Chapter day
Jul 15, 2000
Chapter day 2 is Saturday 15 July 2000, twelve days after the first day. Dad is home all day and there are no chores: the morning starts with a strict family breakfast, Frank Dawson has a job going next door, and by the afternoon the kid has called a wholesale supplier for the first time. The day is about family discipline, Saturday freedom and the first supply line.
Hour by hour
The morning rush
07:00 to 07:35. The alarm clock rings in the kid's bedroom. Energy is full after the night's sleep, the bladder is at 80% and hunger is rising. The player has about half an hour of game time for the toilet, a wash at the bathroom sink, day clothes and the stairs. Coming into the kitchen after 07:35, or still in pyjamas, gets a word from Dad at once; there is no other penalty.
Saturday breakfast
07:30. The kitchen in morning sun. Mom plates eggs, rye toast and orange juice and seems a little tired; Dad sits at the head of the table reading the local paper. He reads out a headline: He warns the kid not to spend all Saturday in their room on the telephone modem. After breakfast the morning is the kid's own.
Frank's fence line
From about 09:00. When the kid first walks out front, Frank Dawson calls from his rocking chair, with Tank on the porch rug. Briars and wild blackberry brush have grown over the fence posts between the two yards; Frank's bad knee is acting up and Tank can't see the birds over the weeds. If the kid takes the job, the shears are in Frank's shed, and clearing the brush takes two hours of game time (Energy -20, Hygiene -15). Back at the porch Frank pays $5 and gives his advice for the call ahead. The job is optional.
The laptop
Late morning. Upstairs, on Dad's old laptop, the kid connects through the screeching modem and opens the website of EmporWAY, the supplier found on the first day: its catalogue, how single orders would work, and its trade line. The new goal: go downstairs and call EmporWAY on the house phone.
The call
Early afternoon, the day's climax. The house is quiet; Mom is upstairs taking a nap. The kid calls EmporWAY on the cream-coloured phone on the living room wall, and Rick answers from a busy warehouse, with forklift horns and crates dropping behind him. How the call goes depends on the morning: see Choices and consequences.
Free afternoon
Afternoon. Free time: a walk downtown to Palmer's Market for a cold soda and a word with Peggy, then home for a shower and a rest. Dad is around the house: in the garage, under the car.
Saturday dinner
18:30. Mom's chicken casserole at the dining table. Dad asks how the day went, and if the kid cleared Frank's fence, he says it was good of them to give the old man a hand. Mom reminds the kid that school starts at the end of August. The kid eats with the quiet, thrilling knowledge of an open supplier account, ready for November.
Bed and the day's summary
22:00. Bed and "Sleep until morning". On a black screen the day's summary shows the money earned ($5 from Frank, or nothing) and the new wholesale partner, EmporWAY. Then the title card of chapter day 3, Tuesday 1 August.
Choices and consequences
Frank's fence
Frank's job is the day's choice, and its consequence comes in the afternoon:
- Take the job: two hours of brush clearing, $5, and Frank's advice: suppliers can smell a fake, so be honest, give straight numbers and pay cash up front. The game remembers the advice. At dinner Dad has noticed the fence.
- Turn it down: the kid goes straight to the laptop, without the money and without the advice.
The supplier call
The call always ends with an open account, but how the kid gets there depends on Frank's advice:
- With the advice (the honest call): the kid says who they are and that they're sixteen. Rick thinks it is a prank and nearly hangs up, then hears the plan out: a store from home in Maruf, no warehouse, items from the online catalogue shipped one by one to the customers, each order paid for up front. He opens an account under the name Carter, and the supply line is open on the first try.
- Without the advice (the fake voice): the kid plays "Director Carter of Carter Commercial Enterprises" in a deep voice that cracks twice. Rick tells the kid to get off their dad's phone and hangs up. After the busy signal comes a new goal: call again and apologize. On the second call the kid tells the truth; Rick softens, opens a provisional account under the kid's real name on the same terms, and warns that the fake voice again will get the number blocked. The supply line is open, after a humbling lesson.
Either way the terms are the same: send money from a transfer counter downtown, call in the transfer code, and every order ships from that credit.
People and places
- People: the kid, Mom, Dad, Frank Dawson and Tank, and Peggy Evans.
- On the phone: Rick, at EmporWAY.
- Places: the Carter family home (bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room phone, garage), Frank's porch and shed, the fence line between the two back yards, and Palmer's Market.
In the game
- EmporWAY_FirstCall (early afternoon): The honest call, made with Frank's advice. On the living room phone the kid calls EmporWAY and gets Rick in the middle of a busy warehouse. The kid says who they are and that they are sixteen; Rick takes it for a prank, then hears the plan out: a store from home, items from the online catalogue shipped one by one to the customers, every order paid for up front. He opens an account under the name Carter, in Maruf: the supply line is open on the first try.
- EmporWAY_FakeVoice (early afternoon): The call without Frank's advice. The kid puts on a deep grown-up voice as "Director Carter of Carter Commercial Enterprises"; the voice cracks twice, and Rick tells the kid to get off their dad's phone and hangs up. A fast busy signal, and a new goal: call EmporWAY again and apologize.
- EmporWAY_Apology (early afternoon, after the hang-up): The second call, after the fake voice. The kid apologizes and tells the truth; Rick softens, sets up a provisional account under the kid's real name on the same terms, and warns that the fake voice again will get the number blocked: the supply line is open after a humbling lesson.
- Frank_Fence (from about 09:00): When the kid first walks out front, Frank calls from his rocking chair; Tank lies on the porch rug. Briars and wild blackberry brush cover the fence posts between the two yards, Frank's bad knee is acting up, and Tank can't see the birds over the weeds. The player takes the job or turns it down.
- Frank_FenceYes: The kid takes the job: Frank sends them to his shed for the shears.
- Frank_FenceNo: The kid turns the job down and goes inside to the laptop.
- Frank_FenceWaiting: What Frank says while the brush is still waiting to be cleared.
- Frank_FenceDone (about two hours after the job starts): Back at the porch, sweaty and dirty after two hours of clearing brush. Frank pays five dollars, and when the kid admits being nervous about calling a wholesale distributor, he gives his advice: be honest, straight numbers and cash up front. The game remembers the advice, and it decides how the call goes.
- Frank_Saturday: What Frank says from his porch on Saturday when there is no fence job to talk about.
- Frank_SaturdayAdvice: What Frank says after giving his advice, before the call.
- Peggy_Saturday (afternoon): The free afternoon: the kid walks downtown to Palmer's Market for a cold soda and a word with Peggy.
- Store_PaidSoda (afternoon): Peggy at the counter of Palmer's Market, once the kid has paid for the soda.
- Dinner_Saturday (18:30): Saturday dinner at the dining table: Mom's chicken casserole. Dad asks how the day went, and Mom reminds the kid that school starts at the end of August.
- Dinner_Saturday_Fence (18:30): The same dinner when the kid cleared Frank's fence: Dad noticed, and says so.