CV

34

On Monday, at the Town Council meeting, Mrs. Bernstein said, “Item five. A complaint. Mrs. Livermore, will you state the complaint?”

Clarice Livermore stood up. “My complaint is, the Korngolds have let a couple from the passenger section move into that apartment they own at the comer of Fifth and Pacific. I didn’t find out about it till they’d been here three days. That’s right around the comer from our market, and it’s only two blocks from the school.”

“Are they disorderly people, Mrs. Livermore?”

“Well, I don’t know, but that’s not the point. They could be carrying that awful disease. Why can’t they stay where they belong? I’m not the only one that feels this way,” she said, and sat down.

“Mr. Komgold, do you want to respond?”

A stout gray-haired man in the audience stood up. “Mrs. Bernstein, gentlemen, the Harrises are old friends of ours, we know them for twenty years. They’re worried about the situation in the passenger section and they asked us if they could move in till the trouble is over. I don’t see how that’s any of Mr. and Mrs. Livermore’s beeswax.”

“Well, my children’s health is my business,” cried Mrs. Livermore. “Let me tell you—”

Mrs. Bernstein rapped with her gavel. “Out of order,” she said. “Mr. Komgold, do you have anything more to add?”

“No, that’s it, except I think she’s making a tempest out of a teapot.”

“Any discussion?”

Ira Clark leaned forward. “Mrs. Livermore, is it just these two passengers you object to, or would you like to keep everybody from the passenger section out of perm? I hope you realize that I’m the only dentist on Sea Venture, and Dr. McNulty is the only physician.”

“Well, that’s one thing, but bringing in people that might be infected for no reason, that’s another. That’s all I say.”

Higpen caught Mrs. Bernstein’s eye and said, “You know, we have about a hundred people living here and working in passenger. There’s traffic back and forth every day. If we could close off perm and keep the epidemic out, I’d be for it, but we’ve discussed this and agreed that it isn’t possible. Luckily, there hasn’t been a single case in perm, and the Harrises have been here, how long?”

“Since the first of last week,” said Komgold from the audience.

“Well, I’d say if they were going to infect anybody, they would have done it by now. Sorry, Clarice. I move to dismiss the complaint.”

“Further discussion?” asked Mrs. Bernstein. “All in favor.” All the Council members raised their hands. “You can step down, Mrs. Livermore. Item six. repairs to the gymnasium.”

The next day Yetta Bernstein walked into the back room of Higpen’s hardware store, where Higpen sat going over his accounts. “Ben, let’s talk.”

Higpen pointed to the plastic bag on his desk. “I was just about to have lunch.”

“Bring it, we’ll sit in the park. You ought to get out more anyway.”

They walked to the park, an open space the same size as the town square. Children were running up and down the gravel paths, playing on the jungle gym. The scent of mown grass was sharp in the air.

“Ben, I’m worried,” Bernstein said. “We’ve been lucky so far, the thing has stayed in the passenger section, but how long can we be lucky?”

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t believe in trusting to luck. We’ve got to do something.”

“All right, but what?”

They sat down on a park bench, and Higpen opened his lunch bag. ‘Tve been thinking,” Bernstein said. “The people who live here and work in passenger, maybe we could trim that number down. Talk them into staying here till the emergency is over. Or some of them, those that don’t have families, they could stay in passenger.”

“You’ll never get them all that way.”

“I know it, but we might be able to reduce the traffic to something manageable, say thirty or forty a day. Then suppose—just suppose—we station people at the entrances, and every time somebody comes in, we get another person to go with them and watch them for twenty-four hours.”

“That wouldn’t keep the parasite out.” Higpen unwrapped a sandwich.

“No, but listen. Suppose it gets in, God forbid. All right. Then it leaves and goes to another person. The first person collapses, the second person feels faint. Now we know which person has the parasite. And we’re watching. So we take that person back to passenger—maybe we tell them the truth, or maybe some cock-and-bull story—and that person doesn’t get back in until the parasite jumps to somebody else.”

Higpen took a bite, chewed and swallowed. “You know,” he said, “I feel two ways about this. Even if we could keep the parasite out, would it be fair? Why should the passengers take all the risk?”

“Ben, I’m ashamed of you. There are children here. Grownups can take their chances, but these kids?”