Two weeks later Michael was reading his way through a copy of ‘how to please your husband: advanced lessons’ inside in the bar. He had worked hard with Eliza and Megan to make more concrete plans for the Pen Pal project to connect boys and girls in The Nation, and now he would meet two black market representatives to connect both sides for the first time in the history of The Nation. He was just reading what a dedicated Wife had to do when her husband came home after a long workday when a female voice took him out of his hyperfocus.

‘You must be Michael Adams.’

He looked up and saw a young woman in her twenties with a briefcase and realised that it would be too late to hide what he was reading.

‘That’s me, nice to meet you. You must be Eliza’s higher-up black market trader contact.’ He said casually.

‘Andrea McDonald, trade networker. Eliza said I had to ask for the password. Not that I think there will be many men of her age reading rather mature Wife School handbooks here.’

His face reddened a bit when he put away his book. ‘I’m studying what anti-male stereotypes I have to counteract. And it’s not really a fun read. This copy is for your male colleague anyway, it’s quite valuable on the other side of the black market. And the password is “Only Love Can Destroy Hate”.’

Andrea nodded. ‘Yup, that’s Eliza. Who else would come up with that? It was a quote from some 20th century saint I think, one that wouldn’t be liked much by The Church today though. She’s one of our most curious clients and contacts, that little Wife School girl.’ She said.

‘It’s about the meaning of the words. And there’s a second part: do you pledge your allegiance to all friendly people, regardless of sex, rating or identity status?’ Michael said, and Andrea nodded again.

‘I do. It’s rather radical ,but maybe that’s what our times ask for. Was that pledge really Eliza’s own invention?’ He shrugged.

‘I think so, she proposed it herself at least. It’s clear that she means it and wants us all to mean it. So whether it’s 100% her words or taken from elsewhere, it comes straight from her heart.’

‘She’s just casually writing history if this catches on. And not just by asking me to have a drink with a random dude that’s already engaged. I mean me, who hasn’t even talked to a man man and who graduated Wife School as a single woman years ago, and whose biggest income is the black market, and certainly not my lousy day job.’

‘You’re a non-Wife in a low-paying job? You don’t look like one.’

‘It’s more a tactical decision, like how Eliza’s still in a Wife School. Through the cleaning firm it’s easy to infiltrate Wife Schools and other places.’

‘That drink is a good idea by the way.’ He waved at Tom, and they ordered two Nation-cokes. ‘And I’m not really random at all. This wouldn’t work with every man. My brother and father would see it as a capital offence against Real Manhood to only talk to you I suppose. And those are still the men who don’t use women as sex objects. But for them rated non-Wives are a threat, you know what I mean. And they would find Eliza’s pledge subversive nonsense for wussies. Hierarchy and status is everything for them. And if you’re not a man who’s high enough on the latter you don’t deserve friendliness, or even being treated as a human being. Or you can hunt them down with a rifle if they are unrated feral men.’

He told about his brother’s gun and the attacks of the feral men.

‘Ah, but that story is not correct. It’s much more complicated what happened in Tenth City Ghost Town. When the feral men attacked Tenth City Ghost town the sisters there evacuated everyone temporary to another part of the squat village, only to take it back a few days later, by surprise. The ferals were all captured, and dropped in faraway forest in groups of 2 without any weapons, and the most aggressive of them and the leaders were nicely delivered to the police station, stunned and bound, packed as a present with pink ribbons. The sisters may never kill anyone if they can avoid it, but rest assured that they are neither harmless nor defenceless, and they have their own weapons to take you out. No-one knows how they do it. Some kind of sleeping gas or so.’ He leaned back. ‘One more reason to respect them.’

‘A level one man respecting the Ghost Town women after hearing that, instead of fearing them? Good match with Eliza’ Andrea said, thoughtfully.

‘Hey, we’re just friends. She’s not my Wife School match at all.’

‘There’s no “just” here when it comes to friendship between men and women, dear boy, the friendship is what makes it dangerous, and interesting. You can’t go more revolutionary than that.’

Tom came with two drinks. ‘One Nation-Coke for you, and one for your new lady friend,’ he said with a sarcastic undertone in his voice.

‘Stop insinuating things, Tom. I’ll always be faithful to my fiancée, even if I have a lot of female friends. And this is just an important business negotiation anyway.’

Tom disappeared with a grin on his face.

‘He thinks it unhealthy that I’m meeting so much women… Probably also a problem with the “just friends” idea…’ He sighed.

‘Who doesn’t in this Nation? Do you blame him for that? He doesn’t look like an actual women-hater. I would’ve felt that. I think he’s just a bit jealous. I gather he’s still single?’

