Outlaw School by Rebecca Ore

Author:Rebecca Ore [Ore, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 0380792508
Publisher: EOS
Published: 2000-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

7

Culture Clang

Ocean came down the first week of August to see how Jayne was doing and to take Jayne out to a restaurant that required dressing well. Jayne borrowed a proper cocktail dress from Brandy, who was her size.

When Jayne got in the car, Ocean handed her fake credit and ID cards, and said, “We’ll talk after dinner, not at dinner. At dinner, we’ll try to sound posh.” They drove down to the old part of Charleston and parked in a high-rise garage that collected tourists’ cars.

Ocean looked happy, not drunk. She ordered for Jayne and herself: French food with wine for Jayne, tea for her.

The waiter suggested a fake wine, but Ocean said, “Tea works well enough with veal, thank you.”

Jayne wondered why she was being tested in upper-middle-class skills. Maybe someday she’d have to hide out among the upper classes.

Ocean said, “What do you think about the presidential candidates?”

Jayne said, “I heard that two of them might be live humans.”

“Machines can be difficult sometimes,” Ocean said. The waiter brought in the she-crab soup at that point, and they began eating it. Jayne watched Ocean sip it fromthe side of the big spoon and imitated her. Ocean paused to say, “Jayne, I have some records you might like to listen to.”

Jayne wondered if she’d get real music or if she’d get secrets. “I’ve always found your taste interesting,” she said. The soup had sherry in it. Would this little bit drive Ocean into another drunk?

“We’ve gotten more sponsors for our program,” Ocean said, breaking the agreement not to talk until after dinner, but then this could mean anything unless the listeners knew precisely which program Ocean was involved in.

Jayne said, “I’m glad.” She wondered if when Brandy’s clients met the whores, they first sent their wives eating at such places. The waiters kept coming, whisking away soup the nanosecond it was finished. The second course—fish— followed, just a little decorative piece of fish on the tiniest of green beans, grown that way, not cut out of larger pods. The wine waiter poured Jayne’s white wine and brought Ocean her tea with nearly as much ceremony.

“We want more of this,” Ocean said, gesturing at the room. “Everyone should have the opportunity to be entertained by their food.”

Fish gone, the waiter brought in the veal medallions with a tender red wine. Jayne felt drunk and dislocated from her past and present. In a few hours, she would go back to sleep at a whorehouse. And Suzanne was a credit-collecting whore. Reality wasn’t just one thing.

Who were the sponsors? Jayne didn’t think she should ask. Ocean dabbled at her food, rearranging it on her plate, while she ate. The waiters darted in at appropriate moments to refill wineglass and teacup and whisk away Ocean’s plate after the food circled it twice.

Dessert Ocean ate with passion, a dark chocolate thing that smelt of brandy. Jayne still felt disoriented. She wondered if the people who did her favors, even the huge favor of getting her into a better college than she’d hoped, were quite normal.

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