Chapter Four
“It is a beautiful day,” Lani offered shyly. She was sitting in Zolly’s room on a low, yellow silk pouffe beside the other girl’s personal communications console as Zolly scrolled down the screen. “We could go outside.”
“What’s so interesting?” Zolly said, without looking away. “It’s just nature. It’s there all the time.”
“Not for me,” Lani said. “We don’t see blue skies.”
“You live in space all the time?” the dark-skinned girl asked, her attention drawn momentarily away from the screen. Lani nodded. “Very rad.”
“Unless I go away to school next year.” The doubt she felt must have shown on her face. The indicator went “ping!” on the personal snack-maker beside the chairs. Lani opened the retro-styled chrome cabinet and took the iced lime drink from inside.
“You don’t want to leave your family?” Zolly asked, leaning over to program a peach parfait for herself. Her thick ponytail of tightly plaited, curly black hair dropped over her shoulder. The beads at the end of each braid rattled. Lani’s long, straight, black hair had been similarly dressed. She’d enjoyed playing hairdresser with her new friend. “I know what you mean. I don’t know what it will be like when I go. Except for moving here, which I don’t remember because I was too young, and taking Melody to school, we haven’t been off the planet. Well, Mommy has. She has to go to annual meetings on Alpha. I would like to go with her sometime, and shop in stores. Have you done that?”
“Oh, yes. Every time we stop. On space stations and once on a colony, but they had only one mall.”
“Tell me,” Zolly said, leaning forward, her large eyes aglow. “Is it wonderful? You getting to handle all kinds of merchandise, not having to guess what it is like ahead of buying it?”
“We see lots of merchandise at depots and factories,” Lani explained. “My father is a trader.”
Zolly patted her on the knee. “Oh, that’s right! So your ship is like a traveling store! Oh, that would be heaven. I wish I could see it.”
“When he comes back I know he will let you. But it isn’t glamorous, like stores. Everything is in impact crates, not hanging up.”
Zolly laughed with delight. “But that would be like opening presents! What fun. I can’t wait until he comes back. But I want to go to stores. I think that would be bliss. To try on clothes in front of the mirror, instead of using a computer model of yourself. To have clerks bring me hundreds of pairs of shoes. To try on all the jewelry at once.”
Lani thought that last scenario was unlikely, given that sales personnel were notoriously security-conscious around teenage shoppers, no matter how wealthy. “The part I like best is the aerosol booth in the cosmetic stores. You put your chin on a rest. They program which kinds of makeup you want to try, and the machine sprays on microthin layers.”
“And you don’t get any in your eyes?” Zolly asked. Lani shook her head. “That is even more rad. Why microthin?”
“It wears off in a few minutes. No remover necessary. Then you can try on some more.”
“Fabulous! I’d be there all day. We should do it, you and me,” the other girl said, grabbing Lani’s hand. “Next year, when we’re both away at school. Meet at a big shopping station over the holidays, and just go into every store over and over again.”
Lani just smiled.
“We know about you, you see,” Zolly continued. “We heard you were very rich. Why do your parents have to trade and doctor, if you have all the money in the galaxy?”
The terms didn’t seem mutually exclusive to Lani. To an uncomprehending Zolly she explained, “They like to work. My mama likes to help people.” Her friend shook her head.
“She’s a nice lady. And a good doctor. Except I overheard Shelia complaining that she made her use nonorganic eyedrops on Darrlel. I thought she would split something; she was so mad.”
“If Mama said he needed them, then he did,” Lani said firmly.
Zolly shook her head. “I dunno. If she had used goldenseal and eyebright, it should have taken down the inflammation. Might have been slower than chemicals but it’s healthier for you.”
“But it wouldn’t stop the infection. I had pinkeye once. Jill caught it from another baby on Alpha. It spread fast. We all got it.”
“All right, isolation and goldenseal.” Zolly crossed her arms and raised her chin defiantly. She couldn’t seem to let herself be in the wrong. Lani didn’t say anything, but she did not let her eyes drop from the other girl’s strong gaze. After a moment Zolly laughed. “You don’t say much, but you’re thinking hard at me, aren’t you? I wouldn’t let anyone talk down my mommy, either. Come on up here.” She moved her hips over and patted the empty expanse of bench seat beside her. “I know! Let’s play Top Tag.”
