Ska-drek Ben’nin Korvau

Apr 11, 2025

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Jellia hurried to finish, Mother fed Bobbin and they had everything clean a good half an hour before two. So they took Bobbin to play in the front yard and Jellia and Mother sat and worked. Jellia had some particuarly notty problems in engineering.

She snuck a glance at Mother, who was grinning, so obviously trade was going well.

Her wristcomp chimed. “Bobbin, she yelled, “Come here!”

Bobbin came toddling over and Jellia held him, standing just back from Mother so she could be greeted. She wondered if New-ska-drek would greet her and Bobbin. Probably not.

They had only stood there for two minutes before a skimmer came down the street, stopped in front of their house, and a man stepped out. This was a li-ska. He had been in two en-drek relationships so far, and was said to be very good with kesh-u, which was why Mother had chosen him. The exo bureau had had to approve him, and Jellia was sure that ska-drek Illoh had guided her choice, but Mother had actually gotten mostly to pick this one.

The man was shorter and had blondish red hair. Or reddish blond. He had a very serious look on his face, which Jellia was beginning to think was part of code and custom. He walked up to Mother and kissed her… his hands a little less busy than ska-drek Illoh’s always had been. Then he took a step back and said, “Shirt off.”

Mother flushed and complied but, surely, she must have known this was coming. Most en-drek-u insisted on it, at least if the en-drek-a was young enough to make it interesting to them, And Jellia grinned. It would be good for Mother to be a bit more casual and learn to be obedient to her new en-drek . She had been a bit too relaxed with Illoh.

“Ska-drek Ben’nin Korvau,” he said to Jellia, kissing her.

“Daughter Jellia Xoff,” she replied, kissing back. “Son Bobbin, umm, Korvau,” she said, holding Bobbin up.

“I will expect dinner at six oclock,” Ska-drek Ben’nin said to Jellia, without greeting Bobbin. “Take your brother for a walk until at least four.”

“Yes, ska-drek,” she said, grinning. Gregory might be home before then but she would snip him to meet her in the park. They knew a few quiet spots where they could wait out the time before dinner prep

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!

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.

Von also writes as ‘Arthur Yeomans’. Under that name he writes children’s, YA, and adult fiction from a Christian perspective. His books are published by Wise Path Books and include the children’s/YA books:

The Bobtails meet the Preacher’s Kid

The Bobtails and the Cousins

The Bobtails go to France

and

No Ordinary School

As well as GK Chesterton’s wonderful book, “What’s Wrong with the World”, for which ‘Arthur’ wrote most of the annotations.

Arthur also has a substack, and a website. On the substack you can listen to some of his published books. Free.

Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,

Von