Home Life

<8/2/2095 9:45:00 PM>Day two late

And it took up the rest of the day too, except for a few minutes eating (and a few minutes finding and using the toilets).  A full sixteen hour day.  Which had come on top of my regular day, or most of it, and the time with my partner.  Well I had slept in there somewhere, in the med cylinder, I guess, but I was exhausted when we got out of sim.

Getting out of the suits was almost worse than getting in.  For one thing, we all, all of us newbies, got out of the sim at the same time, and had to try to get out of our suits all bumping into each other.  And then, of course, we had to go into the next room and get into our uniforms.  Certainly a robe would have made this easier.

I was just zipping the front of my shirt closed when I noticed, standing next to me, that girl from the induction center, the girl with the guy who ‘promised’.  She was already dressed, and just looking at me.  “Hey,” I said.

“Hi,” she said.  “I’m Jane, Jane Seymor,” she said.  “I know your name, from listening to you get assigned.  We’re in the same hallway.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said.  “Want to walk home? Together?”

“Yeah,” she said, and we left, together.  It was only a little walk to her door, but she passed it up and went, with me, to mine.

“Night,” she said, as I put my hand up to the door plate.

“Night,” I said, putting my hand to the plate.

“Hi!” he said, when the door opened.  He was sitting, like he had done yesterday, on the bed.

“Lights out,” I said, “I want to shower.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier if I just turned my back again?” he asked.

“Oh, OK,” I said, not exactly trusting him.  But it would be easier.  “We can keep the lights on.”

“How was your day?” he asked me, spinning around on the mattress as I started to take off my shirt.  It was probably rude of me to have gone first.  But I was so tired!

“Just exhausting,” I said, dropping my pants and putting everything in the hamper.  “You?”

“Same here,” he said.  “Lot’s of running and stuff.”

I fooled with the water letting the hot water play over me and facing him.  If the computer was still grading me this had to be better, didn’t it? “We ran, and swum, and climbed, and then did hours and hours and hours of disaster drill.”

“How would you get to the lifepod from here?’ he asked, starting to turn, naturally, toward me to ask the question, and then turning awkwardly back.

“Oh, that’s not hard,” I said, “Down our corridor, turn right, and go to the end.”

“Too easy,” he laughed.  “What would you do if our hall was evacuated?”

“Pray,” I said, grabbing some soap from the dispenser and doing my hair.  I hadn’t done it yesterday and it was getting a bit greasy.  “Now, come on, tell me more about your day?”

“Seriously boring,” he said.  “A lot of running, climbing.  They have this kind of cool waterfall that we get to climb.”

“Oh, we climbed that!” I said.  They tested one girls fear of falling with it.”

“We had a couple of boys like that.  Practically… umm, anyway, they had a real hard time with it.  I loved it, though.  Of course, after a couple of hundred feet it gets a little scary.”

My hair was taking a long time, “Sorry I’m taking so long,” I said.

“Oh, take as long as you like,” he said.  “So, did they give you any interesting food?”

“Yes.  Some funny green stuff and some vegetables I had never seen.  Did they…  did they train you in nakedness?” I asked.

“Nakedness?” he asked, almost turning again, “No…  no I don’t’ think so.  What do you mean?”

So I told him all I had gone through, and he was laughing by the time I got done.

He laughed, “No, no I didn’t do anything like that! Maybe some other boys did, I don’t know.  Certainly nobody was as brave as you and asked.  Of course, we boys, you know, we swim together all the time and all.  And I had brothers and sisters and all.”

“I guess maybe it isn’t as hard for you, then.” I said.

“What isn’t?”

“Living like this…  with each other.”

“Oh, I like it,” he said.  “Of course, I would like it a lot more if I could turn around.”

“Go ahead,” I said, and you should have seen the disappointed look on his face when he turned to see me in my robe.  “Your turn,” I said, going and waiting for him.  When he was done we pulled down the sleeping mat.

(And no, I won’t describe what happened next.  I probably said too much about last night.  I will say that he seemed less nervous, was a lot less awkward and, if anything, seemed even more excited.  I was extremely tired, and so I wasn’t even that nervous.  And it almost felt good, too. )

#

<8/3/2095 5:30:00 AM>Day three early

“Huh!” I said.  I had just awoken, and the room was light.  Not bright, but with a dull light.  Andrew was sitting staring at me.  “Andrew!” I said, “Computer, light off!”

