JBO S1 14 Deadbot by Jerry Boyd

Author:Jerry Boyd
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Jerry Boyd
Published: 2021-01-16T22:00:00+00:00

“It is.”

We walked over to the ship, and up the ramp. Milly said, “Hi, I’m Milly. What’s your name?”

“I’m Fumble. Nice to meet you, Milly.”

Janet came out of the cockpit. “Who’s your new friend, Dad?”

“This is Fumble. We’re hoping to get him a new name, when the new autodocs are done.”

“Like Falls-a-Lot?”

“Exactly. He has that same inner ear problem. He’s also color blind. Who knows what else the box will find.”

Janet said, “It’s good to meet you, Fumble. You must be brave, to come out above ground, after all this time.”

“Maybe I’m just too stupid to be afraid. It isn’t bad up here, at all.”

“I’m glad you like it. Are you hungry?”

“I suppose I could eat. Is it mealtime?”

“Not really, I was just trying to be a good host.”

“Well, if that is your custom, I will try and be a good guest. What do you have?”

She pulled out a ration bar, and handed it to him. He started to eat it without unwrapping it, and Milly showed him what to do. He said, “This is very good! Is it special food, for celebrations?”

Janet said, “No, Dad is in charge of cooking the special food for celebrations, that’s just what we eat when we don’t have time to cook.”

“It doesn’t taste like anything I’ve eaten before, but I like it very much.”

I asked, “What did you give him?”

“Susie’s pemmican, the kind you like, Dad.”

“Oh my! Going from fish and vegetables to Susie’s pemmican? No wonder he’s excited.”

Dingus said, “Hers is even better than her great-grandpa’s, and that’s going some.”

I replied, “You make him sound like quite the cook, Dingus.”

“His wife was sickly, in her later years, and he had to feed the kids. He didn’t have much choice but to learn to cook. That, and his Mom was Cherokee, and she taught him about which wild plants to use to flavor things. That man could take the toughest old milk cow, and make a tasty meal out of her.”

“But Susie is better?”

“Well, having all the store-bought spices to work with probably doesn’t hurt a thing.”

Fumble seemed to be having trouble following what we were saying. He asked, “What are spices?”

I thought on that one for a second, trying to figure out how to explain spices to someone who had never tasted them. Finally, I said, “They are different seeds, and parts of plants, that add flavor to food.”

“I don’t understand. Do you eat them with the other food?”

“You use small amounts when you cook a dish. Trying to eat very much of a spice would be too strong a flavor, and you wouldn’t enjoy it, at all. In small amounts, they can make bland food much nicer, and better tasting.”

“I think you are talking about the ‘useless seeds’.”

“Now I’m lost. What do you mean, ‘useless seeds’?”

“They are seeds we do not plant, because no one can stand to eat the things they grow into. The ladies who run the garden keep them safe, in the hopes they can figure out what they are for, someday.

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