperate times need desperate measures. Catch me, George!” And she dropped her crutches and sat herself in his lap. He did catch her, she was happy to observe. “Now, George, first a kiss, please.”

He complied. He didn't really have much choice. He could hardly see the screen past her hair in his face. “Do you appreciate my distraction therapy, George? Did it work?”

“Yes, Karen, I am now totally distracted form the problem I've been trying to solve.”

“Good, because it was getting so important, you've been neglecting yourself and ignoring me.”

“I can't ignore you now, Karen. You're beautiful, your hair feels lovely on my face, and I love you very very much.”

“Good, so will you walk with me up to lunch, or shall I bring you pizza here? I'll have to hold it in my teeth of course.”

“No, Karen, I'll come. Just what did you mean about backward quotes?”

Karen sighed, adjusted her hair so that George could see past it and with one arm round his shoulders and her face close to his she pointed with her other hand. [This is silly, George, have you been getting enough sleep?] she thought at him, then said, “Look, George, backward quote there, and another one there.”

He pressed his forehead to her cheek. [{love} Oh, how could I have missed that? Thank you, Karen. You're wonderful and beautiful and I love you so much.]

[{love} I love you too, George.]

[{Love}]

[{Love} What's happening? {curiosity}]

[{LOVE} feedback? {worry}]

Their surge of concern and worry broke the emotional link that had been building between them, but they both untangled themselves quickly.

[George? That was feedback, wasn't it? ]

[I think it must have been. Not very strong. Fortunately.]

[But me sitting on your lap might not have been the wisest thing. I'm sorry, George.]

[It was very nice, Karen. OK, maybe I enjoyed it a bit too much. But combined with you solving that bug. I guess the two together. Maybe combined with hunger? I don't know.]

[I liked the closeness too, George. Let's go eat though before they eat all the pizzas.]

[Yes. And then sometime we should think about our plans.] As they went along the corridor, George said, “I'm glad Kate didn't object to us going to visit your family and the prisoner.”

“Me too. But what made you think of that now?”

“I really want to talk face to face with your father, Karen.”

The implication was clear to Karen and the realisation that George would actually follow that ancient tradition and ask for her hand caused such a welling up of love in her that she just had to kiss him on the lips. Feedback started almost as soon as their lips met. [Sorry, George. I just felt so much love I just had to kiss you.]

[Nothing quite like love filled, love inspired kisses on the lips to generate feedback. So maybe we can kiss normally without feedback, just not out of love?]

[Or remember to hide our thoughts.]

[Tricky in the heat of the moment.]

[Or keep our emotions under control, my love.]

[Too late there, precious.]

[{love} Stop flirting with feedback, George! You know what that word does to me.]

[Not in great detail, Karen.]

[Sometime we're not so high on each other, I'll tell you then. Failing that, after our wedding. Please only use it if I'm depressed or something. It's certainly a dangerous word now.]

[I'm sorry, Karen.]

There was some pizza left.

----------------------------------------

Karen called Enoch in a moment of calm that hectic evening.

[Enoch, I'm happy to say that you're cleared. Someone sensibly added Rose to the reply, so you can share with her too.]

[That's great, Karen, so tell us about this kid at the embassy.]

[Oh, I'm not interesting.]

[I knew it!]

[Yes, I'm useless at not giving the game away, aren't I?]

[And your mother works for your Security services?]

[Yes, that's one way of putting it. I'm not allowed to say exactly what her role is, but she holds an important position. My father is now our ambassador in a certain country where a variant of Mohammed is a very common name. I don't need to tell you more than that, and of course you can find it out, but won't, I'm sure. When I was learning to check on people's feet and the skin of rooms, I looked at Daddy's feet and I found a tunnel had been dug under the embassy. We don't know if it was a break-in attempt or they were going to fill it with explosives. But the national government is highly embarrassed and want results quickly. Our government don't want the guy I caught digging it tortured, especially since he probably doesn't know much and will almost certainly be under a vow of silence anyway.]

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[You're right, it's complicated. You think he'd keep his vow?]

[Probably. One of the commonest forms, excuse the language, is “may my penis fall off and my children die if this matter passes my lips or if I write about it. “]

[Charming. And he'd believe in the power of that curse?]

[Lots of neighbour of a friend of a friend stories tell him it works.]

[So, either he speaks and risks his children's lives, he thinks, or agrees to be read and thinks the names and he gets off with a few months in jail?]

[Yes, or we don't go, the local authorities accidentally plug him into the electric supply or something, and he's released hardly able to lift his own body off the ground, let alone work, and with his honour in tatters, because no one will believe he didn't talk before they released him, no matter what anyone says.]

[It sounds like it should be an easy choice then.] Enoch said.

[Yes, unless he used a different vow, or is a man of great honour who would rather die than share his knowledge willingly. We have the ability to pull it from his brain. But should we?]

