“Hey, Jellia!” she heard, as she walked up the lawn, and saw Dendi from next door racing up for her kiss.
“Hey, Dendi,” she said, kissing her back.
“Jellia, does your ska-drek-a not like me?”
Jellia stopped. “What?”
“Well,” Dendi said, kind of scuffing the ground with her toe. “I have come over several times and asked her if she would like me to watch her littlies. And she has always said no. I would like to earn some bits and my school has a different time than yours so I thought it would work.”
“I can’t imagine that she doesn’t like you, Dendi. But Ska-drek-a is from exo so she doesn’t always understand everything. Tell you what, take Carl off for an hour or so, and I promise I’ll talk to her. What’s your rate?” she asked, pulling Carl out of his pack.
“Oh, tips only!” Dendi said, eagerly accepting the Kesh. “How far?”
“Oh, keep him in the neighborhood or near park unless for some reason I need him. He’s weaned but you will need to let him out of his diaper whenever he whines or you will have a mess to clean up.”
“He can run around in my back without a diaper,” Dendi said. “Thanks Jelli!”
One thing Jellia didn’t like about her name was it being shortned to a fruit spread, but there were worse things in life.
She walked into the house and made it upstairs and into the fresher before she heard, “Is that you, Darling? Could you take the kesh-u?”
“I’ll be down in a minute, Mother!” she called back. She never closed the door to the fresher anymore. Someone always wanted her the second she came in the door.
Bobbin toddled in… of course. They couldn’t even wait until she was downstairs!
“Hey, Bobbin Kesh, wait for sister… no, don’t come in the fresher! You’re dressed!!”
She barely managed to keep him dry, wrapped her skirt on without even bothering to dry, and ran him outside to Dendi. “Here, you have two!” she said. “In for a bit…”
“… in for a hex!” Dendi said, and Jelli walked back into the kitchen. She could dry while cooking. She had this idea for a fruit and shrimp air fry skewer that she wanted to try. With a heavy garlic and ginger sauce. She would make two versions of the sauce, one for Ska-drek-a and one for everyone else. Mother still couldn’t handle spice.
“Mother,” she said, a half an hour later, walking into the hobby room where Mother sat with two interns. Or, rather, Mother sat on one side of the table and the interns sat on the far side of the table from her, both of them with three opaque screens open and franticaly busy. Trisha was busy on the floor. “Why don’t you like Dendi?”
“Who? Oh, the neighbor kesh? Why she’s perfectly delightful and polite and all. Why would you say I don’t like her?”
“The poor dear has been coming over and asking you to let her watch the kesh and you have refused her without even giving a hold. What’s with that?”
“But Darling, she is so young!”
“Young? Why, she’s older than half the Kesh Kids at garden party that watch Bobbin and Trish all the time.”
“But they are employees!”
“Well, Kendi would be your ‘employee’ if you ‘employed’ her. And she’s our neighbor.”
“You don’t really think she is old enough to watch them?”
“She has Bobbin and Carl now, and I came in to see if Trish was ready to play with them. Call me when she is ready. And use poor Dendi. She’s trying to earn money. Who do you usually use?”
Ska-drek-a was staring at her, open mouthed. “I… I don’t.”
“Oh, stars and comets, Mother, no wonder you are so frazzled. Anyway, tell me when Trish is ready and I will take her out to her. I’m making a perfectly delightful recipe tonight.”
Contract Marriage
Contract marriage is an adult dystopia examining the issues of marriage. Like 1984 and Brave New World, Contract Marriage treats the relations between the sexes as a fundamental aspect of how a society is formed and, thus, how a society can go wrong.
Unlike those dystopias, Contract Marriage isn’t all horrible all of the time. The characters for the most part have a good time and get along in their society. But the issues of sexuality, of marriage or not, monogamy or not, faithfulness or not, and gender roles… keep coming up and causing tension and conflict and joy and pain.
My desire is that my readers would be thinking along with my characters about these issues and perhaps even arrive at the same place (minus the flying cars).
Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!Thank you for reading Von’s Substack. I would love it if you commented! I love hearing from readers, especially critical comments. I would love to start more letter exchanges, so if there’s a subject you’re interested in, get writing and tag me!
Being ‘restacked’ and mentioned in ‘notes’ is very important for lesser-known stacks so… feel free! I’m semi-retired and write as a ministry (and for fun) so you don’t need to feel guilty you aren’t paying for anything, but if you enjoy my writing (even if you dramatically disagree with it), then restack, please! Or mention me in one of your own posts.
If I don’t write you back it is almost certain that I didn’t see it, so please feel free to comment and link to your post. Or if you just think I would be interested in your post!
If you get lost, check out my ‘Table of Contents’ which I try to keep up to date.
Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von