Mark K. Roberts - HARD WORKERS ONLY [ss]

Finding a job isn't always easy; sometimes you have to travel far from home.

4-5 April 2058

Dear Marci,

I suppose by now you are wondering why it is I am not there with you at St. Ignatius to get married like we planned to do. It is a long and involved story and I will tell it to you now so that you will not feel as if I left you at the altar (ha-ha). Also I know your Momma will be disappointed as well as your Uncle Mario and Uncle Pietro and your big brothers: Luigi, Roberto and Carmine. So anyway, here is how it is.

You know I have strong feelings about the responsibilities of a married man. I do not feel that the Guaranteed Annual Income is anything to be making a family on. We discussed that before as you know. Even with us both earning it, bringing kids up on the dole is no way to live, I think. After all, what do the little tykes got to look forward to?

So. I decided to go out and look for a real job. It is hard, with all the jobs being automated and all that, so I went to a Job Counselor.

He steered me to this newspaper ad. Like that. Right in the paper, yet. I hope your eyes are not filled with tears as this is a long letter and you have several pages to read. As I was saying, there was this ad in the paper. I saved it to show to you in case everything went all right and I'll enclose it now.

HARD WORKERS ONLY

NEED APPLY Government Work!

Immediate Openings! Low Pressure Welders

$25,000.00

Steel Erectors

$23,000.00

Gen. Construction Workers

$15=20 M

Long term contracts.

NO TAXES.

Exciting work for physically fit.

Apply in writing: Times, Box 31M.

So you see how it was. All that money and no taxes. I applied. And would you believe it? I got a reply to my letter. They sent a bunch of papers, even a Security Clearance form. So I didn't want to upset you by getting your hopes up too soon and I didn't tell you about it right then. I filled out all that stuff and sent it off. All a guy can do is try, right?

Anyway, they wrote back in a couple of days and said I was selected for advanced training. I was supposed to report to this doctor, for a physical. I did and I passed.

Next thing they send me this big envelope with a lot of papers in it. One was a file thingy that looked like this:

ROSELLI, VITO S.

Cvn. Emp. Gr. 11 L.O. Weld. 1. Top Secret Granted 25

Mar. 58, Limited Access,

Project Horizon.

They said I was to bring all my papers and report for orientation and training on the first April. Remember? That was when I told you I had to go out of town on family business. Well, it was family business in a way ... our family.

Anyhow, we all got there and they clamped down a big Security Thing. No calls, no leaving the area, no letters. Then they started the training. Boy, and I thought I was some hot-shot welder!

Santa Maria! They took us through every kind of welding there is. We did Oxy cutting and welding, heliarc, jig work, silver solder, high pressure, low pressure and under water, yet! They even stuffed the seven of us who lasted out the first week - there were over twenty guys started there for welding - into a centrifuge and a vacuum chamber and made us weld in them. They taught us a lot of new stuff I never heard of and can't talk about - secret, you know.

And they made us all the time do all this crazy gym stuff. You know; push-ups, sit-ups, running like the devil himself was after us everywhere we went. And climbing things, ropes and stuff. Oh, yeah, and the deep breathing exercises. We were going around blue in the face or red all the time.

Every day they were giving us written tests and inspecting our welding work like crazy. The other guys had it just as rough. They had to build things and tear them right down and build them again. And driving some kind of looney trucks around with big bags of air instead of caterpillar treads. We all had a turn at that and I found out why my Pa always said never be a truck driver. Hey! That's hard work.

So the last week we all worked together and built this big dome and the boss man said it was good and right and we all did darn good work. So it was time to leave.

They took us to the spaceport of all places. I figured right then we'd be on the Deimos project, you know, building the new low grav bio-lab and all. But no such luck. So, sweetheart, that's why I can't be there today. They say that if we work it right the job will be over and we'll be back in about eight years. So if you don't find some other guy and settle down on the dole, I'll be back with all that tax-free money and we can settle down to a good life. But don't be mad at me, cara mia, it wasn't my fault.

How was I to know the job I signed up for was gonna be on Earth?