The doorbell rang, and he almost dropped his bottle when he heard the old, ugly digital sound again, that seemed to come from another century. Who could it even be on this hour of a Friday evening? Whoever it was, it was probably bad news. The relocation agent again with his stupid paper? The police? One of his drunk neighbours? He put his beer unopened back on the table, and went to the door of his apartment. There was no-one there, but then he remembered that the doorbell was downstairs, at the front door. He cursed the intercom that didn’t exist for not being there, put on his jacket and went down the stairs. He had to go all the way down to check who would visit him at this strange hour of the evening. Completely out of breath he opened the front door, and initially he couldn’t see anyone at all in the dark outside. When he looked better he could perceive a small hooded figure, hidden in the shadows not that far away from him.

‘Eliza.’ He said, surprised when he saw her warm smile when she walked into the orange light of the antique LED-lantern before the door.

‘Hi Michael, it feels like it’s been a while. Can I come in maybe?’ She asked casually, as if nothing special had happened lately. It had indeed been only two weeks or so, but in those two weeks his whole universe had crashed, and turned upside down. Everything before that belonged to a lost world now, including Megan and Eliza. And now here she was, like a ghost from a distant past, smiling as if nothing had happened. He stared at her for a few seconds before he could answer.

‘Eh… I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. My new Wife Dorothy the robot is probably spying on everything I do inside my apartment and recording everything. I still don’t know if I’m supposed to have human women over at all. The relocation agent was rather vague about that. And I’m not sure if it’s safe for a girl in this building either with all those unrated men.’

Now it was her turn to be surprised, and interested, Eliza was interested in a lot of things after all. ‘A robo-wife? They forbade you to have a Wife but they gave you a robot for a Wife? So soon? Incredible. Aye comrade! Long live the state dispensation of necessary goods! Can I see her?’

‘shhht. Not so loud. But yes, apparently a Nation man is so pathetic that cannot live alone without a Wife, so they give the Unmarriable a robowife as compensation for that loss. Because I can’t cook as a man and because of all the lost intimacy that I crave or so. And she’s hygienic because she’s self-cleaning or something like that. Much better than a human wife according to the dude who brought her.’

She looked serious now.

‘Ah, yes, I see. The basic needs of a man… The same logic as the please-your-husband lessons that I used to skip. Not missing those to be honest. And what’s she doing at the moment, your new state dispensed Wife? Something active?’

‘Recharging, but she still passively records everything around her I think. I still don’t know if she has an off-button somewhere. We never had these kinds of robots in robotics class and I don’t dare to experiment with her and do anything wrong to her. My chances of ever getting a badge and rating again depend on treating her correctly.’

Eliza’s eyes lit up. ‘Ah, don’t worry. You’re speaking to the ultimate expert here. I know how to turn them on and off. If you can give me a classic screwdriver 7B with a triangle profile I’ll approach her from behind, put her to sleep, and show you how to deal with them so you can do it yourself next time.’

He nodded and went silently back upstairs to the fourth floor while she followed him as a shadow. He noticed that was really good at that, as if she were some kind of ninja. He went in alone but left the door open. Everything was unreal now with two worlds that didn’t belong together, but everything was going too fast to think about what was happening.

Dorothy didn’t react when he rummaged through his toolbox, and he came back to the apartment door with a triangle profile screwdriver. ‘I think that’s the right size,’ he whispered. She looked at it.

‘Yup. Must work. Where is she?’

‘It’s in the second room. Just sitting, it’s on standby indeed. It only takes 10 seconds to startup the programs if it’s inactive in recharge mode so you have to be quick.’ She took the screwdriver and just smiled at him as if he had said something silly.

‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing.’ She whispered with a sarcastic smile, and swiftly she walked over to the sleeping robot, opened an invisible flap behind her head without any hesitation, and turned the screw that became visible just once. The light in Dorothy’s eyes went out.

‘That’s all you have to do. One turn the other way and she’s on again, with no memory of the gap in between. Works on every wife-bot, and on almost every humanoid service-bot in general. Strange they didn’t teach you that. You went to robotics class in a fine boy school after all.’

