12-22-2020, 08:10 PM
Side Effects - Part 1
Greenwood Girls Primary School, Iletina Region, Kerlile
22nd December 2020
“Hey, Maximusian!” a gaggle of girls in identical school uniforms cornered Emily Keller against the fence which surrounded the playground of the girls’ school. Emily glanced around, looking for help.
“Is it true that boys and girls go to the same school in LOM?” one of the other girls asked, leaning against the fence to prevent Emily getting away.
“Yes,” Emily replied, eyes darting back and forth. The group giggled menacingly.
“That must be horrible,” a third girl said, leaning too close to Emily. “Do the boys hurt you at playtime then? Do they make you play what they want to play?”
“They… they mostly play football.”
“I wouldn’t want to be on the same team as boys,” the first girl scrunched up her nose. “They’d probably kick it in my face.”
“The girls don’t play with them; the boys don’t let them.”
“Don’t let them!?” the third girl gasped, hand to her mouth. “It’s true, then? There are things that girls aren’t allowed to do in LOM just because they’re girls?”
“Is that why you’re so bad at sport?” a fourth one sneered. “You’re not allowed? You just sit there learning how to please your husband like a good little future wife-slave?”
“That’s not…”
“You look uncomfortable, Maximusian. If you want to leave, push past us and go.”
“But pushing isn’t…”
“Ladylike?” sneered the third girl, who then pushed Emily against the fence, hard. “You just let people walk all over you, because you think men are better!”
“I…”
“Traitor!” the first girl declared, stepping back and pointing at Emily. “The Maximusian is a gender-traitor!”
“Gender-traitor!” another of them yelled, and across the playground various girls had stopped to stare. Emily cowered, covering her eyes, but one of the other girls pulled her arms away from her face as the rest pointed and yelled. Emily began to cry, and that just made them yell harder.
“Maybe we should call the police?” the second girl suggested. “Tell them there’s a gender-traitor here, she could do with some alt-ed.”
“I’ll do it,” the fourth one said, then brought out a mobile phone. Emily gasped and tried to run away but one of them was restraining her. She struggled desperately, sobbing and screaming for help.
“Hello? Yes, police please… yes, I’m at Greenwood Girls Primary, we found a gender-traitor, she says she wants to be a wife-slave and hates the Matriarchy, you need to come and lock her up before she spreads her patriarchal ways! We’ll leave her at the fence.”
The girl put down the phone and produced a skipping rope. The girls sniggered as they tied Emily Keller, sobbing and struggling to the fence. The bell rang for the end of lunch break and they ran back towards the building, leaving Emily alone, tears running down her cheeks. She was there for about 20 minutes before a teacher found her and untied her. No police came; the call had been fake.
*
The next day
Emily Keller tripped as the football came flying at her in an attempt to kick it, and wound up flat on her face. She cried out in pain as her arm hit the ground too hard. Above her, a girl groaned and called out to their teacher.
“The Maximusian has hurt herself again! Does she have to be on our team?”
Emily continued to sob, clutching her arm. Their teacher came over, and looked at her. Cowering, she peered up.
“Go sit on the bench,” the teacher said, no emotion in her voice. Emily hurried to her feet, and stumbled over to the benches at the side of the sports field. She didn’t dare disobey her teachers here, though they’d never hurt her. It was enough to know that they legally could.
Sitting already, a small girl from her class was reading a book. Amma, if she remembered correctly. The smaller girl never took part in sport, she had a limp and couldn’t see a thing without her glasses on. Amma never spoke to anyone unless asked a direct question. So, it was surprising when she offered Emily a biscuit out of a packet she’d been hiding behind her book. Shocked, and wary of a trap, Emily backed away.
“They’re not going to torture you,” Amma said, a hint of amusement mixed with pity in her voice. “That’s what they told you in LOM, right? That little Kerlians get tortured if we step a foot out of line. It’s nonsense.”
Emily didn’t reply, staring at the other girl in alarm. Amma sighed and put the book down, turning to face the girl.
“Is this because of what Miss Brookmyre did to me during that discussion? You’ve looked like you were about to vomit in fear every day since then.”
It was, but Emily was far too frightened to admit that. Moving to Kerlile had been hard enough, discovering her mother was an Aurora had been hard enough, that when she saw a teacher hit another pupil it had been the final straw. Corporal punishment was still legal in Kerlile, something that she hadn’t considered up until that point. Seeing it in the flesh, the violence of the Matriarchy she’d heard horror stories of in school, had terrified her.
