'Michael Adams, and you are here for Megan Anderson.’

The official checked the letter, gave him some extra papers and made a gesture to follow him. The moment he entered the door to the E-floor he was reminded how deeply he disliked this weird place. It wasn’t just the whole Wife School concept that bothered him, but also the E-floor specifically, where the women with the lowest rating were trained to become Wives suitable to Epsilon men who hardly had a place in The Nation themselves. Everything about it just gave him the creeps, and the cracking old paint on the walls combined with the absence of direct daylight in this part of the building didn’t make it much better. Those ancient tube lamps in the hallway gave a strange cold yellow light that gave everything a glum atmosphere, and there was something depressing about every person that they passed. He didn’t even want to think about what it meant to have to live here full-time, without ever going outside beyond the school gardens.

Obediently he followed the official through a few halls with ugly classrooms until they reached a door with the words ‘Visitation room’ in an ancient font. So this was the place. He blinked when the door was opened, and he could hardly believe his own eyes when he saw what was inside. In the middle of the visitation room there was a glass wall that looked like it was built through a table with one chair on this side. There was another similar room on the other side of the glass wall, with the other half of the table and another chair. The rest of the table was mostly empty apart from a messy desk with documents in a corner. It was clear how things worked here: people could talk through the glass, but not touch each other. There only were tiny holes in the glass above the table, with less than a centimetre diameter.

The whole thing made him even sadder, and it reminded him of old black market books about prisons written in a pre-Nation time. At least it was clear now what they meant with a supervised table talk, without any physical contact or gifts or any chance of ‘improper behaviour’, and it didn’t look very promising at all.

The official produced some more paperwork from the desk in the corner. ‘Here are the extra papers for your first meeting with your potential Wife. The meeting itself will be through the glass, here at the E-floor meeting table for visitors. I hope I don’t need to remind you that after the meeting you need to fill in the papers, and it’s very important that you let us know if she pleases you. If she doesn’t, we can do everything within our means to make sure she will be more pleasing to you next time. And if she still doesn’t please you the third time, you can still choose another one that you like more at that point. She shall be re-educated then to be more pleasing to another Husband and she won’t bother you any more with her incompetence.' He had said it absent-mindedly as if he had repeated the words countless times as a formality, but a shiver ran down Michael's spine when he realised the meaning of his words. He was reminded again that the girls here didn’t have any of the freedoms that he was used to at all, and that he should be careful with his words. They lived in very different worlds, and he needed to find a bridge between them somehow.

Even when he had been thinking about it a lot recently, he still literally had no model for talking to girls in his world, because there was no real way to do it well in The Nation, where men and women always lived apart. He had been forbidden to talk to girls all his life, because it was indecent, and wrong, and dangerous, or something like that. Luckily he had read enough black market books that were written in older cultures or times when there had been no such segregation between the sexes. Books where women and men were friends, or where young girls and boys played together as friends as if it was the most normal thing in the world, or stories where women had the power to reject a man’s advances, and where a boys life could be destroyed with a simple “No” from the girl he liked. But the most incredible thing was how they were natural with each other sometimes, playful even.

Yes, there was a war between the sexes too, and nasty stuff from both sides, it’s not like everything had been perfect at all, but still, he had read stories in which somehow the boy and the girl ended up liking each other, with no force, no intimidation, no manipulation, nothing. And in the end they liked each other from both sides and formed a kind of marriage that was based on something completely different than anything he’d ever seen in the real world. Was there a way to summon such an atmosphere to his interactions with his “potential wife”?

But this wasn’t a moment to be lost in thoughts. His knees trembled as he walked up to the table with the thick glass wall. Megan was already sitting on the other side, in a blue dress, with her hair in a simple ponytail. She was biting her nails and looking away from the glass, and he certainly could emphasise with that. It was hard to comprehend that this girl was supposed to become his Wife now, and that if everything went well he would be sharing his life with her in the future. But today there were mostly barriers between them, starting with this weird glass wall. It was clear that a lot of effort had been made to make physical contact impossible at a visit. Why was that? He wondered who else would visit the girls here in Seventh City Wife Factory? Their families? His parents had only visited his sister twice or so since she had moved to a Wife Factory at age twelve, and he hadn’t. Other friends? Were they even supposed to have outside friends here? Probably not… So why were they so locked away from the world? And why these extreme measures? The only thing anyone could exchange through those tiny holes in the glass if they wanted was tiny rolled-up papers or maybe a pencil or so.

