The brothers were loud and raucous, to the point that Geldou had to ask them twice to settle down. During the evening meal, the volume of the group again increased. “What is going on with you?” Hearm raised his voice.
“Word in school is that you unenrolled Syp, because she’s too stupid for the classes,” Kleis informed him. “The teachers want to know when she’ll be back!” The boys all laughed. “We told them not to worry, she won’t be!”
“We took a vote,” Obbe announced. “We think that you shouldn’t ‘loose’ Syp. You should keep her here as a slave.”
“A slave?” Geldou echoed. “Whose idea was that?”
Kryn’s smile stretched from ear to ear. “Mine! I’ll never have to do dishes again or muck out the stalls in the sheds. We can make Syp carry water to the garden, and sleep in the shed with the goats.”
Syp stared at each of them. To them she appeared unperturbed. Her eyelids flicked open and shut and her irritation grew.
“Brons do not keep slaves!” Haerm roared. His fist hit the table and the dishes rattled. “Brons have honor and work hard to achieve success. We do not abuse other people for our gain! We show respect for one another, and for the other creatures we share this planet with.”
“But Syp is not a person,” Krynn objected. “She doesn’t look like, talk like, or act like one of us.”
“Go to your sleeping place!”
“I’m not finished eating.” Haerm’s chair tipped over when he stood up. He walked around the table, grabbed his son by the ear and dragged him into the sleeping room. When Haerm came back into the room, he took Kryn’s plate, emptied the food onto Syp’s plate and put the empty one on the counter.
“I don’t understand what the big deal is,” Melle muttered.
This time Haerm kicked his chair across the room. He grabbed his eldest son and shook him. “WE DO NOT KEEP SLAVES! WE EACH DO OUR OWN WORK! WE SHOW RESPECT! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?”
“No, you don’t! You have eight of us, and you use us as slaves!”
“You have no idea what you are talking about! Slaves do not go to school. They don’t learn how to read and write. They work all day and into the night. They have no hope! Many of them die by the time they are your age. Your mother and I have worked day and night to keep you alive, to provide a safe home, and to make sure you have an education and a future. This is how you thank us? By mocking our values, and mistreating a family member?”
“If Syp is a family member, then why are you loosing her on Zaterdag?”
“That is a decision that your mother and I made for the well-being of this family. You will be loosed eventually, too.”
Melle’s eyes widened in surprise. “You wouldn’t!”
“I will. You are nine. The Bron family has loosed its sons when they are thirteen. The Bonnema family tradition is to loose their sons at eleven.”
“But Dad...” he began.
“There are no ‘buts’ about it. My sons will be loosed on the nativity celebration that your mother and I settle on.”
“Who will support you in your old age?”
“That is not for you to worry about. You need to be concerned about growing into the best man that you can be! That means that you understand that Brons do not keep slaves, we do not treat people badly, and we treat the members of our family with respect until the day they are loosed and afterward. Now, apologize to Syp.” Melle was silent. “If you are unwilling or unable to apologize, you can go to your sleeping place.”
Melle pushed back his chair and looked at his father. “I’m sorry, Syp. I’m sorry for thinking you should be a slave. Perhaps you will die after you are loosed, and then we will all be sorry. Sit down, Dad. I’m sorry for being disrespectful of our family values.”
Syp watched her brother. “I accept your apology. I will walk out the door on Zaterdag, and I will be the best person that I can be until the day that I die. I may only be five, but I will do things that you would never dream of doing. Please excuse me from the table, Dad.”
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“No. You will stay here until the rest of us are finished eating.” When dinner was over, Melle and Obbe helped their mother clear the table.
“Come with me, Syp.” In a lowered voice, Haerm told Syp to gather her things. She would sleep in the adult sleeping room for the rest of the week.
Syp piled things loosely into her school backpack and rolled up her blankets. Haerm picked up the sleeping pad and carried it out of the room. “Why am I sleeping in here?"
"Because I said so!" he shouted.
That night, while the rest of the family gathered around the table to do schoolwork, Syp lined up her pieces of clothing on the floor and studied them. Syp went to her mother and asked if she might borrow a fabric scissors, pins, and a needle. “May I please have two small spools of thread?" Geldau unwillingly gathered these things.