“Emily, right? They won’t hurt you, not knowing who your mother is. You could probably stand up on a bench in the town square and yell about how much you hate the Council and avoid consequences. Besides, things aren’t nearly as bad as you think.”
“It looks pretty bad,” Emily replied softly, glancing at a scar on Amma’s arm that she feared the origin of.
“Huh? Oh, this!” Amma laughed. “Emily, nobody gave me the scar. I was in an accident when I was younger, a car accident, it’s why I can’t walk right. And before you ask, no, it wasn’t the government, it was a drunk driver. Just like you’d get anywhere.”
“Oh… I’m sorry,” Emily said awkwardly.
“Life is life,” Amma shrugged. “And now I don’t have to do that,” she gestured at the sports field. “So, every cloud has a silver lining.”
“Why are you speaking to me? You never speak to anyone,” Emily asked bluntly.
“I don’t speak to anyone because they never say anything nice in return. The teachers all hate my mum and the other kids all think I’m weird. But you’ve never been mean to me, so I feel like I’m safe enough.”
“Why do they hate your mum?”
“She was in prison, for anti-matriarchal activity, before the pardons. Now she’s a member of the Reform Party and plans to run in the next parliament elections. The teachers here all did the old loyalty training so they think she’s a traitor. Last parents evening, Miss Brookmyre told her she should be executed.”
This was so far outside the experiences of a girl who’d grown up in LOM that Emily had absolutely no idea what to say in response.
“Miss Brookmyre is the worst. That’s why she hit me for saying the Council was corrupt. I was only saying the truth. The other kids say I’m not a proper Kerlian, but I’m more of a true Kerlian than they are. I’ve seen how they call you Maximusian all the time, they hate everyone who’s not just like them.”
“I am Maximusian!” Emily said indignantly.
“Oh really?” Amma leaned over, and pulled something out of Emily’s pocket, holding it up. “Emily Keller, Kerlian citizen.”
Emily snatched her ID card back, and stared at it. She flinched and stuffed it back.
“You don’t want to be Kerlian, do you?” Amma whispered softly. Emily hesitated, then shook her head. “You are, though. A Kerlian citizen. It’s not as bad as it seems.”
“I’m not good at being a Kerlian,” Emily said dully. “I’ll say the wrong thing and end up in one of your horrible prisons where everyone gets tortured.”
“You won’t,” Amma shook her head, then stood up with her walking stick. She began to walk away, gesturing for Emily to follow. After a glance at the teacher, on the other side of the field with her back to them, she decided to do so.
“Or maybe I’ll get shot when I try to cross the border,” Emily said.
“Look, Em, your mum’s an Aurora, right?” Amma said, not waiting for an answer. “Yeah, you’re not allowed to tell anyone that, okay, but everyone knows. They all hate my mum, but they’re scared of yours. She’s basically one step short of a Councillor, in their eyes, or maybe some kind of messenger of the Goddess from the afterlife… uh, I don’t know what religion you are, but you know what I mean.”
“I’m a Christian,” Emily replied. “I won’t be in school tomorrow, it’s Christmas Eve. It’s weird that school is still on.”
“Uh right, maybe don’t mention that as your reason for absence. Christianity is still illegal here.”
“What!?”
“Forget it. My point is, nobody will hurt you, or arrest you, because your mum is the most important person in this boring little town. You’re immune to everything. Well, most things. I imagine if you tried to stab a Councillor they’d cut off your finger or something, but…”
“My finger!?”
“But other than that, you’re fine! And anyways, the reformists are winning, look at the news, everything is going to be okay. You’re lucky, you might get to see Kerlile as it’s MEANT to be rather than what it is!”
“They cut off people’s fingers!?”
“You see, Kerlile wasn’t meant to be what it became. If you read the books, well, maybe not the actual ones as they’re for adults, but the kids’ versions, written by the founders of Kerlile you can see their actual vision. Not the censored ones, the real ones. It wasn’t meant to be a man-hating torture-loving warmongering land! It was meant to be about equality of the genders. But it became all corrupted and twisted. A true Kerlian supports the idea of Kerlile, rather than blindly following the Council.”
“I… don’t understand,” Emily frowned.
