The Sector Administration building loomed overhead ominously. As she climbed the steps it seemed to grow larger.
“So, are we doing this?” The Heart boy startled her with his sudden presence. Mave didn’t answer, but when she got to the top of the stairs her resolve redoubled.
“I can’t be with you, Alan,” she said, looking up at the Goliath-like edifice in front of her. There was something exceptionally sweet about his crestfallen, heartbroken look, so she added: “Not like this, anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” she said, waving toward the building with a hand. “All of this doesn’t bother you?”
“Well, I’m mean, you’ve read the studies from proto-ark, right? This is the best way they could find.”
Alan looked up at the enormous building.
“It is a bit unfair. But even back on Earth every generation of humans made one sort of sacrifice or another for the next. How’s this different?”
“It’s different because they had the decision to make that choice, Alan.”
“Did they?”
The question lingered in the air for minutes.
“Look, it’s not like they’ve resorted to mandatory pairing. We can still choose who we want to be with, we’ve just got to be decisive about it. If you don’t want to be with anyone or don’t like your prospects, there’s always the lottery. They only take as many from the lottery as they need to make up the minimum couple quota for the sector. You might get lucky this year. Anyway, good luck. I’m really sorry you’re not interested. I think we would’ve been great, together.”
Alan gave her a small peck on the cheek and kissed her hand, then walked into the building. Mave’s heart sank. What would he do now? Part of her hoped that he’d proposed to at least one other person, but she wasn’t sure he was the type. Had she just ruined that boy’s life? But she caught herself. Alan was not her responsibility, and she owed him nothing. She had her own troubles to sort as of this moment.
She walked up to the giant, rocky structure and entered through the automatic door.
Inside she was struck by the conversations, the noise. It was complete chaos as people stood in line for the lotteries, as boys begged girls and girls boys to pair up and avoid the lotteries or, worse, deselect status. Occasionally over the ruckus Mave could hear someone’s name being called over the loudspeaker.
Two girls were arguing over a boy Mave recognized, Patrice.
“Patrice, we’d have beautiful children. I wouldn’t be clingy like some people,” she said, glaring at the other girl.
“It’s just for children,” the other girl said. “I want your genes and nothing else. How can you complain about that? They only make us stay together until that’s done. Then you can--”
Mave turned away in disgust, shivering. She saw Alan in the lottery line looking heartbroken and decided to let a few people get in line between them. She stood to the side to wait and watched the scene around her. Her lips mouthed a silent prayer to M.O.T.H.E.R. that no boy decided to come over to try his luck.
“Talking to yourself in public, Maze? Now I know you’ve gone mad.”
It was Timothy Stevens with his signature nickname for her. She, of course, hated it.
“Tim -”
“Save it, Maze. I mean, I went through all the trouble to propose to you, someone who only got one other proposal, and you don’t even have the decency to give me an answer? Wow. It’s no wonder you’re headed straight to the lotto. But hey, it’s not a problem. Got me a new girl.”
A mousy brunette appeared next to him.
“Who’s this?” she asked, eyeing Mave with an aggressive sneer.
“Nothing, sweet stuff. It’s the girl who lost to you,” he said, and right there in front of Mave gave the girl a big kiss. The brunette locked narrowed eyes with Mave as their lips parted.
“Come on, beautiful. We have a contract to sign.”
He threw an arm around her shoulder and they walked over to the couple’s line.
Mave was grateful to find that Alan was no longer in line. Had that much time passed? She got in the lottery line, surprised at how anxious, almost embarrassed, she felt as she did so. Some of the people in the couples line - which was strategically placed parallel to the lottery line, pointed at people in the line and sniggered.
She thought about the article titled ‘Deselect is Free’ and her heart sank. The truth was, someone shunned by society could never be completely free. That’s why all throughout history people fought for acceptance.
“Name?” The uninterested desk clerk asked.
“Mave Longborn,” Mave said in barely a whisper.
“Mave Longborn for the lottery.”
The clerk had shouted her name into the loudspeaker. She had heard the names but hadn’t made the connection.
Why in the name of M.O.T.H.E.R. would they do that? She thought desperately, angrily. But she already knew the reason. Entering into the lottery, the threat of deselect status, these were all pressures used to control mating patterns. In other words: play along or we’ll make it painful.
And painful it was.
The clerk handed her a thin, black slab, just large enough to be utterly unconcealable in any ordinary satchel or under clothing.
“Hold on to this and keep it near you at all times. When the lottery is drawn you will be notified. Next!”
Outside, Mave walked as fast as she could to the main road outside of the building. She carried the black slab and blocked everyone out, trying not to let doubts slip in. She had rejected Alan. Handsome, sweet, Alan. Harper wasn’t too bad, either. If she was going to throw her life away, could she not have at least have saved him?
Harper.
Just ahead, sitting and waiting on an electric scooter with some sort of case attached to the back, he sat looking at her.
“Took you long enough.”
Mave decided that whatever her feelings were right now, she wasn’t rude enough to ignore him.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, there’s this little thing called Selection Day we all have to come to.”
Of course. Stupid question.
“How’d it go?” Mave asked. He looked down at her black slab and turned to his case, opening it. With a big grin he presented another black slab before closing the case again.
“Looks like we’re a matching pair. Need a ride out of here?”
Mave held tight to Harper as he rode back to his shed.
“Is that case specially made?” Mave asked. It was a bit convenient to have a case that exact size on hand.
“You betcha. Custom built by my great-grandfather. I come from a long, proud, line of losers, remember? This is the case my Dad took to carry his black slab. My Ma and Pa were lotto picks. Probably part of the reason it didn’t work.”
When Harper dropped Mave off he, laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Listen Mave. They don’t tell you when they’re going to do the lottery on purpose in order to force you to carry the slab or stay out of sight. It’s a way of shaming you and of preventing couples from getting cold feet. But they always announce before the end of 48 Earth hours. Don’t worry, this gets easier. And hey, we probably won’t even be among the people who get paired.”
When Mave nodded Harper drove away. Maybe she could stand it if she ended up with Harper this way. It could be kind of romantic, like a sort of fate. But this feeling only made her feel sillier for not accepting his or someone else’s proposal. The whole point had been to take a stand. She did.
Now she was beginning to wonder whether she’d be standing alone by herself for the rest of her life.
Author's Note:
I began this series originally for NaNoWriMo last year. However, since I'm considering starting it up again I'll be releasing reposts up until new chapters. Thanks for reading!
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