“Mother? We’re home!” Jellia yelled, coming in the front door. She was exhausted but excited. It looked like she had not only done all the tests right, but the site was going to be approved for building. Some sort of mountain resort. They had even given her an invitation to the inaguration… which wouldn’t be for a year or so.
“We’re in here, Dear,” Mother said, and Jellia unhitched Carl, took her shirt off, and, carrying Carl with Bobbin following, they went into the hobby room.
Mother was sitting at the end of the table with her three screens open and Cynthia, with only one screen, was frantically typing away. She had dressed formally, indeed exactly as Jellia had suggested, although her formal white shirt looked quite a bit less formal, now… showing serious signs of sweat.
“You have met Cynthia, Dear?” Mother asked, and Cynthia hurried over and gave sister-to-sister, kissed both kesh hurridely, and went back to work.
“So… this is the interview?” Jellia asked.
“Yes and no. I told her I had no idea how to interview anyone so I just sat her down and gave her a bunch of grunt work. She’s free pretty much every day for a few hours so we’ll see how she does.”
Jellia gave her a glance. It sounded like Mother would be working her hard. “Well, I’m off to the kitchen. The nippers should be ready for some home play. Oh, and I’ll put the music on in Carl’s little corner, he’s a bit behind. ska-drek asked for a nice dinner tonight, and put it off, so it will be in an hour. I’m thinking air grilled meat and shrimp with sauce over Cresha grain.”
“That sounds wonderful, Darling. Cynthia and I will be eating in here, so if you could make for her as well, please. Oh, and a friend of hers is coming over in an hour, so make enough for him too, please.”
“Sure.”
“Oh, but you don’t have to…”
“Back to work, Dear,” Mother said, and Cynthia turned back to her work, chagrined, and Jellia went off to the kitchen.
“Hello, Dear,” she said, when Endrek came in. “If you don’t mind I’m going to be eating in the hobby room with Mother and her new interns.”
“Leaving me to entertain the kesh-u?”
“And make sure they don’t make too much of a mess, yes,” she said, kissing him.
“Such a slave you make me,” he said. “Can I carry anything out?”
Dinner was soon served in the dining room and Jellia made up two plates and took them back. “Oh, thank you, Dear,” she said. “Daniel, make your greeting.”
“We have met,” Daniel said, getting up and kissing fellow-scholar, which seemed an odd mode but, they were both interns so it made some sense. She kissed him back sister-to-brother, trying for a bit of informality.
“I’ll be back with your plate,” she said, “And mine. I want to quiz the two of you.”
She was soon back and, as they all ate, she asked, “So, what has Ska-drek-a had you doing?”
“Well, I have been researching textiles,” Cynthia said. “It isn’t our best export, but the Master Trader is hoping we can find some niche that would work.”
“I have just been assigned wood,” Daniel said. “It is a growing export for us, we have just recently reached the point where our local market doesn’t easily absorb everything we make.”
“Well, that’s wonderful. So, did you get to recite all you knew about Ephemera Lines to Mother, Cynthia?”
Cynthia flushed, “No… she just put me right to work.”
“What was that, Dear?” Mother asked.
“Oh, Cynthia told me she was going to memorize the last few years of trading,” Jellia said.
“Not… years!” Cynthia said. “I couldn’t have done that!”
“Well, what did you do, Intern?” Mother asked.
“Just the last few months. I studied it frantically on the way to school and then on the way here. And my teacher gave me a few minutes in class, and another of my teachers did a group study on it.”
“And your conclusions?”
“That, umm, that you have a very good market and it seems like you are poised to expand.”
“Daniel?”
“Yes. There seemed to be about twelve products that haven’t been very profitable, due to lack of supply, mostly, that will begin to be much more available over the next few months and years.”
“And those were, Cynthia?”
“Well, the fruit market was the most important,” she said. “You have already made huge inroads into that market. And while fish has always been an important market, there are new types becoming available practically daily.”
“Daniel?”
“There is a small but potentially profitable market in tea,” he said. “Not the earth plant by that name, but the barks of several trees can be used like Earth cinamon in drinks… sometimes by themselves and sometimes in combination with a base.”
“Jellia?”
Jellia jumped. “Me?”
“Oh, come, you do our purchasing. There must be something that they use here that we didn’t have on ephemera.”
“Ummm… we’ll its a combined product, but Benta Butter is something that I have really enjoyed.”
“I never thought of that. Daniel, you can make that your next project. Anything else, Dear?”
“Well, I think Daniel might have already mentioed this, but a couple of the tree’s bark is processed into some very tasty oils. Indeed tonights dinner has some on it.”
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