‘Sometimes it would be easier to be a robot. Much easier.’ Robert said.

‘You mean rare, valuable, and probably a leftover from a better time?’ Michael asked.

‘No, I mean that it’s just too complicated to be a human.’ Robert said.

He and Henry had joined Michael for lunch again after half a day of studying robotics.

‘Man, you would miss out on all the good stuff.’ Henry replied.

‘They have no pain, they have no disease, they have no stupid hormones and bodily problems.’

‘No fun at all. No sex, no drugs, no rock ’n roll.’

‘What is rock ’n roll even supposed to be?’ Michael interrupted curiously.

‘I have no clue, it’s just an expression. It doesn’t mean a thing at all. But for the sake of John Manfred, you’re ruining my argument, Michael. Anyway, like I was saying, if you were a robot there would be no fun for you at all.’

‘I don’t see any fun, Rob, it’s all just a complicated mess in which people hurt each other and get hurt and are dangerous to each other. Real Men are just a bunch of apes fighting to be the top ape, and we are punished all the time for not having that kind of ambition. And aren’t you afraid of women and what they want? And how they will manipulate you and make your life miserable from the moment you’re married. And it’s not done to ever divorce, a Real Man wouldn’t do that. So you’re stuck forever with one of those harpies.’

‘Afraid? Why would I be afraid? Get a good Wife School Wife, and they are trained to do whatever you want them to do. They will just do whatever you say. The perfect marriage, thanks to the Greatest Nation ever.’

‘You believe that they will do everything you say? You believe that they can be trained? They have no reason to even like us at all. They are human like us, and some of them are even quite smart, no matter what the Wife Schools do with them. And they will have their revenge. The war of the sexes is unavoidable, and it’s naive to think men are the one who are always winning.’ Robert looked rather darkly at his coffee.

‘Come on, Michael, say something, you’re the man with experience here.’ Robert said, but Michael was very reluctant to join the conversation.

‘I don’t have much experience at all. I’m just starting to figure things out. And I disagree with both of you, there must be a way beyond male or female domination, a way to bypass that cursed war of the sexes even. And I’m going to do everything I can with Megan to find that way.’

Henry looked at him, suspiciously. ‘You’re not right in your mind. Don’t tell me you’re in love, man. Keep your feet on the ground. Don’t let them females fool you. In the end it’s you or them, and you’re a class one male. You can’t let any such thing happen. You are the one who should win this, and not that little Megan chick.’

‘I don’t want any of us both to lose, I want us to be a team and win together, if we are indeed supposed to be together. A team against the madness of this whole crazy destructive culture that destroys both sexes and turns them against each other. And if marriage won’t work because it’s too broken in this world at least I want to be friends with her. It’s my duty. I’ve chosen her, I can’t just dump her now, a Wife choice is a responsibility for life.’

‘What nonsense are you babbling. Boys and girls can’t be friends, wake up man! She’s manipulating you already. You have no spine. You’ll get used. Man, you’re so naive.’

Henry seemed quite concerned now, and Robert seemed to get convinced too.

‘He’s probably right, Michael, you shouldn’t trust her. Or that other chick, whatever her name is. They are the other side. They are women, and more dangerous than most men realise. They will only manipulate and use you and then leave you when you’re completely sucked-out. You’re being played. I would say stay away from her, and from all women whenever you can.’

‘You’re a wimp, Robert, and you know it’s impossible to stay away from them. A Real Man doesn’t run away from women, he tames them.’ Henry said.

‘You both aren’t helping at all.’ Michael said.

He took his stuff and walked away to get some air outside. Still what his friends had said sounded very logical. It all made sense and fitted in everything he had heard every day of his life. He would have seen it like that too if someone had told him his own story as if he was a stranger, but it just wasn’t true. It had never been true. There was a different way. He thought of little Eliza and him, playing in the sand innocently. He thought of the honest ‘Help me’ in Megan’s eyes. And then he thought of the fighting Epsilon boys and sighed. The whole system worked like a self-fulfilling prophecy for most people. Would he and the girls be able to make their ideas come true too? Only the future would tell. And the future was coming soon, it was only 3 days before he would have his first date with Megan outside of the Wife factory.

