‘‘So how did you get so flirty suddenly?’

Megan and Eliza were talking in between home economics class and the history of great men.

‘Me? You’re accusing me of being flirty? Eliza the certified man-hater?’ Eliza whispered, feigning defensiveness.

‘You know what I mean. And you’re definitely no Michael-hater.’

‘Blame him for that. He just made me feel at ease. And I was only playing along a bit. It doesn’t mean a thing, we all know that. Except that I actually don’t really care what sex people are if I like them as friends.’

‘Still, who are you? What have you done to my best friend Eliza?’

‘Maybe it wasn’t Eliza you’ve met yesterday, but more the return of little Lizzie, trying to disprove her mom’s axiom that boys and girls can’t be friends. And maybe she still likes to play with her friend Mike All. Even though they’re both technically adults now. Or something like that.’

Megan sighed. ‘After all that effort you made to look so unattractive that was a bit of an anticlimax I must say. And you should be more careful with him. He comes from another world than we do. You heard him. The male world is not the girls dorm where everybody can hug you at any moment. It’s clear that he’s completely touch-starved and untouched by female hands. He’s not used to our girl friendships at all.’

Eliza smiled ominously.

‘Then we’ll make sure he gets used to it, not? I think we must first give him a broad introduction to girl friendships before you can go all monogamous on him as his Wife. It’s time to train him up properly using oxytocin to the advantage of the whole female half of humanity.’

‘Eh, what?’

‘Have you ever even paid attention to Miss Hunter's theories? The whole idea of Nation monogamy is that a man only knows one woman, which means he will only be attached to her and never be in contact with other women. That’s why she always says it’s important to be his first sexual experience and why non-virgins are considered damaged goods. The whole oxytocin bonding stuff is the key to the story. So coming out of a complete one-sex world without any physical touch at all a man can easily form patterns of being bonded only to his wife. The downside is that even talking to another woman will feel like adultery, and you get a reinforcement of the whole sex segregation system in which even talking to a female person is indecent. Most men today are programmed to function like that from the moment they get their Wife. It could all be very different though, for example if they grew up with sisters and girl friends and their mother acting normal and so on.’

‘Interesting and scary interpretation of how Nation marriages work, sociologist Lizzie. But what does that mean for my Michael now?’

‘With all respect to whatever relationship you both have now, I’m afraid that I’m way too selfish to let such a thing happen to him. He is my only male childhood friend after all, and perfect friend material for both of us, and a potential safe person for women in general, and we can use an ally on their side. And I haven’t even mentioned his potential as a valuable contact in between the male and female world. Maybe even a hub in between the two worlds for the black market trade. So whatever you want to do with him afterwards, we have to train him up as a cross-sex friend first, using the oxytocin effect more broadly.’

‘What on Earth do you even mean?’

‘Just give him an immersion in girl style friendship including the more touchy part, so he learns that being friendly and moderately physical with the other sex doesn’t have to mean anything but just friendliness. And only if he’s adjusted to that you can go all couple on him and make some, eh, other oxytocin bonds like you please. I won’t interfere with that.’

Megan ignored the innuendo this time.

‘Well, thank you, I think… But you still shouldn’t play with him like that. He’s a person that deserves to be treated as an equal, you know. And he even was able to communicate a boundary of not hugging him unexpectedly. To you, Eliza, the man-hating secret feminist spy of the E-floor. And a man setting a boundary like that alone is quite a weird thing.’

‘I’m impressed by that too, yes. It’s as if he has read the secret booklet about boundaries. Communicating boundaries so naturally is not that easy.’

‘It would be a lot easier if they didn’t brainwash girls to have no boundaries at all towards men.’ Megan pondered.

‘Agreed. But I don’t think men are taught much boundaries either. Lots of peer pressure, and no chance of saying no to a man with a higher rating. Boundaries are not a Nation thing.’

‘And by the way, speaking about personal boundaries: what about that poor Rafael boy? You surely scared him away. He was harmless. He didn’t deserve what you did to him.’

‘Hey, I was just being myself, in a playful way. I didn’t mean anything with it. It’s just that I usually don’t have the looks to pull something like that off, that’s all.’

‘It looked like you were trying to hit on him aggressively, while looking like a possessed scarecrow from the dungeon dimensions. It’s not because Michael could see through your little act that a shy boy who’d never met an actual girl and only seen one on pictures wouldn’t get into a panic if he thought you were actually trying to seduce him. Double date, Eliza, what were you thinking?’

‘I was just having fun.’

‘Yes, and then you manage to traumatise the only boy in The Nation that might be more innocent than Michael. Be more careful. They are human too. He too could be friend material for girls. Material for a decent marriage for at least one Nation girl even when properly matched. Those guys are rare enough!’

Eliza sighed. ‘Okay, you’re right, I wasn’t thinking properly. And there’s something dangerous about feeling powerful over a man, it’s a strange sensation that I probably shouldn’t have given into. You know, the rush of definitely being the stronger one in the war of the sexes for a moment.’

