Michael held his breath when a line of girls came in for the Ceremony of Partner Choice. He noticed they were all dressed in the same black bikini, why was that? Because E-class women were not allowed to make themselves stand out and had to be humiliated? They all stood in the room now, holding a paper with a number from 1 to 28, which also indicated their scores. The lower numbers seemed to be cheery and tried to act seductive, but from number 14 on they mostly just looked depressed, as if they wanted to be somewhere else, like he himself did too. No-one in their right mind wants you when you have such a low score in The Nation. And yet here he was, a level one male, purposely trying to find a wife among those with low scores.

He looked around again. The atmosphere had changed wildly. The boys next to him were almost drooling, loudly giving their own scores for the first 12 girls or so, who indeed seemed to enjoy the moment. He had the idea that number 3 and 5 were the most popular ones, at least from what he could hear. Number 3 was a voluptuous blond girl with blue eyes with unnatural long eyelashes, and number five had brown hair, eyes and skin, and seemed to be playing with her bra as if she was going to take it off. The Epsilon-boys went wild, and simultaneously he almost froze up. Next to his unease he felt his anger rising up at the whole scene, but he found his self control again, ignored everything and started focusing on the faces of the girls at the very end of the line.

First he looked at number 28, the last one in line. She certainly wasn’t ugly, and had a lot of brown curls, and greenish eyes. It was also very clear that she didn’t want to be there at all, which made her potentially interesting. He even felt as if he had seen her before, in another time, or in another world even. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? He had never met any girls at all, since he was five or so. Or not? She was now looking at the group of other boys with a hate that could burn down a house. He understood her hate completely, and for a second he forgot on which side he was. There was something about her that made him agree with her hatred against whatever it was that men were doing here. Even though he was a man himself, and didn’t have any plans in that direction at all.

And then he knew where he knew her from. Even after all this time he had recognised her. He’d recognise her in a crowd probably, and undeniably it was her, the girl from the playground, the last girl he had ever spoken with in his life that wasn’t part of his own nuclear family. Long ago, when they had been small kids, they had played together, accidentally and unsupervised, for hours. That was the day he had learnt, from her mother even, that it was not proper behaviour for a boy who would become a man to play with girls. It had been the first and last time he’d spent so much time alone with a girl. What was her name again? He had known it, and maybe it would come back.

But now was not the moment for thinking about his childhood memories. He had to make a decision here. The noise around him intensified and he came back to this world. He started sorting his thoughts again. So he knew her, but was that a reason to choose her? For some seconds he actually entertained the idea to pick her, maybe not to marry her, but just to set her free in some kind of way. There must be some loophole somehow, not? It was clear that she didn't belong here at all, just like he did. But then he looked at her again, and she responded to his look with the same look of pure hate she had had earlier for the Epsilons. He shouldn’t forget that for her he was the other side after all. And her mood was a bit too intense for him. Not the vibe you’d want as a start for a lifelong relationship together.

He averted her intense green eyes that tried to pierce his soul. But she seemed to have recognised him too, because her eyes changed, and she whispered something to her neighbour, a girl with long dark hair, number 27. A girl you wouldn't notice if you weren't looking for her, with a strong 'save me from this madness' vibe. He looked into the dark eyes of number 27, and she responded with an unspoken 'please help me’ before she looked away.

His brain worked very fast now. He looked at the other girls, and only then noticed that his fellow boys were now actually fighting for number three and five. The officials were trying to stop the fight, without much success. The other boys were low class Epsilons, and one Delta. While their ranks were quite low, they were certainly behaving like Real Men in the sense of being aggressive and noisy, and in acting before thinking. He ignored them again, and started checking the other girls between 26 and 20 or so, but none of them really stood out to him, while the dark-haired girl who was holding her 27 sign upside down now and whispering to number 28 was still looking at him in between her sentences. It was a hopeful look now, and the girls seemed to be arguing about him, whispering. There wasn’t much hate left in her now, but he still felt nervous about 28’s green eyes piercing him.

‘Did every young man here choose his wife?’

Another official entered the room, and then saw how his colleagues and the other boys were fighting. He clearly didn’t want to get involved, so he turned to Michael, who seemed to be the only normal person around.