‘Maybe they didn’t really want me to know how to deactivate them?’ He said, but she just took a step backwards to take a better look at the machine she had deactivated.

‘Wow, this is unbelievable.’ She whispered.

‘What?’

‘They actually gave you the legendary housewife-o-matic wifebot 2.0. No, the 2.1 even, but heavily upgraded cosmetically over the years. So they do still exist, I’m impressed. You’re a lucky man, Michael, to have such an unique specimen here.’

She seemed quite exited, but he was just tired and couldn’t share her enthusiasm.

‘The recent models were sold out or something, so yes, that old thing is my Wife now. What’s so special about it?’

‘There’s lots of things. I’m surprised that they never covered such a wonder of technology in your advanced robotics classes. This old thing, as you call her is more or less the holy grail in near-human robotics and in practical seventh wave feminism. They are an innovation from long before Nation time, there should even be an internet and radio receiver somewhere; but the most interesting thing is that these are the ones that were originally made to protect women by re-educating men. There was a problem at that time with a lot of unmarriable men as we would call them now, who were impossible to women and treated them badly and stuff. So at a certain point all abusers and rapists and the like were forbidden to have relations with a woman, and like you they received one of these as a companion instead. They operated like a domestic service-bot, and, eh, you-know-what, with hygienic self-cleaning system and all that, but there is a program in there that could be adapted to the client that reacted every time they did something wrong. And then they punished the man. An unwanted touch, violence, violent words,… and the robot just electrocuted them. It seems that it worked well to re-educate rapists to become gentlemen, the only problem was that most women still wouldn’t want a man that had been re-educated, even though they had a nice certificate of being a fine nonviolent man now that they could show to potential girlfriends…’

‘You’ve told me about those before. I already gave it permission to turn any man who harassed her into charcoal when needed. So it’s really one of them? Those things sound completely different from the ideas of The Nation.’ He remarked.

‘It is. The Nation doesn’t find it necessary to reform or punish a predatory man. Her makers did, and it made a difference. The program must still be there inside of her, somewhere, as well as the wireless receiver modules.’

‘The internet and radio you mean?’

She nodded. ‘Those are valuable. Plus we could use her to train you up as a gentleman and practice until you’re ready for a human Wife.’ She grinned and he looked at the robot in horror.

‘I’m not touching that thing in any possible way. I even lock the door against it when I go to sleep. It’s uncanny. Too human to be non-human, too non-human to be human. Anyone who can have intimacy with that is a creep.’

Eliza patted the robot on the head and stroked her long blond hair. ‘Poor old Dorothy, forced to live with such a wanted man in such a loveless relationship…’

‘A lonely and broken man who lost everything and everyone you mean,’ Michael said.

‘Lost everyone? What are you complaining about? Am I not here? In name of all the girls by the way. But you didn’t give me a chance to tell you.’

He looked at her, a bit uneasily now. She was right, with all the robot stuff going on he hadn’t even had the chance to ask anything about her and Megan. He had no idea what to do with Eliza, or Megan after all that happened, but that problem was clearly going to solve itself soon now that Eliza had put herself back on the map.

She hadn’t noticed anything of his unease yet, and acted like she was at home. She took off her long dark hoodie to make herself comfortable in the old lounge and Shoulder-long messy curls became visible.

‘You didn’t cut your hair?’ He asked.

She smiled again, as if nothing dramatic had happened between them and they were still friends as they had always been. ‘Nope, and neither did Megan. I still got myself a new haircut, but not the short hair of a non-Wife. That’s just not me. I am a Free Woman. There’s no rule against letting my hair grow, it’s just some kind of sad tradition, linked to humiliation too. The only problem is that some idiots think that all badgeless women with long hair are prostitutes, so I’m training even more in self-defense. Oh, and I have my new badge now. Want one too?’

She took something from a pocket in her hoodie, and handed it to him. It was a round badge with the letter W, or was it a M upside down?

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‘What is this? An unofficial rating badge?’