“Sorry,” he said, not sounding at all sorry.  “I couldn’t resist.  The computer turns the lights on a half an hour before we have to leave so we have time for, ummm, everything we need to do.”

I giggled at the way he said ‘everything’.  He started through his Gruden’s routine and was about halfway done (it went quicker when we were already undressed) when I heard him pause and, before he could ask I said, “No.  I would really rather keep the lights out.”

“OK,” he said, sounding disappointed, and we finished quickly and showered, finishing just in time to hurry off to training.

—

#

I arrived in my robe, but I wasn’t quite blasé enough about it to drop it before I got in line.  I waited (as did several others of my class) until it was almost my turn and threw it in a corner.

“Shalom,” a voice said, when I pulled my helmet on, and then continued in Ship talk, which I spoke pretty much the rest of the time of this book, so I won’t even bother to reproduce, “today   is your second day in training.  Your instructor will not be physically present, but you can talk to her at any time.  In addition, you can request to join any other trainee and that request will be made known to the other trainee.  We ask that you not be upset if they decline, as they may be busy with a drill that needs to be done alone, or they may be with another trainee.”

I was at a different beach this time, and all by myself.  There was a really huge surf which, just after I arrived, drenched me.  I started out, following my little bouncing ball and tried to think about who, if anyone, I wanted to invite but, before I could really make any kind of decision, either way, the computer voice said, “Trainee Jill Trenton requests to join your session.”

“Sure,” I said, glad to have the decision taken away from me.

“I hate this sand!” she said, appearing next to me.

“Good exercise, I suppose,” I said.  “How are you doing?”

“Dead, of course!” she said, “you?”

“Of course.  And then I got woken up by this stupid light.”

“Oh?” she said, and I told her the whole story.  Rather laying the blame on Andrew, although I didn’t exactly give details of what he did wrong.  “Did that happen to you too?”

“Oh, no.  We sleep with lights dimmed anyway, not off.  I was used to it at home, as my sister was scared of the dark.  And Bill doesn’t mind.”

“I bet he doesn’t!” I said, and she grinned.

“So, tell my about your family,” I said.

“Oh, I have five sisters,” she said…

We had reached the caves, and were starting down, and we had talked all about our families, when she reluctantly asked, “So, you don’t like Andrew?”

“Oh, he’s OK.”

“You sound like you’re mad at him.”

“Oh, not really.  But I only had one day to go, and I would have been a bachelorette!”

“Join the club,” she said.  “At least you got to marry a recruit!”

“You like your partner?” I tried, figuring that was where she wanted us to go.

“Oh, he’s fine.  He doesn’t like to let me sleep,” she laughed.

“What? Why not?” I asked, and she blushed,

“Well, you know. . .”

I didn’t know, and I didn’t think I wanted to.  “Well, we should probably spend some time with some more of our team,” I said, “you remember rule, what, six?”

“OK,” she said, and after mumbling to the computer, disappeared.

I pulled up a list of the girls in my head, and went through them.  But they each seemed to be busy, until finally that one girl, the one with the boy story, Jane Seymor her name was, finally accepted.

“Hi,” she said, shyly, and I suddenly realized that she was the girl who had asked about changing partners, yesterday.

“Hi,” I answered.  The computer had us in a new situation, chopping down trees.  It was kind of fun, although lopping off all the little branches was boring.  I noticed after a few minutes of silence that the computer was keeping my clothes on all the time, and that Jane had something going on.

“Jane, what’s wrong?” I asked.

“Wrong?” She said, “nothing.”

I put down my chopping machine, and went over to her.  I took her face in my hand and tried to turn it toward me.  The whole time she had been there she had kept the left side of her face toward me.  “Computer,” she started to say, but I succeeded first.

“Jane!” I said, “What happened?”

“Nothing,” she said.  But it didn’t look like nothing.  She had a black eye.  Not a bad one, but a definite black eye.  “I didn’t think the computer would show it,” she added, resentfully.

“Did your partner hit   you?” I asked, mortified and embarrassed, and she nodded.

“I got him angry.  I shouldn’t have done it,” she said, defensively.

“He shouldn’t have done that!” I said, “They should do something about him!”

