Leo Frankowski

be
ashamed.”
    “Dr.
Guibedo,” Patricia said, “do you mean that the food comes already
prepared? That would take a lot of the fun out of housekeeping. Don’t
you think so, Mr. Scratchon?”
    “I think that
this sawed-off runt’s head is as fat as his belly! Don’t you realize what he’s
doing? Can’t you understand that when construction, farming, and banking fold,
the entire country will go down the drain, too? Businesses by the thousands
will go bankrupt. Millions of men will be out of work, and we sit here
debating!” Scratchon folded his arms, fury in his eyes.
    The twinkle left
Guibedo’s eyes, and the smile wrinkles on his face smoothed. “Yah, I
know. A lot of changes will happen. And I’m sorry if they make some people
unhappy. Change and progress have always hurt some people, but the net effects
have been good for humanity. The Industrial Revolution, for example, wasn’t
very nice for the people who had to work in those old factories. And the old
nobility didn’t like what was happening, either. But without it, the three of
us and them guys with the cameras would be out digging potatoes with a stick to
eat. So changes will happen, but I make a promise. Anybody who wants a house, I
will sell him a seed. No matter what happens, everybody can have a nice place
to live and plenty of food to eat. I’ll even get the sauerbraten right.”
    “Bare
sustenance!” Scratchon said. “That’s all you’re offering. Good men
don’t work for food and minimal housing. People work for status, for prestige,
to make a contribution to humanity and to provide security for themselves and
their loved ones. People have spent their lives building the industries that
you’re trying to collapse. Worked then-hearts out so that their children and
their grandchildren could live decently. And you’re trying to wreck it
all!”
    “Ach! You’re just
saying that there won’t be so many big shots. And maybe that’s not so bad.
Maybe we’ve got too many big shots pushing people around. But decency? You can
be just as decent as you want in a tree house. You just got nobody to look down
at, because they can live just as good as you!”
    With all of the art of
a true real estate salesman, Scratchon shifted gears.
    “I think you’re
trying to sidestep the major issue here. The modern home is the product of
thousands of years of refinements, the collective work of humanity. These tree
things are basically untried and unsound. No one knows if they’ll last.”
    “Ach! You got a
brick as old as a redwood?”
    “Our homes are
symbols of our status, of our contributions to society.”
    “Big shot,”
Guibedo muttered, but Scratchon continued uninterrupted.
    “Oh, the idea of
living free of charge sounds okay at first. There’s a little larceny in all of
us.” Scratchon gave the camera a toothy smile. “And the idea of
living in a tree might bring out a childish romanticism in some. But to give up
our solid, modern homes, full of modern conveniences, to live like apes in a
tree? The whole concept is absurd. Personally, I wouldn’t live in one if you
gave it tome!”
    “I would give you
one if you would live in it,” Guibedo said. “All you have said, you
have said from ignorance. You don’t know how nice they are. Try for yourself.
You will love them like I do.”
    “Get serious,
Guibedo. I’d be the laughingstock of the neighborhood. Anyway, I’ve got a
business to run. I don’t have time for gardening.”
    “I’ll plant if
for you, Burty, and I’ll take care of it. We put it in your backyard, so you
and everybody can compare it with your old house.”
    Scratchon thought
about the comparison between a tree house and his $450,000 Tudor brick home in
Forest Hills. Yeah , he thought, and with the economy being what it
is, Shadow Lawn Estates, Inc., can use all the publicity it can get.
    “Ms. Cambridge,
if I go through with this stunt, would you give it proper television
coverage?”
    “Why, of course,
Mr. Scratchon. An experiment like this would make a wonderful program.”
    “Plant your tree,
Guibedo.”
    “You’ll give it
an honest try? Promise to live in it for a year, or at least six months?”
Guibedo said.
    “You’ve got a
deal, Guibedo. We’ll show people what living in a tree is really like.”

Chapter Two
    SEPTEMBER 20,1999
     
    G ETTING RICH is easy. It just
takes a lot of work.
    The average person spends
fifty-six hours a week sleeping, forty hours a week making money, and the