“Yes, it’s rather complicated. My reading level is far higher than my age would suggest, maybe you should start somewhere less… advanced. Basically, it’s going to be okay, because the reformists will win, and Kerlile will start being what it was meant to be.”
Emily looked around nervously, worried that secret police would jump out of the bushes and grab them both any second. It was then she noticed they’d walked far away from school grounds, towards the town.
“Amma!” she gasped, afraid.
“I’m going to prove to you that nothing terrible will happen to you just for breaking the rules,” Amma said confidently, continuing to walk on. Not wanting to be left alone, Emily hurried after her. “There, you see… that’s the boys’ school. You went to the same school as boys, didn’t you, back in LOM?”
“Yes, boys and girls went to school together,” Emily replied, uncertain what Amma was doing.
“Great, so you won’t freak out and run away as if they’re going to attack you.”
“Um…”
Amma ignored Emily’s confusion, and made a beeline for the boys’ school. When they arrived at the gates, Amma reached up and pulled one open, slipping in and gesturing for Emily to follow. Unsure and frightened, Emily did so.
“They’re meant to be locked but the lock was broken and nobody cares about this town enough to give the education department money to fix it,” Amma explained as she headed around the building to where a group of boys were playing.
Emily stopped and stared. The grounds of the boys’ school were tiny, barely enough room for the gathered children to play a single game. They had no play equipment, and there was a hole in the playground with some ragged tape over it. If it had been empty, she would have sworn it was abandoned and never used. The contrast with her own school here, though its budget was stretched too in this time of sanctions, was clear.
Amma took a tennis ball out of her pocket – where had she got that? – and threw it to a nearby boy, who bore a resemblance to her. He caught it and looked up, then his expression darkened and he hurried towards them. He was older than the pair.
“Amma?” he hissed. “You need to stop doing this, they’ll arrest you!”
“No, they won’t, the Council…”
“You put too much faith in Robinson,” he tutted. “Mum will be angry at you if she has to pick you up at the police station again. And you brought another into this mess!”
He glanced at Emily and she returned his stare, curious about a male Kerlian who seemed far more confident than she’d been led to believe.
“WHAT is going on here!?” a voice thundered and a woman exited the building. The boys all fell silent and stood in lines, eyes on the ground.
To be continued...
Greenwood Girls Primary School, Iletina Region, Kerlile
22nd December 2020
“Hey, Maximusian!” a gaggle of girls in identical school uniforms cornered Emily Keller against the fence which surrounded the playground of the girls’ school. Emily glanced around, looking for help.
“Is it true that boys and girls go to the same school in LOM?” one of the other girls asked, leaning against the fence to prevent Emily getting away.
“Yes,” Emily replied, eyes darting back and forth. The group giggled menacingly.
“That must be horrible,” a third girl said, leaning too close to Emily. “Do the boys hurt you at playtime then? Do they make you play what they want to play?”
“They… they mostly play football.”
“I wouldn’t want to be on the same team as boys,” the first girl scrunched up her nose. “They’d probably kick it in my face.”
“The girls don’t play with them; the boys don’t let them.”
“Don’t let them!?” the third girl gasped, hand to her mouth. “It’s true, then? There are things that girls aren’t allowed to do in LOM just because they’re girls?”
“Is that why you’re so bad at sport?” a fourth one sneered. “You’re not allowed? You just sit there learning how to please your husband like a good little future wife-slave?”
“That’s not…”
“You look uncomfortable, Maximusian. If you want to leave, push past us and go.”
“But pushing isn’t…”
“Ladylike?” sneered the third girl, who then pushed Emily against the fence, hard. “You just let people walk all over you, because you think men are better!”
“I…”
“Traitor!” the first girl declared, stepping back and pointing at Emily. “The Maximusian is a gender-traitor!”
“Gender-traitor!” another of them yelled, and across the playground various girls had stopped to stare. Emily cowered, covering her eyes, but one of the other girls pulled her arms away from her face as the rest pointed and yelled. Emily began to cry, and that just made them yell harder.
“Maybe we should call the police?” the second girl suggested. “Tell them there’s a gender-traitor here, she could do with some alt-ed.”
“I’ll do it,” the fourth one said, then brought out a mobile phone. Emily gasped and tried to run away but one of them was restraining her. She struggled desperately, sobbing and screaming for help.
