Calban Visits His Parents : Part 3 : Mother (Ch.8)

Calban put his pass card into the door and waited briefly while the door sensors analysed his details with the database of “known and acceptable” visitors for security purposes, although security was no longer as necessary as when the technology was introduced because crime had been reduced. The door camera was activated to match the person at the door with the data. That did not mean automatic entry of course. A small green light appeared on the door, which showed that his personal identity was known to the door’s database. One of his parents needed to be present to give the door its instruction. A minute of rising doubt followed when he wondered if his parents had forgotten his visit. But he knew this visit was more important to them than to him.

While they had rarely visited him and had even in his teenage years exchanged little contact he knew they cared very much that he remain in contact occasionally and they were very concerned that their only child seemed to display so little motivation. Calban blamed them partly because they had done so little to improve his motivation in practice or more importantly his happiness. If he did not turn out to be successful it would tarnish the beliefs they both held about their own success.

To the present date Calban had only been partially successful. They had believed for a while that he was a guaranteed “success” when he was taken on for training by his firm, but his outbursts six years ago had shown him to be weak and aimless. Still they had been satisfied that he had continued to work and study. His decision two years before not to seek further levels of qualification had disappointed them greatly. Calban believed that they would seek to persuade him to continue his studies on this visit. He expected them to use every means of persuasion possible.

The door opened to let him in. A tall statuesque lady of about fifty-five stood on the other side. She had a handsome face although the wrinkles had begun to carve it up and there was a sagging of the skin under the eyes and the chin. She had always been a respectable and presentable looking woman – even beautiful when younger. In her son’s own view it was her personality faults which had prevented her from being a very attractive woman. Of course Calban had never considered such questions in the days when she had been most attractive because of his own childhood. She wore a tidy blue suit, matching top with trousers with a pink blouse. Her hair, naturally greying had been dark brown. Her shoes were sensible looking but of good quality – blue. The costume befitted her role as a successful scientist.

She had a good position in the Research and Development Department of Cato Technologies, a House which had for long been in the forefront of Vidbase and other computer based technology. Calban’s mother, Electronic and Product Engineering trained, had been involved in the development of hardware and network systems for the Martan language Vidbase, which dominated the Gallanol Continental Networks. Calban did not understand the projects she had often told him about, with an enthusiasm he had found hard to understand. He could not comprehend what made her so devoted to her work. He could only assume that she found the work interesting. Perhaps it provided her with a meaning in life she would not otherwise have had.

As always his mother was the first to make contact.
“Hello Calban, how long was your journey?” It was just like her to open the conversation with a specific question. She would require a fairly specific answer.
“Three hours, mother,” he replied, refusing to be exact.
“That seems a little long. Are you sure you haven’t got it slightly wrong?” She had not changed.
“It was about two hours and forty minutes to be almost exact.” He would have liked to have been able to smile as he said it and treat it as something unimportant, but he knew that his mother took a serious interest in quantities, whether they were of time, distance, weight or whatever. It was her training, but why then had his own training not given him an interest in such things? Accountancy was all about measurement and recording but had failed to interest Calban materially in such things. He supposed that science was more exact than accounting and that exact measures were important when trying to find improvements in performance and efficiency. Calban really didn’t think that improvements in performance and efficiency were important, not any more, but people like his mother evidently believed ardently in such progresses, and they were the people who drove the world.

“They should be able to do a little better than that, but that is roughly what I thought,” Calban’s mother observed. “The last time your father and I made the trip it was about the same. They ought to build a fast line which doesn’t have to stop so often. Most of the great cities of the world have faster lines but of course Marta, the largest of all has the slowest because the government has not demanded it. Your journey should be possible in one hour at the most given the available technology.” Calban’s mother was fond of suggesting improvements wherever she believed there was a technical solution. While generally critical of government meddling in science and society she saw no contradiction in exhorting them to intervene wherever they could actually promote scientific advance. Calban did not mind her expression of opinions but he rarely shared her concerns, which he believed were generally irrelevant to his own life.

Calban felt rather awkward. It as so rare that he visited anyone let alone his parents. Even at work conversation was a response to the questions of others, more demanding than himself or more curious, or to the demands of work. He was already lost for words. He had not seen his parents face to face for many months. He had travelled all this way, but there was little he could think of to say which would not be trivial and would not trigger his mother off on some scientific diatribe. Then he remembered his father. ‘Where is Father?’ he asked.

Calban guessed his mother was briefly at a loss to know where to steer the conversation and was relieved to be steered onto another subject. Calban had not been interested enough to query her further on her plans for the transport network and she was aware that it was perhaps not the most fitting subject for discussion at this stage in the day.