((OOC: I was actually wondering about the educational systems, but I was personally more worried about mathematics. Literacy is a language skill and while at present parents don’t always take it upon themselves to teach it nowadays I still think its something they can and probably will teach their kids in the absence of alternative institutions to provide literacy. Math is a different thing altogether, parents probably won’t teach their children how to find areas or use the Pythagorean theorem in any event, despite the fact that such information generally has a great deal of utility.))
Peter was crying in front of the Mayor’s desk.
Mayor Nealon did not know the boy’s parents, had never met them, but now he wishes he had, apparently they had told him many a story about places like “jail” or “prison” and put a lot of pressure on the boy to behave himself lest he be towed away to such a locale. Solomon didn’t know where they had gotten the idea, the budget for a Penal system simply does not exist, Agrestic hadn’t had a prison in over a century.
But now Mayor Nealon had to explain to this poor, confused, well meaning soul that there were only two punishments for criminals here, and the details of the first one had driven him to tears. It involved a noose and a tree; it was a low budget solution.
The second solution seemed increasingly likely, but it hadn’t been used in years, not since that little band of Ruffians all died in the wilderness.
He guesses it would help blunt the PR impact to remind them of their own dead children from this punishment, it’s not like he was taking it easy on Peter.
He had been there yesterday evening, standing next to Mr. Handy as the two of them presented the “Solomon Nealon memorial Soccer Field,” himself offering a speech despite the fact that it was the robot who had done the work of carving out those benches from logs and leveling the field.
He had said “From today forth we must have tighter bonds to our neighbors, we must know who our children are playing with if we want them to be safe, so let us play together!”
They had only wanted to know what would be done to Peter, trying to ensure the most severe punishment, but the Mayor hadn’t said, he just won re-election, they couldn’t threaten him for at least a couple of years.
“The second is forced unpaid service in the army,” he tells the poor soul now, and the lights go on in his eyes.
“You will serve alongside me in the scavenging crew, if you commit any crime or disobey any orders we will only have one punishment left, do you understand?”
Peter nods furiously, wiping away the tears that just won’t stop.
“We have a couple of months before we leave, I’d like you to spend that time here,” the Mayor tells him, “Helping Margaret. Do not try anything, she has a gun and there are guards outside. We won’t waste our time with the rope if you threaten Maggie.”
Peter is still crying, “I don’t want make people hurt.”
“Peter, I know you don’t, but you did. And until you are sure what makes people hurt and what doesn’t, I would recommend that you be very careful, do you understand?”
The nodding again, after the boy leaves Mayor Nealon sighs, and pours himself a tall glass of Gin. He walks across the room and puts the needle to the record.
“Little Boxes on the hillside…”
