She could be your mother, wife, sister, daughter, girlfriend, BFF, mentor, boss. She could be the nice girl you smile at barely paying her bills at the corner shop or that rich, snobby lady with that big mansion down-town who laughs at you everytime she sees you. Whoever she is, she is a female. Whoever she is, she’s a murderer. She might not even be a she. Might even be a whole crowd of women plotting to overthrow the divine rule of men.
-Hector Larson
It’s twelve o’ clock, midnight. In a normal society, I should be sleeping, but I’m not. I should be dreaming, I’m not. Because I’m female, I’m supposed to be up basically 24/7. What I should decidedly not be doing is being on my lap-top, logged on to a male-only radio broadcast . Hundreds, maybe even thousands of female hackers attempt to hack into the broadcast every single night. I simply log-on. The broadcast is encrypted, but not password protected.
If anybody was to see me here, I would be hauled up, interrogated for ‘Questionable Activities’. Questionable Activities? Questionable Activities is having skeevy broadcasts in the middle of the night, arguing the effects of making the whole female gender extinct.
Why not? They argue. We now have robots that can bear children, with smart sensors to automatically eliminate all females. What is the point of having females anymore?
I work through the night, e-mailing friends about the new developments.
They all don’t reply. Of course not. I’m one of the few with the guts to send messages at this time of night.
Then, a private message comes by my hidden dashboard.
There are better things to do with your life than risk it for such little info
-PG
Paris German, a small-town artist. An old friend. My father’s friend’s son.
There are better things to do with your life than risk it to warn a girl that won’t listen.
-CT
I reply, checking the Male database as I wait for his retort. This is usually how it all starts. I send some risky e-mails, he warns me teasingly, I tease back, and we talk all through the night.
When are you getting married?
How dare he! He knows how I feel about the new marry-by-age-14 mandate, which totally irks me. There are thirty-year-old bachelors and no one gives them a bit of notice. But a fifteen-year-old bachelorette can be caught and executed for ‘treason’. Honestly, I’ve never been interested in romance at all. My only love has been to catch the mysterious ‘Trigger’ and restore gender equality in our system. Not that there was ever gender equality, as my mother had remarked before she was brought for execution. It’s a pretty simple system actually.
Girls marry at age 14 to have a husband to make sure they don’t ‘run amok’. When their husbands die, unless they re-marry in two weeks, they are brought in on ‘Questionable Activities’ and are executed. Never mind the fact they have children, or siblings, or family always looking forward to their return. Any female aged over 14 and unmarried is a threat to the nice system of doing things.
Don’t have a fiancee.
I reply, waiting for the response. I’m turning 14 in three weeks. Which basically means I’m going to be executed in three weeks unless I find somebody. I’ve had my eye out for a man in the ministry for forever. It doesn’t matter which man, unless he’s married. He just needs to be a man in the ministry.
Good Morning, Miss Toronto.
-Hector Larson
I swear under my breath. I could not be so unlucky as to have been traced down by one of the most misogynistic, unreasonable, government officials in the argument.
Cassandra, will you marry me?
-PG
My heart skips a beat. Paris and I. We’ve been BFFs for forever. But, I could never marry him, if simply for the fact he is not a man of the ministry.
Sorry, no
Is my sharp, sorrow-filled reply. It wouldn’t be too bad, being a Mrs. German. But there are higher-order men out there. Men that can finally bring me into the inner workings of the only-male government.
My computer gives me a notification to say he has signed off. I sigh. It’s a dreadful end to a long-time friendship, but if I marry, I want my marriage to mean something. If I die, I want my death to have a similar meaning. You can chase me, attack me, hunt me down, but everything I do will still be an act of rebellion. I think about who I might marry. Athenios Parker. He’s an up-and-coming ministry man, who has paid us many visits, but it’s my fondest belief that he is interested in Paige instead of me.
To my surprise, Larson sends me another message.
You should marry.
No fiancee
I reply, hands trembling. I have just sealed my death sentence, speaking in an insubordinate manner to a government official.
I could be. You’re pretty. It says in your file that you have domestic skills, your results are ordinary, but then again women should not be smart. It says in your file that you have a thing for government men, and that you don’t believe in women’s rights. I must say, that is especially intriguing, rare. I always love a girl who doesn’t put up a fight.
Nausea immediately floods my senses, but eventually I come to. Did a government official just offer to marry me? Of course, everything he wants to marry me for is a lie. I had Paris, who is allowed free access to the Male Network change details of the file for me.
Don’t you have a wife?
I reply. The home-life of Hector Larson is a debatable issue. He’s known as extremely bright and dedicated. He joined the ministry as a clerk/intern at age 12. He scored with his well-known misogynistic ideals. He pursued a Doctorate (anybody can get a doctorate these days, as long as they’re male) at age 13, his topic being The Negative Effects of The Existence of The Female Gene, which of course, despite it’s relative un-scientific-ness let him gain huge popularity within the Ministry. By age 16, he was a Minister for the Ministry of Communications. It is widely believed that he took a wife at age 17. He transferred, becoming the head detective of the rounding up of women committing ‘Questionable Activities’. Now age 20, with a full life ahead of him and a supposed wife, there is no reason why he should be flirting with a known 14-year-old rebel unless he doesn’t actually have a wife.
No, where did you hear that? I’ve been looking for someone like you for a while. Less feisty, less independance-oriented. More like the way women are supposed to be, you know?
I think for a while. His offer is more than convenient. Escaping both the death penalty and finding out more of the mysterious murderer is a very nice deal, but, after all, I’ve only just met him. No, not even met, just talked to him. I know for a fact he’s not a that-bad looking guy, but what matters i the fact that he is a misogynistic, biased idiot who deserves a bullet in his head.
Yep, but if I marry him, I can be the person to put that particular bullet in his head.
And he’s a work-guy, not a family man. I won’t see him much anyway.
I’d love to marry you.
I write back smiling. He returns with a long list of wedding preparations.
Paris sends me another message.
Traitor.