‘And, young man, have you made your choice of partner already?’

Michaels didn’t really have much possibilities, but nonetheless his heart almost stopped beating. This was it, the moment of truth, on which his life, and hers, could depend.

'I want to take number 27, what's her name please?'

The man looked at him, puzzled.

'Her? Are you sure? Her father is called Donald Anderson, and his phone number is on this paper, together with his address.'

This annoyed him. 'I didn't ask for her dad's name. I ask for hers,' he said.

The official didn’t answer, but he took a micro-megaphone.

'Does any of the other young men happen to be interested in number 27?’

There was no reaction from the fighting lot, so the official turned to number 27 herself. ‘No? Okay, Megan, would you be so kind to bring your paper to this young man, please.'

He let out a deep breath? So, Megan it was. The name of the woman he might spend the rest of his life with? She came shyly, looking away from him now, and handed him the paper. He tried to make eye contact again but she wouldn’t let him.

‘Congratulations, mister. You have made your choice now. The happiness of a married future is yours now.’

He looked disapprovingly at Megan, and even more at girl number 28 who had followed her.

‘If you excuse me now, I am afraid that I have to call the intervention team here for the other boys. Megan, give your young man your paper so that he can leave.’

The man disappeared, and suddenly Michael stood there alone with the two girls in front of him, completely frozen. His tongue wouldn’t cooperate, and it seemed that Megan had the same problem. Number 28 was the only one who had some responsiveness left, so she began shaking her friend while staring at his badge.

‘Megan, you probably should say something to him now. Reboot your operating system girl!’

She repeated the words ‘Megan, do something now!’ a few more times, and then finally took the paper out of her friends hands to hand it to Michael, shyly now.

‘She needs to give this to you, I think. Eh, Sir.’

Her anger seemed to have gone completely for now, and she was looking at him with a calculating look for now. Had she really recognised him too?

‘Thanks. I am Michael. What’s your name, number 28? I don’t like talking to numbers.’

She was visibly taken aback by the direct question addressed to her by a man, and muttered.

‘Eh, I’m Eliza, sir. Thank you for your friendliness, mister Michael Gamma-1.’

‘I’m Michael, not Mister Gamma-1. And I think I remember you as Lizzie. You still know that without your mother intervening we would have been friends when we were kids, do you?’

Eliza nodded. ‘Mike All… It’s really you. Funny to see you here.’ She mumbled, and he continued.

‘I’ve been wondering what I’d do if I’d finally have to meet a girl, but I think I’ll have to begin where I left off with you, Lizzie. Just being friends. And I’ll probably have to start with your friend here.’

He turned to the other girl, while the commotion in the other part of the room seemed to be getting worse. Megan looked at him, still in some kind of trance.

‘Thanks for the paper, Megan. I’ll call your dad to arrange things, and then I will arrange an actual meeting for us. I’m sorry, this whole Wife thing was a birthday surprise from my dad because of my level one grade. I have no clue about this Wife business, but I honestly hope that you and I can at least become friends, like I was that one day I was friends with your friend Lizzie here when we were five. I’m afraid I stopped learning to interact with girls after that day, so I have a lot of lost time to catch up with, but I hope you’ll have patience with me. And I hope if everything goes wrong with the whole Wife thing that I can help you get our of this screwed-up place to find some kind of future.’

She still didn’t seem to know how to answer, but at least she was smiling a bit now.

‘Bye Megan, and bye Lizzie too. I’m actually glad to see you too.’

After these words he saw the intervention team that was entering with weapons, and he swiftly disappeared from the showroom, leaving behind two very confused girls. ‘Bye Mike All,’ whispered Eliza. Not being chosen had never been such an intense experience before, but now it was time to move on. Most of the girls that weren’t keen on getting chosen by the fighting boys had left already discretely when the intervention team entered the room, so she took Megan's hand to guide her away from all the commotion of the evening before the violence would escalate.

*

‘What on Earth was that even?’ Megan asked her finally, walking back to the kitchen to get a bottle of Nation-Coke.

