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David was bothered by that shrug, and the lack of knowledge it represented, much more than anyone
else in the group. Partly that was because it's always less pleasant to taste your foot than to see someone
put theirs in their mouth. But mostly it was because the grim reality of Sarah's comments hit a bit closer to
home for him than for the others. He remembered some bad times from before they moved back to
Grantville after "Uncle" Donovan left. David's world had come apart before, and it showed all the signs of
doing so again. There was a sort of directionless tension in the air. As if the grownups around him knew
something had to be done, but didn't really know what. And there were major money concerns, always a
bad sign. Worse, unlike last time, it seemed to cover the whole town, not just his family.
David started actively looking for something to make. Something for people to spend their energy on.
Something that would bring in money. Something, anything, to make the uncertainty go away.
Brent Partow spent the night thinking about what Sarah had said as well. He wasn't worried, he was
interested. Brent spent his life in search of the next interesting thing to do. To Brent, Sarah's concerns
about saleable products simply meant a fun game ofwhat can we build? By the next day he had a plan.
He talked it over with Trent, who only had minor objections. Trent was afraid that if the grownups found
out they might like the idea. Which, of course, meant they would take the thing over, put it in a class,
suck all the fun out of it, and turn it into work. Trent was also afraid that if the grownups found out they
might be displeased. Which, of course, meant they would forbid the kids the game, and just to make
sure, assign them something boring to do. So his sole restriction was:no grownups .
June 14, 1631: A Creek Inside the Ring of Fire
David was the first to arrive. Then Brent and Trent arrived together. By the time Sarah got there, the
issue was decided.
Sarah, feeling somewhat left out, initially scoffed at the plan. But then David pointed out that, if what her
father said was true, it was their duty to Grantville to do something. That ended that. David was a
dedicated and marginally astute observer of Sarah Wendell.
So the four began their search for the right thing to make. First they compiled lists of things. Guns,
airplanes hovercraft, cars, electric engines, nails, pliers...
The lists got very long because Brent had declared that the first winner would be the person who came
up with the most possibilities, whether they turned out to be possible or not. So the first list included such
practical and easy to make things as phasers, space shuttles, nuclear submarines, and cruise missiles.
Each of which was greeted with raspberries and giggles, but each of which gained the originator a point
marked down by Trent. A number of the suggestions that were to eventually be made by one or another
group of up-timers were greeted with the above accolade. After about an hour the kids were starting to
get a little bored. Trent's suggestion that they adjourn, and each make a separate list over the next couple
of days, met with general approval.
June 16, 1631: The Grantville High School Library
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Sarah won by fifteen entries. There was some debate as to whether all her entries were indeed separate
items. In a number of cases she had included the final item along with several component parts. Among
the four lists there were close to a thousand separate items. If you eliminated duplicates, there were still
over five hundred. When you eliminated the utterly impossible, matter transmitters and the like, there
were still over three hundred.
Then they tried to eliminate the impractical. But what makes the difference between practical and
impractical? That is not so easy a thing to determine, and each kid came at the question from a different
angle. To Brent and Trent it was still very much a game, so their version of practical had more to do with
interesting than anything else. Sarah imagined presenting her parents with a list of things that could be sold
and gaining their respect, so her version paid much attention to what would be saleable. David was the
only one who was actually looking for something that would make a good investment for his family. His
problem was, he really wasn't sure what that meant.
All in all, the whole thing was a lot of fun. Some things nails, for example were eliminated when
Sarah informed them someone else was already working on them. The finance subcommittee was
apparently keeping track of that sort of thing. Other things, such as airplanes, were marked as practical
but not for them. A number of things were marked as practical for them; but they didn't stop at the first of
these, since they had agreed to go through the whole list.
Then they reached the sewing machine. Brent, who had little interest in sewing, proclaimed that it was
impractical because it needed an electric motor and they had already determined that for them, the
electric motor was impractical.
David remembered his grandmother's old Singer and that it had been converted from treadle power.
This was not actually true, merely a family rumor, but David didn't know that. So he pointed out that a
sewing machine did not need an electric motor, which was true.
Sarah, who recognized the root motive of Brent's rejection of the sewing machine sexism, pure and
simple naturally took a firm position in favor of the sewing machine.
Poor Trent didn't know which way to turn. Arguing with Brent was dear to his heart, as was tearing
down impossible schemes, but sewing machines were for girls.
"They're too complicated," he claimed, "we could never make one from an encyclopedia entry. We
would need a design or a model or something."
"We have one!" David was well pleased to be on Sarah's side against Brent. "At least my grandma has
one, and it's old. It was converted from treadle or pedal power to electric sometime, but all they did was
put on an electric motor to replace the pedals."
What are you going to do when faced with such intransigence? You just have to show them. Trent and
Brent were going to show that it could not be done. David and Sarah, that it could.
June 16, 1631: Delia Higgins' House
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Delia was sewing when the kids arrived. She had been sewing quite a bit lately. She had worked out a
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