Chapter 24
The sun was barely peeking over the horizon when Sam A began his day, feverishly working on his projects.
He set about building the turbine that would generate a current in response to the water turning his wagon wheels, which he had fixed together with a series of fins between them, allowing the water to easily spin the wheel as it flowed downstream through the property. As he worked, the boy he’d met a couple of days earlier—Mike—wandered up to him. He watched Sam work, his eyes lit up with great curiosity.
“What’s that?” he asked, watching Sam drilling a hole through the centre of a magnet.
“This is the key to generating the electrical current,” Sam explained with an enthusiastic gesture. “It’s a strong permanent magnet. Each end of this magnet has a north and south pole; emitting a field that’s either positively or negatively charged. And by spinning it using the transferred kinetic energy from the moving water of the stream here, the changing magnetic field moves electrons into this coil—” he held up a copper coil, “—which creates an electrical current that can be used to power devices, or passed into a battery for storage and later use. It’s called ‘electromagnetic induction.’”
Mike stared, wide-eyed, at the magnet. “I dunno what any of that means, but it sounds real groovy, Mister Al.”
Sam ruffled the boy’s hair. “Well, when you learn to read, you should get yourself some physics books, okay? You can do some really fun stuff when you learn about science. Really… uh, groovy stuff.”
Mike planted himself on the grass next to Sam. “Is it okay if I just watch you a while?”
“Sure,” Sam said. “Just don’t touch anything, okay? Electricity can be dangerous. Not that I’m generating any just yet. Still a lot left to do.”
He got back to work, allowing Mike to scrutinise his every task. All the while, he tried to ignore the fact that Danny was standing by the dome, chain-smoking and watching him from a distance.
After a couple of hours, he took a break to begin arranging for the building of the classroom. He’d previously discovered a barn full of building materials, and numerous people living on the ranch had volunteered their services to erect the little schoolhouse he’d proposed. One woman had even drawn up blueprints. Sam felt incredibly lucky to be a part of such a community, and he helped the volunteers plot out the right spot for the classroom, which they decided would be a standalone structure at the back of the dome.
As the team began to dig into the grass to level the land, he moved on to the outhouses, where another group was giving the place a deep clean, their hands covered in thick rubber gloves that extended up to their elbows.
“How’s it going here?” he asked, keeping his distance from the bio-hazardous gloves.
“So far so good,” said Alicia, who wore a scarf wrapped around her nose and mouth. “Stinks, though.”
“Well, hopefully once we’re done, that will no longer be the case,” Sam said cheerfully, waving a hand over his nose.
His idea here was to use modern natural filtration techniques, diverting part of the stream to flow behind the outhouses and snake down through pipes downhill, towards a sandy reed bed to filter the sewage, finally diverting overflow back to the stream, returning the newly cleaned water to the natural source. It was a big job, and he would not likely be around to see it through, so he’d detailed his plans in a notebook, which he’d been working on overnight.
He hadn’t had a lot of sleep, he had to admit, but he felt energised nonetheless, seeing all his ideas start to take shape.
Al hadn’t paid him a visit since the previous night, which Sam thought was maybe for the best. He didn’t need any help here, and by contrast, Sam B needed about as much as he could get.
He hoped the instructions he’d left had been sufficient; from what he had observed about his other half, it was as if Sam’s normally sparkling personality had been stripped away, and he could barely recognise what remained. Or maybe, he recognised it too well. It was a side of himself he was never proud of. When it came down to it, he felt the person he was now seemed to be what tended to win out during periods of internal conflict: the drive to do whatever he could to make things better, in big and small ways. To give over his life in the pursuit of altruism.
Now, split in half, he was free of that conflict. There was no voice of resentment—of selfishness—telling him this was too hard, that he couldn’t keep this up, that he just wanted to go home. And that was why he was accomplishing so very much now.
A modest crowd had congregated as he finished up work on the hydroelectric generator, and he flipped a switch on it, leading to a diode on a small panel to light up in red. He dusted off his hands, offering the congregation a triumphant grin.
“Watch this light,” he said to the transfixed crowd. “When it flips over to green, the battery’s fully charged. You can then switch it out for another one. Make sure not to leave it on green for too long, it’ll get over-charged and damage the battery.” He gestured to another series of cables extending from the generator. “These cables you can hook up direct to your devices when needed. As long as the stream is flowing, you’ll get a modest amount of power from these. As with all electrical components, handle with care and don’t let it mix with water. Only the wheel touches the water, okay?”
The crowd gave murmurs of understanding, and Danny emerged from the group, a cigarette still hanging from his mouth.
“Thanks, Al,” he said with a begrudging respect. “This ought to save us some gas money.”
“You’re welcome,” Sam said, patting him on the back. He knew Danny would come around. He turned to the gathered people, grinning. “Well, come on, everyone. We have a classroom to build, right?”
Sam worked with the other builders, fixing structural pillars into concrete and laying foundations. The sun was on its way down when a pain in his stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten all day; he hadn’t even thought about it. But there was still so much left to do. Then again, he figured, it would be difficult to do anything in the dark.
Accepting his inevitable defeat for the day, he retired to the dome, where he joined the rest of the communards for dinner. It was only after sitting down that he realised how exhausted he felt.
Soon enough, a big plate of pasta was presented to him, and he ate hungrily, as Marsha approached him from behind and began to massage his aching back.
“You don’t have to do that,” he said, feeling embarrassed about the attention.
“It’s the least I can do—if I can’t thank you in other ways, Al,” she said warmly, slowly and rhythmically pressing her fingers into the back of his neck.
“Well, there must be something… uh, you know—platonic—I can do to thank you,” he said before stuffing his mouth with pasta.
“You’ve done plenty for us,” she murmured. “And everyone’s so happy you came here. I know you said you’re not staying, but even when you’re gone, this place will be forever singing your praises, you know?”
Now he really felt embarrassed.
And as he bashfully concentrated on his meal, he noticed Danny over at the other side of the dome, talking quietly to some of the handful of people who’d voted against his proposals.
Well, he thought, Danny had thanked him earlier. Maybe he was convincing his friends that Sam really did have the commune’s best interests in mind. That had to be it.