Fadeout

Chapter 4: Jamar

  The scream could be heard outside in the carriage. Jamar felt his heart leap and he craned to look. Lemuel paused for a moment and moved to take a step back toward the house, but then the side kitchen door was flung open and a pink headed Edworth ran coughing into the yard. Ted and Henry tried to follow him with a rag, but Edworth refused to let them touch him.

  Lemuel closed the carriage door and pressed the button, letting the driver know they were ready. As the carriage pulled down the driveway, Jamar couldn’t resist getting out of his seat to catch one more look. Edworth must have wiped his eyes, because he was glaring at the receding carriage.

  Jamar just smiled and waved. It served him right, the cookie monster. Predictability was the greatest weakness a Tirean could have and Jamar knew how to exploit it. Although his family might not be as close to the political action as it once was, he was determined to change that one day. Perhaps he would have Edworth for an assistant or as someone to wipe his mouth during dinner. The thought made Jamar smile as he settled back into his seat.

  “How long are we going to be at the Cartiam?” Jamar asked.

  Lemuel had his reading glasses on and was pouring over a file.

  “Until we leave or are needed elsewhere. I’m having Carlyle meet us there.”

  Carlyle was Jamar’s tutor, which meant they would be there for a while. At least long enough that he would have to continue his studies. Jamar was glad to have Carlyle there. He enjoyed learning anything he could. Knowledge was power and Jamar planned on having power. Being around boys like Edworth, Ted and Henry only made him realize how important knowledge and learning was. The more he knew the more he would be able to control. When Edworth was busy sneaking cookies in the kitchen or scaring the horses, Jamar would be learning politics, energy efficiency and business smarts. Edworth might be a lord one day, but Jamar would have respect, even if it was given grudgingly.

  He’d seen the looks the staff would give Lord Dumas or his son when they passed by. They did not have respect. They were buffoons. What did it matter if they thought he was an energy farmer? One day things would change and Jamar could hardly wait. His gold medallion was just as pure as theirs. He even got his a year younger than Edworth did. Lemuel started training him as soon as Jamar was old enough to read. The gold medallion was proof that Jamar was a member of Tirean society, that he was not just a person, but a person of note.

  Jamar pulled the chain off his neck and looked closer at the medallion. It showed the ape, the man and the superior man. The ape was down on all fours, the man’s shoulders were slopped and the superior man had his head high, his arms presenting himself and small rays of light shooting from his head. On the other side of the medallion were the words Protecting Society and Never Go Back curved around an eagle flying across the waters of a lake.

  All the medallions had the same imprints, but there were also silver, copper and tin medallions. Sometimes it depended on the class of a person. Tireans as the ruling class most often received gold and less often silver, Faans as the warriors received silver and copper and Ajaks depending on whether they were lower Ajak, the servants, or upper Ajak, the merchants, received copper or tin. Sometimes it depended on the way a person answered the questions or on their perceived potential contribution to society. There were some upper Ajaks with silver, Faans with a rare gold or a mixed Tirean with copper. Having different metal medallions was a way to instantly identify the value of another.

  Jamar fingered the medallion and settled back into his seat. He wished he had something to read, but he had not thought to keep one of his books out of his bag and now it was stowed away. He glanced over at the file Lemuel was holding. It was an analysis of energy consumption in the south and east sections of the country. Jamar wasn’t too familiar with the cities there, but he knew several of them were large and would require a lot of energy. As the owner of Pelacroix Energy, Lemuel was the sole provider of energy for the majority of the nation. There were always discussions on finding a new source of energy or taxing the current system to make more money. From one of the graphs Jamar could tell that over the last year the demand for energy had risen.

  It seemed as though the demand for energy had increased everywhere. Most cities were imposing a limit on night activity. Some even kept energy from being used from two until five in the morning. But still the demand kept rising. He’d heard Lemuel complain about certain districts in the city that demanded more than others. The science labs required nearly 30% of all energy produced.

  He assumed that the need for energy was why they were going to the Cartiam. While all of their property was involved in the energy making process, the different holdings had different purposes. The Pearians were the farms where new Carillians, or Cars as most every Tirean called them, were bred and raised until the age of eight. The Verandia were the homes where the old breeders went after they were too old to bear more children and the Cartiam was where the young ones were kept until it was decided what should be done with them. Jamar had been to all of the different holdings, but the last time he was at the Cartiam he was seven and had spent most of the time in his room. It also might have been Cartiam III, so Cartiam V would be a new experience for him.