“Hello? Yes, police please… yes, I’m at Greenwood Girls Primary, we found a gender-traitor, she says she wants to be a wife-slave and hates the Matriarchy, you need to come and lock her up before she spreads her patriarchal ways! We’ll leave her at the fence.”
The girl put down the phone and produced a skipping rope. The girls sniggered as they tied Emily Keller, sobbing and struggling to the fence. The bell rang for the end of lunch break and they ran back towards the building, leaving Emily alone, tears running down her cheeks. She was there for about 20 minutes before a teacher found her and untied her. No police came; the call had been fake.
*
The next day
Emily Keller tripped as the football came flying at her in an attempt to kick it, and wound up flat on her face. She cried out in pain as her arm hit the ground too hard. Above her, a girl groaned and called out to their teacher.
“The Maximusian has hurt herself again! Does she have to be on our team?”
Emily continued to sob, clutching her arm. Their teacher came over, and looked at her. Cowering, she peered up.
“Go sit on the bench,” the teacher said, no emotion in her voice. Emily hurried to her feet, and stumbled over to the benches at the side of the sports field. She didn’t dare disobey her teachers here, though they’d never hurt her. It was enough to know that they legally could.
Sitting already, a small girl from her class was reading a book. Amma, if she remembered correctly. The smaller girl never took part in sport, she had a limp and couldn’t see a thing without her glasses on. Amma never spoke to anyone unless asked a direct question. So, it was surprising when she offered Emily a biscuit out of a packet she’d been hiding behind her book. Shocked, and wary of a trap, Emily backed away.
“They’re not going to torture you,” Amma said, a hint of amusement mixed with pity in her voice. “That’s what they told you in LOM, right? That little Kerlians get tortured if we step a foot out of line. It’s nonsense.”
Emily didn’t reply, staring at the other girl in alarm. Amma sighed and put the book down, turning to face the girl.
“Is this because of what Miss Brookmyre did to me during that discussion? You’ve looked like you were about to vomit in fear every day since then.”
It was, but Emily was far too frightened to admit that. Moving to Kerlile had been hard enough, discovering her mother was an Aurora had been hard enough, that when she saw a teacher hit another pupil it had been the final straw. Corporal punishment was still legal in Kerlile, something that she hadn’t considered up until that point. Seeing it in the flesh, the violence of the Matriarchy she’d heard horror stories of in school, had terrified her.
“Emily, right? They won’t hurt you, not knowing who your mother is. You could probably stand up on a bench in the town square and yell about how much you hate the Council and avoid consequences. Besides, things aren’t nearly as bad as you think.”
“It looks pretty bad,” Emily replied softly, glancing at a scar on Amma’s arm that she feared the origin of.
“Huh? Oh, this!” Amma laughed. “Emily, nobody gave me the scar. I was in an accident when I was younger, a car accident, it’s why I can’t walk right. And before you ask, no, it wasn’t the government, it was a drunk driver. Just like you’d get anywhere.”
“Oh… I’m sorry,” Emily said awkwardly.
“Life is life,” Amma shrugged. “And now I don’t have to do that,” she gestured at the sports field. “So, every cloud has a silver lining.”
“Why are you speaking to me? You never speak to anyone,” Emily asked bluntly.
“I don’t speak to anyone because they never say anything nice in return. The teachers all hate my mum and the other kids all think I’m weird. But you’ve never been mean to me, so I feel like I’m safe enough.”
“Why do they hate your mum?”
“She was in prison, for anti-matriarchal activity, before the pardons. Now she’s a member of the Reform Party and plans to run in the next parliament elections. The teachers here all did the old loyalty training so they think she’s a traitor. Last parents evening, Miss Brookmyre told her she should be executed.”
This was so far outside the experiences of a girl who’d grown up in LOM that Emily had absolutely no idea what to say in response.
“Miss Brookmyre is the worst. That’s why she hit me for saying the Council was corrupt. I was only saying the truth. The other kids say I’m not a proper Kerlian, but I’m more of a true Kerlian than they are. I’ve seen how they call you Maximusian all the time, they hate everyone who’s not just like them.”
“I am Maximusian!” Emily said indignantly.
“Oh really?” Amma leaned over, and pulled something out of Emily’s pocket, holding it up. “Emily Keller, Kerlian citizen.”
Emily snatched her ID card back, and stared at it. She flinched and stuffed it back.
