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"Sure but I've got to watch you." He didn't look suspicious, though he looked eager.
Not so eager that he didn't fuss about making sure we had enough padding under "those dern heavy
wheels you got there," as he called the boom bases but he allowed as how four inches of pad with firm
top and bottom was enough, even when he saw the base sink all the way down to the floor. As long as it
wasn't touching his hardwood, he was satisfied. "Them pads fireproof?"
" Everything we use is fireproof," Merlo assured him, "except some of the actors." And he
sidetracked Langan with the tale of the Great Chicago Theater Fire, while I bustled around setting up.
The story almost slowed me down, thougli I hadn't heard it before, and the way Merlo told it, that
tale was a real hair-raiser. I thought he was going to have Langan shutting us down right then and there,
but he wound up telling the old man that because of the big blaze, every theater tech is very, very careftil
about fire, and anything that could cause it I took the lesson to heart.
That didn't stop Langan from looking slowly up the tree of lighting instruments I'd built and
demanding, "You sure that base is heavy enough so it won't fall over, with all mis weight atop it?"
"Totally sure," Merlo confirmed. "You saw how it took both of us to manhandle it into place."
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Langan sniffed. "I've seen little black boxes you could put on a piece of soft pine, that would make
it weigh just as heavy as that base thing and it'd be a lot easier to manage, if you just turned it off."
Merlo nodded. "Mass multiplier. Yeah, they're beautiful. But they ran on electricity, Mr. Langan
and what happens if the battery runs down?'
Langan hemmed and hawed, but finally admitted, "Well, you'd have to yell 'timber!'"
"And maybe see that fire we've been dreading," Merlo said, "not to mention what would happen to
the people it fell on. No, Mr. Langan, that's why sometimes I prefer the low-tech solution, even if it is a
pain to haul around."
Langan seemed reassured, but he glanced up the pole and the tubes and cone sections I had
clamped to the cross-arms. "Those far enough away from the wall not to burn my plaster?"
"Plenty far," Merlo assured him. "They scarcely give off any heat at all."
"Not worried about the power going out on them, are you? I see you're using electronic lenses, not
glass!"
Merlo shrugged. "If the power goes out, the lamp will go dark, Mr. Langan. It's not going to make
much matter if the lenses don't work then."
"Yeah, I'd say that's true," Langan allowed. "Well, let's see this fancy control board of yours."
He affected disdain, but we could tell he was excited. We gave him the demo, and he couldn't stop
the gleam in his eye, or the tremble in his hands, even though he tried to look bored. It was the small
board, too just operated lights, and only a dozen of them. So we let him try, and his eyes gleamed as he
dimmed the lights up and down, then brought up the specials one by one, highlighting each of the holes
in the counter where the heads were going to come through, then brought them all up, then all down,
beginning to chuckle with glee. Merlo watched, grinning, and even I forgot my troubles watching the old
coot have fun. Takes some doing, let me tell you, with something like Prudence on your mind.
Oh, there was a way to get her off my mind really easily but Suzanne didn't want to give me any
promises. I didn't need anything physical, just a simple pledge that we'd be more than mere friends, but
she started getting skittish any time I even hinted, so I stayed clear of the issue. Better to have her for a
friend, than not to have her at all but it did leave me vulnerable to pretty faces and shapely bodies that
had brains that might be willing to give me a little more emotional security, if a little less freedom.
A little, mind you. I wasn't asking for anything permanent. I'd seen how permanent things were
with my parents or with my mother, anyway. I couldn't honestly say I'd ever seen anything of my
father.
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So as I told you, watching old Langan playing with the light board made me forget all that. Sure.
The sun did come up, though, and when its light flooded through the windows so that we couldn't
see where our own light pools were, Langan stopped playing and sat back with regret. "I see what you
boys mean, about needing to do this after dark."
Merlo nodded. "Either that, or blinds."
"Or window opaquers, young man we may not use such things much, but we've heard of 'em."
Langan glanced up at us shrewdly. "It's all just a scam, isn't it? You get those actors to put on a show,
just so you can have a good reason to play with your toys."
Merlo looked startled for a moment, then grinned sheepishly. "You might have a point there after
all, old-timer. Well, we have to get back to the ship and help out with the rest of the preparations. Mind
our gear for us, will you?"
"Safe as in a bank vault," Langan promised us, and do you know, I was absolutely sure it was true.
After all, a techie is a techie, and we all know one another on sight don't we? Of course we do, and we
know what's really important in life. After girls, of course. Or maybe even.
We hopped the mono and got back to the terminal just a little before nine, to meet the others. No
point in going through customs again just to come right back out, so Merlo and I each dropped another
pill in our cups, filled them with water at the drinking fountain, and settled down on hardwood seats to
press the heat buttons on our cups and wait for the rest of the gang.
"Ramou! Twice in one day!"
I looked up. There she was, a vision in indigo broadcloth, my sweet little Puritan maid who, I
suspected, was desperately yearning to be a little less pure, but who would have pulled back in horror if
she'd known what that entailed. Well, maybe not after all, she was probably only talking about a little.
I grinned up at her as I rose. "Hey, I'm in luck! But where's your waitress uniform, Miss Prudence?"
Worthless question if I ever heard one she wore a virtual uniform all the time, but maybe she added an
apron in the restaurant. "Or are they keeping you in the kitchens? Naughty of them if they do, depriving
all those poor yearning spacemen of the sight of you."
She laughed, blushing. "Ramou, you say far more than you mean!"
"I wouldn't dare," I assured her.
She frowned prettily, trying to figure that one out, so I asked again, "How come they let you out of
durance vile?"
" 'Durance & '? Oh, you mean work? No, for today, it was only the breakfast shift, so that I could
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watch how they work, and learn the rules. Tomorrow I'll work the full ten hours breakfast and dinner,
and cleanup. I go home before the supper shift, though."
'Ten hours is a long day," I remarked.
She shrugged. "Everyone works that much, at least. The idle brain is the devil's playground, you
know."
"I've heard it said," I admitted.
"What is a 'playground'?" she asked.
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