Paired

Chapter 1

     It was weeks before my Pairing Night. I wasn’t going to be the only one paired that night. So that just meant I wasn’t the only one that looked like a fool dancing around and day dreaming about my Pair during Academics. A traditional Pairing Night was when up to twenty-three girls would be paired that night. The reason they paired twenty-three girls was because the United States had been cut into twenty-three provinces. One girl, for one boy among the twenty-three areas.

     I have always wondered what my Pair would be like since the day your parents are supposed to tell you. It is mandatory for each boy and girl to be told by their parent/guardian about Pairing Night on their 11th birthday. Most people thought 11 years old was too young to be told about when they would be paired with someone they would have children with. Their opinion was that it would just make children more interested in girls if you were a boy and boys if you were a girl. My opinion was that we had the right to know about pairing because it would be able to prepare us for our future. I wish we could be told sooner! There was no way that could happen because other people didn’t want us to be thinking wrong things at such a young age. Screw them, I always thought, they don’t know anything.

     And it was always the older generation saying nonsense like that. They were young folks at some point; weren’t they ever excited for their Pairing Night? Or maybe they were Singles. Singles were people who would never be paired with anyone. Most Singles lived alone with about a dozen cats or other animals. They lived alone and were forbidden to ever come in contact with other Singles. When you’re chosen to be a Single, you could never be with anyone. And if they were single too, you couldn’t be with them either.

     I did hear one story though where a Single had snuck from their home and disappeared. The funny thing was, another person, a male, was reported of disappearance as well. Apparently, they were both single and couldn’t take it. They were later found hiding in the restricted part of some forest in a very far away province with three children. They later were executed for disobeying the law and the children were put into home with a couple who couldn’t have children. There was a horrible rumor though. The rumor was that they executed the children as well and told the locals that the children were in good hands. But how would we know if they did that? Some people believed they were lying and hired some fake actors to play the children. There was one point where I believed it because I had never seen what the real children of the escaping Singles looked like. And to prove the locals wrong, they took a blood test of the actual dead Singles and it matched the children. Honestly, they went too far. But they did prove themselves right.

     The excitement continued as the days got closer. I really didn’t want it to come because I was so nervous and I really did want to come because I wanted to see my pair as much as anything! It’s another tradition for your Mother to give you a special talk a week before your preparations for your Pairing Night. Before you get any ideas, NO it’s not “the talk”, it’s just a normal conversation between you and your Mother. I heard the things the Mother is supposed to tell you are some lessons about life and things you need to know about being a wise Mother and a respectful wife. And if your Mother wasn’t in the picture, your Aunt or a close friend’s Mother would be the one giving you the talk on life. I sometimes imagined me giving the talk to my own daughter. And for the boys, their Dad has to give them the talk of life. I believe they just talk about being there for the children and only loving your wife. Cheating really is out of the question.

     In every province, every citizen will be executed if they cheat on their Pair, or wife; whatever you want to call it. I never really dream of cheating on my Pair because I hope to be in love with him until the day I die.

     Divorce isn’t illegal though. It isn’t common, but I do know a family with only one parent because the Father would abuse his wife. He was thrown into the jail down the street at the end of our province. Being an abuser doesn’t get you a date to be executed. You have to break a law to be executed. He was ordered three live sentences for hurting his wife so I guess he will have to suffer the consequences and die in jail.