“What’s that?” Lani asked curiously. “Do we run around?”
“No, we sit right here. It’s shopping!” Zolly said, cheerfully. “It’s your money. You can spend what you like, right?”
“Yes,” Lani said warily.
“Then you don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to play. If you want to. It’s fun.”
“All right,” Lani agreed, hopping up. “How?”
“Look here,” Zolly said, widening the twist on the rectangular color screen until both of them could see it well. “Pick out something to buy. Then, I’ll choose something. Then you take a turn, and so on. When we are all finished, we’ll add up the score to see who wins.”
It sounded like an odd idea, but Zolly was so excited that Lani started to feel excited, too.
“All right.”
“Good!” She put her hands on the controls and started scrolling around. “What shall we look at first? Fashion? Jewelry? Art?”
Catalog downloads were generally free if one allowed the business to send them on a regular basis. Because space travel often meant that a catalog might pursue a shopper over several beacons and change of direction, the sales could be outdated by the time it was downloaded. Zolly’s catalogs were being updated continually, with all products guaranteed to be in stock. These advertising supplements were much more interesting than the usual flyers, packed with all the animations and tri-dee demonstration clips that the businesses could afford, designed to lure a good customer into spending as much money as possible. Lani found herself captivated by the mini-movies and songs in each of the advertisements. One, a heartfelt love ballad sung by a smooth tenor to a perfume in a pink glass flask, so entranced her that she played it over and over.
“We’re shopping. Come back to that later,” Zolly said impatiently, hitting the Escape command. Lani was jolted away from the enwrapping warmth of the male voice. “Pick something so I can have a turn! What about that?”
She pointed at an advertisement for the personal snackmakers. “You like mine. I bet you’d enjoy having one of your own. It freezes ice cream, or whips mousse, makes savory cheese crisps—anything you like. There’s two models. One uses nutri, and the other uses real ingredients, like milk, sugar, and eggs. Mine uses real ingredients, of course,” Zolly said proudly, taking a big sip of her peach shake. “Healthy. But they taste better, too. What do you think? The boxes are only half a meter square, so shipping doesn’t cost a fortune. Why not? All the kids have them.”
Lani tilted her head, studying the image. “I like it.…”
“Well?”
“All right,” Lani said, hitting Accept. The unit only cost a couple hundred credits. This wasn’t so bad. She shifted the keypad over to Zolly, who leaned over the controls with the concentration of an attack pilot.
“I know there is a new music site here somewhere. There’ve been coming attractions for this new headset. It promises you feel like you’re at a concert, and it can expand to up to six listeners. That’s more than enough. Counting you there are only four girls our age, and no one else understands our music, don’t you agree?”
Lani thought about it for a moment. “That’s true.”
“Ah, here it is!” Zolly exclaimed, triumphantly.
Both girls sighed in ecstasy at the object on the screen. On a background of velvety blue scattered with twinkling stars, a gold visor had been joined by a wide band to three curved panels about the size of an outstretched palm. The two on the sides fitted over the ears, and the one in the center curved up over the back of the skull like a modernistic tiara. The whole unit sparkled with glitter embedded in the amalgam. As it rotated the girls heard tantalizing bars of music purportedly coming out of the sixteen concealed speakers. In the animation the visor popped apart into its component pieces so the girls could see how it went together.
“I love it,” Zolly said. “Only three thousand credits. It’s mine.” She hit the key to accept the purchase. “Do you want one, too?”
Lani leaned close to the screen. Arneguy Resources was the manufacturer. If she wanted one, Gershom could go directly to Fatima Arneguy, daughter of the president, who was the vice president of order fulfillment. She would sell the Taylors a unit for less than half of the stated price. She started to say something about that, but Zolly had already whisked the browser back to the index.
“Your turn! Oops, that’s cooking equipment. I don’t cook,” Zolly said proudly. “That’s for machines.”
“I like to cook,” Lani said. “Mama is teaching me recipes her family brought to Alpha from Earth. And Dwan knows a lot, too.”
“I know, but why do they bother?” Zolly said, bored. “The robots are more careful than humans in keeping the nutrients intact. That’s what they’re here for, to free us up for more important tasks.”
“Like shopping?” Lani asked, with a twinkle in her eye.
“Absolutely!” Zolly said, giving her a hug. “Oh, you’re not going to buy that boring thing, are you?” She pointed at the screen, where Lani had halted the browser on a small countertop machine for making sauce.