  It was going to be interesting to go back to a Cartiam. The last few times they had been to Verandia II, VI and VII all the old people had depressed Jamar. There was no one to talk to and nothing exciting to do, although he did get to see the Machine in action. Lemuel suggested he watch them harvest the e-mems and Jamar was eager to get to spend more time with his father. He would not be allowed to participate in the actual collection process. He was too young and harvesting was a privilege for adults, but he would be in the same room and could see everything.

  They stood side by side in the control room above the Machine and Jamar watched as they brought an old man with milky eyes into the room. They let him touch the table and he lay down, then they hooked him up and the e-mems poured into the storage bucket. The process took much longer than he thought it would, about five hours. Lemuel had one of the servants bring in a veggie pasta dish and they ate together while they waited.

  “What does the Machine do?” Jamar had asked while they were eating.

  “It harvests e-mems.”

  “I know that, but what does the Machine do to them? And how does it do it?”

  “The Machine saves them from a life of chaos. During the beginning of the Radiation Age it became apparent that some classes were affected differently than others. The Cars had a surplus of emotions, the women and especially the men. They can be fine one moment and then emotion flares up in the next. Emotions connected to specific memories they feel a deep connection to and it overwhelms them. This emotion presents itself in a pressure, almost like a gas, that builds in pockets on various parts of the brain. It makes the Cars go insane and the Machine locates those pockets and drains them along with the memory that gas is connected to. Yet as soon as one pocket is removed another memory takes its place and fills with gas.”

  Jamar nodded, although his father was busy looking out the control window.

  “What we do--what the Machine does--is free them from their emotions. We save them from heartache, pain and loss. We clear their minds so that they have no worries.”

  Jamar smiled. He didn’t know what it would be like to be overwhelmed by emotion but he imagined it would be horrible. There would be nowhere to go because your problems would always be in you. It felt good to be a part of something that was helping others and he was eager to see the Machine in action again. One day, when Jamar reached manhood and had earned his position in the company, he would be able to harvest e-mems and he couldn’t wait.

  When the Machine had taken all the old man’s e-mems, two aides came and helped him into a wheel chair. The old man was taken to the top floor and his e-mems were cataloged, coated and shipped the next week.

  That had happened a year ago and Jamar had spent most of it traveling to different lords and the various farms with
his father. The one thing all these places had in common was that Jamar had been left alone. Edworth was the first kid his age that he had spent time with in a while, and that hadn’t turned out very well. The problem was that Edworth thought he was superior. He wouldn’t let Jamar pick any games and he made Jamar get in trouble at least twice, three times if he counted the hole, which Jamar didn’t. He hadn’t been punished, not really since apologizing was barely a slap on the wrist.

  What Jamar needed was someone who would follow him and who would listen to his ideas and play the games he wanted to play. Then it hit him that he was going to the Cartiam, a place filled with children who were inferior. They wouldn’t have any opinions and if they did they would let it go because his ideas would be better.

  Jamar glanced at Lemuel. Would his father let him play with a Carillian? He went through all the arguments in his mind and spent the next few hours trying to figure out how to get Lemuel to say yes. It was nearly time to stop and Jamar still didn’t have the courage to bring it up.

  Lemuel rubbed the bridge of his nose and put the files away.

  “Are you hungry?” Lemuel asked.

  “Yes,” Jamar said. Then before he could lose his nerve he added, “I’ve been thinking that while I was at the Cartiam I could have someone to play with.”

  “You will have Carlyle.”

  “Yes, but Carlyle doesn’t like to play games with me. It might also be good for me to have a sparring partner who was closer to my height and strength. Carlyle hits too lightly because his arms are weak from only turning pages all day. I thought I could pick one of the Cars to play with.”

  Lemuel’s lips pursed together. It was what he often did when he was thinking. “I’m not sure if playing with a Car would be the best choice.”

  “But the last few places we’ve been I’ve had to stay in my room or play by myself. Or had the only kids my age exclude me. And it is so boring. You’re always busy and Carlyle will tell you that I’m fast to finish all my school work, but then that leaves hours with nothing to do.”

  “We’ll see,” Lemuel said.

  Jamar bounced back into his seat. ‘We’ll see’ meant most likely yes, but Lemuel had to warm up to the idea. The carriage bounced along the road and Jamar couldn’t wait until they got to the Cartiam.