Shopping
Mother: Jellia, get on the 27 bus after school and meet me at Ardweens.
Jellia: K
Jellia ran down the steps from school and ran over to where the 27 line came in. Her comp had said it was due in five minutes, but you couldn’t really count on that.
“Hey, Jellia,” Tristina said. “You don’t take this bus?”
“No, we haven’t moved or anything. Mother wants to meet me at Ardweens. Nice cover you have here!” The two daughters were standing under a sun shade, the columns of which were painted with some rather well-done artwork. One was in the Ancient Greece style, one a series of mini-landscapes from around the galaxy, one, catty-corner from that one, was mini-landscapes from Ephemera, and the fourth Modern Ephemera Naturalist. The columns coming out of the hardi-grass lawn, the effects were striking.
“Well, lucky you. It’s not a very nice ride, I’m afraid. The sons from the sons school get on right before us and get a bit rowdy. I hope you’re ready to say ‘abstinate’ a lot.”
“Oh, I’m no abstinate, but they probably won’t want to just kiss, which is all I’m allowed. Do you know any of them?”
“Oh, yes. I get most of my dates from them. We end up talking, and, well, one thing leads to another. I’m at light petting, which they don’t really like, but, any port in a storm, they say.”
The bus pulled up, and Jellia got on, and the two found a seat next to a son who did, indeed, look at them with interest. Tristina very nicely sat next to him, leaving Jellia a bit of space.
“Who are you?” he asked, getting right to the point.
“This is my friend, Jellia,” Tristina said.
“Well, I would like to make her my friend, too,” the son said, holding out his wrist. He didn’t look that bad, and she kind of liked his attitude, so she waved wrists. “Bartin Manlow,” her wrist informed her.
“Excuse me,” she heard and turned to see the bus-safety standing in front of her. “I don’t recognise you from this route. What is your destination?”
“I’m meeting Mother at Ardween’s,” Jellia said, holding up her wrist, which the safety swiped. “Shopping trip.”
“Very well. Is this son bothering you?”
“Oh, no, we’re just chatting up.”
“Very well. Have a safe trip, Daughter.”
“Thank you, Safety,” she said and went back to ‘chatting up’ the Bartin. Who, it turned out, did not like doing art at all or math but wanted to be an author. Which Jellia found interesting, and they had just managed to exchange some of Jellia’s art for some of his writing when the bus settled gently to the stop in front of Ardweens.
“Later,” she said, giving a quick bow ‘Pleased meeting’ to Bartin and ran off before he could reply. Or before she could see it, anyway. And ran down the stairs and out into the air.
She loved this bus stop! It was the one closest to Ardweens, so she had a suspicion that Ardweens had a hand in decorating it. The rain shield was a stylised map of the colonised galaxy, including dozens of stars and things that she had never heard of. And the sidewalk was decorated with scenes from dozens of planets. She knew that Ardweens was one of her mother’s biggest customers, and she suspected Mother got a discount there, but they sold imports from all over the known galaxy.
Jellia was still walking around and admiring the artwork when Mother’s bus pulled up, and Mother got out. They bowed, “Pleased Meeting”, and Mother took her arm.
“What are we getting?” Jellia asked.
“Well, we are going to get some clothes, but mostly, I wanted to do this as a trip together… probably the last time we will get to do this before we go off planet.”
“Surely they will have stores on Libertas, Mother. I saw them in the screenies. I’m sure we’ll be able to shop there.”
“Well, yes, but… I don’t know. Somehow, I just see Ardweens as part of our life here. When we get to Libertas, I would assume there would be different stores, arranged differently and the like.”
As they walked arm in arm into the store, Jellia thought about that. That was part of the fun of going exo! Getting to go to different stores. Like when you were on vacation…
She stopped as Mother was walking across a red line, and Jellia stood there next to a young son waiting for his mother to get back. Libertas was a younger colony; maybe they wouldn’t even have stores as big as this. Why, maybe this drug section was as big as a whole store there?
Or… maybe all of their stores were boring box stores? No… no, that wasn’t right. She’d seen a cheese store on the intro screeny… and it had been pretty cute.
She turned around and looked around. She loved Ardweens. She took a deep breath. The smells were wonderful. Ardweens had a huge candle section, and she just loved the smells.
