Descending Road - THE SLIME IN THE PUDDLE by Dana W. Paxson

THE SLIME IN THE PUDDLE

1561 4D

“Andrew, we’ve got a problem,” Norwell said. Norwell and his woman Shinn stood at the door of their house, Andrew beside them; Norwell pointed up a mountain slope to a rivulet of electric blue. “You see that?”

“Yeah. What is it?” The rivulet zigzagged down from an outfall pipe jutting from a dark patch in the mountainside.

“It’s mine runoff. Martin‘s getting it, and I’m getting it, and so is Norwell. It’s poisoning our water and ruining the recycler. It’s from ArCorp‘s mines.”

“What are you going to do?” Andrew scanned the mountainside. His farm was below the same mine land, just like Norwell‘s and the others; they’d bought four adjacent plots, separated by high outcrops that reached out from the mountain’s core. The ArCorp mine lay above the outcrops.

“Look at this.” Norwell dipped a stick in a puddle of water at their feet. The end of the stick came up with a tarry bluish-gray blob on it. “This killed my entire quinicale crop, overnight.”

“Take it to the inspectors! They’re always sniffing up here. They’ll jump on ArCorp over this.”

Shinn spoke. “No. We all tried that. They just recite the exemptions section of the law. It allows mine residues to be freely dispersed over areas below the mines, as long as they don’t spread laterally.”

“You mean our cattle can’t shit, but their mines can?”

“That’s what they tell us.” She shrugged, her square face impassive.

“There’s got to be a way to stop this,” Andrew said.

“They made us an incredible offer,” Norwell answered.

“And you took it, right? Was it two hundred thousand?”

Norwell shook his head, frowning, and his chin jutted out. “We refused.”

“So did I. That’s what they offered me. I just haven’t seen this crap on the farm, not yet.” Andrew poked with a boot at the slime in the puddle. “So they want us out.”

“That’s the way it looks. But we all agreed to fight it out. I’m going to reroute the runoff over there, and send it on down to the main road. Let Regional deal with it.” Norwell pointed to a cleft at the edge of his level land.

“Tell Martin and Raul I’m in. We’re staying.”

Andrew said goodbye and headed home to tell Leil, his heart heavy. Just when they were ready for their new life to start, something like this had to come along.

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	THE SLIME IN THE PUDDLE 1561 4D “Andrew, we’ve got a problem,” Norwell said. Norwell and his woman Shinn stood at the door of their house, Andrew beside them; Norwell pointed up a mountain slope to a rivulet of electric blue. “You see that?” “Yeah. What is it?” The rivulet zigzagged down from an outfall pipe jutting from a dark patch in the mountainside. “It’s mine runoff. Martin‘s getting it, and I’m getting it, and so is Norwell. It’s poisoning our water and ruining the recycler. It’s from ArCorp‘s mines.” “What are you going to do?” Andrew scanned the mountainside. His farm was below the same mine land, just like Norwell‘s and the others; they’d bought four adjacent plots, separated by high outcrops that reached out from the mountain’s core. The ArCorp mine lay above the outcrops. “Look at this.” Norwell dipped a stick in a puddle of water at their feet. The end of the stick came up with a tarry bluish-gray blob on it. “This killed my entire quinicale crop, overnight.” “Take it to the inspectors! They’re always sniffing up here. They’ll jump on ArCorp over this.” Shinn spoke. “No. We all tried that. They just recite the exemptions section of the law. It allows mine residues to be freely dispersed over areas below the mines, as long as they don’t spread laterally.” “You mean our cattle can’t shit, but their mines can?” “That’s what they tell us.” She shrugged, her square face impassive. “There’s got to be a way to stop this,” Andrew said. “They made us an incredible offer,” Norwell answered. “And you took it, right? Was it two hundred thousand?” Norwell shook his head, frowning, and his chin jutted out. “We refused.” “So did I. That’s what they offered me. I just haven’t seen this crap on the farm, not yet.” Andrew poked with a boot at the slime in the puddle. “So they want us out.” “That’s the way it looks. But we all agreed to fight it out. I’m going to reroute the runoff over there, and send it on down to the main road. Let Regional deal with it.” Norwell pointed to a cleft at the edge of his level land. “Tell Martin and Raul I’m in. We’re staying.” Andrew said goodbye and headed home to tell Leil, his heart heavy. Just when they were ready for their new life to start, something like this had to come along.