Old Man Fitch, a miser with a face like a clenched fist, had discovered that a concentrated, liquefied form of sodium carbonate—rendered into a viscous, sapphire-blue gel—could neutralize the aquifer’s toxins. His factory was a windowless concrete bunker at the edge of the sea, and from its single spigot flowed the only thing that made life in Saltbath tolerable.
People would line up before dawn, clutching ration tokens and dented jugs. A single liter cost a day’s wages. It was a grey, grinding existence, but it was clean. liquid soda crystals
For forty years, the Fitch family held the monopoly on the cure: . Old Man Fitch, a miser with a face