The Clocks

August 17 in The Year 723 After the Founding

She'd been working herself up to the idea for several months, since about March, and it had become apparent by mid-June that she needed to act. In two days Akane would once again be having lunch with Blair Macklin, the twins' mother. Fortunately it would be in the Macklin residence where they could have complete privacy. She wasn't entirely sure -- no to be completely honest with herself she had not a single clue as to the details -- but she had been around Blair enough to realize that she wasn't your average banker's wife.

Somehow Blair seemed to know a great deal about, well, just about everything going on outside The City. Most wives of a certain status would concern themselves with the affairs of their extended family and, if they were ambitious, learning about their husband's business or perhaps even running one of their own. Blair didn't appear to do either, but, during their lunches, Blair was occasionally interrupted by a servant bearing a written message which Blair would quickly peruse and then pen a brief reply to. Normally that would be considered quite rude to one's guest, but there was such a sense of balance and calm around Blair that one couldn't take offense. After each message she would turn back to Akane and once more give her full attention to whatever she was saying, something only Jason did at home.

More than once Akane had entertained the delicious fantasy that Blair was a spy of some kind. It was an absurd idea of course. Spies snuck around and poked into things...sometimes very dangerous things. Akane had learned that Blair never left The City except in the summers to visit nearby relatives, and that happened rarely given that the twins were among those who were unable to travel more than a short distance from town and were thus unable to accompany her. Still, Akane had a great deal of fun imagining Blair in a hooded cloak and whispering secret passwords to people in dark alleys.

She pulled herself up short. Time to get back to reality. Fantasy could wait. The reality was that Akane had decided, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she had realized, that Blair would never betray a confidence. It was for that reason that she felt comfortable in discussing Jason's feelings for Hibiki and Yoko, and her own as well, with Blair. If she were someday to become Jason's mother-in-law, it would be unfair for everyone involved if Blair didn't know in advance as much as possible about Jason's awkwardness in social situations and not just the little she might have seen on the few occasions he had visited their home, at tea, or had heard from her husband after Jason's karate lessons.

Having sorted that out, she turned to her single vice. She was an avid reader, but not the usual kind. What she enjoyed reading when she had free time away from her historical studies was about chemistry, engineering, medicine, and the new science called "physics." It didn't seem to have any practical use, at least not yet, but it was captivating.

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Professor Ptica knocked on the lectern to get everyone's attention. She was fairly certain that she already had it, but there were a few species who were adept at sleeping with their eyes open, and she wanted to be sure. "You can park your shocked looks and think instead. We're talking about their 14th century, which was still very much a paternalistic culture, at least in most of Europe. Ireland was different, but that's covered in another class.

"Suffice it to say that, at that time on that particular planet, a woman studying any of the 'hard' sciences would be looked at with about the same astonishment and disapproval as would one who walked down the street in her underwear. In time things changed there, just as they have on most every civilized planet, and females are now recognized as being just as capable in the sciences as are men.

"Let me remind you that sociology is the study of the development of societies. Preconceived notions based on the society YOU grew up in and with can only be handicaps. I suggest that you throw those out the window and look at this particular society for what it was. It functioned, and it did so quite well. Women were beginning to hold positions of great importance, though usually secretly. It was an awkward time, but it was progress."

Ptica took a deep breath and smiled. So far it had been a good day. Her students had been attentive, it was raining heavily, and they would probably finish a few minutes early. That should give her enough time to slip outside and have a good bath before lunch.

"It was a Thursday afternoon in early fall, and the trio were out on one of their daily walks. Today they were headed for the Ring Park, and....

"Now what? What's the Ring Park? Have your brains gone soft? We covered that last semester and...ah...I guess we didn't. Oops?

"Ahem. The Ring Park is exactly that, a park that encircles the entire city approximately one kilometer from the edge of the 'summit'. Most locals refer to it as 'The Park.' The lower edge is marked by a stone wall a hair over two and a half meters high and a meter wide that was the first defensive wall built around The City. Once The City expanded far enough that a new city wall was needed, the undeveloped area inside the first wall was gradually filled in until it was fairly level. That took over 40 years. Given the slope of The City in that area, the top 2/3 of a meter of the wall still extends above the ground level of the park on the downhill side, giving an excellent sitting area.

"There was intense lobbying to block construction of any buildings in the filled in space, both by residents in general, and the City Engineers in particular. They insisted that leaving the area free of buildings would make maintenance of the water and sewer lines safer and easier. The duke at the time, Robert Francis Ignatz, agreed with them and ordered that the entire area be converted to a park with access free to all who dwelt in or visited The City. The only buildings to be allowed were sanitary facilities.

"He also ordered that the uppermost 8 meters be set aside for shops no more than four meters deep and five meters wide and that they were to be fronted by a four meter wide pedestrian path. Shops were restricted to selling items that would be of use to visitors to the park. All shops were to be spaced in such a way that there was a 10 meter wide space between them. Seating for customers of shops selling foodstuffs was restricted to those areas in order to make refuse collection easier.

