“My husband?” Andi asked, from the other side of the tub. “Would you like me to get a more intimate bark painting?”
“More… oh. Yes, I think I would. What do you have in mind?”
“Well, I thought we should let the artist advise us.”
“Now, my husband, that will hardly do. The painting is designed to encourage you in your intimate activities… surely you must choose the design!”
He was silent and she looked at him… he was blushing!
“Perhaps we need to wait until you are a more comfortable with our physical relaitonship?” she asked, and he nodded, relieved.
Andi felt her husband pulling her toward a shop. A clothing store! An expensive clothing store!!
“Oooh,” Andreina said, nervous and excited at the same time, barely resisting as she allowed herself to be pulled through the door. It was a husbands job to clothe his wife, but she was at least supposed to pretend to resist excessive spending. She hardly ever went clothes shopping and was nervous how to behave in a high class shop like this. Or an expensive shop, she saw, as it had all levels of clothing.
“Come right this way, Sir, Ma’am,” she heard and saw a lass a bit older than she was hurrying forward and pointing to a side room. “Unless you wish to browse?”
“No,” her husband said, startling her. “We will trust your judgement.”
“Stand up there,” the attendant said. Andreina stepped up on the platform and stood nervously waiting. Her husband had sat down on a chair, and their guide was standing in the doorway chewing a stick he had found in the street. The attendant spent a few minutes looking her over and playing with a tape measure, and then turned to her husband., “And what are we looking for?”
“A skirt and blouse combination, suitable for dinner in this area.”
The attendant looked back at Andreina, cocked her head to one side, and then disappared back in to the front of the the shop, coming back several seconds later. “Try this one,” she said, handing Andreina a skirt.
“Yes, ma’am,” Andreina said, pulling the skirt up.
“Sir?” the attendant asked her husband, who got up and walked around her. She so hoped he would like it. It was a blue and green plaid, very formal length, and better than anything she had ever had.
“And the blouse?” her husband asked, without giving his judgement
The attendant handed Andreina a stiff white blouse but, as soon as she had it over her head she heard her husband said, “No.”
They both looked at him, Andreina trying to hide her disappointment. “A shop class blouse, please,” he said. “Low but not informal.”
The attendant darted off, but Andreina said, “Thou canst not. I can not wear such a thing. My language is not suitable.”
She had to stop because the attendant had come back and Andreina reluctantly changed blouses. The attendant tucked it in and then stood back, looking at Andreina’s husband. “Much better. Lad, what do you think?”
“Looks good,” the lad said, and went back to chewing his stick.
“I can’t!” Andreina mouthed desperately, but her husband ignored her and asked for the bill.
“I can’t!” Andreina pleaded when the attendant left to figure the bill. “My language…”
“There are many shop class that still have street language,” he said. “Mixed class, or perhaps even new come. Altho those change their language quickly, it must be said. I like your language, but I wish my wife to match my class. It is my right.”
She cast her eyes down. He was of course right. The husband was to clothe the wife. It was in the standard marriage contract.
“Ten Keshef ten,” the attendant said, when she came back in. “We will have it ready by tomorrow after noon.”
Andreina flushed. She had never owned an outfit nearly that expensive. That almost made up for… she stared at herself in the mirror fingered the collar. The straight across collar that marked the outfit as shop class. It was low enough to flatter her.
But it was shop class! How could she wear such a thing?
She froze. She had married into the shop class. Of course she would need to accustom herself to dressing like it. And speaking like it… although her husband had said that he liked her language, so obviously not yet.
Worldbuilding Note
I am experimenting with a concept which has existed in Science Fiction for a long time but has been limited by the fact that books are printed on paper. So I am going to try putting a ‘worldbuilding note’ at the bottom of some posts. These are optional reading. If you like the worldbuilding, great. If not, skip it.
Dress Codes
Every society has different classes, some more obvious than others. And one of the way that classes are marked is by dress. In this society the three city classes have three forms of neckline for the classes: Round, V necked, and square or ‘straight across’. Shopclass women wear ‘straight across’.
The Janleen Clan
Probably the most important part of the worldbuilding so far is the Janleen clan. Our characters, but not all characters in the book, are part of the Janleen clan. This authoritative (but purely voluntary) clan requires everyone to produce at least three children (thus six per couple), and send the first two to the army, the second two to the navy, and leaves the rest (at least two) free for normal civilian pursuits. They also impose a 1% clan tax on some activities and income.
The result of these rules (and some others) is that they are the most powerful group in known space.
Mixed Tech
One thing that has been implied but not overtly stated is that the human civilisation is rather schizophrenic when it comes to technology. Some technology is freely available, some highly taxed, and some available only to the military. This comes from their history, where the society almost died out due to reliance and use of hi-tech… people so busy on their smart phones they forgot to have sex and defend the walls.
Marriage Contracts
All sexual activity is regulated by contract, including prostitution. Almost all contracts place a limit on what a fertile woman may do in order to assure paternity, but outside of that most women are free to take ‘temp’ contracts; earning money or influence via sexual relations. This is similar to (if more formally regulated) the kind of mistress issues that we read about in certain epochs in Europe… where a rich man’s mistress might be a very open and official thing.
Unlike Europe, however, temp contracts are expected to be handled ‘discreetly’ by all involved. Very much a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ attitude for all concerned. So you might see a man slipping into a woman’s room, or even bunk, but you would theoretically not have seen it, or heard it, etc.
Child Labour
For most of history the general rule was, ‘What a child can do, a child should do.’ Children would plant, and hoe, and harvest in the fields, and children in town would run and fetch and carry and guide.
Deflation
The central denomination of the currency is the ‘keshef’… and its a lot of money. Our society has been inflating its currency for so long we forget that there used to be penny candy.
Back to the Future
So one thing that we see in this book is things happening in the future… that happened in the past. A colony which is not run with hi-tech might well revert to some ideas that existed in our past.
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