‘He’s single I think. And you’re right that he isn’t toxic like my brother or dad. Maybe I should introduce him to the girls. His sarcasm is a language they understand, and they like it more than the usual commands or remarks about their appearance that they usually get from men, and it’s mostly aimed at me anyway, not at them.’ He sipped from his Coke.

‘Men are really not what I expected.’ Andrea said.

‘I’m not “men”, I’m just me. Every man is a different person just like every woman. It’s wrong to think people are stereotypes. But let’s get down to business. I suppose Eliza told you about Project Pen Pal?’ Michael said.

‘She did, and I must say not everyone is equally enthusiastic about it, but it made me very curious about what man was able to make her connect our two different sides. They’ve always called her Eliza the man-hater, even in the Ghost Towns they know her by that name. And still she was very positive about you, and now you’re sitting here as a man talking about Ghost Towns and Wife School books as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. That alone means there is some potential for this thing I’s say. Even if it’s just for some oddballs and outliers, but those are our target demographic anyway as black market traders.’

‘I’m not that special, but maybe oddball and outlier is not that inaccurate. Gamma-1 and brainie, and the opposite of a Real Man, but I’m very real and undoubtedly I’m only a simple man. But there will be a lot of more Real Men who see it differently.’ He shivered, thinking of Don and John.

‘Be assured that you are a rather special specimen indeed, Mister Adams who declared himself not random at all a minute ago. Oh, and by the way, it seems you were the one who finally gave us the first meeting questionnaire too, and so solved an age-old mystery. We were looking at that paper together for quite a while in astonishment in the secret warehouse.’

‘I completely forgot about. That was me inded. Stupid list anyway. And the biggest obstacles I have in being friends with girls are not the girls themselves but our stupid society and the nonsensical Be-a-Man stuff that wants me to be the worst possible version of myself.’

Andrea smiled. ‘I start to understand what Eliza meant with a pledge to all friendly people, regardless of sex, rating or identity status. But I’m not sure that the Central Computer will like it. And a lot of men and women will be opposed to the idea alone.’

‘The Central Computer had no feelings, and its followers are trained to never use their own brains. But we’re breaking no explicit rules. Eliza has investigated it, and it seems she’s quite knowledgeable about laws too among other things. Only the unwritten rules about what is decent and proper are our problem. Girls reading advanced robotics handbooks are already a breach of those rules anyway…’

She smiled. ‘I know, Eliza herself has given me copies of extracts of the law book. Just as she did years ago about the black market itself. She was interesting for us the moment she ordered her first book at the age of twelve.’ ‘So we’re technically not breaking rules, but you’re doing things that are not planned nor recommended by the Central Computer with the black market. Its blind conservativeness is on our side here, since they will not make new laws against new stuff. The original Central Computer doctrine is more important, no innovations you know.’ Michael said.

‘I know that originalism is a bit boring, but it’s also clueless sometimes against new situations. No-one says that we can’t do innovations against which their program has no answers. It’s time to change the narrative and let that old machine’s head explode.’ He added.

‘By letting boys and girls write letters? Original revolution… Where are the guns and bombs?’

‘Hey, I always say that I just want a quiet life, but everything that makes sense to me is revolutionary to The Nation, and guns and bombs don’t make me comfortable at all,’ he sighed, and then he stood up from his chair to welcome a newcomer who had entered the room.

‘And there we have number two for our historical moment. He took a step to shake the hand of a young man, only slightly older than himself.

‘And here is Joe Roberts. Black market trader and expert adviser on the other side of the great divide between the sexes. I’ve had some talk with him before, and I promised him some stuff too. Joe, what’s the password?’

‘Only Love Can Destroy Hate’ Joe mumbled.

‘And do you pledge your allegiance to all friendly people, regardless of sex, rating or identity status?’

‘I understand that I have to, so I do.’ ‘Here’s you’re colleague from the other side, Andrea McDonald. High-ranking trader in the female world.’ Joe took a clumsy bow. ‘Nice to meet you, mylady,’

Michael promptly added ‘you have to forgive us our clumsiness in being polite to women, we’re making things up on the spot that don’t even exist in our culture, you know.’

She smiled. ‘Eliza told me that too. But everything is better than the usual treatment, so experiment with honorifics all you want, I don’t mind being called lady Andrea at all… I never imagined that talking to men could be fun even.’

When they were both seated Michael took some papers. ‘So, now that you both know each other, I will give you both some payments from me and Eliza, and you both can arrange how to connect both markets. It will shake up things, and even devalue some valuables, but with a connected black market it might get a lot more interesting and there’s a whole world of new possibilities too that makes up for a lower price of men beers on the female side.’ Both traders nodded while he took out a big bag of books that he had collected from his room and some men beer for Andrea, and a pile of Wife School books, cookbooks and some fruit beers for Joe.

