Calban Visits His Parents : Part 1 (Marta & Gallanol Ch.8)

Calban’s parents rarely came to see him. He rarely visited them. When they did come he probably did not make them feel welcome enough. When he had needed them most they had not helped him. They did not understand him. This lack of understanding was most evident when he tried to converse with them, or when they tried to talk to him. They would not listen properly to what he had to say. Long ago he had stopped trying to communicate. But there had been a time when he had wanted their help, five or six years ago when he had only been in his present job for a short time, but long enough to know that it was not interesting, that it would take over his life and stifle any personal ambitions he might have.

He had grown tired of watching the Vidscreen in his few times of privacy and had felt that he wanted a more human support in his daily struggle to pass exams and to learn his work. The presence of other students at class had failed to provide him with a social life of any sort. He had used one of his “free” days when he should have been studying to make the journey to see his parents although he made the sensible compromise of bringing some of his study materials with him. He worked while on the Network although any value he gained from it must have been very limited due to the continual distraction of travelling through less familiar places and of observing the varied people on the Network Train.

His parents had been pleased to see him, despite their continued warnings that his studies must not suffer. Calban had guessed that they had been worried by his reluctance to visit them or to remain in contact over the previous two years. But the day soon degenerated into an interview on Calban’s current level of progress up the dual ladders of career and education, with his parents asking all the questions. His replies, which already only a year into the beginning of his career, sounded negative, seemed to drive both parents into a flurry of impassioned lecturing about how he should change his attitudes to work and study, learn to enjoy accountancy, take pleasure in the companionship of working as a team, be fulfilled by the thought that he was gaining knowledge and experience enjoyed only by those specialists who worked in his profession.

In revealing his unhappiness with his “choice” of career and with the complete control his work and studies had over his whole life, Calban had hoped to encourage some notes of real sympathy from them. But they seemed not to be aware that it was possible for a human being to wish for a life which would bring some sense of fulfilment. Accountancy was a good career. Now Calban was in it and had learned so much about it there was little point in trying to change into a different career and start the exams from the bottom. Accountancy was a good career, he should be proud to have been thought suitable by his employers. Not everyone who made applications to join the profession were so successful. In his parents view he was lucky. His career towards “success” was laid out in front of him. The only thing that stood in his way was himself and his attitude. If he continued to work and study patiently and paid attention to everything around him he would learn to like it more and would soon feel content. They told him that they knew how he would be feeling in two or four or six years time. Calban was here now nearly six years later and he disliked his working life even more than six years previously. He had attained a certain level of qualification more than one year previously and had refused despite the goading of his teachers, lecturers and employers and the positive encouragement of his course mates to take any further qualifications. His parents’ predictions had proved horribly wrong. He was stuck in a profession that demanded too much of him and yet bored him at the same time, with no prospect of what he could understand as success. He did not feel important. Most people older than him and quite a few younger were ahead of him on the career path. The refusal to take further exams or even to do further study modules would end his chances of further career promotion, might even possibly lead to some slight demotion.

He had slid gradually into the sense of disillusionment and hopelessness that he still felt. Then the feeling had been new to him. He had realised that this routine was his for life, that he would never be able to make real friends in the situation he was in. Romance or even marriage was as unlikely as the prospect of ever becoming fully qualified – although he remembered he still retained some hope in the direction of full qualifications even then.

Calban had again taken one of his free days to visit his parents, who lived many miles away on the edge of Marta City. To him who rarely travelled because he had no one to travel with, it had been an exciting journey even though the integrated tram system made it quite fast. Calban had to plan his route in advance for which he used his Vidscreen for information. He had so little time to visit his parents and had so little wanted to over the years of his early training that the route was not a familiar one.

He travelled far across Marta City to its southern limits. He chose to travel on the Higher Level Networks because it was generally faster. There were fewer stops on the journey. Another reason was that Calban could see the sky and there were fewer obstacles to his view. He could frequently see into the distance. Most of the buildings he passed were residential like his own. For some decades now, he did not know exactly how long, most residential buildings had been built to a similar design. This design had been dictated by reasons of necessity. Land values were so high because of the shortage of land to house such a massive population. The Building Houses had been forced to build upwards so that they could achieve a return on the Flats they sold or leased. Very tall buildings were limited by structural concerns in the variety of architectural designs that could be used. To achieve a good return they had tended to keep the costs of construction to a minimum. They could sell or let their new properties more quickly if the prices they charged were suitable for the ordinary and relatively low paid working population. Calban was not particularly concerned that there were so many similar buildings. There were also plenty of older ones of more complex design. Previous centuries had seen wide swings in architectural fashion from small to big, narrow to wide and in every other sense. Like many citizens of modern Gallanol he was not particularly concerned that creativity of design had gradually been removed from human construction by economics and the modern systems of human life. The life of most citizens was far too busy to reflect on this phenomenon. Calban’s attention, like most people, was channeled, after work into the varied entertainments available on the Vidscreen. That was a world much larger than the world outside his flat.

Calban was excited by this journey. It was ambitious for him and he enjoyed all of its views because they were unfamiliar to him. He watched the people on the Network – they were similar to the people he saw on his journeys to and from work and he found them just as interesting as the people he normally watched. On this long journey he had brought a Portable Audio Receiver. Two small ear pieces fitted into his ears. The Receiver went into his pocket. Buttons allowed him to select suitable Audio soundtracks from the Vidbank. On long journeys he would listen to music, something he often did on his journey to work.