But he had to do something now, and standing here frozen wouldn’t do. Besides, who knew what the weird official would do if they would do nothing but look away for the whole visit. They were expected to do more than the silently looking away from each other on both sides of the glass wall that was going on now. So how to overcome the barriers? He hadn’t seen or heard her since the evening when he had rather impulsively chosen her, and she hadn’t really been very communicative back then either. He had assumed from the reactions of her friend that it had been more or less okay, but hadn’t he been too optimistic? Maybe she hated him after all? She was still biting her nails, and actively avoiding his eyes. He noted that she looked quite different from last time now that she was completely dressed, and that she was much more human and approachable like this than she had been in that weird ceremonial bikini. Girls in real life were indeed beautiful, but also disarmingly human like him. All he could do was to bluff himself through the situation as if he was living in a black market romance, and then see what happened.

He broke from his frozen state, and finally seated himself on the old chair, and when she finally looked up from her fingernails, straight into his eyes he found his tongue again. All or nothing now.

‘Hi Megs! I was around so I thought I could maybe visit you,’ he said as casually as possible.

The official frowned at this unexpected development, but Megan still smiled and he felt relieved when she answered, as if a load fell from his shoulders.

‘Hi, Michael. What a surprise to see you. And how nice of you to visit me here, I rarely have visitors, you know.’ He saw that she picked up on the game immediately, even if it was with a lot of sarcasm behind every word. Contact was made!

‘Yeah, I had nothing better to do, you know how it works…’

‘According to our how-to-please-your-husband classes the business of a man is always the most important thing there is. So you must be serious about meeting me.’ Oh boy… Dangerous territory already, but he could do sarcasm as much as she could if he had to, although defusing would be better.

‘I suppose your teacher never met an actual man in their whole life then. Most of the time we’re just muddling on without really knowing what we’re doing.’

She laughed. ‘If I would say that on my test my results would be terrible, but I assumed so much already, yes, thanks for affirming my hunch and demythologising our canon of ideas about the male sex,’ she said, and he noted her wide vocabulary. She clearly was some kind of brainie too.

‘Glad that I can be of help, Megan. But it seems that I’m indeed here for serious business today. I’m not only supposed to meet you, but also to decide whether you’re pleasing to me or not as a future Wife, at least that’s what he over there told me when he brought me here.’

He pointed a finger at the official who seemed to be looking for a paper somewhere in the drawers of the desk now, and who wasn’t really paying attention to anything any more.

‘And then I have to let them know through these papers whether I like all those, eh, kind of statistical things about you. Looks, physical features, social characteristics, overall attractiveness, and, eh, sexual desirability,…’

He could see a flicker of fear in her eyes, and quickly added. ‘But all of that won’t be a problem. I’ve never seen you looking as good as today, my Lady Megan. I also like this look you have today much more than the other one from the ceremony, and I’ve never had the pleasure of talking to such an attractive young woman before. If there’s anything that doesn’t please me at all right now, I’m afraid it’s your surroundings.’

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He paused when he saw her blush. Maybe the compliments had been too much? He didn’t know how to react, the whole business of flirting was a complete mystery to him. He sighed. The game they had been making up on the spot had still been confusing and had taken a lot of energy. Time to defuse again?

‘But as you know it’s only the second time that I see you, and there was something about that other outfit, and about the whole night, that made me uneasy. Maybe you’ve noticed?’

‘Ah?’ A silence fell. Wrong subject again, she probably didn’t like to be reminded of those bikinis. Maybe it was better for something more straightforward.

'By the way, if we’ve moved on to serious talk now, I talked to your father on the phone last week. He gave his permission, but he also didn't really seem to care.'