“You don’t want to be Kerlian, do you?” Amma whispered softly. Emily hesitated, then shook her head. “You are, though. A Kerlian citizen. It’s not as bad as it seems.”
“I’m not good at being a Kerlian,” Emily said dully. “I’ll say the wrong thing and end up in one of your horrible prisons where everyone gets tortured.”
“You won’t,” Amma shook her head, then stood up with her walking stick. She began to walk away, gesturing for Emily to follow. After a glance at the teacher, on the other side of the field with her back to them, she decided to do so.
“Or maybe I’ll get shot when I try to cross the border,” Emily said.
“Look, Em, your mum’s an Aurora, right?” Amma said, not waiting for an answer. “Yeah, you’re not allowed to tell anyone that, okay, but everyone knows. They all hate my mum, but they’re scared of yours. She’s basically one step short of a Councillor, in their eyes, or maybe some kind of messenger of the Goddess from the afterlife… uh, I don’t know what religion you are, but you know what I mean.”
“I’m a Christian,” Emily replied. “I won’t be in school tomorrow, it’s Christmas Eve. It’s weird that school is still on.”
“Uh right, maybe don’t mention that as your reason for absence. Christianity is still illegal here.”
“What!?”
“Forget it. My point is, nobody will hurt you, or arrest you, because your mum is the most important person in this boring little town. You’re immune to everything. Well, most things. I imagine if you tried to stab a Councillor they’d cut off your finger or something, but…”
“My finger!?”
“But other than that, you’re fine! And anyways, the reformists are winning, look at the news, everything is going to be okay. You’re lucky, you might get to see Kerlile as it’s MEANT to be rather than what it is!”
“They cut off people’s fingers!?”
“You see, Kerlile wasn’t meant to be what it became. If you read the books, well, maybe not the actual ones as they’re for adults, but the kids’ versions, written by the founders of Kerlile you can see their actual vision. Not the censored ones, the real ones. It wasn’t meant to be a man-hating torture-loving warmongering land! It was meant to be about equality of the genders. But it became all corrupted and twisted. A true Kerlian supports the idea of Kerlile, rather than blindly following the Council.”
“I… don’t understand,” Emily frowned.
“Yes, it’s rather complicated. My reading level is far higher than my age would suggest, maybe you should start somewhere less… advanced. Basically, it’s going to be okay, because the reformists will win, and Kerlile will start being what it was meant to be.”
Emily looked around nervously, worried that secret police would jump out of the bushes and grab them both any second. It was then she noticed they’d walked far away from school grounds, towards the town.
“Amma!” she gasped, afraid.
“I’m going to prove to you that nothing terrible will happen to you just for breaking the rules,” Amma said confidently, continuing to walk on. Not wanting to be left alone, Emily hurried after her. “There, you see… that’s the boys’ school. You went to the same school as boys, didn’t you, back in LOM?”
“Yes, boys and girls went to school together,” Emily replied, uncertain what Amma was doing.
“Great, so you won’t freak out and run away as if they’re going to attack you.”
“Um…”
Amma ignored Emily’s confusion, and made a beeline for the boys’ school. When they arrived at the gates, Amma reached up and pulled one open, slipping in and gesturing for Emily to follow. Unsure and frightened, Emily did so.
“They’re meant to be locked but the lock was broken and nobody cares about this town enough to give the education department money to fix it,” Amma explained as she headed around the building to where a group of boys were playing.
Emily stopped and stared. The grounds of the boys’ school were tiny, barely enough room for the gathered children to play a single game. They had no play equipment, and there was a hole in the playground with some ragged tape over it. If it had been empty, she would have sworn it was abandoned and never used. The contrast with her own school here, though its budget was stretched too in this time of sanctions, was clear.
Amma took a tennis ball out of her pocket – where had she got that? – and threw it to a nearby boy, who bore a resemblance to her. He caught it and looked up, then his expression darkened and he hurried towards them. He was older than the pair.
“Amma?” he hissed. “You need to stop doing this, they’ll arrest you!”
“No, they won’t, the Council…”
“You put too much faith in Robinson,” he tutted. “Mum will be angry at you if she has to pick you up at the police station again. And you brought another into this mess!”
He glanced at Emily and she returned his stare, curious about a male Kerlian who seemed far more confident than she’d been led to believe.
“WHAT is going on here!?” a voice thundered and a woman exited the building. The boys all fell silent and stood in lines, eyes on the ground.
To be continued...
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax