The Height of an Arch

[GhostGirl]

"I had the craziest dream last night," Mini said, looking at the wall panel window of her apartment. Stretched out below was a concrete and glass jungle of buildings, habitats, roads, cars, and people. The sun was rising, casting its glow through the thick haze of pollution that wrapped the city in a suffocating hug. The Sandford Arcology stood, silhouetted by the sunlight, in the haze, as a reminder that those on this side of the arcologies walls were not important enough to warrant clean air. A skimmer train zipped out of it, heading into the city to pick up the next shift of maids, repair techs, waiters, and other services that needed to get done in order for the rich to live their lives. The flash of police sirens on the street below her apartment drew her eye for a moment, before her brain subconsciously dismissed it as routine sensory data.

"Oh?" replied a feminine voice, which seemed to emerge from an orange graphical content box on the tinted glass wall, the name JenJen displayed in white text in the box, with a volume slider, and mute button displayed below the name. Mini nodded, even though JenJen would not see the gesture, and walked towards the orange content box. She brushed her messy blonde hair over her ear, running her fingers through the rest trying to smooth the sleep out of it. The sunlight was now coming through clear enough to silhouette her body through her robe, her loose cropped top night shirt slightly obscuring her figure, and the noticable padding of a sagging  overnight diaper giving her hips and rear a slightly exaggerated curve. She hovered her hand over the content box, which caused a menu to appear. She moved her hand to hover over an icon of a video camera. A moment later, a face appeared in the original content box, and Mini's blue-green eyes made contact with the brown eyes of JenJen. It was obvious she had just gotten home from work, the white of her cooks jacket a stark contrast from her own dark skin, the shaved head, glistening with that old dry sweat, layered with new sweat look.

"Yeah," Mini said, "In the dream, I woke up, and the Sandford assembly had passed a law that all girls where to be surgically made incontinent, and men would be allowed to stop them, check them, and change them whenever they wanted."

"That is some pretty crazy dream," JenJen said, reaching up to grab something off frame. The video image tilted and rotated a moment, as it became apparent that JenJen was taking whatever device she was using on her end off its mount, and now carrying it, "Horrifying actually," she added, as the background became a hallway, than a kitchen. "I am going to make myself am omelette, want to come over?"

"I can't baby," Mini replied, "I have a class to teach in 30 minutes, and I still gotta get dressed and showered, I can't afford another complaint because my hair is not braided to regulation." Mini looked over at the small closet sized bathroom, the light over its door was still red, indicating that her water allowance had not been updated for today's shower yet. "I hate my neighbor, she takes such long showers... I need to figure out who she is fucking to get 15 minutes of shower water every day so that I can get photos and blackmail them."

"What, you don't think he'd want to fuck you too for a few extra minutes?" JenJen asked, her device obviously back on a mount, and the sound of a knife making contact with a cutting board over and over, creating a familiar background noise for the couple.

"Oh, I am pretty sure they'd want to fuck me, but blackmail just seems more appealing then dealing with some dudes dick... at least I know he has been sticking it into clean people," Mini replied, and she was about to say something else, but JenJen's musical chuckle, followed by a buzz, and a green light appearing over her bathroom door interrupted her. "Hey sweetie, I got the green light, you going to be awake this afternoon?"

"Yeah, but they have me catering a wedding, so I gotta get in there early," JenJen said, looking at the device, and making eye contact with Mini. 

"Figures," Mini replied, "Well then, I am going to crash at your place tonight, and maybe, just maybe, we will bump into eachother tomorrow morning," Mini said, then added "Love you babe," and then kissed the content box, a gesture returned by JenJen, then the feed vanished, and more of the city became visible. She quietly turned, and walked towards the shower.

 

 

The view out the window in Mini's apartment had become opaque, and overlaying it was rows of school desk-chairs. They were currently empty, although they would not be for long. Mini was finishing stowing her Murphy bed, and then pulled a curtain to hide it. Before, her walls had pictures, shelves with books, and vid-disk cases, now blue and white curtains and been unfurled, hiding any hint of personality from the room. Even the clothing Mini now wore were absence of anything resembling character. A loose gray long sleeved blouse with a collar that completely hid her neck, and a white pleated a-line skirt that touched the floor. Her hair was pulled back into a single tight braid, then coiled into a bun so that no single strand of hair hung loose. The only adornments on the entire outfit were a brooch, which had a blue enamled dot with a 5 in the middle, and the words "Sandford Teacher of the Year" inscribed into the border of the brooch, and a name tag which read, "Dr. Minerva Clifford, Social Sciences" 

A subtle alert light appeared on the window-screen, with the faint sound of a bell in the distance, coming from the screen. Mini looked herself down in the mirror, making sure her uniform was clean, and everything was perfect, before turning, pulling a fold up desk up from the floor, and sitting behind it. Young men started to file into the class, taking seats at the various desks. It was the moment of truth. The first day of class this year, was she going to get a rowdy class, or ones that at least tried to behave.