‘The new Free Person badge. Without any ranking or grades implied. I designed it with some of the Women are Human girls, and then had a lot of them made. But you’d still be the first man to wear them. And the first one who’s officially approved to do so too. We don’t give them to just anyone!’

‘What letter is it? How do I wear it?’ He asked, curiously.

‘It could be the W for Woman, or the M for Man, whatever you like, but we wear them sideways, like 2 arrows going forward. The idea is that we’re all one anyway.’

‘I’d be honoured to wear it, but isn’t it a provocation? It’s probably better if I don’t rock the boat too much now.’

‘Come on, Michael! Who was it that you said to Angela that they needed to do things for a revolution instead of just yelling at people who don’t even listen?’

'Wearing an unapproved badge as an unranked badgeless person is quite revolutionary. But if you are taking the risk as a woman who has been reduced to Non-Wife status I will do the same. I’m not a coward.’ He clipped the badge on his sweater.

‘So, she is wearing it too?’

‘Angela? Yes, and Megan too. And a few other WAH people. Even the outlaws who made it for me in the Ghost Town have adopted it.’ He wanted to take the badge but she suddenly stopped.

‘Wait, I almost forgot. Do you pledge your allegiance to all friendly people, regardless of sex, rating or identity status?’

‘I already did so several times before. So yes, I do.’

‘Then you can be given the Free Person badge. The pledge has become tied to it.’

He picked up the badge and looked at it, and then came back to a question he had been wanting to ask.

‘So, how’s my, eh, ex-future-wife now?’ Eliza pointed her finger at his nose.

‘Watch your words, here, young man. If you call her anything that starts with ex she’ll be heartbroken, she’s missing you as a friend now. Although it’s not inaccurate, your Wife School engagement is completely over, seen your new female companion here who’s almost human. For the situation she’s quite okay. We’re living in a state house for non-Wives and we’re looking for jobs.’

‘I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t have used that word, but the only Wife I can have now is the one you’ve put to sleep with that screwdriver, I can’t have a relationship with a human woman now.’

‘With some creativity a lot is possible, my dear boy, you only have to be able to dream it first. Except for an actual Nation marriage between two badgeless people maybe, but that’s not the only way to have a relationship, and not the healthiest way either…’

‘I don’t have the energy for creativity now. I’m still in shock about how they took everything away including that, so it’s certainly not about liking her less. It’s just that we didn’t even really wanted to marry, and now we can’t, even if we wanted. And I don’t know anything anymore. My life is a mess. I’m glad that I could get a full-time job at the bar, but it pays much less now without my badge. And that’s something making your own badges won’t change.’

He sighed and seemed to stare at something invisible next to her. ‘But to be honest, I’m afraid of seeing anyone again. I’m not even sure I can live with myself anymore.’

The look in her green eyes was serious now.

‘Why? What’s wrong? You stood up for us like a good man should do if such a thing even exists apart from you. You can’t help it that the laws say you need to obey Alpha creeps even if they expect you to do nothing when they want to assault your friends just because they’re female. That’s just wrong.’

‘I couldn’t even defend Megan, or you… I’m a dishonour.’

‘You defended us with your words while they held you as a man with two other men, and then they were so distracted that I could finish it. Without you we wouldn’t have had a chance.’

‘I didn’t look at it like that.’ He said sombrely.

‘I know they must have tried to break you in that cell, but believe me. You did what you could do. Nothing of what happened is your fault, you couldn’t have done anything else besides what you did. We did what we could. And they didn’t get the chance to even touch us. After all, saving us from assault was successful. You were the perfect gentleman, even though you paid a heavy price. No-one is angry at you.’

‘But I ruined it for Megan. And for you… I destroyed your lives.’

‘Those two creepheads did that, and the justice system of this rotten country was at their side. You’re not at fault. The Nation is.’

He just stared into the empty space for a while. ‘So you came here to give me one of those badges? Or is there something else?’

She winked at him. ‘Little Lizzie just wanted to see her friend Mike All, do you need more than that?’

‘Eh, no I guess.’

He stared into a nothingness next to her again. ‘And to make sure you’re okay. We’re all worried about you to be honest.’