She saw a shop-daughter look at her and was at first surprised until she saw that she had a ‘store-safety’ patch on. So she was both a safety for this red line and worked her own counter… which was fudge. She wondered if she got free samples! That would be a fun job. Except she would have to be very careful not to get chunky. Sons hated that!
“Well, Darling, let's go get a skirt and shirt for each of us. We will buy most of your new clothes at Libertas, but I think it would be good for you to have one nice skirt and shirt combination for our first day or so."
“Oh!” Jellia said and followed Mother up to and past the pink line that separated out the women's clothing section… a pink line that had a half dozen sons standing or sitting on the benches just outside of it and a full-time shop-daughter as safety. It must be hard on sons to have to wait outside the line while their mothers shopped for mother-type clothing. But who wanted sons around while you were discussing dress sizes?
The next few minutes were delirious for her and frustrating for Mother. She loved wandering around the clothing section and didn’t mind at all that they weren’t finding skirts or shirts but “Excuse me," Mother said, eventually, to a shop-daughter." We are going exo and are looking for skirts…"
"Oh, dear, you are in the wrong department," the daughter said. "Come with me."
She let them past the pink line, up the stairs, two flights, and then to the far corner of the store into a section marked ‘Female Uniforms’. This pink line had a full dozen sons waiting and, oddly, a son safety. Legal, of course, but odd. What would he do if a son crossed the line?
"Most of the dughters that wear skirts need them for work," the shop daughter explained."Nurses especially. And athletes. So we keep them here. Not my fancy, I am afraid."
“Well, Darling, pick out a dozen skirts and join me in the dressing room,” Mother said.
Jellia hurried off to the section with her size skirts. So many types to choose from. Those with under-pants she didn’t need. She wasn’t going to be rolling around on the floor. The ones that were two skirts with buttons keeping them together… those were useful, but, no, she didn’t think she needed one. She could get several of those when she got there.
Short or long? Long, definitely. Mother was paying for this, and she would be making her first impression on a new planet and maybe even going to stores and things so, long, definitely. Short made you look like a littlie or an eager, and she didn’t want to say either of those.
She looked around and saw the dressing room sign and hurried there. Funny, they had three pink lines on the floor, which the dressing room was already inside the pink line of the Female Uniform section. Probably just trying to reassure the daughters that it was OK to wander, talking about dress sizes… well, skirt and shirt sizes in this case… and all.
She always loved dressing rooms. No sons allowed, not even staff. And a big room with lots of mirrors and then the smaller rooms off to the side where you changed. She wandered in with her pile of skirts, exchanging an awkward bow with the shop-daughter, and waited for Mother.
There was another daughter there, doing the same thing. Jellia wondered why she was choosing skirts until the first time the daughter bounced out of the little room to model for her mother, and she did a handstand! She had on one of the skirts with the buttons, so it didn’t flop down. And the skirt she had picked was a bright pink and white combination.
“It doesn’t bind, daughter?” the mother asked.
“Perhaps a little.”
“Well, try the next size up, and we’ll see which is better.”
The daughter was just doing her second handstand when Jellia’s mother walked in, her own pile in her arms. She and the other mother exchanged ‘fellow labourer’ and Jellia kind of giggled and bowed ‘fun together’ to the other daughter.
“You first, Darling, and then we’ll switch off,” Mother said, and Jellia barged through the swinging door with her first skirt, pulled her dress off, pulled the skirt on, and barged back through the door.
Does that fit?” Mother asked.
“Not quite,” Jellia admitted, as the skirt drooped down her waist a bit.
“Should we get another in that style?”
“No, this wasn’t my favourite; I’m saving that one for last. Your turn,” Jellia said, plumping down on the bench as Mother went into the changing room.
(Image courtesy of Playground. Prompt: a mother and a daughter, both of them wearing long dresses and baseball caps, walking in a park, with a futuristic city in the background. I was hoping for ‘caps’ like an old fashioned stewardess cap, but the AI took that to mean ‘hat’.)
A very, very pleasant half an hour later, they had made their choices. Jellia had gotten Mother to agree to her second favourite skirt and her third favourite shirt without even much argument. They did fit a little better, and the colour scheme did go well. On the other side of the dressing room, the athletic daughter had ended up with a dozen skirts but no shirts. Apparently, the team or whatever provided the shirts.
"Well, that was fun," Mother said."Come, this is your last day, or last outing anyway. What would you like to do next?"
Jellia looked around thinking furiously." Let's walk through the park and go to the foodcourt," she said.
