‘It is very important that you always put your husband’s needs first.’ Miss Hunter said with an authoritative voice that left no place for disagreement. ‘It is part of the feminine nature to submit to the male.’

She looked in the direction of the corner, where a weird laughing sound had erupted. ‘What’s so funny, Eliza. Share it with all of us, please.’

‘Nothing, Miss Hunter.’ She said, still giggling.

‘You know that your disrespectful attitude will turn away any man. And that without a husband you’ll be nothing in this world, Eliza.’

‘Yeah, whatever…’ Eliza mumbled, unheard by her teacher.

Miss Hunter turned back to the class.

‘It is always important to leave any initiative to the man. Women must respond, and can never initiate themselves. That would not just be wrong, but also unnatural. And it would hurt your man.’

‘…and his fragile ego…’ they all heard Eliza say on a very audible volume, but she went on.

‘He will feel smothered, and it will be a turn-off if you start the conversation, or if you bombard him with your own problems. He should be left alone to his own affairs, which are by definition more important than yours because he is the man. If something is important he will make it clear to you and you will follow him. And you should never contradict him. There are more subtle ways to make a man do what you want anyway.’

‘…not only a fragile ego, but the only way to handle them is faking submission and then manipulating them…’

‘Eliza, that was the last time or you’ll leave this class!’

‘That would be my pleasure, Miss Hunter.’

‘You will become the most abominable Wife in the history of femininity, Eliza, if you don’t change your rebellious ways.’

‘That would be my pleasure, Miss Hunter.’ She repeated stubbornly.

Miss Hunter chose to ignore her again, and went back to her course. ‘So, Anne, tell me, why is it important to always let the man take the initiative?’

Anne, a blond girl that had been messing with her make-up instead of following the lesson, stared at her teacher with blank eyes while hiding a tiny mirror, and finally stuttered ‘Eh, because of their fragile egos and because the only way to handle them is faking submission and then manipulating them?’

The whole class erupted in laughter, except for Miss Hunter herself, who looked more furiously than ever at the source of this new teaching. ‘No, Anne, No! It is part of the feminine nature to submit. We just do that naturally. Except for abominations like Eliza, who will need to be tamed by their husband.’

‘Only a half-baked swine with less braincells than testicles would ever want such an arrangement like having a sex-slave as a wife.’ Eliza said, very audible again, and the whole class erupted in laughter again.

‘Eliza, that’s enough. You leave the classroom now.’

‘I’m sorry miss Hunter, I was only quoting a certain man that I know.’

‘You don’t know any men, Eliza, that’s why you need to learn about them here. And now leave the class!’

Eliza winked at Megan, collected her papers in her rucksack, and walked out of the class. Megan knew she was going to spend her time now with black market books that were much more interesting than the please-your-husband lessons, and was almost jealous that her friend could leave while she had to endure one more hour of this nonsense.

‘So, where were we? It is part of the feminine nature to submit, and to obey your man, and to always wait until he initiates things. That is the most important lesson I have to teach you. And one of the most important things you’ll need to know in your life!’

Megan heard the door close with a slam, and had to admit that Eliza had been right in her scepticism. The one man their age that they both knew contradicted everything they had heard in class today just by existing, and would certainly not be pleased at all by faking submission while actually manipulating him. He was just trying to have some kind of open friendship based on open communication, apart from when being playful. Or was it only another way of being flirty? She didn’t know yet. But something told her she could trust him more than Miss Hunter and all her theories, even if they were the orthodox way of thinking about men in The Nation. At least for women that was, no-one in this stupid school actually knew anything about men with all that segregation going on.

*

‘I pledge my life to The Nation of this flag and to its Glorious Constitution, which gives Freedom and Liberty to all men. May God bless The Nation and crush all of our Enemies!’

Yet one more school day, and one more exhausting session of dumb drill exercises. Michael wasn’t really feeling it today, but Instructor Jack seemed quite worked-up and had no mercy for the brainies. But after thirty minutes of bodily torture and dumb verbal abuse it was over, and he could go on with the day, which started in the history class.

‘Today, boys, we will talk about the Magnificent Revolution that made our great Nation into what it is today.’

Mr. Woods seemed rather enthusiastic, but Michael didn’t share that enthusiasm. He wasn’t really interested in more of the same propaganda and one-sided pseudo-history yet one again. He had heard it all before, and his mind just didn’t want it anymore. There never was something new or interesting in these kinds of lessons. He thought of the world before The Nation, and that dark time when those supposed evil feminist ruled and men were oppressed, and when everything was chaos and disorder. Marriages didn’t last and all kinds of indecent behaviour were normalised. It was then that the Real Men had come to the foreground, and fought all the oppression and chaos, defeated the evil feminists, and installed the rule of the Central Computer who would reign the country in emotionless calculated wisdom in a way that humans, even men, could not do.

At least that had been the story as he had heard it countless times before in his life. But had the world before The Nation really been so bad? And what parts of the story were left out? It sounded like a badly written children’s story rather than like an actual historical report.

Suddenly he noticed that everyone was looking at him.

‘I asked, why did the Real Men institute the Wife Schools, Mr. Adams.’

He hadn’t noticed that the teacher had been talking to him, but he improvised an answer on the spot. ‘Because of the chaos of the old days, where women could choose their partner, but also often chose to dump him and play with them. Only attractive and rich men had any chance of finding a marriage partner in those days, and the Real Men fought bravely to make a happy marriage possible for every man.’ He blurted out.

‘Very good save, Mister Adams, but I would try to keep the daydreaming under control next time.’ ‘Yes, Mister Woods!’ He said, standing up and saluting. Even on autopilot he could produce the core myths of The Nation, even when he didn’t even necessarily believe them. Even he was a thoroughly programmed Citizen at times.

But following the same story again really didn’t work for his brains anymore. Instead of listening to Mr. Woods he thought about what he had just said. Was it really true that when women can choose their partner that they will only choose the extremely attractive or rich men? It made no sense to him. He’d have to ask the girls next time what they thought of that. If other women had an inner Megan and Eliza they would be more interested in friendship, and a man who treated them with respect and stuff like that. Or was he being naive again? Or maybe he was the extreme exception, and Megan and Eliza too? And even then he would like to live in a world where he and his new girl friends could live, and not one that one seemed tailored especially for some kind of mythical Real Men and completely brainwashed Wives.

He tuned back in to the classroom. ‘And for homework you have to read your textbook on the Magnificent Revolution.’ Mr. Woods said. That meant that the class was over. He took his books and walked off to the cafeteria for a coffee. It was an unhealthy adult habit, he knew that, but copying unhealthy patterns from the adults you see is how young people learn when growing up, and there were worse things he had seen from his parents than them slowly becoming more and more caffeine dependent. The Nation-Coke he’d been drinking from a very young age on was as full of caffeine as coffee anyway, and equally chemical. They said that in the old days real plants were used for coffee, but all he had ever known was this chemical stuff. He didn’t know whether it was because the original coffee plant was extinct or because they used to buy it from other countries that were now out of reach in this post-fuel world where The Nation didn’t have any contact with other countries anymore, but coffee beans were more a myth than anything else at this point of history.

He took a synthetic coffee from the machine, and started articulating his doubts about the history lessons to Henry next to him, who wasn’t impressed.

‘Why wouldn’t you believe the history books? Isn’t it clear that we’ve been saved from very bad situations in the time when women ruled?’ His classmate asked.

‘I’m not sure. It all sounds so fabricated and one-sided. I can’t believe it anymore. Where is the female side? If marriage is so important for our happiness and for the future of The Nation, and blah blah, then why don’t we listen to women, and let them have their say too. A marriage consists of two human beings.’

‘You’ve heard it. When women ruled, there was chaos, and men couldn’t have good marriages, and they couldn’t have sex because women only wanted rich and extremely pretty men… Not enough babies were born and everyone was lonely. And now even the Epsilons can get a Wife, thanks to the Wife Schools.’

‘Ah, come on. That’s all nonsense propaganda. No better arguments? How exactly are forced marriages ever happy relationships? Why would I want a slave for a partner that is afraid of even contradicting me, and that’s programmed to always obey me. How is that even a relationship? Isn’t that utterly fake, and as lonely as hell?’

‘You’re thinking too much man, even for a brainie. And you shouldn’t worry about those things. You’re getting a wife anyway, lucky boy! She’ll make you happy and that’s how the Magnificent Revolution made it better for all of us.’

The complicated reality of Megan as a real person and the words of his friend couldn’t be further apart, but he lacked the words to even say how in this Nation of distances. ‘I cannot be happy with someone if I cannot make her happy. Don’t you see it’s a scam? This whole segregation thing is just making life impossible’

‘What are you even talking about? Are you turning into a feminist?’

