Chapter Thirteen – Long Day

Chapter Thirteen – Long Day

“Keep in mind that different vegetables need to be cooked differently. Organic vegetables are somewhat more fragile, and yet preferred by many. They need to be boiled, sauteed, baked or otherwise cooked before being cut and prepared for serving. Synthetic vegetables usually come pre-cooked at the right consistency and are pre-cut and ready to serve or mix into a larger recipe.”

–Footnote in Home Cooking 2044

***

I walked into our bedroom, shuffled over to the bed while shucking off my coat, then did a half-spin and fell back-first onto the bed.

“Long day?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah,” I said to the ceiling. “I had to deal with people.”

“Aww, poor kitty cat,” Lucy crooned. She moved over the surface of the bed, and soon I found her sitting just above me, soft pyjama-clad thighs on either side of my head. Her face hovered over mine, upside-down from my skewed perspective as she started to press her fingers into and through my hair. “Wanna talk about it?” she asked.

I let out a sigh, part frustration, part relaxation as she pressed into my scalp in just the right way. “I headed out to see about the sewers,” I started.

“Mhm, you’d mentioned it.”

“Yeah. figured they were kinda fucky, but didn’t know how fucky they were, you know?” I said. “There’s this corp called the… New Montreal Sewage Maintenance… something or other. I can’t remember their name.”

“That’s a terrible name for a corp,” Lucy said. “You’d think they’d go with Sewageco, or something banal like Green Solutions.”

I chuckled. “Yeah. I think it was city-operated for a while, then it went private. At least, that’s the impression I was getting. They’re the ones who are actually supposed to be taking care of the sewage and water and all that.”

“Maybe Brown Solutions, then?” she asked.

I laughed. “Yeah, maybe. Got there and all the C-suite suits had run off. Myalis nabbed their bank accounts, but they’re still off. I don’t have the time or energy to chase after them. I swear, people are such… urgh.”

“They probably had a good thing going. Skim off the taxes people pay for maintenance, maybe keep some corps properly connected to the water lines for a little extra on the side.”

I nodded. “Yeah, the usual shit. It’s not even imaginative. It’s almost insulting how predictable it all is. I mean, come on, are we in a capitalist hellscape or a kleptocracy? Someone should teach these people to stick to their lanes.”

Lucy leaned way forwards and pressed a kiss on my forehead. “It’s okay. Did you find a way to fix things?”

“Not really, no. Got the employees back on task, promised them some support, then ran to the Family. The non-samurai part of the Family’s weird, by the way. Too many smiles, too much… enthusiasm. It creeped me right out.”

“Bad vibes?”

“Weird vibes,” I said. “I think they’ll actually try though, which is nice. If they don’t, then I’ll have to be disappointed at them.”

“Disappointed at them?” Lucy repeated.

“Mhm, I’ve got all this stealth crap and rarely use it. Bet I can scare the smiles right off their faces if I apply myself a little. But I’m on vacation. I’m not supposed to be working this hard.”

“Did you just want to sleep it off?” Lucy asked.

I groaned, then with a monumental show of effort, sat myself up. “I’m going to go play outside,” I said.

Lucy snorted. “You mean work on your mech? Go on, you are still on vacation. I’ll prep you something to eat.”

“You’ll cook?” I asked. Lucy had never cook-cooked anything before. Not unless it went in the microwave or came in a box. Making mac and cheese counted as cooking, I supposed, but that almost felt like a cop-out. She’d arranged different ordered foods together into a proper meal once or twice, but that was about the extent of it.