*

The Bi-Weekly Ceremony of Partner Choice was over again. Eliza fell on her bed, dressed in nothing but her show-bikini, exhausted and angry at the Universe, God and humanity. She was sweaty from the spotlights, and felt very dirty, as she always did after the ceremony. It was only her stubborn pride that kept her from crying now. Megan looked up from her bureau. It had been the first ceremony without her as a potential bride, and she hadn’t felt like being present as a spectator either, so she had been hiding in the dorm. The whole evening she had been distracting herself with her history book, but since Eliza could be the bringer of important news she put her book away.

‘And?’ She asked for the verdict.

‘Shirley and I are still single.’ Eliza said, reluctantly.

‘How many were there? Who was taken?’ Megan asked.

It felt strange to be freed from the whole stress of possibly being chosen.

‘Eight boys, mostly Epsilons. Nothing interesting at first sight. And eh, Mary, Patricia, Jennifer, Barbara, Susan Smith, the other Susan too, and Melanie are now all a Wife-to-be. Congratulations to them. Marital felicity will be their fate!’

‘That’s only seven of them.’

‘Ah, yes, and Jessica too.’

‘So, the two Susans at once? And again it’s more or less the first 10 girls if I remember the current numbers well. They are all so predictable, those young men of the Nation.’

‘Yup, just gotta keep my grade low and I can stay here forever. Heaven on Earth.’

‘You wouldn’t want that, for sure. Loneliness is no fun either. And you can’t marry out of Wife School if you’re over 25, so you’ll have to leave then anyway.’ Shirley said, coming in too. She was dressed in just an oversized sweater over her bikini.

‘Everything better than becoming a Wife. Well, except for being an affair or a prostitute then, that would be even worse. But well, all the things that involve men are what we have to avoid as a woman to become happy. And sadly you’re right, this is the place where men choose you. Gotta get out of here too before some other weirdo like Loverboy has the idea of taking the lowest number.’

‘You’re strange, Eliza. You know a woman needs a man to take care for her. That’s how the world goes. And I don’t think your really want to be a non-wife. They have a miserable life, and there’s much they can’t do.’

‘Ah, then I have to aim even lower. Non-citizen then? Join a female squat community? Maybe they have a place in the Ghost Town for me. Will the men leave me alone then? As far as I know men are forbidden to even enter the Ghost Town.’

‘You wouldn’t dare. They are dangerous rebels. They listen to no law and do whatever they want. And they never have any contact with men.’

‘Ah, but that’s the real life… You need to work on your sales pitch, Lyn! Living in a squat castle away from all the madness of society… Perfect way to spend your time. Much better than being the slave of a man-swine.’

‘You can’t be serious.’ Shirley was shocked now, but Megan didn’t seem impressed.

‘Say something, Megan. Before we lose Eliza to the outlaws before she’ll get a man.’ Megan shrugged.

‘She doesn’t look lost to me. And she’s been in contact with them for years. With non-citizens in the squatted abandoned villages even I think. I bet she even knows her way in the Ghost Town by now if she knows what rules they have in their community. If she’d wanted to join them now she’d have done so.’

Shirley turned to Eliza, even more in shock. ‘You have been what?’

‘Oh, nothing. Some black market trading, and I’ve been helping them with some robot stuff. It wasn’t even that hard to get out when I had changed some paperwork. It’s a pity that espionage isn’t a good career choice here inside of the old SCWS. Or in the Nation as a whole. It would be a fun job.’

‘But, but, if you don’t want a man, and you can escape every moment, why are you still here?’ Shirley was baffled.

