My mother's hand sat lightly on my back, and Nina leaned close at my side as the final verdict was read aloud for the record. The countdown to ten began, and at nine, I could feel the collective inhale as everyone in the room held their breath. The clank of the rope system and the bang of the evaporator door was followed by a loud room-wide exhale.
Jason patted my hand when it was over. I felt my mother move from my side as the news anchor recounted the verdict and the fact that this was the fourth execution for this site this year.
“So, do you still want to meet everyone at the square?” Jason asked, rising from the overstuffed couch.
“Yes, I do. I'll be home before too late, Daddy.” I put my hand on my father's shoulder and felt his warm hand reach back to pat mine.
“Be careful, the crowd can be overly excited after these things.” My father warned, tapping on his phone. “Call me if you have any problems.”
“Yes, Sir, I will keep my eye on her.” Jason shook my father's hand quickly and yelled out goodbye to the household. Hess leaned against the doorway to the hallway and scowled at us both.
“Hess seems pissed,” Jason commented once we got in the car.
“Hess doesn't want to sign my family papers. He thinks we shouldn't marry so young.” As I said the words, I felt embarrassed to have such a dramatic family member interfering in our business. “But I don't care what Hess thinks.”
Jason smiled and shook his head. I knew he didn't care either. We could wait out the year until my seventeenth birthday or petition the court for a license without my family's many blessings. The stupid brother problem will have to wait for tomorrow because tonight the moonlight is calling my name.
THE GALLOWS
Humanity is easily excited. At least that is what my history teacher loves to say. Tonight, I understand what he’s talking about. The air in the town square was super-charged with righteous violence, and the gluttony fried foods encourage.
The murderer experienced swift justice. Dressed in white cloth and hanging from the gallows, the image of his swinging body being cut free and tumbling into the evaporator would not leave my mind for some time.
I’m sure this was the intent of the government spectacle. Show the masses what happens when you kill without their blessing. If you want to surrender your life fine, that act will have ceremony and meaning, but if you break a law it’s the gallows for you. Either the gallows or little cakes and poisoned fruit, you’re still dead. It was a distinction without any real difference, in my opinion.
Being out with our friends in this primal atmosphere was exciting. You could smell the adrenaline in everyone’s veins, but it was safe, there was no real danger. Truly dangerous people were bred out of our population long ago.
Diff and his new protection path buddies were already at a table drinking when we arrived. Aqua and our friend Blue were on the way to meet us, so I pulled two more chairs to our table.
Diff was celebrating his recent betrothal to the young daughter of a family friend. Hearing him explain the situation made my head hot and woozy, I could barely pay attention. He was taking his mother’s family name, Allerton. His fiancé was thirteen and would live with his family until she turned sixteen, then they would marry. This one point of fact stopped me from hearing anything further.
“Wait, she’s how old?” I asked.
Diff put his beer down and leaned closer to me. “She is thirteen now, but we won’t marry for three years Kar, it’s legitimate, there is a contract and everything.”
“But you don’t like girls,” I reminded him in hushed tones.
“I don’t dislike girls completely. I just like guys more.” Diff explained quietly.
As I contemplated my oldest friend’s perfect bedroom partners, an old story began to replay in my mind. It was the tale of the Unity when the original houses pulled their armies together to put down the European Continental take over. They were required to prove they were descendants of the original thirteen colony settlers. This lineage gave them a birthright to the old American territory.
Fuller had the largest army after they combined with the Jones militia. The two families secured the continent for the Americans and the Canadians. With no water technology and widespread fear of starvation, South America followed soon after.
The original twenty family lines married off their children to secure the wealth and the militias from connected but non-lineage families. This tactic provided military support and men to the cause. I remember reading how ten-year-old boys were married off to days-old infant girls to secure these family ties. It was the beginning of the posthumous breading rights act and the most significant population boom since the comet hit the planet and boiled away the oceans.
“Congratulations, Difference, she sounds lovely,” I said politely. I tried to smile and sound sincere, but panic was settling in my mind.
I needed to talk to Dredge. He was the oldest person of influence I knew. Something wasn’t right here. Jason wanted a craft soda, and Diff wanted a fresh beer, so I went to a vendor to grab a round of drinks. I called Dredge while I waited in line. I was passed from one secretary to the next until one found him in an off-site storage warehouse.
“Karine, my dear, is something wrong?” Dredge asked.
“No, nothing’s wrong. Jason is fine, but I need to talk to you. It’s the Unity all over again. People are marrying off their children to original settler families. They are changing their names to show their bloodlines. We just did the same thing.
