Cultural Differences

The tour began at eight, according to the Terran clock. For Sri\\m^ and He\e^, or Paul and Aria, it was two thirds past six and Aria insisted that the tour start with a discussion of time. Jack, Alice, and Jan swam all around the village "clock" as Paul scribed explanations. Instead of a twelve hour face, it had two roughly made tubes marked zero to ten and eleven to twenty. Above each tube hung a large stone reservoir filled with sand. Only one released sand at a time, allowing workers to reset the other basic hour glass.

"What do you think of this, Jan?" Alice asked as she ran a gloved hand over the crystalline tubes, "not exactly sophisticated craftsmanship."

"You try to make a container like this without any tools that require fire to create. Then, you can complain about craftsmanship," Jan replied, not unkindly.

Soon, Aria ushered the entire group off to continue their tour. Rooms were dug into the rock ground, and had holes large enough to swim through for doors. These had stone manhole-like covers, which people displaced and replaced frequently as they went about the day's business. Everyone floated for a moment to stare at the Terramen before going about their business. Jack motioned to a sullen Paul and scratched a question out on his tablet.

Is it acceptable to stare at someone in Mer culture?

Paul thought for a moment, before replying.

We cannot help it, as we have no eyelids for blinking.

Jack started to write that that was not quite what he had meant, when they swam over the Chief's home. He had just exited to go for a swim with his pet barracuda, when he noticed the Terramen and gave them a respectful greeting. (Paul could not help noting that the Chief had never bothered taking the barracuda out for swims before). He attempted to suppress his displeasure as he translated questions and compliments. Anyone might admire a clock or a village layout, but marveling at a pet barracuda made Paul even more awkwardly aware that he was in the presence of Terramen. 

The tour continued, and for the most part, Paul was spared having to think much. Aria did the talking, and Paul could translate almost automatically. She swam over the mollusk fields and explained how they were farmed. She pointed out the workshops where men and women labored side by side to create tools. The armory came next, where bone spears and seaweed breastplates took shape. At last, she came to the cavern that all the children shared, not far from the clock where they had started.

Alice pestered Paul this time.

Why do all the children live here, instead of with a family?


This snapped Paul out of his detached state. Family? He asked Alice for an explanation, but what she told him only baffled him more. Why would anyone raise a child on their own? You would have to worry about it constantly, and you may not even do a good job of it. Besides, no one can tell what egg came from whom or whose sperm fertilized it. People aren't dolphins.

No, Paul decided, families were a decidedly bad idea that only an air breather would try.