“Oh, Mother, that meal was wonderful!” Jellia said. “I so want to learn how to make it. But this jewellery!”
She made to reach behind herself to take it off, but Mother snapped, “Darling! Do not.”
“But?”
“And when he asks you how you like it, would you lie? You will need to wear it for a couple of days, at least. And… and do you have any idea what it is worth?”
“I think its ugly, Mother. It’s so heavy, and cold, and big… and no one hear wears anything like it.”
“And. Do. You. Have. Any. Idea. How much it is wroth??”
“Ummm… no?”
“I doubt me not it is solid silver. So even by weight it is a dozen hexes. Or more. And it looks to be original.”
“Which, umm, makes it art?”
“Which makes it art. And probably worth ten times, or even a hundred times, what the silver itself is worth.”
“Oh!” So she was wandering around wiht a couple of hundred hexes of silver around her neck? OR more?
“Yes, ‘oh’. You will wear it for your ska-drek, and en-drek, and your classmates. Carefully. And then we will put it in the safe. And you will be able to tell him how much you value his gift.”
“Well, I do. but I liked the meal more.”
“it was very well done. I didn’t see anything in it worth trading except, perhaps, some of the meat.”
“Mother!”
Jellia: Leah, meet me in front of school, will you? I need support.
Leah: Sure. What’s up?
Jellia: Oh, you’ll see. You will definitely see!
Jellia looked down at her chest. She supposed that the straps for Carl’s carry pack made the jewelry a little less evident… but just a little. Her mother had made her put on the bracelet and rings as well, and she felt absoloutely gauche. Gaudy. Whatever.
And all of the ride sharerers had thought so too. Argh. Her mother made them a great living, but this was impossible! And Gregory and Ben’nin had just complemented her on the awful things!
The skimmer pulled up and her heart fell. Leah was there… with Thomas! Argh.
She climbed down and Leah ran up and kissed. Thomas came up more slowly and kissed as well. Both of their eyes firmly fixed on the…
“So, what’s the story?” Thomas asked. “Not exactly my style but…”
“Oh, please!” Jellia said. “There’s this trade that Ska-drek-a is working with, and it turns out that he’s related to me. This makes me some kind of long lost special relative… he insisted on kissing cousin to cousin when we left, and ‘long lost’ when I got there… and means that he had to give us a whole bunch of gift. Including this thing!”
“It’s not that bad,” Thomas said.
But Leah had a look in her eye. “And it means that you should give gifts back! Which we can design! Ooooh…”
“I don’t know…”
“Snip your Ska-drek-a, I’m sure she’ll say you should. And give you an enormous budget!”
They walked into art class just as Leah was saying this, and Lydia burst out with, “Stars and comets and every little sparkly bit! Teacher, we have to draw Jellia!”
“What? No!” Jellia protested, but Leah soon had Carl and she was seated in front of the class, flaming red. How awful!
“So, Jellia, tell us how you got that… wonderful jewellery…” Lydia said, grinning.
“Oh, let me tell,” Leah said, from where she sat nursing Carl. He had never minded anyone else nursing him, but Jellia hoped he wouldn’t eat too much, or she would get too full. “Her ska-drek-a is the Master Trader for Ephemera lines, and she…
—
“Ok, we’re on!” Leah said, plopping herself down at lunch. Carl was nursing very busily, for which Jellia was thankful, and Leah had gotten her lunch for her.
“On for what?” Jellia asked, and took a simply enormous bite of Thomas toast.
“For the gift! I snipped your ska-drek-a and she said I was perfeclty right and she gave us an enormous budget! And I sniped Ben’nin and he gave you the night off, all night, so we are going shopping!!”
“What?”
“Yup. Not your day at Garden Party and Gregory is going to meet us on the strip, and we’re doing dinner and everything,. All on your ska-drek-a! And we are going to find something wonderful!”
“Not like this, I hope,” Jellia said, picking the necklace up and almost wincing as she let it back.
“No, no, no… we’re going to do something from here! That’s what that is, obviously, something special from his family, his planet. Oh, and she said the art and oil has arrived so you can bring it to class tomorrow. You are going to be popular.”
“Even with this on?”
“Even with that on!”
—
Gregory was waiting for them when the came out of school. “I can’t believe we are doing this today while I wear this,” Jellia said to Leah, through gritted teeth.
“Oh, calm down. Your ska-drek-a is paying for us to have a night on the town and to buy some beautiful jewellery.”
“We’re buying jewellery?”
“Of course!”
That almost seemed to make it worth it. Almost.
The skimmer landed at the front of the strip and the two couples and three kesh-u got out. “Hold your kesh?” a kesh asked, coming up to Leah.
“Oh, that would be nice,” Leah said, unstrapping her child and strapping her to the kesh. “Now, just ignore us.”
“Yes, Ska,” the kesh said, grinning, and started talking to the baby.
“There are four marvelous gem stores up here,” Leah said. “I have this idea.”
“A gem store?” Jellia asked, hurryign after her. The en-drek were falling behind, talking
“Rubies,” Leah said. “You know we have that mine that is producing those small rubies. I have this idea, of setting small rubies in copper. We don’t have much silver or gold her, but I think it might work with copper.
“But how can I give my cousin a bracelet like that? It sounds so girly!”
“You still speak funny sometimes, bestie. That bracelet, or those bracelets, would be for the kesh-u-i. You would get him a matching arm band.”
“Oooh! But how many should I get?”
“I asked your mother, and she said to get one for him, one for his wife, then two more for males and females, and a good dozen for kesh-u and kesh-u-i”
“Oooh!”
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