“They did,” she said.  “It was awful.  I didn’t get to sleep for hours.  He slept before I did.  He slept right away.”

“How did they know?” I asked, appalled at the idea that someone was listening to our quarters.  No doubt that Newtonian to make sure we…

“I called them,” she said.  “When he hit me I screamed for the help to the computer and, seconds later, a gang of big boys all in grey came in.”

“Oh,” I said.  “The neural whip?”

She nodded again.  “You should see it! I mean, you shouldn’t.  It is just awful.  He is big and strong and brave and all and he cried.  They held him, and beat him, and he cried.  Oh.  I shouldn’t have told   you that.  Don’t tell anyone else, please,” she said, clinging to my arm.

“But, OK.  But why?”

“Well, he’s my partner.  I wouldn’t’ want him telling everyone what I did.”

“They probably do, anyway.”

“I…  I don’t’ think he does.  He said he didn’t, and he sounded angry about it.”

“Oh, well.  I guess I can ask Andrew.”

“You wouldn’t’ tell him!”

“I would tell him not to tell anyone else.  He is my. . .” my voice trailed off.

I was going to say ‘partner’, as if that meant something.  But, did it? “… my partner,” I finished, eventually.  I had to say something!

“Oh, yeah, OK, but make sure he doesn’t say anything.  We’re going to work it out.  I’m sure.”

We stopped, and I hugged her.  “I’m sure you will too.”

“How is it going with your partner?” she asked.

“Oh, fine, about like you might expect.  He is very interested in sleeping together, and wants to see me naked.”

“Oh, mine too.  He loves to see me naked,” she said, and I realized she had misunderstood me.  Did all the other girls prance around naked for their partners? Was I the odd one out, wanting to preserve some shred of myself for myself?

“I’m looking forward to getting to know him better on break day,” I said, changing the subject.

“When is your break day?”

“Tomorrow,” I said, and her face lit up,

“Really? Ours too!”

We spent most of the rest of the day together, Jane and I, which was odd, as we were really different.  But, somehow, we got along.  She was quiet, and shy, but seemed to really enjoy being with me, and listening to me.  And I just had to have someone to talk to, to talk out all of my frustrations, and she didn’t seem to mind.  She was kind of ‘touchy’, like she had been in the induction center, and was always patting me on the arm or something.  But I had a sister like that, Beth-any, and so, after the first few minutes, I got used to it.

#

 <8/3/2095 10:05:00 PM>

Jane and I got  undressed together too  but this time I walked her back to her room.  I thought of waiting for her to trigger the sensor but then, blushing, I realized he might be in the shower.  He was a boy, after all, and was probably all hot and sweaty from the day.

“Hey,” Andrew said from the shower as I walked in.  It was funny, as he had been facing the door, and turned quickly around when the door opened, showing the hallway his backside.  But when he heard it close he turned right back to me.  I guess this my looking at him while he was naked thing didn’t bother him, anymore.  “How was your day?” He asked, shampooing his own hair.  Which was good, it really was kind of greasy.

“Fine,” I said, “Say, can you keep a secret? I have something I need to talk to you about, but you can’t tell anyone.”

“Sure, we’re partners,” trying to look at me from under the shampoo.

“Good, cause you really can’t tell anyone.  Do you know Jane Seymour’s partner?”

“Well, I might, but, not by that name,” he said, getting out of the shower, and standing in the dryer, turning around  and around with his arms out so he could dry.  “Why?”

“He beats her!” I said, getting up and starting to get undressed, facing away from him.

“Oh,” he said, “I probably know who he is, then.  His name is Grant, Grant Jones, and, well, he’s a convict who has a huge problem with his temper.  And, and I think he got whipped this morning before class.  He kind of looked like it.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him,” I said, slipping gratefully past him into the shower, his back appropriately turned away from me.  “I feel so sorry for her,” I said.

“Well… yeah…” he said, and I stopped to look at him, curious.  He was still dutifully facing away from me but even from there I could tell he had something he was nervous about saying.

“But what?” I asked.

“I didn’t say… well, you’re right, of course, about the beating and all.  That must be awful.  But I think he is going to do really well in class.  He finds the language hard, but is just great at the physical stuff.”

“Say,” he continued, “You’re doing great at ship talk.”

