Ska-drek had dropped her off at the door and drove off. Last night he had informed her to be ready at six in the morning, having already eaten, so he could skim her to her new school. He had said that this wasn’t the normal time, but there were several things she would have to do before class started, so now here she was at six-thirty standing in front of the door of a building that was to be, apparently, her new school.
It certainly was different from her last school. That had been a big two story building, with fences all around it and bars on the walls. This was actually one low building, with huge windows on all the walls, with several other buildings nearby, separated only by lawns. And just to her right, in the middle of one of the lawns, were some play equipment, with lots of kesh playing on them, and very few ska-drek-u standing around watching.
She took a few deep breaths and then strode up to the door and pushed it open. It closed behind her and she looked around, and saw, across from her, a door marked ‘office’ and decided that that sounded like the best bet. The flip side of this whole ‘liberty’ thing was snapping at her heels. At home everyone would have assumed that her ska-drek-a (or ska-drek on this crazy planet) would have taken her down and worked on all the paperwork for her and all. But here she was expected to do it herself! And even, ska-drek had implied, if she had been considerably younger!
“You must be Jellia!” A woman said as she came in. “Your ska-drek said you would be coming by early, and I have your tests all ready to go. Our med tech isn’t here yet, so I’ll start you on your academ tests and we’ll interrupt them for your development test.”
“Umm, ok,” Jellia said.
“Just sit there and I’ll snip them to you,” the lady said, and Jellia settled back into a chair in the corner and, in a few seconds, was busy answering math questions.
“Jellia!” the lady said, and Jellia looked up. She liked basic engineering, but it was kind of intense.
“Med tech is here,” she said, “Down the hall on the left, development sign on the door.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jellia said and, tucking her wristcomp, went down the hallway.
“Jellia?” the tech said when she came in.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Clothes off, on the platform,” the tech said, and she hurriedly undressed and stood on ‘the platform’. Seconds later some kind of machine dropped down and there was a very bright flash. “Turn around,” the tech said, and, after she had done so, the light flashed again.
“Over here,” the tech said and, when Jellia went over, she quickly took her blood and asked her some very embarrassing questions. “Well, you can dress,” the tech said. “Good news, you’re definitely not kesh. I’m not going to make a further determination just yet, I want to see the computer results and the blood results but by what we can all see of your physical development you have been out of kesh for a while…”
She then proceeded to talk about her physical development in such a way as to make her face boil. Especially as when she wasn’t even halfway done another kesh came in, undressed, and went to the flashing machine and the tech just kept talking.
“Ok, now, psych exams,” the tech said. “Have a seat over there in one of those puff chairs, and I’ll snip you the link. You are from exo so I don’t have prev exams. You have to pass both psych and physical to move up, but you certainly seem mature enough. Take your time and answer carefully.”
Jellia sat down and, as soon as the puff chair had adjusted itself, opened her comp. She opened three screens and opaque as two other kesh-u came in for their exams. It would be easy to be distracted from these tests, and she wanted to get them right. She wasn’t sure if there was even a right or wrong answer to the pscyh questions but, as it would help determine when she was ready for her en-e-kesh she didn’t want to get it wrong.
Discuss three differences you have noted in the way that kesh-u vs kesh-i-u behave.
What a landmine! Any answer was almost sure to get her a lecture about prejudice and… oh, wait. Code and Custom. She opened the Code and Custom document and scrolled down:
4.1 Liberty of speech: Except when discussing behaviour that is itself against Code and Custom, or an attempt to avoid Command, all on Libertas have liberty of speech. Anything may be discussed in anyway by anyone on Libertas. This is particularly true of discussions of philosophy and in any area where the speaker is giving facts true in their experience.
Well, that made a difference. And it didn’t say the three most important differences. She sat for a second and then started typing,
In my experience kesh-u are more focused on solving problems, and kesh-i-u at solving relationships….
The rest of the test was very awkward. Having all of these kesh-u come in, get their exams, and then be lectured about all sorts of hideously embarrassing things made it extremely hard to focus.
“Back to the office,” the tech said, about an hour later, after dismissing an older male scholar who she had just released into ‘li-kesh’, and spent an inordinate amount of time discussing whether or not he should immediately register to become an en-drek.
She managed to calm herself before she made it back to the office and then, after only one more engineering question, there were a series of drawing exercises and she was pretty completely relaxed by the time the test finished.
“Ok, let me run your results,” the clerk said. “Well, well. Your education results are rather good and… well, the med tech has certified you as en-kesh not kesh. No date yet but, what can you expect just coming in and only having one exam. But not en-e-kesh yet, so that’s good. That would be very awkward, I think.”
