First School

Contract Marriage #5

The next morning, yawning hugely, Jellia tried to sidle into first-class quietly. But she might as well not have bothered. Creia ran up to her, and the girls gave their ‘learning together’ bow. Which was a bow she had always loved, involving holding your hands in front of you as if they were a book while you nodded your head, a serious look on your face.

“Where were you yesterday?” Creia asked. “We know it was excused, Teacher said nothing, but she didn’t say why either!”

“I… I was in meditation,” Jellia admitted.

“What, why?” a dozen girls asked her. When she got done all of her bows… she didn’t usually have to bow to so many… it was time for class, but Teacher said, 

“Indeed, Jellia, come forward. I think it would be good for you to tell all of us why. Your mother snipped me, but I think the class would like to know.”

“Yes, yes,” the girls all said and, as soon as they had ranged themselves on their puff chairs all around her in a circle, she bowed ‘relating a story’ and began.

“Well, when I got home on third-day, I found Mother crying. It seems that she had a very good job opportunity, but there was a problem. She thought I wouldn’t want to go.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, the job opportunity is exo, on a planet called ‘Libertas’, which is a newer colony. She would be managing a trade desk for her company on an exo. It is a great opportunity for her!”

“But not for you?”

“Oh, no, it’s great for me too, but there will be a lot of changes, a lot of things to learn, and a lot of things they do differently.”

“Like what?”

“Well… one of the most important is that they do school differently. They don’t have government schools, and their schools are arranged very differently.”

“How?”

“Well, when you are a littlie you have lots of types of classes, then as you get older, you have fewer and fewer. You start specialising. So by the time I get there I will probably only have three kinds of classes.”

“What else?”

“Well, they don’t do meditation. Not sure what they do do, but it certainly wasn’t mentioned in any of the rules…”

“Oh, which was another huge difference. The planet's name means ‘liberty’, but they have a huge set of rules which they call ‘Code and Custom’. And you can get really, really in trouble for breaking them.”

“And…?”

“Oh, well, we will be sharing housing with some male, and he will help run the house.”

“Zoomy,” Lydia said. “Time to reach that high shelf? Just call the male.”

The scholars all laughed, and even the teacher seemed to find that funny.

“Oh, and no dresses. Or not many anyway; I didn’t see any girl wearing one in all of the stuff I was given.”

“What do they wear?” Creia asked her. “Not pants like sons?”

“Oh, no. They wear skirts almost always. Sometimes shirtless, sometimes with a shirt too. Boys seem to always wear a shirt, except, like, on the beach.”

“Oh, I would like that,” Creia said, tugging at her dress. “I think dresses are much more awkward than skirts.”

“And if you wear it with a shirt, there are so many combinations,” Mendia said. “Lucky Jellia!”

“I think that is enough for now,” Teacher said. “But this has been such an emotional event that I think we will have a one-hour, silent drawing meditation. After that, you may, one by one, ask Jellia questions.”

“I have also done my own research and will snip you a book list I have compiled, most of which comes from the Libertas embassy, which concerns the major towns, geography, language, and other issues on Libertas.”

The room descended into silence as the girls all opened their wrist-com into large drawing screens, or, in the case of several archaics, physical pads of paper and pencils or pens. Jellia had had enough of meditation yesterday, but she welcomed the news that Teacher had snipped info on the planet. She quickly downloaded some ‘geography’ info and spent the next hour drawing some very pretty mountains and a beach.

“So, are you happy?” she heard and realised her hour was up and Teacher had told Mendia she could ask her questions.

“It is very good for my mother, but it is making me very nervous. Think, I am going to get to ride in a spaceship and at least two shuttles and go see a new planet!”

“With new sons,” the girl said. “What’s the planet like?”

“It has lots of mountains and does a lot of fishing. The colony has had the best luck introducing fish.”

“And where will you live?”

“Oh, that was in the packet… a nice shot of outside. It’s a beautiful house, way, way bigger than where we are now.”

“That’s good. Oh, I envy you.”

“Really?”

“Well, we don’t live in the nicest area, you know. It’s kind of scary even catching the bus for school.”

“Oh.”

“How is it on Libertas?”

She thought about it. “I didn’t read anything about street crime or anything. The only thing I read was that everyone could carry a gun.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Not everyone does, which is good, I would hate to. But lots of people do. Especially sons.”

“Wierd! Well, Teacher’s waving at me.”

She got up, and Sushana sat down and immediately hugged her. “Oh, Jellia, I will miss you!”

“Me too.”

“So… this is a good op for your mother?”

“Oh, marvellous…”

The next few daughter were easy, but Netta really wanted to know more. “So, what else will be hard? What’s the worst?”

“Well… I don’t know if it will be the worst, but they don’t bow… they kiss.”

“Ewww… even sons?”

“Well, we daughters kiss everyone, but sons don’t kiss sons.”

“Oh, well, that’s good. That would be disgusting!”

“Yes, well, but it’s like bowing, and I’m going to have to learn a lot of different kisses.”

Netta giggled… “That sounds fun.”

“Not that kind of kiss,” Jellia said. “That kind of kiss is only between dates or lovers or whatever. But between normal people, you have to touch a different part of their body and all… their wrist, their arm… upper and lower are different… their shoulder, cheek, hair… it all depends on who you are to the other person. So, stranger to stranger, you just touch the top of their hand… or even your own hand if you are, like, on a Screeny or something. You would touch your hand and mouth a kiss in the air. And when you greet your little brother… they have lots of kids, so practically everyone has brothers and sisters… you would touch the top of his hair and he would put his hand, well, as high as he could comfortably reach on your side. And you might mouth the kiss there, too, because he was so low… or you might bend down.”

“Interesting. But the kisses don’t have meaning? Not ‘decision reached’ or ‘ difficult obedience’?”

“None at all… except for the relationship. So you might greet someone as a stranger one day, then they might be your boss or a fellow scholar the next.”

“Oooh. So if you’re mad at a friend, you could kiss her stranger-to-stranger?”

“I don’t know,” Jellia admitted. “I haven’t read that part yet. It’s very complex.”

“What else?”

“Well…  I can’t figure out how I feel about it, but they get physically chastised instead of wearing a punishment bracelet.”

“Oh, I hate those! Getting shocked all day and having to say your apology to it all the time… and of course, being bright red, everyone sees it all the time!

“Well, study well,” Netta said. “My turn’s done.”

After the last scholar was done, Teacher waved her over. “I wish to assure you,” she said, “That we will do everything we can to support you. The school and all of the scholars.”

Jellia bowed ‘profound thanks’, but Teacher replied with ‘joyful anticipation’. “Go study now, Scholar. Your life awaits.”

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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!

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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von

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Links

Contract Marriage Chapters, Newest to Oldest

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I would like to give credit for the genesis of many of these ideas to the Liaden series by Mr. and Mrs. Steve Miller, which is available for free on the web. They do a great deal of cultural exploration, although they rather dramatically skip the moral exploration. (And their math doesn’t work.)

Other concepts were taken, in one form and another, from the book Freehold by Michael A Williamson.