Tunnel in the Sky (21 page)

   
“No,” Jacqueline answered.

   
“Not me,” Caroline agreed. “I was going to give 'em my stew pan, but now I'll wait a day or two.” Caroline's “bag of rocks” had turned out to contain an odd assortment for survival- among other things, a thin-page diary, a tiny mouth organ, and a half-litre sauce pan. She produced other unlikely but useful items from time to time. Why she had picked them and how she had managed to hang on to them after she discarded the bag were minor mysteries, but, as Deacon Matson had often told the class: “Each to his own methods. Survival is an art, not a science.” It was undeniable that she had appeared at the cave healthy, well fed, and with her clothing surprisingly neat and clean in view of the month she had been on the land.

   
“They won't expect you to give up your stew pan, Caroline.”

   
“I can't use it now that the crowd is so big, and they can set up housekeeping with it. Anyhow, I want to.”

   
“I'm going to give her two needles and some thread. Bob made her leave her sewing kit behind in favor of medical supplies. But I'll wait a while, too.”

   
“I haven't anything I can give them,” Rod said miserably.

   
Jacqueline turned gentle eyes on him. “You can make them a water skin for their house, Rod,” she said softly. “They would like that. We can use some of my KwikKure so that it will last.”

   
Rod cheered up at once. “Say, that's a swell idea!”

 
  
“We are gathered here,” Grant Cowper said cheerfully, “to join these two people in the holy bonds of matrimony. I won't give the usual warning because we all know that no impediment exists to this union. In fact it is the finest thing that could happen to our little community, a joyful omen of things to come, a promise for the future, a guarantee that we are firmly resolved to keep the torch of civilization, now freshly lighted on this planet, forever burning in the future. It means that-”

   
Rod stopped listening. He was standing at the groom's right as best man. His duties had not been onerous but now he found that he had an overwhelming desire to sneeze. He worked his features around, then in desperation rubbed his upper lip violently and overcame it. He sighed silently and was glad for the first time that Grant Cowper had this responsibility. Grant seemed to know the right words and he did not.

   
The bride was attended by Caroline Mshiyeni. Both girls carried bouquets of a flame-colored wild bloom. Caroline was in shorts and shirt as usual and the bride was dressed in the conventional blue denim trousers and overshirt. Her hair was arranged en brosse; her scrubbed face shone in the firelight and she was radiantly beautiful.

   
“Who giveth this woman?”

   
Jimmy Throxton stepped forward and said hoarsely, “I do!”

   
“The ring, please.”

   
Rod had it on his little finger; with considerable fumbling he got it off. It was a Ponce de Leon senior-class ring, borrowed from Bill Kennedy. He handed it to Cowper.

   
“Carmen Eleanora, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, till death do you part?”

   
“I do.”

   
“Robert Edward, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? Will you keep her and cherish her, cleaving unto her only, until death do you part?”

   
“I do. I mean, I will. Both.”

   
“Take her hand in yours. Place the ring on her finger. Repeat after me- Rod's sneeze was coming back again; he missed part of it.

   
“-so, by authority vested in me as duly elected Chief Magistrate of this sovereign community, I pronounce you man and wife! Kiss her, chum, before I beat you to it.”

   
Carol and Jackie both were crying; Rod wondered what had gone wrong. He missed his turn at kissing the bride, but she turned to him presently, put an arm around his neck and kissed him. He found himself shaking hands with Bob very solemnly. “Well, I guess that does it. Don't forget you are supposed to carry her through the door.”

   
“I won't forget.”

   
“Well, you told me to remind you. Uh, may the Principle bless you both.”

   
There was no more talk of leaving. Even Caroline dropped the subject.

   
But on other subjects talk was endless. Cowper held a town meeting every evening. These started with committee reports- the committee on food resources and natural conservation, the committees on artifacts and inventory, on waste disposal and camp sanitation, on exterior security, on human resources and labor allotment, on recruitment and immigration, on conservation of arts and sciences, on constitution, codification, and justice, on food preparation, on housing and city planning- Cowper seemed to enjoy the endless talk and Rod was forced to admit that the others appeared to have a good time, too- he surprised himself by discovering that he too looked forward to the evenings. It was the village's social life, the only recreation. Each session produced wordy battles, personal remarks and caustic criticisms; what was lacking in the gentlemanly formality found in older congresses was made up in spice. Rod liked to sprawl on the ground with his ear near Jimmy Throxton and listen to Jimmy's slanderous asides about the intelligence, motives, and ancestry of each speaker. He waited for Caroline's disorderly heckling.

   
But Caroline was less inclined to heckle now; Cowper had appointed her Historian on discovering that she owned a diary and could take shorthand. “It is extremely important,” he informed her in the presence of the village, “that we have a full record of these pioneer days for posterity. You've been writing in your diary every day?”

   
“Sure. That's what it's for.”

   
“Good! From here on it will be an official account. I want you to record the important events of each day.”

   
“All right. It doesn't make the tiniest bit of difference, I do anyhow.”