I laughed, suddenly realizing that he and I had been talking ship talk instead of NT English.  Oh well, good to get started.  It was what we would be talking the rest of our lives, probably, “So, do you have any friends among the boys?” I asked him, desperate to get to know a little more about this boy that I was forced to sleep with, and would be spending the rest of my life with, one way or another.

“Well, not friends, not yet.  And our training has been pretty physical, it’s not like we have energy for talking.”

“What do you do?” I asked him.

“Well, a lot of running.  Then there’s climbing, swimming, combat…”

“Combat?”

“Yeah.  Mostly hand to hand so far, but they say we will be using weapons soon.  And of course more of the disaster drills.  Are you ready for bed?” he asked, trying (and failing) to sound casual.

I sighed, moving over to the dryer.  “Sure, go ahead and put it down, I’ll just get dry.  Then turn the lights out, please!” I said.

#

 <8/4/2095 5:45:00 AM>Day three morning: Sunday

I had gotten to program the computer during the day to wake us up with a cute little song before the fateful half hour, so the morning went better.  When we were both up, showered, and dressed, I asked him, “So, what’s break day like here?”

“I dunno,” he said, “I’ve never been.  I just got here the day before you, you know.  I guess we will find out together.  Room a25n, green, blue, red from here,” he read off the computer.  “Let’s go find it.”

We walked down the hallway together, hand in hand, and down another long corridor, then another hallway, and then into the room.

There were about two dozen people in the room, standing around in groups, but the first person I noticed was a woman with a baby, nursing, across the room.  I loved babies, at least, other people’s babies, and I went across the room to see it.

“Hello,” the woman said, looking up from the baby as I got closer, “Welcome to break day.  My name is June, June Smith.  My partner is Martin Smith, over there with those other boys.  And you?”

“I’m Aliyah, Aliyah Bendon,” I said, “And thanks for the welcome.  Do we, do we do anything?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, “my partner will be leading us in a few minutes.”

“Oh.  Is he, is he a pastor or something?”

She laughed, ‘Faux de mieux’, she said, which I recognized as French but… Seeing my quizzical look, she said, “for want of anyone else.  My poor partner has had to really grow up recently, and I must say he has really done well.”

“You mean, since you two had a baby?” I asked, just as she took the baby off her breast and put it on her shoulder.

“Oh, this isn’t his baby! I mean, it is now, but he wasn’t my partner when… I am telling this so badly.”

A couple of other girls came up, and we got introduced.  And then Jane (and her huge, ugly looking, partner) came in and I introduced Jane to June and the other girls.  “While I have all of you here, I will tell my story, so I don’t have to do so for everyone separately,” June said, after Grant wandered off away from the girl talk.  The baby duly burped, she put it to her other breast and began, “I was partnered, pre-cull.  A very nice boy, a bookkeeper, at least that was what he was studying to be.  And we got pregnant, and he was very, very happy.  But then he died.” Her face was a study, you could tell she was trying to be calm, “It was a brain tumor, and a bad one.  Apparently it had been growing for quite a while before we noticed it.  And then, when they tried to operate, he died.”

She paused for a minute.  A couple of the girls were crying and I could see Andrew, from across the room, staring at us curiously.

“So, then, after he died, and just before the baby was born, I got a cull notice.  My year wasn’t up, you see.”

“I didn’t know they could do that!” Jane said.

“I didn’t either,” June said.  “It came as quite a shock, believe me.  It’s obviously very rare.  But I was culled, and brought up here, just like you all, and got to partner with Martin.  Martin!” she said, raising her voice slightly, “Come meet the girls, will you?”

Martin came over, along with Grant, Jane’s partner, and several other boys.  June, with a skill I wish I had had, introduced all of us, and Martin introduced the boys.

“Will he be ready to sleep soon?” Martin asked, looking at his step-son.

“Not quite yet, dear, he seems very hungry, maybe a half an hour?”

“OK.  We will start services then,” Martin said, and he and the boys wandered back off.

“Is he a pastor, then?” one of the girls, called ‘Jeryl’, if I remember correctly, asked.

“No, dear.  But we were one of the first onto this ship in this section, and so we had to manage for ourselves.  The other couple, the Drendons, that were with us at first, well, he wasn’t very comfortable leading worship, so my Martin got to do it.  Poor boy, a new, pregnant, partner, and to have to lead worship too, but he has done very well.”

