Summer arrived, reminding Slade that the seasons in this world were about twice as long as those at home, or indeed those in the world from which Shella came. It was going to be most of a year, in his way of reckoning, before he would have the opportunity to test his new central heat, although the hot water was working quite well.

The first furniture to arrive was, perhaps unhelpfully, a dining table. They put it in the eat-in portion of the kitchen, and it was tall enough that they could comfortably eat from it. He had requested pots, pans, utensils, and tableware, and was pleased to note that these were sufficiently like those familiar to him and appropriately sized (apparently although the birds were shorter than they were, they did not eat smaller portions). Neither he nor Shella had ever done much cooking, but he had learned a bit from Lauren when they were in this world thousands of years or less than a decade ago, depending on which timeline you counted. He took over the kitchen, but began teaching Shella what little he knew. He wished he could make steak, but there were no mammals in this world so the best he could do was poultry and lizard. He also had to familiarize himself with the herbs and spices here, although in fairness some of these were the ones with which he and Lauren had been cooking when he learned. They still ate in the cafeteria more often than not.

The warfare history professor with whom he was still practicing every morning (his opponent was improving, but so was he) put him in touch with someone who could provide an armor stand for his leathers, and a weapons rack for his sword, dagger, and mace. Chairs arrived, then a sofa. Slade thought he should have gotten a convertible sofa, because then he would have a double bed for them, but for the moment they would have to continue sleeping on the floor. The bed wasn’t exactly the last piece to arrive--they had dressers and more chairs and a coffee table and side tables and other minor bits--but it was the piece for which he was most impatient.

Summer meant many of the birds went home--the opposite migration from their ancestors, Slade mused. There was only one student left in his morning workout class, which happened to be Swifty, so he and the professor continued working with him and each other in a more intimate class. Many of the engineering students were gone, but there were a few working on each project still, and progress had not entirely ground to a halt.

Summer also meant a lot more produce, and fresh fish and shellfish. These were of course different from those he knew, but he had never been a connoisseur of seafood so he could say that some of it looked a bit different but it didn’t really taste all that different.

Money was apparently starting to come in from some of the early inventions, because the school administration was becoming very friendly and supportive. Shella got them to provide linens, both sheets and towels, and to promise blankets for the late autumn. He gathered that the first audio recordings were being produced, and something like a Victrola was on the market, but he did not suppose that it would be of any interest or value to them. The team working on the intercom had managed to get so far as basic telephones for local communications, and in fact one had been installed in the hall between their kitchen and their living room, although Slade didn’t really see much use for it. Anytime he wanted to talk to someone he usually just walked to where he expected to find them on campus, and usually he was right. He was introduced to the switchboard operators, which made him wonder whether he could figure out how to make telephone switching systems work. As it was, the system was shut down about an hour after dark until about an hour before dawn, on the theory that no one was awake needing to make a phone call, and no one would answer the phone at those times anyway.

Still primitive, he thought, but then, he had not yet invented the electric light bulb.

There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #448:  Inventive Versers.  Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter.  It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.

As to the old stories that have long been here:

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