Syp had thought long and hard about her discussion with Eiske about choosing her gender. She figured that her mother had considered her a girl because she didn’t have a male sex organ. She had used the girls’ restroom because of the way she peed and would continue to do so. Syp wasn’t a boy and wasn’t going to pretend to be either one. Syp had done searches at the community center for “clothing styles for genderless beings” and “clothing for safe outdoor living” on her electronic pad. After some time, Syp selected a dress and put it on. After marking it with pins, she began to cut. When she was finished, she made cuts up the sides. An hour later, she pulled it over her head and marked the sleeves with pins. She took a deep breath and cut part of the sleeve length off, and put elastic along the bottom from a bra her mother had made her wear. When her parents came to the sleeping room, Syp was cutting thin strips from fabric. After the top lights were off, and the strips of xastatic rocks of the floor began to glow, Syp went to the bathroom and brushed her teeth.
Back at its sleeping pad, Syp touched her hair. It hurt terribly as she braided her hair and placed a tie at the end of each braid. It took a long time, to get the curly mass of chaos to look like the pictures in Eiske’s book. In the middle of the night, feeling satisfied with the incredible effort it had made and the pain it endured, Syp finally slept. On Donderdag morning, Syp came to the eating room with her hair pulled back, wearing the tunic it had created the night before and a pair of jeans.
“What the hell have you done to yourself, Syp?” Geldou stood with her hands on her hips.
“I found a way to keep my hair out of my face.”
“That’s different, Syp.” Kleis noticed how many braids she had made. “It must have taken forever!”
“It did. Now I don’t have to spend half the day moving it out of my eyes and off the sides of my neck.”
“I don’t remember these freckles,” Haerm remarked.l
“They seem to have darkened with time,” Syp acknowledged.
Geldou’s voice was loud and cutting. “That is so ugly! A normal human being would pull their hair back into a single ribbon and be done.”
“I have never been able to wear my hair like that, Mom. It’s out of the ribbon in only a few minutes. The bigger the mass of hair, the more out of control it seems to be. I’ll be living outside. I need to be able to see where I’m going and what I’m doing. I’ll try it for a day, then I’ll try something else.”
“I see that you’ve shortened a dress.”
“Yes. I have to be able to see where I’m walking.”
Nel gave Syp a nod of approval. “I like that shirt.”
“This is what the Niks of Trazene call a ‘niknic.’ It’s a tunic. When I finish it, it will have two more pockets here. In the center of the front, they put a diamond shaped pocket. A communication device fits in it.”
“You don’t have a communication device,” Thys pointed out.
“You’re right. I don’t. But I will have one soon.”
“You don’t have anyone to communicate with.”
“I will. My boss will need to be able to reach me.”
“Your boss?” Kryn howled with laughter.
Hearm nearly choked. He slammed his cup down on the table. Coffee flew everywhere. He shouted at Kryn, “Don’t you remember our discussion about showing respect to family members? You need to straighten up. Apologize to Syp!”
“I’m sorry,” Kryn muttered, not really meaning it.
“Kryn, bring me your electronic devices.”
“You’re taking away my playing time?”
“21:30.”
“But Dad,” Kryn whined.
“21:00.”
“Good grief!” Kryn ran from the room. He was back in seconds. The next time he walked away from his father, he was furious. He looked down at his electronic pad. Haerm had taken away a whole hour of gaming time. “All because of a little brat,” he grumbled.
“Come back here,” Hearm said. “Give me that. Go get ready for school.”
Kryn picked up his learning pad. His disrespect had lost him three-fourths of his game time. He knew that if he complained again, he would forfeit his pad for the night. His teachers would give him zero percent in all his classes tomorrow if he didn't have it.
Across the room, Melle was thinking. “I’m going to be a teacher. I don't want to act like that. I can make the choice to shut my mouth and keep my grades up. I’m going to have to be respectful of my classmates and my university professors. I’ve got to get this right.” He went to Syp. “I’m sorry for all the mean things I've ever said to you. Every person has the right to a good education, a job they like, and a good life. You never give up no matter how crappy we treat you. That’s some determination you have. Keep it up and you’ll go far.”
“Thank you for the compliment,” Syp whispered and blinked rapidly.
“Are you going to cry?” Melle asked.
“I can’t cry. I don’t have any tear ducts.”
“How do you know that?”
“That’s a very good question. I can’t answer how I know that. I just do.”