Jellia thought so too. “Well, anyway, here is your class list. Almost all of your classes will have mostly en-kesh-u in them. Indeed there isn’t even a en-e-kesh yet, altho there are a few kesh-u. Your first class starts in thirty minutes, but you should run along there now. Another day you could please yourself, perhaps, but I will make this an instruction, today.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jellia studied the schedule on her snip and hurried down the hall. She had no desire to find out how fast she needed to go to not get counted as disobeying the clerk.
The room she was sent to had no door on it, just an opening, and when she poked her head in a teacher said, “Oh, hello. You must be Jellia!”
“En-kesh Jellia Kiladi,” Jellia said, walking up and kissing scholar-to-instructor.
“Instructor Maria Darden,” the instructor said, kissing back. “You made it here in good time. You will be in that seat there,” she said, pointing to the end of a bench which had a table in front of it. “Sit down and do free school on your comp. I will address you once the class comes in.”
Scholars started arriving a few minutes later including, she was startled to notice, several males! In the same class?
“Scholars!” the teacher said when her wristcomp counted down to class time. A male came scurrying in and the teacher walked over and… oh horrors.
The male didn’t even cry but just sat down. “As I was saying, Scholars, we have a new student in our class today. Jellia, you will rise.”
Jellia stood up. “Scholars, Jellia is an exo. She and her ska-drek-a are from Ephemera, and her ska-drek-a has come for her job. You will see Jellia is wearing the exo wristband. This means two things. First of all, you will all help her learn to keep commands. If you see her disobeying code, custom, or command, you will instruct her to see the teacher concerned, and you will accompany her to help her give her report.
Altho, if the issue is but a custom, and you believe you can instruct, then you will gently and carefully point out her error. I can assure you that if you were on her planet you would be making just as many mistakes.
They don’t kiss, on her planet, for example, they bow. So she may confuse her kisses, or not understand why you use a specific kiss. Isn’t that right, Jellia?”
“Oh, yes. And I have had the hardest time getting the timing right, how to lean forward just right and all.”
“There, so be helpful. Kesh-u, you will be above all vigilant as their way of relating Kesh-i-u to kesh-u is very different. You will not speak to her alone, especially once you li-kesh, but only in a very public setting or with a kesh-i accompanying her, preferably at least an en-kesh. It has been ten years since our school has had an execution and I do not wish to see another one. Do you understand me, males?”
“Yes, ska,” the kesh-u chorused.
“And kesh-i-u, you will have to model how kesh-u are to be handled. Again, they did not have at all the same relationship on her planet.”
“Yes, Ska,” the Kesh-i-u chorused, most of them grinning.
“Very well. Now, introductions are in order. Class, this is En-kesh Jellia Kiladi.
Jellia, this is En-kesh Leah Borvo,
En-kesh Fenia Tunes was a tall girl, with long black hair, and a kind of cynical grin on her face.
En-kesh Lydia Darden, was also tall, with even longer brown hair, and looked kind of dreamy.
Kesh Caleb Martin looked dreamy, too, but in a different way. And he was staring at her.
Kesh Mnoa Bartin was sitting on the far side, and wasn’t looking at her at all. How rude!
Kesh Elizabeth Minsch had very curly hair, looked rather young, and had a nice smile.
Kesh Thomas Reagan was fairly tall and looked serious.
Kesh Farsten Mendani looked too old to be kesh, but what did she know about such things?
Kesh Sally Mendani, his sister, looked very young, much younger than Jellia. She must be a very good artist!
Kesh Joseph Bellan looked the artist! No kesh-u on Libertas had long hair. Caleb even had his shaven. But Joseph had his as long as any kesh Jellia had seen.
En-kesh Nina Torino had a sharp gaze, as if she was judging Jellia and finding her a bit wanting.
“Now, Jellia, this is art class, indeed advanced art class, so you should not need much instruction. I will give you a free period, so draw what you like on your wristcomp while I review your results. If you desire a model I will have one of the kesh-u sit for you.”
Several kesh-u looked at her eagerly, but she flushed and shook her head. She opened that book she had been given with all of the geography and started drawing a picture of a river.
As she drew she looked around. The class had five kesh-u and seven kesh-i-u, including her. The others apparently had some sort of long term project, as the kesh… no, she was an en-kesh. Nina. Jellia would have to work really, really hard to remember these things or she would embarass herself! Anyway, she was on the bench next to her and had immediately opened a drawing of some flowers in a vase and began some rather detailed shading.
“Jellia?” the teacher said, and she jumped, sure that she had been disobeying some command and she was going to be physically chastised in front of all of these kesh-u and die of embarrassment.
“Given that you have come in the middle of the term, I think it would be good for you to see what the others have done. I want you to go from seat to seat and each scholar is to show you their drawings for the term.”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said, beginning breathing again.
Each kesh had two books in front of them. One of them was the same for each of them. That is, the image was the same, altho the talent and all was different. Even the style. All of them were either a landscape or the human form. It seemed they used each other as models, which some of her art classes on Ephemera had done and some had had in models.
