Invitation

“Why, whatever does this mean?” Mother said.

Jellia looked up from her fish. It was very good fish. Mother had been sent it yesterday by one of her business contacts and Jellia had been instructed to cook it. Which of course meant that she had to look up a recipe, and she had decided on this one. Which was probably spicier than Mother liked, but all of the Kesh-u had said it was by far the best way of cooking it and, indeed, it was very good.

Mother was looking at her wrist-comp and frowning. “What does it say, Love?” Iloh asked.

“It is an invitation to a party tomorrow night from one of my contacts. The one that sent that fish, actually. Grengin Fisheries. They are having some kind of open house, at their office, to introduce people to the new kinds of fish that they are starting to harvest, or catch, or whatever you do with fish, and they sent me an invitation.”

“That doesn’t seem odd.”

“No, that’s not odd. That’s a regular feature of a trader’s life. But at the bottom it says, “Looking forward to meeting your Ska-drek and daughter.”

Iloh looked at Jellia, who looked back at him. “That sounds clear enough,” he said.

“But… I am expected to bring Jellia to a business meeting? And you?”

“Oh, I see. Well, yes, you are very much expected to. If you had a dozen kesh-u you would be expected to bring them all. They will have games and things for the kesh-u. You don’t have to bring them, obviously, but it is expected and they will express disappointment if you don’t. Was it not like that on Ephemera? Did you never go to your mother’s parties, Daughter?”

“I went to that one….” Jellia said.

“You did? Oh, that was an end of the year picnic. Outside. And I thought it very odd.”

“But what would you do, on Ephemera, with your kesh-u?”

“We would watch each other’s kesh-u. If it was an official business meeting then some of the lesser employees, female, of course, would be told off to watch them.”

Jellia hurried down the stairs, indecently excited. A party! And Mother was sort of the guest of honor! Jellia had bought a new skirt (with mothers money!) In the blue of Ephemera Lines, and a light, white blouse, very formal looking, and she was ready to party!

"You look very nice, daughter," Ska-drek said." I have called my skimmer. En-drek-a will be… here she comes."

Mother came down the stairs, and Jellia was pleased. They matched, but not in some sort of ‘Cute’ way, but nicely.

"Here," Mother said, and handed her a cap. Jellia is squealed. She got to wear a cap again! And it was very nicely done, with ‘Ephemera Lines’ and the logo embroidered on it. Jellia up put it on and tilted it just a bit to the left.…

"Do I get one?" Iloh asked, Jellia burst into giggles.

“On Ephemera,” Mother said, dryly, "males do not wear a cap. Of this sort. They will wear hats and helmets, for working or sports. But these caps are considered very feminine."

"I see," Iloh said. “I shall have to go un-marked.”

"Not at all," Mother said, and produced a pin. Or badge. Nicely done, with his name, and ‘Consultant Ephemera Lines”. And the logo.

"I am relieved," he said. "Shall we go?"

They walked out and got in his skimmer. He sat down with mother and it took off. Jellia wondered if he would ever let her drive it?

The skimmer went down the road and then turned uphill. Where is the party?” Jellia asked, and Iloh pointed up hill and a little to the right. At first, Jelliai didn't see anything, but then she noticed a glint up on one hill, which resolved into a long, two story building facing out towards the ocean. The closer the skimmer got the more impressed she was.

Jellia walked in and grinned! This hall was zoomy! Full length windows on three sides, everywhere except where they had come in. Two long walls, one facing the ocean, one the mountains. As was the third, small wall.

And the lighting! The floor was a reflective black, this ceiling a matte Black, and the lights were recessed canned lights meaning the room had hundreds of islands of light. Gorgeous.

"Jellia!" Mother said, and she turned her attention to the crowd, including the ska-drek in a bright red shirt with a stylized Fish logo on it.

"Ska Barton Fennell," he said, kissing merchan- to-customer.

“En-kesh Jellia Kiladi,” she said, kissing back kesh to ska, as ska-drek had told her to.

