*
Anticipation formed a knot in his stomach as he walked down the final corridor of the Powell Building to Room 23A. He paused briefly at the door, forced a casual smile, and walked in.
He expected to see scores of college students staring at him, watching his every move, wondering how they grew 'em in the Community. Instead, seven students sat, engaged in light conversation, in a rough semi-circle of chairs that Jeremy would have expected to find in a living room. Refreshments filled a small table against the wall to his left. He rechecked the room number against Dr. Berry 's message.
A moment later Dr. Berry herself emerged from a back office with another woman, who, after seeing Jeremy in the door, immediately rushed to greet him.
"I'm so glad you could make it, Jeremy," she said, pumping his hand. "My name is Phyllis, and this is my class," she waved to the students, who meekly smiled. "Did you have any trouble finding the place? Well no, of course not, because you're here on time. That's great. You already know Dr. Berry , I think. Can I get you something to eat?"
Jeremy smiled at the torrent of babble and allowed Phyllis to lead him to the refreshment table. He picked some sort of fruit-filled cookie as Phyllis told him who made what, what Jeremy might like, and gee, isn't he old enough to make those decisions for himself.
Phyllis continued to pour out a stream of words as Jeremy smiled indulgently, and nodded and grunted when she seemed to need encouragement. Esther, back home, had a similar manner. She was pleasant enough, in small doses.
The flow of words was suddenly stanched as Phyllis ushered him into his seat and handed the class over to the students. Phyllis retired to the back and continued to unload her daily supply of words in whispers to Dr. Berry . Jeremy prepared for the worst, expecting to be asked embarrassing questions about mating rituals, or some other sociological nonsense, but there was none of that. The students wanted to know what school was like in the Community, and how the founders of the Community were able to resolve tensions between the secular and religious elements of their culture, and whether it had really worked. They wanted to know how criminals were handled, which made him a little nervous, and about taxation, and decisions on spending public money. Jeremy often turned the questions back on the students, asking them how the same issues were handled in Society.
The 50-minute class was over too soon, and Jeremy wished they could continue, especially since that constituted the extent of his work-load for the day. The students promised they would have some tough follow-up questions next time.
"You did a great job, Jeremy," Dr. Berry said after she managed to pull herself away from Phyllis.
"Thanks. You know, I didn't expect to see you hear today." He tried not to sound suspicious.
"I'll let you in on a little secret. I organized this school program for newbies, and I like to come along from time to time to make sure it's working okay. It's not technically part of my practice, but it helps me a lot."
Jeremy nodded his head, looking down at the floor. After an awkward pause he said, "One thing that didn't come up in the discussion today was personal privacy. People in the Community can be fairly zealous about that."
"And you don't like being in diagnostic mode," she quickly interjected. "I understand. Let me make you two promises. First, I won't pry into what you're doing. I'm too busy for that kind of thing anyway. But I do need to maintain the connection so I can run some standard analyses on how your implant is functioning. It's just medical data. I don't know or care what it is you're doing with your implant."
"But you can see, if you want to," Jeremy clarified.
"I can, but I don't, and I won't. I have hundreds of patients, and I can't spend my time monitoring what all of them do."
"And the second promise?"
Dr. Berry smiled. "I'll turn
Anticipation formed a knot in his stomach as he walked down the final corridor of the Powell Building to Room 23A. He paused briefly at the door, forced a casual smile, and walked in.
He expected to see scores of college students staring at him, watching his every move, wondering how they grew 'em in the Community. Instead, seven students sat, engaged in light conversation, in a rough semi-circle of chairs that Jeremy would have expected to find in a living room. Refreshments filled a small table against the wall to his left. He rechecked the room number against Dr. Berry 's message.
A moment later Dr. Berry herself emerged from a back office with another woman, who, after seeing Jeremy in the door, immediately rushed to greet him.
"I'm so glad you could make it, Jeremy," she said, pumping his hand. "My name is Phyllis, and this is my class," she waved to the students, who meekly smiled. "Did you have any trouble finding the place? Well no, of course not, because you're here on time. That's great. You already know Dr. Berry , I think. Can I get you something to eat?"
Jeremy smiled at the torrent of babble and allowed Phyllis to lead him to the refreshment table. He picked some sort of fruit-filled cookie as Phyllis told him who made what, what Jeremy might like, and gee, isn't he old enough to make those decisions for himself.
Phyllis continued to pour out a stream of words as Jeremy smiled indulgently, and nodded and grunted when she seemed to need encouragement. Esther, back home, had a similar manner. She was pleasant enough, in small doses.
The flow of words was suddenly stanched as Phyllis ushered him into his seat and handed the class over to the students. Phyllis retired to the back and continued to unload her daily supply of words in whispers to Dr. Berry . Jeremy prepared for the worst, expecting to be asked embarrassing questions about mating rituals, or some other sociological nonsense, but there was none of that. The students wanted to know what school was like in the Community, and how the founders of the Community were able to resolve tensions between the secular and religious elements of their culture, and whether it had really worked. They wanted to know how criminals were handled, which made him a little nervous, and about taxation, and decisions on spending public money. Jeremy often turned the questions back on the students, asking them how the same issues were handled in Society.
The 50-minute class was over too soon, and Jeremy wished they could continue, especially since that constituted the extent of his work-load for the day. The students promised they would have some tough follow-up questions next time.
"You did a great job, Jeremy," Dr. Berry said after she managed to pull herself away from Phyllis.
"Thanks. You know, I didn't expect to see you hear today." He tried not to sound suspicious.
"I'll let you in on a little secret. I organized this school program for newbies, and I like to come along from time to time to make sure it's working okay. It's not technically part of my practice, but it helps me a lot."
Jeremy nodded his head, looking down at the floor. After an awkward pause he said, "One thing that didn't come up in the discussion today was personal privacy. People in the Community can be fairly zealous about that."
"And you don't like being in diagnostic mode," she quickly interjected. "I understand. Let me make you two promises. First, I won't pry into what you're doing. I'm too busy for that kind of thing anyway. But I do need to maintain the connection so I can run some standard analyses on how your implant is functioning. It's just medical data. I don't know or care what it is you're doing with your implant."
"But you can see, if you want to," Jeremy clarified.
"I can, but I don't, and I won't. I have hundreds of patients, and I can't spend my time monitoring what all of them do."
"And the second promise?"
Dr. Berry smiled. "I'll turn
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