“No,” Lani said. “My father can get it much cheaper. But it’s nice.”
Zolly took over the controls and brought them back to the fashion index. “How about one of these?” she asked, pointing at a black coat with fuchsia trim at collar and cuffs. “It’s cuddly as anything.”
Lani considered it too extreme for her tastes. “I like this one better,” she said, pointing at a long duster in a deep green with gold trim down the front facings.
“Get it!” Zolly ordered.
Lani’s fingers hovered over the Accept key. “I shouldn’t.”
“Why not? It will look smashing on you.”
“My father knows the distributor. He can get it for me at a fraction of this price.”
“Well, then,” Zolly said, impatiently, “find something he cannot get. How about this?” She indicated a complicated necklace of illuminated stars set in enamel. “Pick your birth sign, or your favorite constellation.”
Lani’s eyes lit up. “I like the Seven Sisters you can see from Sol system.” A flick of the hand, and the purchase was made. Zolly took over and began to look for herself.
“If we’re having concerts, I must have something new to wear. I think Partridge has a new line available this month. Yes,” she breathed, sitting back as graphics exploded out of the tri-dee tank toward them.
Exquisitely handsome young men and women paraded up and down a miniature catwalk, twisting and turning so the viewers could see every angle of the clothing they had on. Deep colors like aquamarine and amethyst were lit warmly by concealed lights or accented with dazzling crystals.
“Partridge is different because the models are allowed to smile,” Zolly said. “They have it trademarked now, you know. Do they have that beige suit in my size? They do!” She started to reach for the key. Lani caught her hand.
“Don’t,” she advised. Zolly looked surprised.
“Why not? I like it. It will fit me.”
Lani gestured at the screen. “You don’t want to pay these prices,” she explained. “I have a suit just like it in deep red. My father will get it for you from Partridge for twenty percent of what is being asked here. This site charges full retail. That’s too much.”
Zolly finally fixed her with an exasperated look. “Lani. You just don’t understand. The idea is not to spend the least, it’s to spend the most!”
Lani blinked. “It is?”
“Of course! What is money for, if not to keep score in the grand game of life—a quote of my father’s. If I didn’t blow three thousand credits a day my parents would think I was sick. The others all do it. It’s fun. We don’t have a lot of fun around here. Stop thinking like a tradesperson.” Lani started to protest, and Zolly raised her voice over her objections. “Think rich. You are rich. Come on. What’s the most expensive thing you ever bought?”
“Oh,” said Lani, comprehending at last. “Well, I once bought a bank.”
Zolly laughed. “A bank? I have a hundred banks. China, metal, papier-mâché, wood, even one made out of platinum my grandmother gave me when I was born.”
“Not that kind of a bank. A mercantile bank. A business.”
The other’s dark brown eyes grew wide. “Rad. So, what is the too-coolest thing about owning a bank?”
Lani shrugged. “Well, you don’t have to decide between the electric blanket and the toaster. They send you both.”
“What does that mean?” Zolly laughed.
“I don’t know,” Lani said frankly. “It’s a joke the president told me when I met him.”
“I never bought a business,” Zolly said, with interest. “Let’s see what’s for sale. Maybe I will buy a nice shop on a space station. It will give us something to visit when we go on our great escapade. Perhaps a branch of a jewelry store. Or silks. I love silk. I think my mother will go spare when I tell her.” Zolly giggled.
“Isn’t that bad?” Lani asked, worriedly.
“She’s used to it,” the other girl said offhandedly, hitting the Search key. “Look, right there: franchises for sale.”
“Is there anything you can’t find?”
“You can buy anything, if you know where to shop, and if you’re willing to pay whatever it costs.”
“Even a tiger?” Lani asked, flippantly.
Zolly narrowed her big black eyes into slits. “What put that into your head?” she asked.
“My little brother. He has been talking about nothing else since he visited Tumi.”
“Oh!” Zolly said, nodding. “So you are interested. That’s good. I thought you and your mom weren’t part of us, but I guess you are. That’s a relief. My mother will want to know.”
Lani didn’t really understand what her friend was talking about, but Shona had said often that she wanted the family to fit in as long as they were on Jardindor. She nodded.
“Right!” Zolly exclaimed happily. “Now, let’s really spend some money!”