I tried to imagine Andrew suddenly leading worship, but failed.  But then, I didn’t really know anything about him, did I? Perhaps he was very religious, and would enjoy it.

A couple of the other girls started talking about some girl they knew back home, who had had twins, and they drifted off.  But I sat down next to June.  “So, is he a good partner, then?” I asked her.  I mean, after all, he must be some kind of criminal! Unless he was a recruit, like my Andrew.  But how could I ask?

“Oh, the best,” she said.  “For me, anyway.  I am sure that… what did you say your partners name was?”

“Andrew, Andrew Tome’,” I said, blushing.  For, of course I hadn’t said.

“Oh, yes, a nice looking boy.  Anyway, I’m sure that Andrew is the best partner for you.  The Creator always knows best.”

I shut up after that, but the other girls took up the slack and soon the baby was duly nurse, burped, and put down on a small blanket June had brought.

“Well,” said Martin, clearing his throat.  “I want to welcome all of you newcomers.  I have only been here two and a half weeks but I’m sure that seems like forever compared to some of you.  This is our break day, of course and, so far, I have been the one that has preached.  I have prepared a message for today as well but if anyone wants to preach next week?”

He looked out hopefully, but no one said anything.  A couple of the girls were busy putting their headcoverings on, but none of the boys did or said anything.  Finally he cleared his throat again and said, “Well, even if not there is a time where the men can share after I get done preaching.  But before then we will do some singing.  Most of you know Psalm One, I hope?” he asked, as heads nodded.  My own church didn’t sing the Psalms routinely, but I did know several of them from visits to other churches, and Psalm one was one of those, so I was able to keep up my part.

“Good, good,” he said.  “Does anyone have any other suggestions? All Psalms, please, since we have a mixed group and I don’t want to offend anyone.”

Several other Psalms were suggested and sung.  Someone suggested Psalm 98 but Martin deferred, saying that they always sung that one last, after the sermon and the sharing time.

“Well, I suppose I should start, now, he said.  “It is a bit trite, but I will be speaking on the importance of partner relations.  As you know the old term for partners was ‘partner and partner’ and so the text I will be speaking on will use those words.  The text is I Cor 7…”

How like a boy, I thought to myself, to focus on the physical aspect of partnership.  Of course, in our position, that was about all that we had right now.  I snuck a glance over at Andrew, who was sitting with the other ‘men’ trying to look all serious and wise.  We certainly weren’t ‘partners’ in any sense of the word except the physical.  I looked over at June… how did she do it? How did she manage to love and respect someone who had been foisted upon her while she was pregnant with some other boys baby? And I thought I had it hard.  And what crime could Martin have committed?

Martin eventually wore down, after an hour and a half, and then we sang another song and the ‘men’ started in with their questions and comments.  Even my Andrew had a question, something about how to lead a partner spiritually under ‘these conditions’, which Martin answered by saying that, if he only had a few minutes with his ‘partner’ he needed to use those few minutes.  I wasn’t looking forward to that!

But, finally, we got to sing Psalm 98 and break for lunch.  I stayed with June as much as I could.  She was very popular but most of the girls found someone else to talk to and, eventually, it ended up just Jane and I.  I noticed Jane looking at me nervously.  “I told him, but he already knew,” I said.

“Oh, OK,” she whispered back.  Of course, with her face I don’t see how she thought anybody wouldn’t know.

“Would you care to hold him again?” June asked me, just then, and I gratefully took the baby.

I got to hold him for another fifteen minutes or so before he needed his napkin changed.  After I handed him over I looked around, and saw Andrew fiddling about with his comp.  “What are you doing?” I asked, wandering over.

“Oh, you’re free,” he said, waving me to a seat next to him.  “Martin told me that we could program the walls of our room.”

“Program them?” I asked.

“With pictures and such… a bed-night program.”

“Oh,” I said.  I’d heard of those but our family was too poor for such things.  “What are you putting on?”

“I wasn’t, yet,” he said, “I was waiting for you.  What do you want?”

“What do they have?” I asked, leaning over against him.  “Do they have stars?”

Andrew laughed, “Stars! You should see the stars…”

In the end we came up with a couple of dozen programs, including one that had a couple of hundred types of star charts and all.  And a jungle one that Andrew really liked, and a couple right out of the New Texas plains.

And I got to hold the baby several more times too…