‘Why not? I have my friends here who need me, they feed me here, I don’t have to work and I can study whatever I want. And they have a contact in the finest Wife School of Seventh City in me. Plus, if things work out with Loverboy on the friendship level like you seem to believe will happen I might have a contact in a reasonable corner of the boy world too. I’m the most perfect hub between worlds here. What else would I want? Living in an abandoned building in the Ghost Town where all electricity comes from a generator? And why would I be living in a hidden female-only order just when my childhood boy friend turns out to be a very useful contact, and maybe an actual friend too. Maybe I’m opening up to the idea of having a boy in my life even. But that still doesn’t mean I’ll be waiting to get a husband.’

‘You really are the weirdest girl in this whole building, Eliza.’

‘Now that’s a compliment, Shirley. But I think I still need a shower now. To wash away those ugly stares and condemning looks of contempt for the mere number I was holding. Strange how they still manage to mix in predatory desire with that.’

She jumped from her bed, grabbed her sleeping clothes, and disappeared to the bathroom quarters.

‘Just wow.’ Shirley said after a silence. ‘And you knew all of it?’

‘I don’t pretend to know everything about Eliza, but I know she is in contact with all kinds of people through the black market, including the Ghost Town squatters, yes. And I know she has been doing some kind of robotics job for non-citizens there recently. She’s the only girl here that I don’t worry about getting married to an abusive creep of a husband to be honest. She’ll be able to find her way whenever she needs it, but apart from that I fear for all of us, honestly. Maybe except for myself now, but I’m not used to that idea. It didn’t sink in yet.’

‘But most men are decent deep down. You just have to be servile and give them what you want and they'll treat you well.’

‘Shirley, you can’t mean that. Hear yourself now. That’s not decent deep down, that’s slavery, Shirley, and I don’t want me or you or even one of these girls who were chosen today to end up like that. And if we take Michael as an example of a decent man, he’s not like that at all.’

‘I’m more afraid that no-one will ever pick me, to be honest.’

‘You’re a great girl, Shirley, You’re too good for them. Never let anyone tell you you’re not enough. It’s more like throwing a pearl to the pigs.’

‘I’m only an E-girl, Megan. No boy in his right mind will pick me. I will end up too old to marry and then have to live alone as a non-Wife. And I don’t have your people skills and luck with men, or Eliza's power and connections, let alone her intelligence, or yours. I am doomed.’

‘You’re not. You’re pretty and smart and sensible. And I promise you here and now that whatever happens, we will always stay in contact. No matter who we marry or all stay alone, I swear that me, you, and Eliza will stay connected. This whole thing where girls lose each other when they marry and just have their husband and maybe neighbouring housewives has to stop. And I mean that with all that I am. We will be connected together for life. No matter how difficult, we’ll find a way. And I trust Eliza to be able to make that possible too.’

‘I don’t know if I can really believe you, but you’re sweet, Megan. I really really have the bestest friends in the world. I’ll really miss you if you would get married to that Michael dude.’

‘I’ll come back to visit you regularly as long as you’re here. It’s unusual to give a Wife Schoolgirl regular visits, but it’s not forbidden. We’ve been looking up the laws around that already. Even if they force me to use that weird glass wall table in the visitation room every time. You’re simply not going to get rid of me like that.’

‘Thanks. I’m almost ready to believe you… Please, hold me for a while before I’m going to shower too. I’ve never felt so lonely.’

After a long hug with her friend Megan sat alone on her bed now. She had no concentration left for her book, so she put on her PJs and rolled herself into her sleeping bag. Everything was changing much too fast now. She had meant every word she had said about remaining friends after getting married, but it also was new territory again. Women had to follow men, and first leave their family, and then leave their school friends for that, with not much chance to ever be in contact with them again. But then again, if they were going to be revolutionary in a way that focused on friendship, as Michael had said, why not go all the way with the girls too? The female world itself here in the old Wife factory needed some revolution too for sure.

When Eliza and Shirley came back, clean and refreshed, Megan was asleep already.