"The park is crossed by the four major roads leading from the 'square' at the top of The City to the gates in the new wall which is a further kilometer and a half out from the summit. Duke Robert's decree that no other roads be allowed to cross the park has been sustained by every duke and duchess since.

"Once the surface had been filled and leveled, it was planted with grass. Goats were used to keep it at a reasonably short length. They didn't need to be paid and never quit eating. That particular decision was behind the next evolution of the area.

"Many people in The City enjoyed growing various plants, but by then only about a third of homes had gardens, and those of any size were almost always part of the oldest and most expensive properties. Several avid windowbox gardeners put their heads together and realized that all that parkland would be a wonderful place to grow larger plants that you couldn't grow in a box at your window or on the roof.

"They petitioned the duke for permission to establish a rose garden on a small part of the parkland. In their petition they pointed out that the goats left behind large quantities of manure that tended to smell and also wasn't much fun to clean off of one's boots if one stepped in it by accident. Said manure would make excellent fertilizer, which the garden group would collect and use for the roses, thus freeing the duke from the expense of paying to have it removed.

"As I believe I've pointed out before, every duke and duchess, starting with Alphonse, has been on the frugal side, and once Robert heard the words 'save money' he readily agreed. Soon there were dozens of petitions for allotments of space, to the point that, were he to grant them all, each group would only have a strip about three meters wide.

"He did what all rulers do. He appointed a commission to investigate options. Unlike most though, he gave them exactly one month to draw up a plan. Probably because there were no special interests chasing after the non-existent, potential financial gain from such small plots of land as were likely to finally be available, the commission managed to complete its task in the allotted time.

"To be sure some intense negotiations took place, but nobody, quite, got into a fight over their disagreements. In the end most all groups merged into larger ones, and then some of those merged. The final plan included a total of 12 gardens, each garden to be responsible for cleaning up after the goats in the grassy areas on either side.

"An additional two areas were placed under the supervision of The City's medical association and would grow herbs useful in treating illnesses, with an emphasis on those that were expensive to import or tended to be in short supply at various times of the year.

"Two more were dedicated to play areas for children and another two for adults who wanted to keep fit.

"Five of the original 12 were designated for specialist groups to grow and display their particular plants of interest.

"Three, each half again as large as the others, were assigned to the largest garden groups for use as demonstration gardens, one of which included several glasshouses displaying plants from warmer climates.

"There were in addition four areas set aside for what we would now term cooperative urban gardens, where those who had no room for home gardens could grow whatever would fit in a three x five meter space. Plots that were not regularly used or properly maintained were given to whomever was next on the waiting list.

"Truth be told, the taxes paid by the shop owners along the Circle Road (for that was the name eventually used to describe the footpath at the upper margin of the garden) covered almost the entire expense of maintaining the park, even before it was sub-divided.

"When you add in the spending by tourists who stayed an extra day or two or three to "see the sights," the park added a substantial sum to the duke's revenues even after allowing for the necessary expansion of the militia in order to properly police the area.

"Well, there you have it in a nutshell. There are many ramifications of The Park's existence that I haven't touched on, but you should at least have an idea of what it is and how it functions. I've just now sent you links to pertinent videos showing how it grew and how it looks today. You may view them at your leisure. They should be especially interesting to those of you who are majoring in city planning, horticulture, and/or architecture."

The professor cleared her throat. "Now that you understand where they were going, let us explore why. Jason was initially on the portly side. The reason was a classic problem, of which I'm sure you're all aware, called 'frustration eating'. As one who had for years been excluded from the company of his peers and, truth be told, even some of his family gatherings, his solace had been food. Combined with a chronic lack of exercise, he'd 'packed on the kilos'. He wasn't severely obese, yet, and the twins had quickly inaugurated a program to make sure that he never would be.

"While doing their research on family histories using the tax records (see the notes from last year), they had discovered a most unpleasant fact. Men in general tended not to live as long as women. As a matter of historical fact, in a number of cities in 14th century Italy on Earth II, 90% of the population over age 35 consisted of women. It should be no surprise that the twins were extremely upset when they discovered this. They'd been working very hard to arrange thing so that they could be with Jason, and they weren't about to let anything get in the way of being with him for as many years as possible.

"Thus their daily walks. The first month they had been rather short. Jason simply wasn't fit enough to go very far. However, as time went on, they were able to extend the distance. Now they were covering at least two kilometers a day and as many as four. As he was much less stressed, and more of his time was occupied with other activities, Jason was eating approximately 35% less than he was before he began dating the twins. After five months he had lost his excess weight and added a substantial amount of muscle.

"In a sense it was fortunate for the girls that his weight loss had occurred after they had staked their claim. Once he had lost the excess weight, it became evident that he was rather good looking, even on the border of being handsome. The reality of the situation was that his behavior would probably still have led most young women to look elsewhere, but, even so, the twins were happy that now they'd never have to worry about someone else snatching him away from them.

"Now, back to the video. We need to finish class on time today. The Academic Dean is expecting me for lunch and it's one being you never keep waiting."