"Oh, lets," Mother said. She took her arm, and the two of them walked across the street. Jellia had always loved this park. She loved the cricket trees with their spirally branches forming a beautiful umbrella just over their head. Oh, and so many colours of flowers!
They continued to walk along arm in arm until they came to the sons playing call ball where Jellia to watch and Mother walked on.
There were six sons playing, each with their number written large on their chest and back and wearing shorts. About her age, or just a trifle older. Nice to watch.
The first son launched the ball up into the air and, just before it hit the top of the bounce pad… which looked exactly like an archaic umbrella, he yelled ‘Three!’ and the two sons with ‘three’ on them raced to catch it. His team, the red team, got it and launched it back up quickly, yelling ’two’, but the black two managed to snag it, and play stopped, and the black team recorded their point.
Then the black number two launched the ball, and they managed to get it to their own number four times before the red team snagged it. Those four points put them over seventeen, and they all took a drink.
Well, she just loved watching the sons play, but she was supposed to be here spending time with Mother. She peeled her eyes away from the sons. Where was she?
There she was. Mother was standing at the railing of the child centre. What was she doing there?
As she walked quietly up to Mother, she let her eyes roam over the child centre, the huge circle with its three sections, the section closest to Mother marked off with pink lines where the older daughters played. The next section was marked off with well scuffed bluel ines, where the older sons played. The third section completed the pie shape, where a dozen mothers sat watching their children play, with a few toddlers playing at their feet.
And some of the mothers had babes at their breasts! She looked back and forth from Mother to the nursing mothers and realised that must be why she was here. The new planet was going to insist that Mother have more children, and so this child circle represented Mother’s future. How was she feeling about it?
They walked up to the food court, and Jellia’s heart was singing. As was a sons’ choir that was singing to the crowd from the podium in the middle of the court. They ranged in age from just younger than Jellia to sons whose mothers were no doubt sitting in the front row watching them, ready to take them home for their naps. They were doing a good job, though. They were singing a selection which, she saw on the sign, were ‘songs of the founding’, and she recognised the song they were singing now.
She followed Mother to a table and opened the menu under the transparent aluminium. Oh, she just loved it here, getting to choose from so many foods from so many planets! Mother’s cooking was boring!
It took her a long time, but she finally decided on pasta tubes, which were, apparently, standard fare on Drendin… a planet she had never heard of. But she had heard of pasta tubes, and she ordered the variety.
“What did you order, Mother?” she asked after snipping off her order.
“I ordered roast lamb with new potatoes,” Mother said.
“Oh, Mother, you are so boring!”
“What is wrong with lamb?”
“Nothing at all… we just eat it four times a week.”
“Not so often as that, dear. We can’t quite afford that.”
“I was including leftovers,” Jellia said. “I often take them for my lunch in my stasis box.”
“Oh, well, I suppose so. And I do often eat it at the cafeteria. But, still, I like it, and it is safe.”
Jellia noticed that Mother didn’t ask her what she had ordered. Then she noticed Mother staring over her shoulder, and she turned to look. Surely Mother wasn’t staring at some son and trying to get him to… oh, no, it was the choir. They were rather good. And some of the sons looked like they might be fun to date… oh, no, here she was doing the very thing that she accused Mother of doing!
She turned back and concentrated on just listening and watching some daughters who were having an argument at a nearby table while their mothers talked. They were old enough that they were probably arguing about some son… argh!! Could she not get her mind off this stupid subject?
She turned and looked at the statues and fountains. Beautiful. And then her meal arrived, and it, too, was beautiful.
“What did you get, Darling?” Mother asked her.
“The variety of pasta tubes,” Jellia said, carefully slicing off the end of one tube, dipping it in the sauce, and lowering it into her mouth. Ah, hot!
Mother laughed at her as she frantically blew air in and out of her mouth, but, finally, she was able to bite down and… ah, wonderful! The dough was the perfect texture, and the meat mixture inside was nice and spicy, and the fruit sauce on top was also nice and spicy and bursting with flavour.
Mother shook her head and bit into her lamb. “I don’t know why you are always eating such strange foods.”
“It’s wonderful, Mother,” she said, her mouth still kind of full and earning herself a frown then a grin.
“Well, I’m glad you’re happy. I hope you will find lots of wonderful foods on our new planet.”
“Oh, me too!”
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
Links
Contract Marriage Chapters, Newest to Oldest
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.