She shrugged and looked away, looking rather depressed suddenly. 'No, he doesn't. I'm not very good trophy daughter material, am I?' She laughed, but not with joy this time.

'Who needs a trophy? Am I one to you because I have a golden star on my chest now? When all of my life I’ve been mocked and bullied because I like books more than violent sports, and because I’m not interested in always being the best. And now they suddenly look up to me because of that stupid badge. And to be honest, I'm still not sure about any of this Wife business. I need much more time to just get used to the idea of being married. Or to the idea of being with girls even. But at least you seem like a fun person to be with. I could certainly get used to being around you.’

She didn’t react, except for turning a bit redder again in her face, and seemed to be waiting for more.

‘Anyway, I’m a man, and I have to take my responsibilities now that I’ve chosen you. I know that. So whatever your projected desirability scale on these papers says, dumping you now would be bad for you and for your future. I can’t do that, so there’s no possibility to turn things back now. I’ll have to live with the consequences of my choice and make the best of it for both of us, and at least try to not harm you in any way in the process…’

Her smile returned, although very lightly.

‘Don’t worry about that, Michael, dumping me at this point would probably just mean that I would be trading places with Elisa in the rankings. I can’t get any lower than I am now. And I don’t think they’d really throw me out. But you’re right, a rejected woman has lost her worth and is damaged goods, but that applies only when you’ve been alone with each other already. And you know, silly me still hasn’t realised that she’s been chosen. That she’s a taken woman now. That my youth is over now, and blah blah blah. You’re the man here, and you’re more considerate about all of this than I am myself even. Thank you…’

He fiddled with his papers.

‘I have no clue at all what I’m doing at all, my dear lady Megan. Muddling on again, like men do when women don’t look and follow strange classes about them. But even if the whole wife thing doesn’t work for you and me, I solemnly promise that I will not dump you, and find a way to set you free somehow, instead of making you anybody else’s slave-wife! Would you be able to live with that?'

He was whispering now, so that the official wouldn’t hear them, but he didn’t seem to be paying attention. 'Are you serious here?' She whispered back.

'Why not? Only a half-baked swine with less brain cells than testicles would ever want such an arrangement. How can they call themselves Real Men and be content with sharing their life with a slave that can only obey and has no say in anything, and only pretends the whole time. I don’t see the appeal.'

She started laughing again.

‘Eliza is right, someone needs to rewrite our course material about men. It’s a completely different universe, you and the Real Men from our please-your-husband course.’

‘Ah, well, I’m just me. I don’t represent anything but me. Every man is different I think. Every woman too I suppose. People are just themselves, not bad copies of an eternal Idea of Masculinity or Femininity in some ethereal world of Ideas or something like that. But yeah, I can’t deny that I’m a boy, or a man, or whatever you want to call it. At least, biologically I am, for 100%. And I suppose I can’t deny that like girls either, in theory at least. But I also feel like I need a lot of time to get used to them now before I could even fall in love, let alone get married or so. So I hope you can be patient with me, and I’ll repeat what I said last time. Please let’s just be friends now.’

She smiled. ‘Is that an official request now from my future Husband, Michael Adams? I’m not supposed to say no to my man, you know. Except when it’s about premarital sex while I’m still in Wife School, at least officially. Or other indecent things. Because, well, eh, God or so? Not that anyone ever follows those rules anyway. But now of all things you could demand from me on a first meeting, you’re literally begging for friendship? While being a nice person who’s actually interested in me… You confuse me to be honest.’

‘Eh, you make it sound like something more interesting than I said, but it can be a start, not? Even though I don’t know of what.’

‘Michael Adams, you really are something. They tell me all the time that I would even have to obey horny creeps who are not even interested in me as a person, in whatever they want. So why on Earth would I reject you, when you’re begging for friendship? You’re unbelievable.’

He sighed. ‘Friendship with girls is indecent. From that one day when I was friends with Lizzie when I was five on I’ve never heard anything else. So asking for friendship is probably indecent too. Maybe even from my fiancée? I don’t know? You’re a honourable girl.’