‘Think for yourself, man, think for a second. We never get to talk to women, and we get all kinds of weird stories about them. On the other side of the divide it’s probably exactly the same kind of mythmaking and misunderstandings. They get all kinds of how-to-satisfy-your-husband lessons from a strange creature called Miss Hunter and utter nonsense about men always being right and having to be respected for everything. It’s all a big pile of rot. Even my own mother treats me as some kind of demigod that should be served in everything now that I’m technically an adult. It’s all so screwed-up and it makes it worse for everyone.’

‘But that is how it should be. It’s what’s best for everyone. And they want it too. Why would you want otherwise?’

‘But it is wrong! We’re all just brainwashed into worse versions of ourselves than we should be. My poor mother who is afraid of her own son, my little sister, who I haven’t seen since she’s twelve because she’s in pre-Wife School and it’s indecent to talk to girls anyway. My wife-to-be and her friend that are locked-up in that rotten Wife School where they have to parade in bikinis for a bunch of horny baboon boys to choose them. It’s all so wrong, and no-one wants to see how degenerate it is. Everyone has the shortest end of the stick here.’

‘But would you want chaos then, and no chance for a Gamma like us to ever get a wife?’ Henry was clearly confused.

‘To hell with all that Wife nonsense. I know that in a normal world me and Megan and Eliza would have been friends anyway if we had a chance to meet. And in this world that doesn’t even seem an option. How can one even think of romance before you even know each other as friends?’

‘Friends? What are you even talking about? Why would you want to be friends with a woman? That’s not possible. What have you been smoking, dude? Boys and girls cannot be friends. Men and women have nothing in common. That’s why we need the Wife Schools to train them for us! Otherwise there would be chaos, and women would just be using us and rejecting us all the time, especially Gamma brainies.’

Michael looked at the clock and drank the rest of his coffee ‘I give up. Come, let’s go to math class.’

The rest of the day was spent with imaginary numbers, which was a safe subject that didn’t trigger any deep negative feelings or revolutionary tendencies, although there were moments when he had a sudden feeling that Megan or Eliza probably would have liked to follow the class with interest, while most of the boys were completely disinterested and would opt out of stuff like this if they could. He made a mental note to pass on the math book to them when the module would be over.

*

‘It’s that day again, Eliza.’ Shirley said when the classes were over.

‘Oh, shit, was that today? Oh, we should ask Megan…’

‘Megan is taken, Eliza. She won’t be joining us at the Ceremony of partner choice ever again unless something very weird happens. She has a ring on her finger, and a husband lined up. Remember Michael-dude?’

‘I had so many things on my mind that I totally forgot about the ceremony, and I hadn’t even realised that Megan won’t be with us there anymore. Damn that stupid loverboy! It’ll be even lonelier now for us. But hey, I’m still in last place, E-27 today. Only a mad boy would choose me anyway. But I hate to stand there as a product in a shop window and parade like that. I wish there would be some loophole to wear something more dignifying.’

‘They need to see what they want to see to be able to pick a partner.’ Shirley said.

‘They need to see me in a way that I am comfortable to present myself, and if they don’t like it they can put their eyeballs in a blender. It’s just not right how we are treated as E-girls. At least the other floors have some kind of outfit choice for their ceremonies.’

‘We’re just not important enough, or rather, the men who choose us aren’t.’ Shirley said.

‘True, it’s not as if we even matter. We’re almost worthless goods, and our buyers are not important clients. No-one will ever invest in us. No-one cares for low-graded men, let alone for the unimportant creatures that are going to be their wifeslaves.’

‘That boy of Megan seems to care.’

‘Mike All? I’m sure he does. And he’s going to be useful for certain in different ways. But in the end, what can one boy do in an unjust world? Even if he’s a Gamma-1? What could one traitor in the war of the sexes accomplish? The war continues, and he might fall victim to it himself in the end… Sex traitors won’t survive long in the male hierarchy.’

‘Don’t be so negative again. He can do a lot if he’s indeed what she says. He can give one woman a decent marriage for example? I’m very happy for Megan. Aren’t you at least a bit jealous that Megan was chosen by him?’

‘What on Earth should I do with a Husband? No, being friends is more than enough, and it might be the real revolution. Stepping outside of the idea that the only thing men and women can have is marriage. That would be the best answer to the war of the sexes, and could destroy the whole thing from within.’

‘You’re being revolutionary again, Eliza, but I’m starting to feel it too,’ Shirley said.