“Holy …!” she bit off the swear word before her mother smacked her in the head. “Are they trying to send us broke, or convert us all to vegetarianism?”
Of course her father chose this point to re-enter the kitchen. From the damp look of him, a cool shower had calmed him down. Jodi bit her lip to keep comments about shower lengths and water wastage from blurting out her mouth.
“Noooo,” her father began in a rather rude tone, but eased off for the rest of his explanation. “It’s not the Martians’ fault that meat is so expensive. It’s travel time, mostly. The meat has to be treated and packaged so it keeps. That’s to say nothing of the mark-ups Earth puts on all foods coming to Mars. They know we need it, so they charge whatever they like.” He shrugged. “At least we don’t have a problem with
