Grantville Gazette - Volume V Read Free Page B

have been designed by someone with a true artistic sense.

    "Pretty, isn't it?" said Jabe as he sat down and began connecting his camera to his computer. "I've always loved Macs. I saved up for three years to buy this one, and the video stuff. 'Course, Eric Hudson helped me get the camera. He knew a guy in Morgantown who wanted a better one and was selling this one cheap."

    Prudentia was less interested in Jabe's tools than his motivations, his inspirations. "Why do all this?" she asked.

    Jabe reflected for a moment. "After the Ring of Fire, I got to thinking about how we were going to remember it. You know, what the history books would say. I got to thinking, well, I should talk to people in Grantville about the Ring of Fire. Get their memories of it before too much time passed so we wouldn't forget. I figure one of these days I'll watch all the interviews again, write the words down. Do a book."

    Prudentia nodded. "So, then, why do you have extra on the soldiers?"

    In the world Prudentia grew up in, mercenaries and prostitutes were below even actors in social rank. Even after a year in Grantville, she was still often uncomfortable with the Americans' peculiar notions of status and social mobility. She was grappling with her attitudes, though, and could see advantages to the way the Americans did things. After all, hadn't she been sent here because of that? Her mother Artemisia had fought against established customs her whole life, and wanted something different for her daughter. Prudentia was eager for any new insights.

    Jabe didn't answer immediately, as was his habit when thinking about an issue.

    "In the up-time United States," he said slowly, "we called ourselves a land of opportunity. We told ourselves that you could start with nothing and that if you worked hard enough, if you took advantage of the chances God gave you, you could be whatever you wanted. No matter who your parents were, or where you were from. I wasn't old enough to vote right after the Ring of Fire, but I remember Dad saying that's why everyone backed Mike—President Stearns. Because he said we could only survive if we kept on being Americans."

    "But why were the Richters special? They weren't even born in your up-time United States."

    "Because they were proof that the ideas we'd grown up with would work here. Gretchen was a camp follower but given the chance, she became an important leader. Her grandmother married Mayor Dreeson and started a school. I remember Hans told me he only became a soldier for Tilly because he had to. But he joined the Air Force because he wanted to. That made all the difference to him. The Richters are what we would have called an 'All-American Tale.'"

    Prudentia watched Jabe work and thought about what he'd said. She'd liked Jabe from the beginning, to the point of finding his awkwardness around her sweet. What Prudentia liked most about the young American was that he listened and thought before speaking. This was new to Prudentia; though, from talking to up-time girls, it seemed to be an unusual male trait from their viewpoint as well.

    Prudentia was not sure what her relationship with Jabe would evolve into, if indeed it evolved into anything. But she was more than interested enough to find out.

    So, as they worked in companionable silence, she was grateful for the friendship and presence of Jabe, and she knew he felt the same way about her. Jabe was soon absorbed in his work and Prudentia began sketching him in the pad she always carried with her.

    Both young people were surprised when Zula McDougal announced dinner. Jabe's mother seemed glad enough to have her oldest son back for the evening. Working for Ollie Reardon and riding herd on Karin Jo and Kyle kept her busy enough, Prudentia knew, but with Pete in Magdeburg and Jabe living out of the house most of the time, she imagined the place did feel empty to the woman.

    Zula fussed over Prudentia, much to the young woman's embarrassment, and continually