Then each of them had what looked like a free drawing book. The Kesh next to her had done a lot of flowers, but had also done tables, books, and one very detailed sketch of a kesh’s face. The next kesh-i had done mostly kesh-u and a few mountains. All of the other kesh-i-u were mostly like the first kesh-i… still life, flowers, books, pencils, even a stuffed animal. All with at least one study of a kesh, however. It must have been an assignment.
The kesh-u, on the other hand, had drawn mostly kes-i-u; except for one kesh who, like her, seemed to really like landscapes and had done only one study of a kesh-i, altho that study was perhaps the best she had seen.
She had just gotten done looking at his art when the teacher dismissed them to the next class.
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
Links
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).
Introduction // Podcast Version
In which I lay out the themes that I intend to explore in this light Dystopia, and ask others to participate.
Trade Master: First Chapter // Podcast Version
In which Fenestra, our heroine’s mother, puts in her application for the job of 'Trade Master’ on the planet Libertas, and finds out that it isn’t that easy.
En-Drek Contract // Podcast Version
In which Fenestra finds out that, on Libertas, everyone must be in an ‘En-drek’ contract… a long-term, live-in, heavy date between a man and a woman for the purpose of producing one child after the other with one date after the other.
Disappointment and Meditation // Podcast Version
In which Jellia, the daughter and our heroine, finds out about her mother’s job opportunity, including its difficulties, and commits herself to meditating on the situation. (And internally commits herself to encouraging her mother to take the job.)
Decision Reached // Podcast Version
Jellia tells her mother that she thinks she should take the job, and so her mother puts in her application… and gets the job!
First School // Podcast Version
Jellia goes to school and gets to tell everyone about her new adventure.
First Work // Podcast Version
Fenestra goes to work, and tells her coworker about her new opportunity.
Writing Class: Podcast Version
Jellia writes a poem (a limerick) and tells her classmates more about her new adventure.
Trader Galloway: Podcast Version
In which a man comes over for a ‘date’ (Ie to sleep over with her mother) and to tell them all about his time as Trade Master for their company on Libertas. And as how he was almost executed for asking a woman out on a date.
Shopping: Podcast Version
In which Jellia and her mother go shopping for the last time, and we explore some of the nature of the planet she is leaving.
Language: Podcast Version
In which Jellia starts using some new words at school, and everyone gathers round to find out what they mean.
Kesh-i Cooking Class: Podcast Version
In which Jellia finds out that children (Kesh-i) on Libertas are expected to cook.
Trade Master Training: Podcast Version
In which Fenestra begins her training for her new role, with an old enemy.
Two Week Date: Podcast Version
In which Fenestra and Alex decide to date for the next two weeks.
The Facts of Life: Podcast Version
In which Fenestra brings Alex home, and Jellia isn’t impressed. Although she is interested in how dating works for boys.
Snips: Podcast Version
In which Jellia spends time snipping with a boy, and brings him home.
Kissing: Podcast Version
In which Jellia and her mother both have a sexual ‘last fling’ before they leave, and Jellia practices the new kisses she will need for her new planet.
Off Ephemera // Podcast Version
In which Jellia and her mother arrive at the shuttle port, go through some annoying formalities, and take off!
And Fly! // Podcast Version
In which Jellia and her mother board their spaceship, and Jellia starts doing her homework.
Abstinate // Podcast Version
In which Jellia gets bored, rejects an older gentleman, and rejects her mother’s idea of dating.
Older Kesh-u // Podcast Version
In which Jellia learns more about what Kesh-u (children) are allowed to do on Libertas.
Fertility // Podcast Version
In which Jellia and her mother are taken off birth control by an odd doctor.
New Girl // Podcast Version
-Added out of order- Jellia meets a new girl on the shuttle, from a strange culture!
Decon // Podcast Version
Jellia and her mother arrive on their new planet, go through an awful decontamination, get sent to a briefing, and receive their first kiss/greeting!
Briefing // Podcast Version
Jellia and her mother are warned that the laws on Libertas can be very serious.
En-drek File
Fenestra reads up on her new ‘en-drek’.
Justicia // Podcast Version
Jellia rejoices in the new planet!
The House // Podcast Version
Jellia explores her new house.
Shopping and Greeting // Podcast Version
Jellia uses her new ‘kesh liberty’ and runs off to do some shopping. And has to kiss everyone all the way home.
Ska Illoh Kiladi // Podcast Version
Jellia meets her new Ska, who has business with her mother.
Ooops // Podcast Version
Jellia makes a mistake, gets chastised, and hates it here!
Neighbours // Podcast Version
In which Jellia goes off the cry, and meets neighbours.
Breakfast // Podcast Version
Jellia wakes up, makes breakfast, and runs off for a new day!