End of Women: Part Five

Robin

Saturday, June 3, 2028

"I don't want to tell you again. Get your butt down here or we're going to be late!"

Robin Turner sighed and switched off his Playstation. He then finally pulled on the ridiculous smart pants and polo neck tee shirt his mother had bought, judging by the feel of the material, at last week's flea market. It was scratchy like a bad team jersey and felt tight, even though he was by all accounts one of the skinniest and smallest boys in his class.

"I'm coming!" He called down the stairs for the fifth time in an hour. 

He took a long, sad look around his room. Just as always, he didn't feel like it was really his room. Everything was second-hand and crummy, all the dvd's and books were ones approved by his mother and bought for him. He had once put up a band poster for the ska-punk group Reztar, but that had been angrily torn down and replaced with a VOTE LILITH banner. Even if he had been the perfect little feminist his Mom had trained him to be, it didn't make much sense for a ten-year-old to be supporting political candidates. 

Robin ran into his sister in the hallway. She was, of course, decked out in all new and brand-label clothing from the outlet stores, looking like a contestant on America's Got Talent. She smirked at him as she passed, rolling her eyes as if the very fact of his presence was an irritation she would have to endure. 

"Come on, short round." She sniped back at him on the stairs, deliberately knocking over a vase to trip him up. He didn't see it until the last moment, and trip he did, right onto his face on the carpeted floor. Robin quickly spun around and grabbed the vase before it landed after him, breathing a sigh of relief. At the sound of the thump, his Mom came rushing into the hallway.

"Robin! For goodness sake, be careful!" She hissed, cropped bonde hairdo swooshing about and her heavily made up face creasing with anger. She hurried them both into the car, Robin in the backseat, Tanya in the front, as always.

The convention center was packed out by the time they arrived. A line of cars snaked two blocks back leading up to the lot, and all along the roadsides there were billboards repeating the same message. LILITH: FIRST FOR AMERICA; YOUR VOTE, HER MISSION; TIME FOR REAL CHANGE.

"Do you know if she's signing autographs?" Tanya asked giddily, setting her TabPhone on the charging pad between the two front seats.

"I'm sure she's super excited to meet all the young girls, sweetie." Their Mom replied, and Tanya could not help but shoot another smug glance at Robin. He ignored it, instead gazing longingly at the gadget store on the high street that his Mom had never let him enter. He noticed the store was open, and saw a couple of his friends from school emerging carrying telescopes and night-vision goggles. His heart burned with jealousy, and expected to hear all about how cool these things were on Monday. 

Some old song about single ladies was playing on loudspeakers as they joined the crowds filing through the gates into the convention center. Robin walked behind his mother and sister, noticing immediately that almost all of the attendees were women and girls, chatting excitedly, exchanging phone numbers, handing out flyers, taking names on political polls. He got a mixture of looks when they saw him; some cooed with "Oh, how cute!" and others scowled while they muttered, "Look, there goes another future rapist."

His Mom ran into a group of women she knew from work and immediately burst into rapid conversation. Robin shoved his hands into his pockets and kicked idly at the floor, grinding his teeth. He tried to think of somewhere he would less enjoy being on a Saturday. The morgue? No, that might be halfway interesting. Maybe ground zero at some hideous viral outbreak, or Hiroshima, 1945? Still no. In those cases he might actually have been able to do something useful, or at least have enjoyed a quick death.