‘I have no idea, but it seems that someone needs to re-write our course about boys and what they want from girls, at least when it comes to that guy.’ Eliza said after a while.

‘What was he talking about? You were friends with him when you were children? Did he really say that?’ Megan asked, unbelievingly.

‘So it seems. No-one has called me Lizzie since I’ve been twelve and entered Wife School. So it must be him indeed, my one and only boy friend ever. Only for one unsupervised day at the playground when we were five. And then mum took us apart and forbid both of us to ever have a fried of the other sex. But he still seems to remember me. ’

‘And you remember it too. But he was really friendly with you at that time? Not bullying or bossing you around and doing whatever boys are supposed to do?’

‘Eh, no, he was just a friend, like a girl friend to play with, but then a boy. I hadn’t learnt yet that that is impossible and neither had he.’ She drank a whole bottle of Coke at once.

‘What did he mean with his sentence with too many friends in it?’

Eliza didn’t say much because she needed to process everything herself too, and suddenly number 16 joined them, dressed in her pyjamas.

‘Is it really true that you’ve been chosen, Megan? As the only girl tonight?’

Megan stared at her empty bottle.

‘The other guys have been taken away by the intervention team, so I suppose you could say so, Shirley. He pointed at me. And he took the paper, and is going to call my dad and all.’

‘Congratulations, Megan. That is rather unexpected seen your score this month. None of us hoped to be picked so soon. So what was his rank then? Epsilon-4 at least I hope.’

Megan couldn’t answer, but Eliza answered for her. ‘That’s the weird thing, Shirley, he’s a Gamma-1. He shouldn’t even have been here. He probably could have had the best Wife in this building. But he didn’t go for that. And then the things he said. It was so strange.’

Number 16 frowned. ‘He shouldn’t be talking to any girl today. So he’s the indecent and impatient kind? What did he say? That she should be very thankful for him choosing him, and do her best to be a good wife? The classic speech when a high-rated man chooses a low-rated woman?’

She seemed to be getting excited, but Megan was still shaken when she responded. ‘No, he offered friendship. And said about being something more than he had with Eliza when they were five. They knew each other back then it seems. Oh Eliza, I’m so sorry, he really should have chosen you, not me.’

Eliza nodded disapprovingly. ‘Don’t say that. You can be his birthday surprise and his prize for his unexpected level one rate if you want. I don’t want a husband. Not now, not ever! I don’t ever want to be a sex slave and domestic servant. Not even for him, even though I’ve never been closer to liking a male than today, I must admit.’

‘Don’t say it like that, Eliza. You should always respect your man, and satisfy him. They deserve it.’ Shirley interrupted. ‘They deserve nothing, Shirley. If they behave like that troop of drooling baboons that was taken away they don’t deserve anything at all. A man who deserves anything at all should be the opposite of every ‘Be a Man’ idea in the whole Nation. And I’m not convinced yet that even Michael could be really different. If you want to try, Megan, go ahead. You might be lucky with him. Well, you actually don’t have a choice, do you? And he could be the last decent man on the planet, or an anomaly in history even, and you could have the last marriage that isn’t hell in history. The only one even in the history of the multiverse. Maybe. He surely seemed honest with his confused talk about friendship. And at least he probably believed it himself. But if you see how we are brainwashed here as E-class girls, then how hard must a level one male be brainwashed? So, sorry, I don’t believe it yet. But you take your chance and be happy. I really wish that for you.’

Eliza had ended her monologue, and Shirley was getting angry at her now.

‘You cannot talk like this, Eliza. This is treason against The Nation.’

‘Whatever, Shirley. What has the nation ever done for me? Or for any woman? The Glorious Constitution, which gives Freedom and Liberty to all men? When will there be something for women? Anything at all even?’ Megan took a second coke.

‘But, if he’s right about his friendship offer, isn’t that something for at least one woman? And he seemed to include you too in that, Eliza. So make that two women…’

‘You’re probably right. It seems that Mike All hasn’t forgotten little Lizzie. And that my mum was wrong after all.’ She sighed.

Could she believe in the possibility of even one good man? Even if it was Mike All himself? She didn’t know yet, but it looked like there were some interesting times ahead.