[Ooh. Thanks for getting Rose in on this. I'm going to need her brains.]

[I did think of an extra complication. What if we got his wife and maybe his father or tribal leader involved and they decided that his keeping it hidden was wrong. Would that permit us to ignore his wishes?]

[The guy's the family breadwinner?]

[Almost certainly. Concerned family members are saying, let my Daddy/husband/brother go, all he did was go down a hole.]

[How was he digging? Pickaxe?]

[No, he had a pneumatic drill which had been modified to only work at the same time as the ones being used for road repairs up on the surface.]

[So no one noticed. Clever, but unlikely to be his own work if he's digging holes for a living.]

[Exactly, and it's pretty clear that others were involved in the digging. There were two wheelbarrows down there.]

[But he's the only one caught.]

[Exactly.]

[So he's taking the fall for the boss, and maybe friends and family members who were doing the digging.]

[Probably family.]

[And will the authorities accept his testimony if it's given by a mind-reader?]

[At least as good as an anonymous tip-off, but yes, I think they will. There are cultural stories which seem to match the power.]

[So you can find out who the boss is and then they can get down to torturing the right guy at least.]

[Enoch!]

[Well, won't they?] Rose asked.

[I hope not. The reason for going is to avoid torture!]

[So how do you prevent it?]

[I'll discuss that with my mother.]

[I think it's an important point if that's your motive.]

[Have you ever scanned someone in trying to solve a case, Enoch?]

[I've been tempted to, but no. Not to establish guilt.]

[But to establish innocence?] Karen pressed.

[Yes, I did. Once. But once I had, then what?]

[You can't just tell your colleagues, ‘I know we've spent weeks on his trail but I'm sure he's not the right one after all.’] Rose said. [You need other evidence, or you need no evidence that points to him.]

[Or in the end you need to get yourself reassigned, like I did, to avoid being party to a miscarriage of justice,] Enoch said.

[So that's why you're schools liaison?]

[Sort of. I spent five years as desk sergeant. Then they caught the right guy and decided I had been the star of the whole mucky mess, rather than the slime-ball who wanted the criminal let go, which is what I'd been for all those years.]

[Oh, Enoch!] Karen thought. [That's terrible!]

[Not very nice, no.]

[So you talk to the kids about ethics too?]

[Yes. I try to calm down their blood-lust a little. Vindictive bunch, your typical class of twelve year olds.]

[That's an important job, Enoch. Very important.]

[Thank you. Now, how are the wedding plans going?]

[Well, you know they had this great idea to cater for the wedding themselves? Now if I'd been going to do that the guests would have got soup, stew and rice, or maybe boiled potatoes. But no, Sarah wanted to show off her cooking skills. I guess it's part of the tradition too. After the second batch of dainty little pastry things started to smoke, she decided to have a rest and wash her hair, again.]

[It wasn't John's fault that they burned, was it?]

[No, praise God. He's working away on producing them, Sarah was cooking them and something else at the same time. She forgot to set the timer.]

[Ah. High stress levels over there then?]

[Actually, not other than that disaster. John just said, ‘We've plenty more ingredients’ and set about making another batch.]

[Sounds like Sarah needs a cup of tea or three,] Rose said.

[You're probably right. She hasn't had one for ages, actually. I'll go make one.]

----------------------------------------

“John, I've made tea. Rose suggested it, actually. Do you want to take it to Sarah, and I'll take over the mixing for a while? Or shall I take it?”

“Urm. If you could do the mixing, that'd be great. Thanks.”

John knocked at the bathroom door. “Sarah, Rose sends you this via Karen.”

A bedraggled Sarah opened the door. She'd obviously been crying as well as washing her hair in the sink. Now her hair was dripping all over her pale blue T-shirt and her face. John thought in other words, she looked vulnerable and gorgeous. John put the cup on the table and embraced her. She sobbed harder.

“Oh Sarah, my love, what is it?”

“I can't do it all on time, and I'm going to ruin everything. And I'm a rubbish cook and look terrible and how can you love me? And look, you're hugging me and there isn't any feedback. It's going to be a disaster.”

“Oh, Sarah! Firstly, you look very very beautiful and fragile and I want to wrap you up and protect you. Secondly, there's no feedback because you're so sad and stressed and thinking you're a disaster, not to mention the fact that I'm hiding. Thirdly, you're an excellent cook, and I think we can rescue at least half that last batch. Fourthly, tomorrow morning you're going to be rested and beautiful and radiant beside me, I'm absolutely sure. And if I'm really lucky you might swoon when we're alone and I'll catch you and we'll see what feedback makes happen then, shall we? Fifthly, I don't see how you can possibly ruin everything because if you remember we have enough food to feed an army already, and we're cooking here because as well as you having an industrial sized oven, there was no more physical space to put food in my home unless I sleep on the couch here, which wouldn't be very fitting.”