‘I don’t think I want to know that feeling, Eliza. It’s the same rush that turns men evil. Reversing the roles only perpetuates the same war of the sexes in a different way. Think about that weird animal farm book you loaned me recently.’ ‘Hey, I’m not a pig. And I’m just new to all of this. I’ve never even thought about flirting with boys before today as a realistic option. It just happened. You can’t expect me to make no mistakes. But if it makes you happy, if I ever see him again and there is a way to talk to him, I’ll apologise to him. Honest and open and everything. Better like that?’

Megan smiled. ‘I’ll keep you to that, but to go back to my earlier question: who are you and what have you done to Eliza? You would apologise to a boy?’

‘I do have my personal honour code of being fair to all people who deserve it. And I think I’ll need to update that principle to include the few harmless men in The Nation too in my list of those who qualify as ‘people’ at least. Actually people are people regardless of sex.’

‘You two, shut up or you’ll have to switch desks.’ Miss Hunter said suddenly. They hadn’t noticed that the next class had already started. ‘And take your history books. We were talking about John Manfred, the Father of the Nation.’

She pointed to an old poster, on which they could see the most revered man in Nation history. His dark brown eyes seem to look through your soul, and they always had found him quite creepy.

‘So, Eliza, tell me more about Manfred.’ ‘He was the one who formed the Male Alliance, and defeated the evil feminists, right after the last solar storm that destroyed the internet and most communication on earth by taking out all satellites around the planet. He and his men then installed the Central Computer, and he was its first representative until his own dead.’

‘At least you know your stuff, but next time have some attention too please.’ Miss Hunter said.

The rest of the hour was spent with repeating information they all had heard before about the Father of the Nation and how he had made everything so much better for men to live. No-one said anything about what it had meant for the lives of women.

*

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

The church service began with the same words that opened every school day and then went straight into a hymn that proclaimed the greatness of God as the Great Man in the sky. After some announcements a man came up to say that they needed to give more money, and then a prayer for all men in the Nation was uttered in unison. Michael had already lost his attention, and wasn’t really listening to the later songs about the Great God as the Man on the Heavenly Throne, the Greatness of the Nation and its Constitution, and the glory of Man. It was all nonsense anyway, wasn’t it? If there was a God They would not really be interested in the petty egotism of the Alphas of the Nation and their silly plans.

Why was he even coming to church? He was the only one of the family here again. Next to him sat a boy named Paul like every week. His father might always talk about the principles of The Church, but he hadn’t been there in years. And his mother sat far away in the balcony galleries, where women and small children had to sit. It was only proper in the Temple of the Great Man on the Heavenly Throne that only men could enter the main sanctuary, and women should stay somewhere halfway, hanging in the air. The old Holy Books told about old civilisations where the same had happened, and the Great God had blessed them for their manliness and helped them conquer all their enemies. Not that The Nation had any enemies, it didn’t even have any contact at all with other countries since the communication crash that led to the Magnificent Revolution, but the idea of crushing all the enemies with the help of the Great God was an important part of every church service. And very Manly too…

He saw Paul singing the words of the hymn about the conquering war God that would lead the nation to eternal victory and save all men, but he couldn’t bring himself to join the chants anymore. It felt too weird, too wrong, too nonsensical and too petty. He took a President Peppermint and sat down, depressed.

The hymn had turned out to be the last one before the sermon, so a slick man in a suit arrived on the stage, with a magnified version of his Alpha-2 badge on his chest. He stood there as if the world belonged to him and started orating wildly. Michael took another President Peppermint out of the packet, while the preacher on stage raged like a madman about the rules on how one should be a good person. He’d been to church almost every Sunday since he was a child, but he’d never felt as much distance between the reality he lived and the things that were preached in church as he did now. Maybe he hadn’t really listened to the sermons before, most of them were quite boring, and often vague and sloganesque. But now that he was paying attention he was horrified.

He looked around him at his fellow church-goers, and felt like everyone nodded in agreement with things that no-one actually believed, as if that was the most normal thing in the world. He even assumed that there were things that no-one really understood, or that weren’t even made up to be understood. It had been quite disappointing when he finally had started to examine the religion of The Nation, and found it wanting at every point, to the point of being absurd.

He himself had always believed in basic principles like honesty and integrity that they had taught him as a kid, but he felt now that he had been naive all along. Unlike him most people seemed to have a way to listen to whatever fire and brimstone the preacher was giving, and then never have it influence their actual life or worldview in any way afterwards, without even seeing a problem with that. He had no idea how they did it, but it was a superpower that wasn’t given to him. He still believed in most of the basic ideas, like the preacher always seemed to assume everybody did, but no-one ever seemed even bothered by even basic honesty and integrity, let alone the other things of not sinning. And today he was raving about sexual ethics, with a manic tic and even a bit of foam on his lips, ranting as if everyone agreed with his views on pornography. But while they nodded, Michael was sure that almost no-one did.