‘It’s stupid but Eliza says that men beer are very valuable on the female black market. And it might be strange too, but there’s quite a few men who want to learn how to cook it seems, and these books are only sold to women for some reason. The gatekeepers of the sexes are so arbitrary in what is for who, but they’re real and aggressive, and the black market is one thing that can defeat them. So this is a first trade from Team Michael and Eliza to bring together both sides, together with your addresses and phone numbers. Make sure that Tom doesn’t see the exchange of beers though. His poor soul isn’t ready for that.’

The eyes of both traders lit up when they looked at their goods, and for a while they did nothing but looking at the books they had received in delight.

Half an hour later they hadn’t just talked about Project Pen Pal, but also a established a whole plan to trade books, tools, drinks, and even make-up. It seemed that both Joe and Andrea, while careful and even a bit insecure about talking to the other sex, were quite thrilled with the new developments. There would be so much possibilities with both black markets connected, and expanded to an alternative postal service for boys and girls in their schools. A whole Pen Pal introduction system in which boys and girls described themselves and then could be written by someone who wanted to get to know them was also agreed on. Eliza had even arranged a way to print a flyer about the project that could be distributed in the schools.

While officially the focus was on forming friendships, they all knew what Eliza had invented: a system to circumvent the whole Ceremony of Partner Choice system, by picking out a partner beforehand from your pen pals. It was simple and revolutionary, and it would greatly increase the chance on a marriage that could work. Eliza had even invented a little pin that girls could wear on their bikini, to show those who knew that they were taken already, even though it would take a while before such a system would be able to lead to actual friendships and later potential couples.

It was still far from perfect, for example in that another boy could still choose a girl with a Pen Pal pin, but Eliza had expected that once they heard about it the boys who wanted a submissive wife would learn to avoid the Pen Pal girls, and interpret the badge as a damaged-goods-light stamp. A Pen Pal girl would be in contact with other boys already, would be too independent, and not what a traditional nation man would want. Poor old Manfred would roll over in his grave if he saw how his system became subverted, but anyone with only a few braincells should know by now that his experiment had failed, and that it was time to try something new.

*

That same afternoon Megan was staring at the blackboard in ultimate boredom. ‘And that is how we manage to keep procreation within marriage in our Nation, as it should,’ Miss Hunter said, drawing diagrams on the schoolboard. ‘our glorious Ancon shoulder patches!’

‘Why does everyone in this stupid country have to be glorious or magnificent and other idiotic superlatives?’ Megan whispered to Eliza.

‘You would do better to be silent now, Megan Anderson.’ Miss Hunter said. ‘You’re on the list to get married within a year, and your results are really not so impressive for a girl of your intelligence. How will you ever become a decent Wife like that if your grades get worse just before graduating? Our school can’t supply a Gamma-one man with a badly-trained wife! That would be bad for our reputation.’

‘Don’t you think I haven’t heard all of this a thousand times, Miss Hunter? This isn’t going to help me become a better Wife at all.’

Miss Hunter fell back into her chair. The E-girls were the hardest students to keep in line indeed. Usually because they weren’t the brightest flame in the chandelier, but this class had some very sophisticated rebellious elements too, which she had tolerated too much already.

‘Neither will any high-rated husband like yours ever allow such brutality, Megan. But if you’re such an expert, Miss Anderson, tell us everything about the Ancom shoulder chip.’

Megan took a deep breath.

‘Every twelve year old gets one, and it can work for a lifetime. It is the most perfected from of anticonception ever in the history of our species. Glorious and Magnificent and all that jazz, whatever jazz is even supposed to be. And no matter what happens you’ll never get pregnant, because it blocks the gametes from fusing. Both the Wife and the Husband have the chip, so both sperm cells and the ovum are disabled. Even fornication or rape will never lead to pregnancy, as you’ll never conceive unless both partners are officially cleared for procreated and released of their Ancon-chips. This means that there are no unwanted pregnancies in The Nation, which keeps our society ordered and yadda yadda. For 98,7% of the people the infertility is completely reversible, unlike the earlier pre-Nation versions that were less stable. So if a couple is cleared for procreation, normally the fertility will be back within two months, and the woman can get pregnant if they have sexual intercourse during the ovulation phase of…’

She talked on as if she was reading some newspaper article, much to Miss Hunter’s annoyance, who finally got up from her chair and clapped in her hands. ‘Yes, yes. That’s enough, Megan. You know your lesson indeed, You don’t need to show off.’

‘But, Miss Hunter, you asked me…’

‘Nevermind, Megan. By the way, did you get your information pack about marriage yet?’

‘My what?’