“Urm, no it wouldn't, would it,” she said with a giggle. “I'm getting things out of perspective you mean?”

“Have some tea. It's a great perspective restorer.”

Sarah had a sip, “Mmm this is good,” and John saw her start to relax. “So you don't think we need eight batches of them?”

“Sarah. You're the one who's good with numbers. How many guests?”

“Sixty.”

“And how many pastries per batch?”

“Thirty.”

“And if you were really hungry, how many could you eat?”

“Five, maybe six.”

“So if all sixty people were really hungry and didn't eat any of the other mountain of delicious food we've made for them, how many pastries would we need?”

“Three hundred to three hundred and sixty.”

“And eight batches is how many?”

“Two hundred and forty. Oh no, we need ten batches!”

“Sarah! What are we going to do with the leftover food mountain in my house if we fill them up on pastries?”

“But...”

“Yes, beloved?”

“I'm sorry. I'm ruining everything,” more tears started to flow.

“Sarah, we've got four and a half batches done. (You drink that tea, love, you need it.) We've also got mixture ready for another two batches. I want you to dry your tears and try one of the burnt ones. They're a bit crunchy but not too bad. Very tasty in fact. When did you wake up this morning?”

“Four o'clock,” Sarah admitted in a small voice.

“Right, my love, in that case, I'm not suggesting, I'm insisting for the sake of our wedding tomorrow. You eat something, and drink something else, and then to bed with you, my tired bride. I'll finish the pastries, or we could just put the mixture in the freezer for another time. Two pastries per head should be plenty.” And he picked her unresisting form up, kissed her eyes, carried her to the kitchen and put her in a chair. “Karen, is there more tea? Or maybe hot chocolate would be better?” John asked. “Sarah's been up since four this morning and she's exhausted.”

“I'm only letting him treat me like this because he's right,” Sarah said rebelliously.

“How did you carry her without feedback, John?” Karen asked.

“I hid. Oops, time to unhide.”

John tried to unhide and found himself stuck, in the thick sticky mud. “Sarah! I'm stuck!”

The note of panic in his voice helped her become instantly alert. “Shiny ball, John, think yourself in a shiny ball, made of teflon, and the mud tries to stick but it can't stick because your ball is light and non-stick and it floats on the mud and it's going to lift you out of the mud and back to me.”

Her talking helped him make the ball and as she gave him more and more instructions it rose faster and faster from the mud. He was out.

“That was scary,” he said.

[Horrible stuff, that mud,] agreed Sarah.

[But John never gets stuck,] Karen said confused.

[But he was hiding a long time then, much longer than normal,] Sarah replied.

[Thank you, thank you, Sarah. I panicked and couldn't remember how to get out. {love, relief} I wonder if feedback is really so bad,] John added. [I'd hate to have to interrupt the wedding service for that sort of thing.]

[Sarah,] Karen thought, [feedback needs touch, doesn’t it?]

[Yes.]

[So apart from when you're giving each other rings, all the time that you're there at the altar holding hands you could be wearing gloves!]

[Oh, no!] Sarah said [Why didn't I think of that!]

[You've got used to taking them off, I guess.]

[No, you don't understand. My white gloves, not the black ones but my white ones, they were with the wedding dress. They match it perfectly! So we don't need to hide, John, we don't need to try to pay attention to the sermon with our minds linked. I just need to wear the gloves that are part of the wedding dress!]

Sarah was so happy that she gave Karen a kiss. [Thank you, Karen, you're wonderful!] [Thank you, Karen,] John thought. [But I hope you don't want a kiss from me. Sarah's got prior claim to all of them.]

[That's fine, John. George seems to have a good supply of them for me,] Karen said blushing slightly.

[How are you two getting on?] John asked.

[Very well. Actually, a little too well for our plans.] [Oh?] Sarah said.

[Yes. We had hoped that we'd only marry in about a years time. But we suffered our first taste of feedback at lunchtime today. So I guess no more cosy snuggles until then, and well, maybe other timings should be explored too.]

[A whole year of avoiding feedback? You'd go nuts!] Sarah said, with feeling. [You know for certain that you love him and he loves you, and it's not just selfish emotions, it's decisions to put each other first. Why delay? But don't you dare try to cater for your wedding guests. John had an excellent idea earlier. Let's put the rest of the mixture in the freezer. It'll keep. I need to sleep.]

John risked a little burst of feedback and kissed Sarah. [Sleep well, my love.]

[You too, my beloved.]

[I think I'll call a transport. I could do with the sleep too.]

He started to clear up the cooking utensils, but Karen chased him away. “Go get some sleep, John. You too, Sarah. I'll clear up.”