one team from the small states, and multiple teams from the bigger ones — but maybe this was where the two had run afoul of each other originally.
That would make sense, Jay reasoned. Being on opposite sides of a debate would mean that one would lose and the other would win, and maybe arguments had gotten heated to the point of personal anger.
However, a check of the records once he got to looking revealed that Lee and George had not been on teams that debated each other. In fact, neither of their teams made it to the finals. Georgia got blown out in the first round. Vermont did get to the quarter-finals, and had argued the affirmative position against a team from Nebraska, the result of which was that they had also been eliminated. Georgia and Vermont had not even been staying on the same floor of the hotel.
Jay’s scenario was based on old news footage, hotel records, and camcorder tapes and photographs taken by students and teachers, as well as the official society recordings that had been compiled and sold commercially. The net was still in its infancy in the early nineties, but there were some old debate web pages in WWW archives, and some BBSs. Jay had set his searchbots and blenders and strained it all, feeding it into a simple WYSIWYG view program. Added a few bells and whistles, of course.
So there he sat, with the Nebraskans and the Vermontians — the Vermontinese? the Vermin? — about ready to go at it.
Zachary George was the leader of his duo, and he was the opening speaker for the round.
He got up, defined terms, and began his introduction to his reasoning.
George said, “In times of war or national disasters, the country as a whole must come before individuals. While we are a nation based on liberty for all, destruction of the national structure could easily result in liberty for none.
“If a man has a cancerous finger, is it not wiser to cut off the finger than allow it to spread and destroy him? Is a single finger worth the whole man? No, of course not. Likewise, if the life of the nation is threatened, a single or a few individuals cannot be allowed to cause such destruction. As the great Roman general Iphicrates said two thousand years ago, ‘The needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few.’ ”
Huh. Jay thought that quote came from the Vulcan Star Trek character Spock, in one of the old movies from the eighties or nineties.
George continued in this vein, but Jay was busy looking around, trying to spot Lee. It didn’t take long. The young Brett Lee, looking much as he had in Jay’s earlier scenario at Stonewall Jackson High, watched George from a third-row seat, leaning forward eagerly, hanging on every word.
Jay got up and moved to get a better look at Lee.
George droned on: “… and did not Plato say, ‘No human thing is of serious importance’? How then can the temporary suspension of liberty by a man or even a small group of men compare to the liberty of millions?”
Jay walked to a point where he could see Lee’s face.
Hmm. Lee’s expression certainly did not seem like that of a young man who scorned what he was hearing. It was more like a believer hearing a sermon by his favorite preacher. Or a young man listening to the words of his beloved. Could these two have been friends who later had a falling out?
This definitely needed more exploration, Jay decided.
But scenario could only do so much. As the speech continued, Jay’s attempt to learn more was frustrated by the facts — or lack thereof. Whether in scenario or RW, if it wasn’t there, any speculation about an event was just that, speculation. The program would let Jay make anything he wanted to happen in VR happen, but it would not necessarily be what
Despite Jay’s best efforts, he could not put the two boys together at the debate conference outside the presentation done at the quarter-final competition. Sure, it was likely both Lee and George had been at the semifinals and the final team debate. Both the Vermont and Georgia teams had stayed until the conference was over; the records reflected that. They almost certainly would have been in the audience watching, and it was not inconceivable that they had somehow met before or after that.
There were a few records after the quarter-finals on both boys, but nothing that put the two of them in any closer proximity than they were in Jay’s scenario.
Even so, Jay felt as if there was something buried here, something he needed to uncover.
The problem was, how?
20
When Toni walked into the kitchen, she saw the microscope. It sat on the table, a red bow stuck to it.
She was stunned. A total surprise.
“Alex! Where are you?”
After a moment, he came into the kitchen, grinning.
“You shouldn’t have done this.” She waved at the scope.
“Yeah, I should have. I’ve been slack in my husbandly duties lately.”
“I hadn’t noticed that.”
“Not
“It’s a beautiful piece of equipment,” she said, touching the scope mount with one hand. “But we can’t afford it.”
“We can. I had enough left in the car account to get it. You deserve it.”
“It was a want, not a need,” she said.
“Nah, you
She smiled, and realized she hadn’t been doing enough of that lately. “Thank you, darling.”
“What, you aren’t going to make me take it back?”
She laughed, and she knew he’d said it to make her laugh.
“I got two lenses to do whatever it is it is supposed to do so you can work under it,” he said. “Supposedly you’ll have a foot between the lens and the work object. I hope that’s enough.”
“It is. My pin vises are only about seven inches long or so.”
“Yeah, mine, too,” he said, waggling his eyebrows.
Again, she laughed.
“I should buy you one of these every day. Well, go set it up and see how it works.”
“Later,” she said. “I have something else in mind first.”
“What else could be more important?” Butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.
“Come along, and I’ll show you.”
Now it was his turn to laugh. And even if she was pregnant, they were still newlyweds, right?
Toni headed for the bedroom, and Alex was right behind her. No farther than seven inches, the way she figured it.
Jay was deep in cyberspace, working a scenario that involved hunting something big and mean with a pack of dogs, when a disembodied voice said, “Honey, I’m home!”
He dropped out of VR, blinked, and beheld Saji.
Saji, stark naked.
“Whoa!” he said.
“Sure, now you notice me. I’ve been here for half an hour. If I were a thief, I could have walked off with everything in the place, including you, and you’d have been oblivious.”
“Uh…”
“What’s the matter, goat-boy? Cat got your tongue?”
“I hope,” he said, grinning.
John Howard and his wife Nadine were about to take a shower together, something they hadn’t been able to