He paused and looked a bit confused before he resumed. ‘But on the other hand I’ve seen a lot of really indecent and abusive things and no-one ever said anything about them, when I worked at the café this summer. Married men had all kinds of affairs and prostitutes at their table, while officially not even their wives would be allowed there because that would be indecent. As long as the man is high-ranked enough no-one will ever stop you, and collecting women around you to boss around and abuse is very manly or something like that. Maybe I shouldn’t bother that people would say it’s indecent for me to be friends with girls? Indecent my old-English donkey-beast!’

The silly insult made her smile again. She bowed for him.

‘The man is always right. That’s what the please-your-husband class teaches us. So I’m not contradicting you here at all, dear man. But we usually don’t say these things out loud.’

‘What a load of bogus drivel and utter twaddle it all is, including your classes.’

‘By the way, did someone tell you that your vocabulary is much wider than what we are to expect from a Real Man, according to our courses? We are taught to never say things that sound too smart to not make our husband feel stupid too.’

‘As is yours, miss demythologisation of the canon of ideas, and if I were you I’d ask for a refund for those idiotic lessons. It’s all a load of bogus drivel and utter twaddle.’

‘Ah, But there’s the problem: I didn’t pay anything, my father did. And the government. Or something like that.’

Oops, that had been a wrong subject again, and silence fell until he recovered the conversation with a new topic.

‘So, here on the papers it says that you have automatically received an engagement ring from the school already. How does that work? Isn’t it supposed to go differently? Shouldn’t I be the one to give you one in a much later stage of a relationship. Or give each other rings or so?’

She put up her hand so he could look at it.

‘Nope. You chose me, I am legally yours now unless you throw me away. They unceremoniously gave me a ring the morning after, and told me to wear it all the time so everyone can see that I’m taken. I’m afraid it’s not even the most interesting ring either. Just plain stainless steel with nothing on it.’

She took a cheap-looking silvery ring from her left ring finger.

‘In older times the man went down on his knees to ask his girlfriend to marry him, according to the old books.’

‘Yes, but here the man just says “I want her,” as if picking from a catalogue and then she gets her ring to signal to the world that someone has chosen her. The girl has no vote in the matter. There’s no romance for girls in The Nation, in any form, just efficiency and cold bureaucracy. Especially for us E-floor girls. We just end up with low-class husbands anyway, so who cares at all… Who would invest too much in a girl who’ll be the housewife of an Epsilon? And, eh, it’s not like we’ll ever be in contact with anyone who has a high rating, you know. Eh, with all respect to your Gamma-1 badge, sir.’ She winked.

‘I’m aware that I’m the anomaly here, Lady Megan, so nevermind me. And I don’t actually have all the privilege you’d think I have… But would it really be that different on the other floors?’

‘Well, I know on the B-floor they have music on the Ceremony of Partner Choice, and bubble wine, and they can choose their own glamorous bikini and stuff like that. We don’t even have apple juice anymore for the boys. We’re the ultimate leftovers, if you know what I mean.’

‘Hey, you’re quite smart and pretty and everything, don’t…’

Suddenly they were interrupted in the middle of his compliment. ‘Hey Megan, can I have your study notes about home economics?’

Another girl came barging in as if nothing special was happening. The official showed his head next to Michaels through the glass and let his voice boom a ‘No interruptions during a first meeting, Suzanne,’ which sent her away without even giving Megan a chance to answer.

‘So he is paying attention after all,’ he whispered when the official had taken his place behind the desk again.

‘Bwah, old Greystone is very selective in what he notices,’ she said, which he proved by not reacting at all to her words.

‘So, what kind of home economics do you get here in Wife School?’

‘It’s a euphemism for just enough math to be able to go to the store without being swindled. Losing money that belongs to your mighty husband is not a good idea, is it? Without, eh, getting extracurricular study materials we would hardly know basic geometry even. Real Men don’t like Wives who are too smart, you know.’

‘Real Men… The biggest myth of all… If you ever see one, kill him.’ He mumbled. And suddenly he realised that he wasn’t just talking to a girl, but also had opened up enough by now to say things that he usually wouldn’t even dare to think.