Green Tech

On a slightly more serious note, we turn our attention now to the economic sustainability of Sedona. Sedona is not any small town, although it may retain characteristics of those places, such as the knowledge of everyone and everything, and the impossibility of maintaining secrets. Well, little secrets, anyway. The big secrets are perhaps still to be discovered, but we will leave these aside for now.

Sedona is unusual in that it is made up of the normal small town people – cooks and bartenders and school teachers and real estate agents – but also, nestled inside the town’s population is a majority of people just like Jack and Rose Halis. That is, college educated biologists, biochemists and other ‘smart’ people. As a result, one could walk down the streets of Sedona and see small children swinging on swings and playing on the monkey bars, and not two seconds later, see small children carefully collecting insects from the ground to study under their parents’ microscope. The 911 calls for the area were not related to domestic abuse – instead, they were usually related to explosions and mysterious fires. Not less than once a week did the fire marshal have to listen to stories from people whose houses were set on fire because they were busy studying Euglena or had accidentally left the Bunsen burner on in their basement.

So why, then, was the population so densely infiltrated with people whose IQ scores were inversely proportional to their common sense? The answer is two simple words, the name of the company which has dominated the small town for sometime: Green Tech. Green Tech, the well-known world leader in biotechnological advancements, chemically induced organic industries and agricultural medicinal research. Green Tech, who scaled both sides of the environmental industry with ease, with completely organic breeding programs as well as transgenic research methods in attempts to produce the most flavor, best texture, largest, most succulent fruits, vegetables, grains and other produce. Green Tech took part in both ends of the medicinal spectrum – both participating in and refining techniques stemming from centuries of folkloric and aboriginal medicine across cultures, as well as dominating the pharmaceutical industry with their cheap and effective drugs.

Green Tech could be summed up as the Natural Science business of the time. For, in addition to all of the human benefits above, Green Tech also dealt with research relating to geology, zoology, astronomy. Green Tech seemed to have ties in everything, from NASA to the CIA. It was sometimes joked in Sedona that Green Tech had the makings of the CIA’s front, itself. No one necessarily applied to any of the programs at Green Tech, unless they were manual labor, gardening, caretaking, etc. But, the majority of the time, even the security guards were chosen from a pool of the nation’s best. No one knew where Green Tech had gotten their names, but they had all been grateful – for the excellent pay, the peaceful town, and a chance to explore their interests as best suited them.

Needless to say, Sedona became a booming, albeit strange, small town when Green Tech announced, just over ten years ago, that it was moving its main Research and Development facilities to the small town. The Green Tech complex itself took up several acres of land, as completely environmentally friendly as it could get. Now, finally settled in, Green Tech and its employees had merged into the small town life well. Drawing the best of the scientific community, Sedona itself remained surprisingly a quaint and quiet village. With the introduction of Green Tech, and with it, excessive amounts of exotic plants, animals, and research subjects for biochemitechnomechanical experiments, it seems only fitting that a second, under the radar community began to move forth: vampires.

Charlie Johnson, the head of the R&D Department for unusual human conditions first received knowledge of this condition from a very business-like letter, on simple white paper, in an envelope which did not have a spot for a return address, but had been mailed out of Sedona, itself. It had, miraculously, not been filtered out of the mail he got and into the piles of mail considered as junk, irrelevant, or forwarded to other departments, such as Customer Happiness and Approval, by his request.

“Dear Sir:” it said, “It has come to our attention that, within your department, our condition may be treated with the utmost scientific integrity and respect. Nevertheless, we fear our safety, and so do not come forth at this time, but instead remain in secrecy. “

Charlie had paused at this moment, curious in the slightest sense of the word, for he had received similar letters from those confessing strange sexual obsessions - like the one about Chinese Gooseberries, and the individual who could not achieve orgasm unless he saw a pomegranate exploding. It seemed that the biological diversity connections were the stimuli for these revealing statements from individuals, and he was actually looking for something to lighten his day. Charlie read on.

“We seem to have picked up many titles over the years and throughout the ages, but the one that has stuck most often is that of vampire. Please, do not crumple this page up yet, laughing. We have a true condition which we have not been able to investigate due to limited resources. You can only get so much education at night school. If you would like, you can, a week from now, enter Grangie’s Pub around nine o’clock in the evening. I will be able to spot you. Then, if you would like, we will communicate more about my condition, and I will be the spokesperson for others like me.”

Intrigued momentarily, the head of the Research and Development department stared at the letter, looking for some mode of identification. He could not believe that the man, woman, or child attempting to pull this off had not even signed a name to the letter in his hand. He set it down in the stack of ‘to-be-dealt-with-later’ papers and moved on with his life.

Charlie found himself, by mere coincidence, a week later, entering the pub so shamelessly mentioned above at the appointed time. He wasn’t sure if it was mind control or not, for it was not until he sat down at the bar stool that seemed made for him that he realized that he should probably be home with his wife at this point. Guilty, almost as if he were cheating (which he was most definitely not), Charlie quietly ordered his beer. He assumed that since he had ended up at the right place at the right time, he might as well wait around to see what was going to happen.

Truth be told, he wasn’t there alone. He had been invited by his coworkers, who were to be joining him shortly. Oddly enough, he didn’t think twice about the vampire crazies when he consented to stopping for a drink with his co-workers to catch up on the latest sports and town gossip. They should have been appearing shortly, in any case.

