29 Minutes

One

Middle Division, New Earth, 0015 A.N(After Neocallers)

 2056 O.E (Old Earth date)

Time; 11:30 pm

“Will you look at her?”

“Yes, yes... I've looked already. She's stunning.”

“The Governor’s son is one lucky sun of a…”

“Damien! You should never talk like that in the open! You might be overheard!”

“I only meant it as a compliment, Teresa.”

“Never mind that. Move along, she might overhear us.”

The nosy strangers were just shuffling off to find the nearest exit to the Café and Aisle was glad she did not have to listen to their gossip for another minute longer. It had been worse the first couple of months when her announcement of being hitched to the Governor’s son was made. She turned every single head in her hometown even when she went to the grocery shop to pick up a few things.

Not that she wasn’t used to turning heads already. Aisle was probably the only girl in the Middle Division who could say she would have had any man she wanted with the snap of her finger. If having a man was as simole as that. Her father had dealt every boy a low blow when he took the time to teach her something worthwhile and now she was not as empty in her head as women were supposed to be. Now they had to have some sort of security in their lives in order to secure the elusive Aisle.

Life had been hard for Aisle even if to anyone outside, she was a princess living the dream. She was born when the war with the Neos was drawing to a close. Her father had been one of the many to earn a job as a builder in the Middle Division, escaping the poverty and sufferings of the ‘Commoners’. That was what Aisle had heard the adults call the people of the Lower and Outer Divisions. They were said to be uncivilized and unable to know the bottom end of a cup even if it was labeled.

Aisle had asked her mother when she was small if the people in those areas should really not be taught how to live better. Everyone on this Earth had toiled and fought to liberate themselves from the Neos after all. That was the first and last time she ever went to her mother with anything as such. The bruises on her back were firm reminders that her mother did not appreciate stupid questions during her meetings with the Society Ladies.

Her father, on the other hand, was a wonderful man. He was the most jovial human Aisle had ever seen in her life. He was an Architect. Aisle did not know what that title meant at the time, but she knew it was an important one. Every time people would point at the beautiful buildings in town, her father’s name was attached somewhere in the praise for it.

She had been so devoted to him and his work that she always snuck out of the fiercely boring tea parties of the Society Ladies to watch her father work with the dirt and stone. This she did even if she had reminders on her legs that her mother did not approve of such behavior from a lady.

Being a lady was the worst thing Aisle knew. It was a prison for her mind, sucking out every ounce of creativity that could ever flow in her being. A lady was required to always be clean and presentable at a moment’s notice for a man. A lady had to have an in depth knowledge on how to cook and wash every single item in a house for a man. The same lady also had to understand that her life was solely for ensuring that the same man she was ‘assigned’ to by the Government was nourished in both nutritional and sexual appetites.

So she had lived her life trying hard to please her mother in all the Society meetings that she was forced to attend. This was her learning institution and she had little to complain about as she was not among the girls who had to visit the local Facilities to learn what she was being taught here. But she had wanted to go to the Facilities. Aisle did not have any siblings or friends her age. Her brother had died when they were just entering the age of peace. She knows that her mother is not over that death. But she had a reminder on her left thigh that ensures she never mentions Jai’s name around her mother.