‘About me? You’re all ruined thanks to me and you still worry about me?’ She grabbed his hand.

‘Michael! Did you even listen to me? And I’m talking about more than Megan and me. Angela and Samantha also asked about you. Even Shirley did in the first message she sent me. And I bet there are people missing you on the boy side of the Great Divide between the sexes too.’

‘They don’t. I’m deleted and shunned. I’m a nobody. My family acts like I never even existed. I can’t marry a human woman. I can’t have a decent job. I’m stuck, probably forever. None of my friends will ever want to see me again.’

She shrugged. ‘I know boy friendships are not as deep as girl friendships, but I would be very surprised if none of them at all will try to get back at you, deleted or not. Or even especially because you’re deleted. You’re Michael and a lot of people liked you enough to miss you when you get deleted. We’re not robots that can be reprogrammed like old Dorothy over there.’

He said nothing, and finally she stood up again.

‘You’re being a bit dark for me today, Michael…,’ she began, but suddenly her eyes fell on the bottle of beer.

‘Ooh, that’s a high quality man beer, quite valuable on our black market.’

‘Take it to drink with Megan, I have more in the fridge. I shouldn’t be drinking alone anyway. It’s sad and stupid’ He mumbled.

‘Ooh, thank you. That deserves a hug.’ She put the beer in her bag and wrapped herself around him. ‘Come on, give me a hug. Your new wife won’t mind. She won’t even register anything in her state.’

‘What about my old wife?’

‘As far as I know there’s never been any exclusivity contract for hugs between you and Megan, only a clause between you and me that I have to ask beforehand, which is what I just did. You can give her a hug too next time you see her. She wants to see you soon too, don’t let her wait too long. Fiancée or ex-fiancée, she misses you. And you promised her friendship, you should remember that. There’s no reason to break that promise now.’

‘Really, I’m not ready to see her. I’m too ashamed. You’re lucky that I didn’t expect you, or I probably had locked myself in and not opened the door.’ She let go of him and looked at him, and her voice was angry now, but not at him.

‘They really broke you in that isolation cell, didn’t they?’

He just nodded.

‘Why do you blame yourself? It even was our fault more than yours. We were indeed out there too late in a dangerous place, and I was being too careless. If anyone is to blame, it’s me.’

‘But victim blaming is wrong. You can’t blame a girl for being abused. That’s what the ancient feminists said. Weren’t they right?’

‘They were right, and don’t forget you are a victim too in this story, remember? As much as we are. You did nothing wrong, and you couldn’t have taken on these 2 gorillas alone. No-one expects that of you.’

‘But…’ She almost knelt down before him now.

‘Michael. You saved me there. You should have given me to those 2 creepnuts when they asked according to those creepy rules you men have. Because they had a higher-rated badge. You didn’t even consider that and instantly defended us. Luckily they were too stupid to think a girl could be dangerous too. But the thing is, Michael, you were indeed the friend who would risk everything for us. You might not be popular on the male side right now, but you’re officially a friend of women now.’

‘I just did the only thing that I could do. I couldn’t let them…’

She lightly touched his lips with her finger, which was effective to shut him up.

‘Listen, Michael, you as a Gamma stood up against a high Alpha. For two girls. For me actually, you only had the legal right to your Wife School fiancée. Don’t minimise what you did for once. You were brave and I will be forever thankful,and so will Megan! I know you’re confused about the whole idea of a good man who defends women, but that’s what you automatically did. There were too many of them for one brainie boy, but I couldn’t have taken them out without you either.’

‘They didn’t believe me that it was you. They said I was a coward blaming a girl. The Police I mean.’

‘They only have a small world in their head. The essentials are missing. A good man defends his friends, and women in need. A good woman will do the same if she can, and I can defend herself, stuff like that.’

‘You’re probably right, but it’s not how I feel right now.’ ‘Feelings can be wrong, as can ideas.’ She said, and she gave him another hug.

Two hours later he still hadn’t opened a beer, but he felt a lot better, even though something still told him he didn’t deserve it. He was glad that the girls still wanted him, but he didn’t look forward to looking Megan in the eyes again.