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Show THE UPSTAIRS PEOPLE-48 The man fidgeted, blushed. The woman wiped her hands again, squinting into the sunlight. "It's just that we, well, it's our specialty. Marine biology, all that." She stooped and placed the open jar on the ground. The olive-green creature stuck its head outside, rubbed its saw-like front legs together, crept out slowly. Michael had crept out of his black hole in the grass and was moving towards the insect. The man pushed him aside with his foot. The Agency man came but this time he didn't ask if she'd done any work, didn't bring any new shells. He stood stiffly, the cane held out in front of him and for once his gray-green eyes would not look at her. "I'm not supposed to bring you any more shells," he said. She tilted her face up to him, waited. "Funding's been cut for the work-at-home program." "All of it?" He traced a circle on the curve of cane. "Not entirely, just where there isn't any income produced. You know, the old austerity thing, happening everywhere." He looked at her then in a way that made her want to look at her feet. "If you could just manage to produce a few trays, we might...I could..." Betty shook her head. "The shells are..." "You ought to go to college. They'd pay, you know, and you've got a good mind, I can tell." "All brains, no body, what?" He shrugged and turned to the door, then turned back to her. "I think you're pretty," he said. When she looked down, away from him, he said, "You're in my prayers you know." |