"En-kesh?” Bartin said, “Well, you’ll want to go over by the food tables then. Most of the kesh-u are there.”

Jellia looked and, sure enough, at the far side of the room, about as far away from the door as you could get, were several tables, all nicely decorated and with plates of food on them and, just a little further away, were knots of Kesh-u about her age.

“Thanks,” she said, and started across the floor, passing knots of ska-u all talking.

“What’s with the cap?” A kesh-u asked her when she got close to the first food table. She though, for the briefest of times, of being insulted but… she was exo. It was a legitimate question.

She held up her bracelet, “Exo,” she said, “This is the custom on my planet, so because we are here ‘officially’ my mo… ska-drek-a had these made. To show the flag, you understand. En-kesh Jellia Kiladi,” she finished, moving into ‘fellow company’, which Ska-drek had reminded her of and practiced with her. Mother, apparently, could just use ‘merchant to customer’ or ‘customer to merchant’, depending, and Jellia should be greeted that way, but return the kiss as if she was just a normal person.

“Kesh Martin Baldwin, Titan Lines,” he said, and gave her a rather forceful ‘fellow company’. She was tempted to rub her arm, he had gripped her so hard. And the kiss!

“Don’t keep her to yourself, Martin,” a girl said, coming up behind Martin and, announcing herself En-e-kesh Mbenia Bonita and repeated ‘fellow company’, which Jellia returned. “A new kesh! Just arrived?” she asked, looking at the band.

“Oh, yes, just a deca or so ago,” Jellia said. I’m still getting used to everything. This hall is fantastic!”

“Isn’t it, though? And the food, too. Have you tried the snapping fish yet?”

“I haven’t tried anything! I just got here.”

“Oh, well, let me introduce you. It does best heavily spiced. I assume your ska-drek-a will have you cooking it?”

“Oh, yes, I test all of her new products,” Jellia said, “Those that can be eaten, anyway. Which one is it?”

“This one,” Mbenia said, pointing to a plate with bits of white fish on crackers.

Jellia looked at it. The fish was white, but it had green and red bits of spice on it. She took a bite and immediately regretted it.

“Ah!” she said, looking around and darting out for a table with drinks on it. She took one, swallowed convulsively, and then almost gagged. It was a rather stiff hard!

She choked a bit and, red-faced, turned back to Mbenia. “I need to be more careful,” she gasped. “I’ll try a smaller bite, next.”

“Does the poor infant need to go to ska-drek-a for some milk?” Martin asked, and Mbenia slapped him. Like, right on the face! And he grinned.

“Be nice, Martin!” she said. “She still has her exo bracelet on and will probably not understand your perverse send of humour. “He really is nice,” she said. “He’s just from Titan, and they don’t think you are enjoying yourself if you haven’t been insulted in the last five minutes. He probably does like you. He’s probably hoping you will choose him for your en-e-drek.”

Jellia felt her face flush and Martin didn’t look happy either. “You… you can’t say that, can you?”

“Oh, Dear… you can’t. You or Martin, not to each other anyway. Good way to get a chastisement. But I can. It isn’t flirting if I do it to the two of you, or you by yourself.

“And it wouldn’t do, two exos. Not until you both have had some contracts, anyway. One of you has to be good at code and custom! We are a lot of exos here, you know. There are some store managers, but most of tonight is Trade Masters, working on exo contracts. Here, the ground squimp is in a sweet sauce, it will be good after that spice. Sorry, forgot you might not be used to it. We use a lot of spice on my home planet, so I think that the food here is bland. But the squimp is sweet. A bit chewy, but sweet. My father… sorry, Ska-drek… has already put in a big order.”

Jellia gratefully tried the squimp… which was indeed in a sweet sauce and Jellia thought it would do better in a soup. But it helped get rid of the fire in her mouth, anyway.

“Oh, Soosa,” Mbenia said, “Come meet en-kesh Jellia Kiladi, Ephemera Lines.”

A rather harassed looking younger kesh came over. “Kesh Soosa Fenole,” she said, kissing ‘host to company’.