‘Purity of heart is very important. Looking at those pictures will stain your soul. If you’re watching those abominations you’re going to hell. Just one look and the demons will devour your soul and bind it in hell for all of eternity. That is why we shouldn’t even look at a woman. Like The Holy Book says, just looking at a woman is committing adultery in your heart, no matter what you are thinking. So the only way to stay pure is being married, and then you have a woman that you can do everything with that you want, and it will never be a sin.’ Michael felt his stomach turn. What was that guy even saying? Did it even make sense? He took another peppermint and his thoughts wandered away.

Had it always been like this? Empty contradictions, heavy rules that no-one ever followed even though they all nodded, and loveless fire-and-brimstone preaching that condemned almost everyone present to hell while they still affirmed in almost enthusiastic agreement? And that was only the beginning of the troubling stuff in the sermon, not to mention the blatant sexism and institutionalised abuse.

What was wrong with this rotten religion? What was wrong with this stupid country? And was there a way to really live in honesty and integrity and to show love towards all people like the church taught, at least in theory? “All people” included women, or didn’t it? It wasn’t really clear. The church also taught that women were dangerous temptations that should be avoided, and that you should never even think of a woman you weren’t married to. He looked at the women up at the galleries and wondered how all these teachings were affecting them. It was already destructive to him, but it had to be several degrees of catastrophe worse for them.

The music had started playing again. Electric drums and wavy keyboard sounds gave way to a pumping chorus with distorted guitars and energetic singing. ‘God purify my heart, I’m a poor sinner’, he sang. And then he started paying attention to the rest of the text.

Oh Great Man in heaven purify my heart, I’m a poor sinner.

Oh Great Man in heaven purify my heart, and keep me from sins

Save me from strange women so I can be a Real Man

Leading my family, being a leader, fulfilling my destiny

He stopped singing. What was this even? He let the rest of the service wash over him like a flood of words and sounds, deep in thoughts about what he had heard and sung.

‘The Mighty Man bless this Glorious Nation, to keep it from harm

The Great God will crush our enemies, whenever they rise up

The God of Wealth will bless our economy, and make it grow and grow

And we will be the greatest thing history has ever known’

*

When he walked back home from church with Paul, he tried to put words to his uneasiness with what he had seen. ‘If I am to believe what I heard in church today in combination with what the rest of society tells me, I’m afraid that we’re all going to hell. Be a man, think about sex all the time, or you’re a wussie. If you take one look at those naked girl pictures you’re going to hell. Nice combination in which no-one can win. The theology of universal damnation, or make that at least universal male damnation. I can’t speak for the girls because they’re not even in the picture except for being a temptation.’

Paul stopped, and looked him in the eyes. ‘Huh? You’re taking this way too seriously, Michael.’

‘That dude is yelling at us that we’ll burn for all eternity for things that we’re pushed into doing all the time if we want to be a Real Man, and I shouldn’t take it seriously?’

‘No-one does, don’t you see? No-one really believes the church. They need to be so extreme so that anyone will listen.’

‘That makes it even worse… Something is wrong, on all sides. Seriously.’

‘You’re thinking way too deeply, bro! Theology of universal male damnation? Where do you even get fancy words like that. Shouldn’t you be getting ready to meet your bride-to-be anyway, lucky man?’

‘I feel like such a monster now, after all that stuff I just heard. As if a man can only be a dirty monster, and has to be punished forever for that. How can I even look a girl in the eyes?’

‘Man, again, why so serious? You know that women like to submit to men, and do everything to please their husband. It comes natural for them. It will all work out.’

‘If you brainwash them enough maybe. But how can you look yourself in the eyes then. By the way, anyone who thinks that about women has never met Megan.’

‘Your fiancée? How so?’

‘She’s sarcastic, intelligent, deep, opinionated, and certainly not like anything anyone ever described. Just a human, like us, but female. And I like her for that.’

‘You’ve only seen her once or twice. You can’t know her already.’

‘I’ve had two meetings with her already including one date, plus I’ve talked to her on the evening of the choice ceremony too. Everyone was too busy with a bunch of Real Men who were fighting to stop me from chatting with her, and her friend. Very enlightening I must say.’

‘You talked to two girls at a time at the Choice ceremony? No! Isn’t that like adultery. Two-timing?’

‘Nope, nothing wrong with talking. It’s more like friendship. They’re just human beings like us, I said. Nothing magical or indecent about talking to a girl. I talked to both of them too on our second date, she was the chaperon.’

‘Now you’re sounding dangerous, Michael!’

‘I am not dangerous. This whole world has it upside down. And I’m on a quest to find something more healthy than that, something more normal and natural. And I believe friendship is the key to end this screwed-up war of the sexes.’

‘But talking to a girl you’re not engaged to? You’re going to like her, and want her too. There is a reason we can only meet girls when we’re ready, and are supposed to see our own Wife and no other women.’

‘It’s nonsense, Paul. Women are persons, and I can be friends with them. I bet we all could if we tried, at least if we weren’t so brainwashed.’

‘Whatever you say…’

Paul clearly wasn’t interested in Michaels new way of thinking. ‘See you next week in church.’

Michael wasn’t so sure he’d ever go to church again. He was an adult who made his own choices now, and he felt like he was outgrowing everything that he had always taken for granted before.