Slow Living (EarthCent Universe Book 5) by E. M. Foner

Author:E. M. Foner [Foner, E. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Foner Books
Published: 2022-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Twelve

“I can’t believe how much blue tea you sell,” Bill said, looking up from the accounting readout on the miniregister. “I guess it’s true that cafés all need a low-cost offering that increases the cash flow.”

“It would be strange if the Blue Tea Café didn’t do well selling blue tea,” Fandaz said. “It’s one of the only Frunge beverages that’s not only harmless to Humans but provides beneficial anti-oxidants. A few mild varieties of tea are our only native food products that Humans can tolerate.”

“I used to wonder how you could afford such a large space in the high-rent corridor, but not anymore.”

“It seemed like a gamble when I opened, but locating here means I can charge more than if I had opened in the food court adjacent to the bazaar. We have a saying in Frunge that it pays to spend more on a garden plot where the sun is shining.”

“I remember poor people back on Earth complaining that it takes money to make money,” Bill said. “I’m used to not having money myself, and I’m always thinking about how to keep expenses down.”

“Retail is one of the few businesses where if you have sufficient capital or credit, you can start at the top,” Fandaz told him. “You’d be surprised how many people come to a café like this to discuss starting a business. Sometimes they ask my advice, and the first thing I tell them is to have their meetings somewhere cheaper, and save coming here for when they have paying clients to entertain.”

“I think I get it. Spending to bring in sales is one thing, but spending money to play at being in business is another.”

“I’ve seen boutiques on this corridor open and close again within the space of a few months because they never get any customers. It’s always sad to see a business fail, but sometimes it’s obvious that the owners are indulging in a fantasy rather than pursuing a dream.”

“I’m not sure I understand the difference,” Bill admitted.

“A fantasy is unrealistic by definition,” Fandaz explained. “As an inspector general, I was trained to draw up psychological profiles of the diplomats on our watch list, and those who overindulged in fantasies were always at the highest risk for ethical violations. Individuals become addicted to the perfect outcomes they create in their imaginations at the expense of dealing with the facts of the real world. If their fantasy world diverges too far from reality they can suffer a psychological collapse. It’s a rare condition in Frunge society, but I gather it’s quite common among Humans.”

“So how does that differ from a dream?”

“The word is more ambiguous in Humanese than in Frunge because you use it in multiple ways,” the owner of the Blue Tea Café said. “There’s an old tunnel network joke about the Verlocks with the punchline that they have a different word for everything. The opposite seems to be true with your species. Some of us wonder if your working vocabularies are so limited because—but I digress,” she cut herself off.

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