Content with his excuse for coming to the bar, he decided it would be appropriate to at least call his wife and throw in an extra, “I love you” to the mix. She hadn’t been thrilled about him leaving again so soon after he had come home from working a later night, and she had even been hinting at more interesting things come that night. But, the bar was only four blocks from where he lived, and he had decided to make a semi-healthy night of it, walking there as the sun began to set. If there was one place that Charlie felt safe, it was on the streets of Sedona.

He also knew that, by walking to the bar, he would decrease his chances of getting smashed, or more than a little buzzed, and therefore increase his chances of getting laid. Even after being married for ten years, he was still having to fight almost every step of the way for sex. In his defense, he had even offered for his wife to come with him! She had to finish the laundry, she had said. Better that he go by himself, anyway –– she had explained. “Your coworkers and I don’t not get along…but we don’t have much to talk about, right now.”

Charlie’s wife was just as smart as he was. His wife, though, did not work at Green Tech. Angela worked as a mystery/crime writer/novelist. His wife was more famous than he was – and even brought home a heftier pay check. But, she was in the midst of a novel write, right now, and couldn’t spare her extra IQ to anything but her husband. She would become an absolute hermit during those episodes – perfectly charming, loving, and caring to her husband, but completely quiet, reserved and inattentive to anything else that had the ability to breathe and move simultaneously. She claimed that he was her other half, and it was okay for them to communicate. But, she was scared that conversations with those other people would influence her novel.

“Charlie!” Charlie heard a voice which snapped him out of his slight daze. He turned to find Leona, one of the associate personnel that worked under him. As weird as it was, he thought of those people he commanded as team mates, and not as employees. Part of it stemmed from the Green Tech policy that prohibited the threatening or expulsion of any employee of a lower ranking than yourself, regardless of your own rank, unless you were in the employment department. Which basically meant, he was in control, but he didn’t have the power of life or death. He liked it that way.

“Hey Leona! Did you get your kid into bed alright?”

“Yeah, she actually fell asleep almost immediately when I put her there. I guess day care took a lot out of her today.”

“Good to hear.”

“I don’t know why you don’t have kids, Charlie. Do you hate them?”

“No, but between my wife and I’s schedules, it wouldn’t be fair to either of us or a baby.”

“But your wife works from home.”

“At weird hours, and often completely oblivious to the going ons of others. You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve invited her out to socialize and she’s said no because she doesn’t want to be influenced by others.”

“I see.”

“Yeah. Now, imagine if we threw a baby into the cogs of her creative genius. All hell would break loose, and the world would suffer for lack of my wife’s creative genius.”

“Right.” Leona said, laughing. “I do enjoy her writing. When’s the next one due?”

“See? There’s the other thing. Her novels are like our babies. I think about four months from now. Well, to be submitted for editing. Probably another ten months total. This one is coming out great.”

“Any hints?”

“You know I can’t give away tricks of the trade.” Charlie said apologetically. “No, I can get that.” Charlie interrupted the bartender before he could tell Leona how much she owed for her Lite Beer. “Just put it on my tab. I’ll pay before I leave.” The bartender nodded and returned to his more regular customers on the other end of the bar before Leona could even argue.

“You shouldn’t do that, Charlie. You spend all day taking care of me at work. You shouldn’t have to continue the trend when you’re off. And I invited you – and the others. Where are they, anyway?”

“I’m sure they’ll be here in a bit. You know, they have family lives too.” Charlie offered. They were all close, and work was like a second family.

“We should really try to do the Fourth together again this year, like we did last year. It wasn’t that much of a disaster.”

“Sure thing.” Charlie assented. “It’s always fun watching one of us trying to cook.”

“Talking about last year?” A new voice entered the picture. Charlie turned to greet another member of his team, Garry.

“Yeah. Leona just mentioned she might want to do it again this year.”

“Awesome. I don’t know if the fire marshal will let us, though. That fire took forever to put out, and the courtyard of the park smelled like burnt hot dogs and cotton candy for days.” Garry smiled at the memory as he raised his hand to get a drink.

“Did we ever figure out what the cotton candy smell was?” Leona asked, laughing.

“Nope. We assumed it was a compound that formed from whatever one of us had tried to dress the hot dogs with.” Charlie reclined in his backed-bar stool, unable to get too far, but grateful for the stretch. “Remember, we were working on that vaccination at that point for people with allergies to foods.”

“Yeah, I remember now. That was a great day. Which one of us decided it would be appropriate to work on the Fourth, anyway?”

“That would be you.” Charlie responded to Garry. “You needed to test that compound. It was driving you nuts. Remember?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Garry’s face began to turn red in the dimmed bar light. “Alright, let’s get off of the subject of work. I love our job…but I can only take so much of it.”

“Absolutely.” Charlie agreed. “So what’s new in the life of Garry?”

Two hours later, Charlie began his short walk to his house just four blocks away. He and the others – five, total – had had an enjoyable time, and he was glad he had stayed for that time. His wife would most likely still be up – it was early, and she, a night owl – and he would most likely be able to get some quality time with her. It was not until he was two blocks away from the bar that he had realized that he had put the vampires issue again out of his mind, and it had not surfaced even once in the two hours of social time he had. He was disappointed – he had thought more of those people who had put him up to meeting them. Although, in their defense, he wouldn’t blame them for their secrecy – if they were that whacked out, it would make sense that they would shy away from ‘normal’ people.

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