   
“Yes, yes, but in greater detail. I want you to record our proceedings, too. Historians will treasure this document, Carol.”

  
 
“I'll bet!”

   
Cowper seemed lost in thought. “How many blank leaves left in your diary?”

   
“Couple of hundred, maybe.”

   
“Good! That solves a problem I had been wondering about. Uh, we will have to requisition half of that supply
    
for official use- public notices, committee transactions, and the like. You know.”

   
Caroline looked wide-eyed. “That's a lot of paper, isn't it? You had better send two or three big husky boys to carry it.”

   
Cowper looked puzzled. “You're joking.”

   
“Better make it four big huskies. I could probably manage three . . . and somebody is likely to get hurt.”

   
“Now, see here, Caroline, it is just a temporary requisition, in the public interest. Long before you need all of your diary we will devise other writing materials.”

   
“Go ahead and devise! That's my diary.”

   
Caroline sat near Cowper, diary in her lap and style in her hand, taking notes. Each evening she opened proceedings by reading the minutes of the previous meeting. Rod asked her if she took down the endless debates.

   
“Goodness no!”

   
“I wondered. It seemed to me that you would run out of paper. Your minutes are certainly complete.”

   
She chuckled. “Roddie, want to know what I really write down? Promise not to tell.”

   
“Of course I won't.”

   
“When I 'read the minutes' I just reach back in my mind and recall what the gabble was the night before-I've got an awfully good memory. But what I actually dirty the paper with . . . well, here-” She took her diary from a pocket. “Here's last night: 'Hizzoner called us to disorder at half-past burping time. The committee on cats and dogs reported. No cats, no dogs. The shortage was discussed. We adjourned and went to sleep, those who weren't already.'“

   
Rod grinned. “A good thing Grant doesn't know shorthand.”

   
“Of course, if anything real happens, I put it down. But not the talk, talk, talk.”

   
Caroline was not adamant about not sharing her supply of paper when needed. A marriage certificate, drawn up in officialese by Howard Goldstein, a Teller law student, was prepared for the Baxters and signed by Cowper, the couple themselves, and Rod and Caroline as witnesses. Caroline decorated it with flowers and turtle doves before delivering it.

   
There were others who seemed to feel that the new government was long on talk and short on results. Among them was Bob Baxter, but the Quaker couple did not attend most of the meetings. But when Cowper had been in office a week, Shorty Dumont took the floor after the endless committee reports:

   
“Mr. Chairman!”

   
“Can you hold it, Shorty? I have announcements to make before we get on to new business.”

   
“This is still about committee reports. When does the committee on our constitution report?”

   
“Why, I made the report myself.”

   
“You said that a revised draft was being prepared and the report would be delayed. That's no report. What I want to know is: when do we get a permanent set-up? When do we stop floating in air, getting along from day to day on 'temporary executive notices'?”

   
Cowper flushed. “Do you object to my executive decisions?”

   
“Won't say that I do, won't say that I don't. But Rod was let out and you were put in on the argument that we needed constitutional governinent, not a dictatorship. That's why I voted for you. All right, where's our laws? When do we vote on them?”

   
“You must understand,” Cowper answered carefully, “that drawing up a constitution is not done overnight. Many considerations are involved.”

   
“Sure, sure- but it's time we had some notion of what sort of a constitution you are cooking up. How about a bill of rights? Have you drawn up one?”

   
“All in due time.”

   
“Why wait? For a starter let's adopt the Virginia Bill of Rights as article one. I so move.

   
“You're out of order. Anyhow we don't even have a copy of it.”

   
“Don't let that bother you; I know it by heart. You ready, Carol? Take this down .

   
“Never mind,” Caroline answered. “I know it, too. I'm writing it.”

   
“You see? These things aren't any mystery, Grant; most of us could quote it. So let's quit stalling.”

   
Somebody yelled, “Whoopee! That's telling him, Shorty. I second the motion.”

   
Cowper shouted for order. He went on, “This is not the time nor the place. When the committee reports, you will find that all proper democratic freedoms and safeguards have been included- modified only by the stern necessities of our hazardous position.” He flashed his smile. “Now let's get on with business. I have an announcement about hunting parties. Hereafter each hunting party will be expected to-”

  
 
Dumont was still standing. “I said no more stalling, Grant. You argued that what we needed was laws, not a captain's whim. You've been throwing your weight around quite a while now and I don't see any laws. What are your duties? How much authority do you have? Are you both the high and the low justice? Or do the rest of us have rights?”

   
“Shut up and sit down!”

   
“How long is your term of office?”

   
Cowper made an effort to control himself. “Shorty, if you have suggestions or, such things, you must take them up with the committee.

   
“Oh, slush! Give me a straight answer.”

   
“You are out of order.”

   
“I am not out of order. I'm insisting that the committee on drawing up a constitution tell us what they are doing. I won't surrender the floor until I get an answer. This is a town meeting and I have as much right to talk as anybody.”

   
Cowper turned red. “I wouldn't be too sure,” he said ominously. just how old are you, Shorty?”