Jellia had sort forgotten but Leah must have told the art teacher, cause she was sitting there, holding her kesh, when Thomas’s comp went off.
“Well, Thomas, do you have something to tell us?” Teacher asked, as he sat there and stared at it.
“Oh, umm, yes. “ He stood up, “Li-Kesh Thomas Wilson.” He said, and everyone duly cheered.
He sat back down and his comp chimed, again. He looked down at it, stared, looked at Leah, stared down at it again, and then teacher said, “Leah, do you have an announcement for us?”
Leah grinned and stood up, “En-drek-a Leah Wilson,” she said, and the class cheered. And then cheered again when Thomas had to stand up again and name himself ska-drek.
Watching him as he drew was simply hilarious. He would look at Leah and the baby, then look back at his paper, then, finally, look at her again and draw something. But most of the time he just looked at her.
“How did you do that?” Lydia asked, as soon as class was over.
“My progenitor and the med tech arranged the whole thing,” Leah replied. “And Jellia said I should pick him.”
Jellia stopped, dead, and stared after Leah as she walked down the hallway with the other Kesh-u-i. She couldn’t believe that she had told them! Why, now everyone would. Well, what would they think?
“Thank you, Jellia,” she heard, and turned to see Thomas.
“Well, umm, you’re welcome. I hope you are happy.”
“Oh, my, yes. She’s going to be interesting, and I’m not sure how easy it will be to, like, take leadership and all, since we have been all this time in class together and she is on her second, but I’ll work on it. And it will be very convienient.”
“Aren’t you going to go talk to her?”
“Not until this afternoon,” he said. “I know she introduced at all, but she will have some time with her current en-drek and then two hours off before I come by.”
“Were you worried?” she asked, seeing something in his face.
“Oh, we always are, or so my friends have told me. You never know who you will get, or if you will get anyone. Or… or if she will be old. I think that is harder for us than for you.”
“I suppose. Leah seemed perfectly happy with her first.”
“Anyway, thank you. We will have to name our child after you.”
“Oh, please, don’t do that to the poor thing. I get called “Jelly” and “Jell’ all the time. It’s very hard on my dignity to get called a fruit concoction.”
He laughed.
—
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!
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.
Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books are published by Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:
The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid
and
As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations.
Arthur also has a substack, and a website. On the substack you can listen to some of his published books. Free.
Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
Other Stories
Island People’s is not my only story on Substack. I have two light dystopias, or cultural sci-fi, or one of them is military sci-fi with aliens… Science Fiction can be difficult to categorise :)
Article 17: Intro
She was pretty, popular, snobby, and a planetary governor’s daughter. He was the son of shopkeepers, a social misfit, and a decorated hero. She thought she was there to dance. He had other ideas.
And a fantasy-esque series of morality tales:
Prologue IP0
Island People is a young adult fantasy book centring on a young prince. The book starts with his kidnapping and follows his adventures as he not only escapes from his kidnapper but gains critical allies and friends.