“You’re not staying for a meal?” Buck asked.
“No, old man. Better get back for when that wreck of an autobus is returned to me.”
With that Clem took his departure. Lucy, whilst Buck departed to other regions presumably to freshen up, found herself surveying more closely this typical city home of the year 3004. Basically she could see little difference from the more modern homes of her own time, but here and there were refinements that fascinated her. The wall, for instance, facing the warmly-glowing electrode fireplace was composed of two panels. In one was inset a flat television screen; and in the other a loudspeaker permanently on by law so that any official notice could not fail to be received.
Another refinement was lack of corners. The room was almost circular, floored in a rubber substance of scrupulous cleanness, and all the furniture was metal. The two doors leading off the room slid on runners instead of moving back and forth. Fascinated, Lucy began to wander to the nearer doorway and found herself looking in on the kitchen where Eva was busily at work.
Everything was electrical, and thermostatically controlled, dials and meters in the walls ensuring exact temperatures for cooking and culinary necessities. At the moment Eva was in the midst of operating a highly-polished and complicated-looking machine. “Come in,” she invited, noticing Lucy watching.
Lucy did so, surveying curiously. Apparently there was no necessity for to handle anything. From the washing-up machine to the robot dish-cleaner everything was automatic.
“What are you doing?” Lucy asked curiously.
“Preparing an extra meal for you. All you do is put the concentrates in this funnel here and then they drop inside this machine and all sorts of queer things happen. Don’t ask me what because I’m no scientist. The finished result is a perfectly cooked meal. That is if you don’t object to a beef omelette?”
“Object? I’d love it.”
Lucy glanced up as Buck came into view again. He was in shirt and trousers, his skin bright red from a vigorous washing, and in one hand he was clutching his pants’ belt. “Something wrong here, Eva,” he said. “Maybe you can fix it for me. My belt’s given way.”
“Given way?” Eva looked surprised. “But that’s the one I bought you for your birthday. Ox-hide. It couldn’t give way.”
Holding his trousers with one hand Buck handed the belt across — or at least the two halves of it. It had parted down the centre back as though it had gone rotten.
“Nice thing!” Eva exclaimed indignantly. “I’ll take it back to the store tomorrow! I’ve been swindled.”
“Looks like it.” Buck drew in his pants’ waist by another notch and then rubbed his hands. “Well, what about the meal, sweetheart? I’m starving.”
“Coming right up. I’ll just get Lucy some more suitable up-to-date clothes first. She can borrow some of mine; we’re about the same size.”
Lucy did not say anything but thought a good deal. In a thousand years home life had changed but little, she decided. Only the externals were different. It brought back to her vivid memories of her own life with Reggie, and once again she felt like crying. Somehow, though, she kept a hold on herself, and after quickly changing into the borrowed clothes Lucy gave her — Eva taking away her old ones — she rejoined the Cardews downstairs.
Soon she was seated at their table enjoying her first real meal in 3004. She found it delightful, the mysteriously created omelette having a richness of flavour that her own time had never been able to produce. This, the hot drink that tasted like a cross between cocoa and coffee, and the warm friendliness of the two who were her guardians, made her begin to feel almost happy again.
“You’re more than kind,” Lucy smiled. “One day, if I can ever convince the powers-that-be that I’m quite harmless, I’ll try and get some work and repay you for all you’ve done.”
“Forget it,” Buck grinned. “Only too glad to help. As for repayment, we won’t even hear of it. You can help Eva if you like, as Worker Ten would have done, and let it go at that.”
Lucy nodded and then went on with her meal. During the course of it she gathered that there were two children in the Cardew family — boy and girl — but by law they were not allowed to live in the home during the ‘education period.’ They were cared for by the State crèche and only allowed, until the age of sixteen, to see their parents twice a year. In this manner juvenile delinquency had long since been stamped out even though it caused profound heartache amongst many parents.
By the time she had got to bed, between sheets electrically aired from a source she could not discover, Lucy was quite convinced that she was dreaming. Surely all this couldn’t really be happening? Even now she had not assimilated the astounding fact that she would never see 2009 again.… Had she been in the office of the Master at that moment, however, she would certainly have realized that her experience was not a dream.
The Master, in fact, was by no means pleased at being detained so late in his lofty sanctuary. The power failure had delayed him in the first instance, and now the repercussions of it were still holding him to his desk. Before him stood a guard — the same one who had questioned Clem, Buck and Lucy on the river bridge.
“I’ve had the engineers throw a skeleton pass-way over the fissure, Master,” he reported. “It will take all the traffic single-file. The bridge dissolution seems to have ceased now so I have given the order for traffic to resume. Parts of the faulty bridge section have been removed and sent to the analytical laboratory for a report.”
“Very well,” the Master acknowledged, making a note. “I want an immediate report when the cause of the defect is known. You informed the laboratory of that, I trust?”
“I did, Master, yes.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes, Master. A public transport plunged over the fissure, and then a private autobus—”
“I know. That was reported direct. It has been given over the public speaker, together with a list of the numbers and names of the passengers. That was done for the convenience of relatives. The transport will be salvaged from the river in daylight, together with the private car that followed it. The occupants of that car are at present unidentified, I take it?”
“Up to the moment, Master, yes. There is, however, a matter I feel I should report. It puzzles me—”
The guard broke off in surprise as his atom gun holster, hanging from a broad strap about his shoulder, suddenly dropped to the floor. He gazed down at it blankly and the Master waited, his lips compressed.
“I would suggest that in future you buckle your accoutrements more securely,” he said curtly.
The guard nodded somewhat dazedly and picked up his gun and holster from the floor. The odd thing was that the strap was securely buckled — but the leather itself had rotted visibly close to the holster.
“Obtain a fresh one,” the Master instructed, studying it. “Here is a renewal card—” He handed it over and sat back in his chair. “You were remarking upon a matter which puzzles you. Please continue.”
The guard came back to life with something of an effort. “Er, yes,” he assented. “It concerns a young woman whom I encountered on the bridge in company with Mister Bradley and Mister Cardew, the two blasting engineers who are at work on the Protection Tower foundations. She had no index-card with her, her explanation being that she had accidentally dropped it. Mister Bradley confirmed her statement. However, she gave her index-number as Worker Ten, Domestic Grade. Since then I have learned from the public transport authority that Worker Ten was on the transport which fell in the river.”
The Master drew towards him the passenger list, which had been submitted from transport headquarters. He studied it, then with no expression in his face he pushed it aside again.