Prime
by Doug Hawley
5
Previous Chapter
Return To First
Chapter
Julie Collins – I’m
very pleased to be able to have another interview
with Dook, a representative of our closest
relatives, what we call the yetis and what they
call the Angwin.
We have talked about some Angwin basics and your
successful attempt to create homeland. Today I’d
like to talk about your daily life. We’ve
already learned about your sustainable life, and
your creative romantic life. Would you tell us
what a normal day is like for you folk?
Dook – Glad to. We always try to get a good
night’s sleep and then work on our homes and
communal structures and harvest our food. None of
those activities take very long, so we have
plenty of time for entertaining ourselves.
Julie Collins – I’m sure that our in
house audience and those listening and viewing at
home would like the details filled in.
Dook – Let me start on what you might call
our infrastructure. Most of us live under the
snow and we have tunnels connecting our homes.
Depending on the weather, we may have to create
troughs and pits for water runoff or repair
damaged tunnels. At least we never want for
building materials – snow and ice. Chuckles.
Julie Collins – If I may break in here, are
all homes connected to all other homes?
Dook – Oh, no the number of connecting
tunnels would be astronomical. Want me to do some
illustrative mathematics for you?
Julie Collins – Oh, please no! But I do
wonder how many houses you have and how many live
in a house?
Dook – I don’t know the answer to the
first question and if I did, I would not want the
answer known. As indicated in an earlier
interview, we do have enemies, and we would like
to keep some secrets. As to your second question,
anywhere from one to fifty may live in a single
home.
Julie Collins – Fifty? Are extended families
common amongst Angwin?
Dook – Our social structures are more varied
than among humans. In some cases there may be
several generations in one house. In another, it
may resemble a sorority or a fraternity. Also,
polyamory is widely practiced with various
mixtures of genders. Less sensational is the most
common arrangement, mother, father and 2.5
children. The 2.5 is a joke unless it isn’t
funny.
Julie Collins – Is homosexuality common?
Dook – About the same as with humans, also
roughly the same percent as left handers.
Julie – How about you personally?
Dook – I’d like to keep my private life
private out of consideration of my family.
Julie Collins – You mentioned in an earlier
interview that you are relatively impervious to
the cold. Are your homes warm enough naturally,
or are they heated somehow?
Dook – We don’t need anything beyond
the heat generated by living in close quarters,
but we like hot baths and we get into the
sunshine when available.
Julie Collins – How do you heat water?
Dook – We have become very good with solar
energy. Our retrogrades, have been very helpful.
Julie Collins – Remind us about the
retrogrades.
Dook – We produce some mutant children
occasionally who look like humans, but are as
smart as we are.
Julie Collins – You mentioned time for
entertainment.
Dook – We have games and quizzes. Some of
the Angwin are excellent sculptors. We use both
stone and snow. The snow is used as an
impermanent medium, something like the sand in
Japanese gardens.
Over the years, the retrogrades have furnished us
with up to date technology for writing and film.
As a result, we have quite a library of
indigenous literature and film, plus some of the
best human product.
Julie Collins – You mentioned earlier that
you have a stable population because your women
can time their births. How is that done?
Dook – I believe that I mentioned before
that we have developed various kinds of fungi.
One increases a woman’s fertility and
another one shuts it down.
If I may interject an interesting sidelight, a
part of what we offered to the rest of the world
in return for our homeland was information about
our discoveries. The birth preventing fungi is
very popular among women in countries controlled
by patriarchal societies and fundamentalist
religions. The male rulers feel that power comes
from an out of control population of the poor and
uneducated, but the women have found access to
contraband fungi and are taking control of their
births. I’m sure that those brave women can
improve the fortunes of their countries.
Julie Collins – That is indeed good news. My
final question is related to your last answer.
You mentioned your fungi diet. What else do you
eat?
Dook – I mentioned our solar power earlier.
We also grow a variety of vegetables with
hydroponics. I brought some peppers with me this
time. Take this basket.
Julie Collins – Dook, thanks for taking the
time again to talk with me. Any final thoughts?
Dook – Thanks for all of the people and
governments that have supported us. We feel that
humans and Angwin can have a beneficial
relationship in the coming years.
Next Chapter
Return To The Story List And
Biography For Doug Hawley
Read A Random Story
From The Writers' Showcase
|
