Realizing this, Whitaker Scarlett also became nervous.
Despite her mature mindset, she wasn’t exactly an expert in relationships. Her previous relationships had all ended without a trace. She was unfamiliar with pure affection. Kay was bold, seizing the opportunity to hold her hand, yet he was nervous enough to sweat. Bold and innocent?
Which one was the real Kay? Whitaker Scarlett felt a strange emotion welling up inside her.
Kay pulled her into the ticket office. “Comrade, are there any tickets to Sablewick today?”
“Harborfield to Sablewick? There’s one at 6 pm. Show me your introduction letter.”
Whitaker Scarlett reached for her introduction letter, and the hand Kay was holding moved slightly. He was reluctant to let go, feeling a sense of loss.
The ticket seller handed Whitaker Scarlett’s introduction letter back. “One hard seat ticket is 25.6 Dollars.”
“No sleeper berths?”
The journey from Harborfield to Sablewick took over 30 hours; a hard seat would be torturous. Kay wanted Whitaker Scarlett to be comfortable.
The ticket window was terribly crowded, and the ticket seller was in a bad mood. “Only hard seats. Do you want it or not? Next!”
Sleeper berths?
Railway resources were scarce in those days; each train didn’t have many sleeper berths. Getting a sleeper berth without connections was a pipe dream.
“Comrade, one hard seat, please.”
Whitaker Scarlett directly handed over the money.
A hard seat was already better than she expected. For a 30-hour journey, people in a hurry would even buy standing tickets! Standing tickets were much cheaper than hard seats. Whitaker Scarlett buying a hard seat to Sablewick was already a luxury… A single ticket cost 25.6 Dollars, almost half a month’s salary for an ordinary worker!
The ticket seller took the money and gave Whitaker Scarlett a ticket.
Kay didn’t say anything. The ambiguous atmosphere was fleeting, and he protected Whitaker Scarlett as they squeezed out of the station.
The train station was complicated; Leo hadn’t left the truck.
“Did you get the tickets?”
“Hard seats to Sablewick, 6 pm train. We have over two hours before departure.”
Why hard seats?
Leo and Kay were in sync. He put his hand on his stomach. “It’s a good thing you’re back. Watch the car, I need to go to the restroom.”
Leo disappeared, leaving only Whitaker Scarlett and Kay.
Kay opened the car door. “Scarlett, get in the car, I have something for you.”
Kay showed Whitaker Scarlett a small flashlight.
This flashlight was different from the large, battery-powered metal flashlights. It was smaller and more refined, with a high-end black plastic casing and a square design that gave it a futuristic feel.
“What’s this?”
No way, did they already have this kind of thing?
Whitaker Scarlett had a guess, but Kay didn’t immediately hand it to her. Instead, he demonstrated its function:
“There are two buttons here. The green one is for normal light, the red one is for high-voltage current. Direct contact with skin can stun an adult within three seconds… Remember to recharge it after use.”
This wasn’t a flashlight, it was a stun gun!
It was very similar to the self-defense stun guns Whitaker Scarlett remembered from the future!
Was the technology this advanced now? Whitaker Scarlett’s surprise was unconcealed.
Kay thought he had scared her. “Don’t be afraid, hold the handle, it won’t shock you.”
This wasn’t civilian technology; Kay needed significant connections to obtain it. Even decommissioned military equipment could be left to rust in warehouses, but it absolutely couldn’t end up on the open market.
In 1983, the Greenfield County militia might still be equipped with firearms, but a stun gun like this wouldn’t be issued to provincial public security officers. Domestically, the more familiar device was the similarly-functioning stun baton. A stun baton would be too conspicuous to carry; if Whitaker Scarlett carried it openly, self-defense aside, she would be the first suspect to be investigated by the police.
Whitaker Scarlett held it in her hand. The small stun gun was a weighty expression of Kay’s feelings.
“Haborfield opened its first pager service this summer. It’s a tool for instant communication, small like a cigarette case. If a service opens in Duskhaven, we can contact each other anytime…”
Haborfield already had pagers?!
Whitaker Scarlett knew that 1983 was a year of constant change. In the future, smartphones would be commonplace, but right now, even the old pagers were only just entering the English market… Whitaker Scarlett snapped back to reality, a touch of longing in her eyes: “Useful communication tools, Skyhaven Province will definitely promote them. If I can move to the city next year, I can apply for a landline.”
