Mrs. Savona announced luncheon. A metal cooker on the table did the
roasting right in front of us by electronic high frequency short wave
radio. The heat generated in the food cooked it in seconds. It was
so wonderfully flavored and tasty that I enjoyed several helpings.
I complimented my hostess on her good cooking, asking her if all
housewives on Mars were such good cooks.
"Oh, yes, and some are better. A great many are specialists in the
different branches of culinary arts. But we all stress a wholesome
diet. All our girls must take courses in home economics as well as
in practical nursing, pediatrics, and at what you call baby sitting;
they are frequently called to care for children when their parents
go out. We all get, in our court, a week's turn to work and help in
our kitchen. Kitchens in every court are operated by the residents,
other residents operate our dining rooms; but it is all done under the
supervision of our chef and head waiter.
"We live in what you earth people would call a community style. Every
community has five or six courts, as you must have seen from the air,
laid out in cluster near each other. The young couples like ourselves
who bring up families and who need more rooms occupy single homes or
two family homes. The four-story apartment houses, which surround the
larger courts, are occupied by people who have already raised their
families and who need less space.
"Every community has its preliminary school, hospital, and with
provisions for one bed for every twenty persons and one physician for
every fifty adults or twenty-five couples and their families in the
community. There are also a drug store, theatre, moving picture and
television house, gymnasium, dance hall, for the young boys and girls,
social clubs for the young and the aged, music band, skating rink
during the winter, and indoor and outdoor playgrounds for the very
young children. Of course, there is constant intermingling, between
those living in adjoining and other communities.
"We also have our own court of justice presided over by a conciliator
chosen from our retired aged residents every year. This court settles
our personal disputes. If we wish, we can call in an outside impartial
arbitrator. We also have in this city a superior court of appeal,
presided over by ten retired, aged Martians who are elected by all our
city residents for a four year term. Anyone can appeal his case and get
a hearing. Our court, comparable to your Supreme Court, is also located
in Amboria."
Mrs. Savona addressed Xora. "Do not forget that after the next two
weeks you will take your turn as nurse's aide in the hospital. You
had better make the most of your time now in showing around our Earth
guest."
Luncheon over, Xora suggested taking a walk. "It's a favorite
diversion of ours," she said. "You can more readily observe our ground
surface while we are strolling."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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