Mini picked up a stylus that was magnetically attached to the desk, and started to write on the pad next to the stylus dock. On the corner of the screen, she could see her name appearing as it would for the kids in the class. "Greetings class, I am Miss Clifford," she said. Part of her screamed, she was not allowed to call herself doctor, only men were given that right, and depending on a current decision from the National Council of Gendered Rights, she might soon lose the right to sign her name as doctor. 

"Hello Miss Clifford," the class responded, then one voice sounded out, "Fuck, the thing said doctor, I got to learn from a damn incubator again?"

Mini ignored the comment. She despised the term, but it was one of the nicer ones thrown at her on a daily basis. Even as the state encouraged her relationship with another woman, as they did not want "out building citizens" reproducing as the population was climbing too fast, that same state had spent the last sixty years demonizing gay people, and now the ration bonus they received was seen as part of conspiracy by so many who then voted to keep the Arcology Builders in power, who were interested only in keeping the Outbuilders pacified. 

"Welcome to 11th Grade Social Studies for Male Students. Can anyone tell me why arcology students are separated by gender?" Mini asked. It was a mandatory question she had to ask. A blonde haired blue eyed student raised his hand.

"Yes," Mini quickly referenced a seating chart, "Mister Jefferson?" Mini prompted him.

"Because girls are slower to learn and can not grasp hard concepts, while young men need challenging and hard subjects in order to succeed," the boy replied.

"Your answer is satisfactory," Mini replied. She was about to continue one, but Mister Jefferson had another comment.

"How did you get a PhD Miss Clifford," the boy asked.

This was one of the most difficult questions Mini had to answer, and it happened every year. For most of her students, this was the first time since their first years of school that they had a female teacher. The official state answer was that learning how to teach a subject was easier than learning to study it, and as such in fields with few members, women were trained to teach them so that men could study, but the truth was that the state was running out of men in the arcologies that pursued higher degrees as most did not even need or want to work, and men in the Outbuildings were normally trapped into trade school education tracks as early as eight or nine years to help support their family. So the state decided to grant women access to higher education for the express purpose of educating kids raised in the arcologies. This access came with an agreement not to marry, and was usually only offered to individuals who physically were less capable in some ways. In Mini's case, she grew up incontinent, and expressed homosexual tendancies in her early teenage years, and thus was listed as unfit for reproduction, which meant any of her children would not be entered into the lottery to enter the arcology, and thus she was unlikely to get a husband whose only escape from the Outbuildings was siring a kid who won that lottery. Mini had nothing to lose, and when she was offered the chance, she took it.

"I was selected so that my more intelligent male peers could focus on study and research, while I helped prepare young men, such as yourselves, to follow in their footsteps," Mini said, another part of her dying like it did on the first day of school every year. "Now, if you would be so kind as to activate your consoles, lets review the academic calendar and expectations for the school year."

[Guilend]

I like it, sorry but ran out of likes, but will try to remember to come back and give you one.

[foofybabykitten]

This story makes me feel really uncomfortable, and really intrigued (which I imagine you were going for), especially reading what's basically a child answer that women are less intelligent then men, like it's commonsense. Most stories that try to make the reader feel uncomfortable are usually either tastelessly done or they are straight up tragedy porn, you haven't done that, you managed to make me shift in my seat uncomfortably with what you imply. Granted the idea that women are lesser beings in and of itself is inherently an abhorrent thought, but imagining what the lives of less well off women than Mini's here, almost makes me shiver a little. You can count on me being here for every update from henceforth, I gotta see where this goes!

[ELLIE52]

Not sure where the story will go unless Mini's dream was a foreshadow.  This is definitely a patriarchal society.  Good start, look forward to seeing where you take it.

[GhostGirl]

21 minutes ago, ELLIE52 said:

Not sure where the story will go unless Mini's dream was a foreshadow.  This is definitely a patriarchal society.  Good start, look forward to seeing where you take it.

I will be honest, that dream was more of a way for me to state through the writing that that is exactly not where it is going.

[ELLIE52]

2 hours ago, GhostGirl said:

I will be honest, that dream was more of a way for me to state through the writing that that is exactly not where it is going.

This is good news.

[GhostGirl]

1 hour ago, Hopsalot said:

Most things in writing are typically written with a purpose, in this case your purpose was to steer the reader away from that idea, but dreams, In the history of story’s have a reputation/cliche for coming true. So using a dream to show what would not happen has the opposite effect. I can’t wait to see where this goes! Looking forward to the next update

This is an assumption, yes in fantasy novels, often dreams foreshadow events. Outside of that genre, especially when framed in the conversation presented here, they are normally just what they appear. Typical conversation between friends/in this case a couple.

[CDfm]

foofybabykitten, I couldn’t agree with you more. I felt uncomfortable reading this. I kind of was waiting for her to come out and say bullshit. Women are capable of learning and being successful in all fields.