Chapter 3
The next morning began just as any other. Caeden greeted his father in the kitchen, drinking his tea.
“Morning, Dad,” Caeden said, and leaned in to kiss his father’s cheek.
“Cae,” his father said.
“I forgot to ask you how that rig work went yesterday.”
“Pretty straightforward. We’re going back up today to check the specs. The primary computer had wiped the altitude algorithm.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t. We’ve had the workers on a light shift, just in case it goes down.”
“They can’t be liking that.”
“They don’t get paid if they’re not on the rig, Cae.”
“Really?”
“Did you think all miners were obsessed with working as many hours as possible a week?”
“Well, yeah, I’d gotten that impression. Guess not, huh?”
“It’s bad enough it’s the crappiest job in the system, but the corporations makes sure they don’t pay more than legally possible out of pocket.”
“But, they get the best residences.”
“And yet, you’ve never heard one miner claim how grandiose it is. It’s a simple concession, Cae. It’s a step above a pat on the back.”
“Huh.”
“I would have thought you’d have more respect for the miners.”
“I…what do you mean.”
“I heard about the comments you made last night. You wanna explain yourself?”
Caeden watched his father, who had a look he had rarely seen. It was a mixture of surprise and disappointment.
“I was pissed off.”
“So pissed off that you had to make a derogatory comment about some poor girl who wasn’t even there?”
“It wasn’t right, I know it.”
“Do you?”
“Dad, I don’t usually say stuff like that.”
“No? The report I got made it pretty clear that it wasn’t something you hesitated on.”
“They must’ve heard wrong.”
His father stood up rather quickly and put his cup on the counter.
“I hope for your sake, they were. I hope I didn’t accidentally raise a spoiled brat of a son who thinks his name makes him something better than those around him. Because if I did, I’d like him to take a good look at himself and think a little more carefully about what he says and how it might affect others.”
Caeden tried to look his father in the eye, but turned away, feeling the flush of his face grow.
“Those miner’s bust their ass every day. They risk their lives every day up on those rigs. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them, Cae. I thought I gave you enough sense to understand that everyone has a role to play in this life, and that none of us is more important than the other. I guess I was dreaming when I thought my son was above the ignorance of so many of those around him. I expected you to be a little more sensitive. You can speak your mind in private, but have some goddamn common sense to keep your mouth shut in public, no matter the circumstances.”
“Dad, I’m sorry.”
His father had a fury in his demeanor that Caeden had never seen. Nothing he had ever done had crossed this boundary. His father’s voice lowered menacingly. Despite his three inch difference to his son, he now towered over Caeden.
“You’d better be. How do you think I felt when Joe Christianson came up to me and told me what you said, and in front of his kids. Jesus, Caeden. What the hell were you thinking? If I so much as hear the word dust come out of your mouth, I‘ll come down on you like you’ve never known.”
His father moved past him and grabbed his coat from the hall.
“Dad,…”
“I’ve got to go, Cae. Think about what I’ve said. I know you’re a good kid, and I love you, but you really disappointed me.”
“Dad, does mom know?”
“She will. Bad news always travels fast,” he said, and walked out the door.
Caeden sat in the darkness of the kitchen staring at the almost full mug of hot tea that remained on the counter. His father never left tea behind. He must’ve been really ticked.
A few minutes after his father had left, Caeden made his way down the same hallway, standing a little less tall than he had, eyes downcast. He made his way to Turk’s place without really looking, and when he arrived he nearly walked right into Turk as he stood outside.
“Cae,” Turk said.
“Turk,” Caeden said.
Turk cocked an eyebrow and his friend turned away.
“Still ticked at Vic?”
Caeden just shook his head, and grunted what Turk took to be a negative response.
“Ummm…ok. So, how ‘bout that weather up on ‘mede.”
“Let it be, Turk. My Dad found out about what I said at the party last night.”
“Damn, man.”
“Yeah.”
“What did he do?”
“Nothing, really. Just told me what a dus…uh, what an idiot I was.”
“Jeez, my pops tells me that all the time.”
“Well, I guess I’m just not used to it.”
“That bad, huh?”
Caeden shrugged. “Just sucked is all.”
“Anita’s really looking forward to that geo trip today. She’s been talking about it all week. She heard from Mr. Kennedy that they had made a change of plans with the trip’s destination.”
This distracted Caeden, at least momentarily, from whatever dark place he was in.
“Oh?” he said.
“Yeah, she mentioned something about a rig jump. I can’t imagine that though. I’ve never heard of kids going up to a rig before.”
“Me neither. I wonder…”
“Wonder what?”
“Oh, nothing. Probably won’t happen, but…my dad’s working on a rig today.”
“There’s gotta be a thousand rigs up there.”
“Yeah, plus the one he’s working on has been having problems with its altitude software.”
“Oh, send me up to that one!” Turk said waving his hand high in the air.
“Your chubby butt would drag the rig down.”
“Hey!”
They laughed their way to the education module, and Turk was happy to see his friend relieved, if only for the moment, of his funk. The two stood outside Caeden’s geology classroom.
“Your first jump,” Turk said, extending his hand to Caeden. It was a rare formality, and Caeden grasped his hand firmly.
“Yeah,” Caeden said.
“Look after my sister, will ya?” Turk said. Caeden wrinkled his nose a bit. “You know what I mean. She’s awfully young to be going on jump like this. Dad would flip a moon if he knew they had changed the location like that last minute.”
“She didn’t tell him?”
“She wanted to go. Would you tell your parental units if you knew it would end your trip?”
“No, I guess not.”
“Well, enough of this dust talk. Get going.”
“See you later.”