‘You should have received it, but it seems something logistically has happened. The package with the extra books about legal procedures around marriage, extra tips on man husbandry, and advanced Wife techniques. Plus some checklists with everything that needs to be ready before the big day…’

Megans enthusiasm took a plunge in the deep and she just nodded mechanically. She wasn’t in the mood to think of weddings, let alone the prospect of leaving Seventh City Wife School to become an actual Wife. But the thing that scared her even more about wedding preparations was that she feared that her father would have to be involved. Her father, and his father too. Living together with Michael wouldn’t be the problem, all the rest was. He was just like her best girl friends in how he made her feel at home and took away her social anxiety.

‘Even with all the lessons we provide to prepare you, you’ll find being married to a man a completely different experience, and one that you cannot in any way prepare for. Men are complex creatures that are completely unlike us, women…’

‘The ones I talked to had more sense than you. And they seemed pretty human.’

Everyone heard Eliza say it, and all eyes turned to her.

‘Eliza, don’t make a fool of yourself again.’

‘Okay, okay. I’ll retract earlier statement. Men are weird entitled oversexed animals that are utterly irrational and have a bad temper and we need to put up with every little whim they have. Oh and on the other side they’re superior and more rational than us, and thus worthy of being leaders, unlike us women who are silly and stupid and not trustworthy because we have feelings and hormones an all. And men are better because they have testosterone, which is not at all a hormone evidently… Just as anger isn’t an emotion at all and always justified in a man, even when all of our female emotions make us irrational and less stable…’

‘Eliza!’

‘Sorry, that was the short version of what I’ve learned from you in all those years. It’s still utter twaddle. Talking to decent boys taught me other things though, and while I still don’t plan on ever getting married I have to admit that there are at least two or three or so on the planet that are worth being friends with.’

‘Eliza!’

She got up. ‘Okay, I’ll remove myself from this class, Miss Hunter.’ She said, walking out of the classroom, leaving behind a fuming teacher and an amused class once again.

Eliza sighed while she slammed the door behind her. This had been such a waste of time again. She went straight to her dorm room to read some new letters, and write others. There were so many things she had to arrange, and the time was short.

*

‘Son, it’s time to talk about your future.’ David Adams suddenly said to his son while eating breakfast the next morning.

‘What do you mean?’ Michael asked, taken aback.

‘If you’re going to get married, you need to find a new place to live with her.’

He felt his insides freeze up. ‘But, it’s way too early to think of such things now. I can’t marry yet. The Wife School procedure is at least one year if you’re under twenty. And I have to study. I can’t go live alone with Megan as a student, I don’t have any money.’

‘Well, sonny. I don’t have too much extra money either for fancy schools, and you’re a man now, who will marry soon. It’ll cost me enough already to organise a wedding, so we can better do that as soon as possible so we’re done with that, and then you can fly on your own wings.’

‘But I need to study for at least four more years for your diploma. I can’t get a job now.’

‘Well, there’s always the scholarship system for students on their own. And maybe your wifey can find a job for the first years. It’s not like you’ll be eligible for kids as long as you’re studying. Even Sam didn’t get his procreation permit yet.’

‘But how could that even work?’ His brains worked like crazy while he went over all the possibilities. It would probably be much better to live together with Megan somewhere than with his dad here, but that would mean much more relationship with her than he had now, or was ready for. Plus there was one big disaster waiting in between that uncertain future life as a couple and now: a wedding ceremony, one that included the families of both partners. One in which their parents could show off, and one in which the worst ideas of marriage and men and women were institutionalised and codified into creepy vows and strange rituals.

‘You’re the brainie boy. You’ll figure things out. I just warn you that when the time is there you’ll marry in a fine ceremony and then move out. I can’t be paying for an endless student who doesn’t do any manly work at all.’ Ah, so that was the problem for his dad. Studying and working with your head wasn’t manly enough, and even with his level one rating he still wasn’t the trophy son his father wanted. So he wanted him gone, with a wedding ceremony he could brag about, so his bastion of manliness wouldn’t be soiled anymore with an unworthy unmanly bookworm who hung out with girls whenever he could, and dissected oldschool robots for a hobby.

But still, being a married student? He never really considered that possibility. It was not really a normal situation in The Nation. Sure he could make enough money as a Gamma-one even with a part-time student job. And she could work as well, maybe Angela and Sam could help her find a job even. They wouldn’t need that much, a working student wouldn’t get much more than a little state apartment, married or not. But what would Megan say? What did she expect? Wait, she probably had realised it all along, and he hadn’t been able to get it. He’d always thought of marriage as something far away, and she had shared in his avoidance of the subject, but maybe that wasn’t because she had agreed with it, but because she knew how soon it could be and because she didn’t want to think of it yet…