“En-kesh Jellia Kiladi,” Jellia said, remembering how to do ‘company to host’ just in time. Ska-drek hadn’t reminded her of that one. “You’re the hostess?”

“Well, over here I am, anyway. Ska-drek put me in charge of the cooking. I cooked several of these, and my siblings cooked the rest. The hall was expensive, I don’t think he had funds to pay for cooks. What have you tried?”

“She tried the snapping fish and almost died, poor dear. Then she tried the sweet squimp.”

Soosa looked down at her bracelet. “Not used to spicy food? I did a sweet savory snapping fish… it really is coming in well and Ska-drek hopes we will be able to sell some of it.”

Jellia followed her over and tried the sweet-savory snapping fish. It had a hint of spice, but was served with its sauce and some vegetables over grain… “Oh, this is wonderful!” Jellia said, with utter honesty. “Can I have the recipe?”

The kesh had just waved wrists when some ska who had gathered in the corner near them started up a tune.

“Oh, Line Dance!” Mbenia said, grabbing her arm. “Oh, come, I will teach it to you!”

“We studied it in school,” Jellia said, following her. “I’ll try to keep up.”

“Oh, I love this dance!”

Soon all of the kesh-u, and some younger ska-u were standing in two lines facing each other. The kesh-u had their arms around each other’s waist, and the kesh-i-u, in the line facing them, had linked arms.

The players broke into the main theme and the kesh-u went down in a bit of a squat and started kicking out alternate legs and singing. For the most part they sang bass, altho some of the younger kesh octaved up without seeming the least bit put out.

The kesh-u had done this for eight kicks before the kesh-u at the end of their line let out a bit of a yodelish thing and the kesh-i-u began their steps. Right foot over left foot, step left, left foot over right foot, step right, left step, right step, then to shuffle steps to the right and repeat.

As the girls moved to the right both lines also pivoted so the kesh-i-u were sort of going in a circle around the kesh-u while both lines rotated. All the while everyone singing… the kesh-u dancing and the crowd of ska-u and littles around them. Round and round they went, and faster and faster until, finally, the song ended with a great yell from everyone.

“Darling!” Mother said, as Jellia reeled out of the group. “When did you learn to do that?”

“Oh, we had a group physio. The Physio teacher learned I didn’t know any dances, so she had us do that. I love that one. It’ s a bit exhausting, though. Whew.”

“Congratulations, Daughter,” Ska-drek said. “I saw you trying the food. I assume you wil be ready to cook some of it for us? For your ska-drek-a?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve already tried two kinds of fish and gotten one recipe.”

“Well, take careful notes, Daughter.”

“I will,” Jellia said, hurrying back to the tables where the kesh-u were again gathering.

“You are new?” she heard, as she was trying yet another recipe of snapper. She turned and saw, well, it must be a ska, with an infant at her breast.

“Kesh Jellia Kiladi, Ephemera Lines,” Jellia said, and kissed.

“Ska Rose Fanton, sort of Grengin Fisheries.”

“Oh so…?” Jellia didn’t even know how to ask.

“My former Ska-drek is the COO for Grengin. My en-drek doesn’t work for them, but I still do a lot of work with them. Helping schedule boats and all. When I can,” she added, sort of holding up the infant.

“Oh, yes, right. I’m not yet clear on all of the relationships. So, you do scheduling?”

“Yes. It is a bit more complex than it sounds. We run continual analyses on the ocean currents and all, to figure out where the fish are hiding. So… you’ve met Martin?”

“Umm, yes.”

“I’m a bit suprised. I guess there’s a truce at the party.”

“Excuse me?”

“You didn’t know? Titan and Ephemera are bitter rivals. Our planet is just a trifle closer to Ephemera, but they compete strongly for trade.”

“So… that’s why he was so mean to me?”

“Oh, no. Titan is like that. It’s a heavy gravity planet, and their culture… it is pretty much the opposite of Ephemera. The Kesh-u belong absolutely to their progenitor.”

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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!

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.

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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

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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).

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