181 Leading By Example (1/2)
”We're going to run out of coffee soon,” Bernard said.
”What? Run out of coffee? I saw a whole carton, untouched, when I was checking on the stores yesterday.”
”That carton doesn't contain coffee.”
”Are we talking about the same thing? The carton I'm referring to has a Maxwell House logo on it.”
”It's full of Debbie's herbal teas. The ones even she won't drink, they taste so bad.”
”Oh. By the way, is Dad around?”
”No, he's still sleeping.”
”Shouldn't we wake him up?”
”He told me he's taking a day away from the office, and that you're taking a day off, too,” said Bernard. He seemed far from overjoyed at the prospect of having his father and older brother around for the whole day.
””What about Debbie and Karen?”
”They're up, all right. They've been up since dawn.”
”Funny,” said Adam. ”I haven't seen them.”
”They're working on the vegetable garden they've started cultivating a couple of weeks back.”
”I haven't seen any vegetable gardens around either,” said Adam. ”I must be losing my grip.”
”It's behind the shed with the llamas. By the way, Karen managed to acquire three more llamas from the zoo in San Francisco.”
”I hate those fucking animals. Did you notice they sort of sneer at you when you look at them?”
”Yeah, they've got a kind of a supercilious air about them. But they're really useful in the New World.”
”I don't see why we should keep llamas around here once they've been replicated in the New World,” Adam said. ”I really have to talk to Debbie and Karen about that.”
”While you're at it, talk to Debbie about the chickens.”
”Chickens?”
”She's gone nuts with chickens. We've got hundreds and hundreds of chickens running around Fort Lander. You can't take a breath without smelling chicken shit.”
”That's too bad,” said Adam, silently congratulating himself on turning down the leadership of the Lander colony. Naturally, upon accepting Brock's offer of governorship, Kirk had offered the leader's post to Adam. Adam had demurred, and indicated he would be much happier serving under Kirk in the colonial administration.
And so, Bernard had been appointed the leader of the Lander colony. It had provoked an angry speech from Karen, who accused her father of sexism. Kirk had mollified her somewhat by offering her the area around Lake Hennessey for a settlement of her own. It was good land, with plenty of timber and fertile soil, and Karen would have almost total autonomy.
”What if there's one vote for, one against, and one abstention?” Karen had said. She was well aware of Debbie's reluctance to take sides in a dispute.
”You'll just have to work it out between yourselves,” Kirk had told her. ”All progress depends on people working out things between themselves.”
As it turned out, Bernard was a good leader. He didn't impose his will on anyone, relying on his considerable persuasive skills to turn people round to his point of view. The persuasive skills in question consisted largely of Bernard's ability to remember every single fuckup, every shameful situation in everyone's life. When he encountered opposition, he was quick to recite a list that made his opponent blush.
No one liked to be reminded they could be as crass and stupid as anyone else. Bernard usually got his way. Having secured Adam's cooperation in resolving the chicken shit crisis, he said:
”I have a favor that I'd like to ask you.”
”Ask away,” Adam said warily.
”You know how important it is for us to have access to the ocean.”
”Right.”
”That involves having free access to San Pablo Bay.”
”Yeah, I know. Dad mentioned you'll be starting a settlement on Knight Island.”
”I'd prefer to start it somewhere else. Knight Island is basically one big salty swamp. A lot of the bay coastline is one big salty swamp. It isn't easy to find a good spot for a healthy settlement.”
”It might be difficult west of the Napa river, I agree. But surely everything on the eastern bank is okay.”
”It is. And it appears to have been settled already.”
”Really?”