Chapter 72: Four Boys

Joan woke refreshed and donned an official neon orange Imagination of the Mind International Tournament T-shirt from her volunteer packet and a lime green squid hat with tentacles that dangled over her hair. While such a hat would make her stand out in any other setting, such frivolity abounded at Imagination of the Mind tournaments. Here, it would partially mask her identity and allow her to walk freely across campus without a second glance.

Michael grabbed Joan's hat and put it on his own head.

Joan growled and bore her teeth. "Why Male take Woman's hat?"

"Male need it more. He need to hide bald-bald from kids."

"Why didn't Male bring his own hat?"

"That's Woman's job. She always bring big box of funny hats."

"Woman didn't want to pay for checked baggage."

"Checked baggage on a private jet?"

Joan threw up her hands. "Woman hasn't had time to think since she met Kaiba brothers."

"Woman thinks?"

Joan yowled and clawed Michael's arm.

"OK, OK. You can have your hat back. Male buy one from souvenir stand."

"Good Male."

Michael put the hat back on Joan's head and kissed her. They finished their morning routines and headed downstairs with Tamara for breakfast in the banquet hall. This time, they chose a table filled with elderly strangers and struck up a casual conversation about where they were from. Clearly, this group didn't keep up with popular culture, and Joan enjoyed the anonymity as she scarfed down her pancakes.

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"What a lovely ring! May I take a closer look?" a wrinkled woman from Iowa with glitter on her cheeks asked.

"Sure." Joan presented her hand to the woman.

The woman smiled over the sparkling jewels and engraved names. "Oh, four boys. How old are they?"

Joan had to speak loudly over the clamor of the other volunteers, all caught up in their own conversations. "The oldest one is forty-four."

The woman looked back up at Joan and gaped. "What!? You can't be older than thirty."

Joan chuckled. "They're my lovers, not my children."

The woman's mouth tightened in shock. "Oh. Is that the new trend in California?"

"Not really. It's been around for ages in many parts of the world, though Western anthropologists have a nasty habit of downplaying it."

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment before the woman's curiosity got the better of her. "Where?"

"The first culture I learned of was the Aché of Paraguay. They believe that a child can be fathered by multiple men. Their marriages aren't really formal, so anthropologists like to call it partible paternity rather than polyandry. Cicisbeism is another word anthropologists use to make polyandry seem less common than it is."

"Polyandry?"

"Marriage to multiple men."

"I see. Are there any cultures with more formal arrangements of this type?"

"Indeed. My personal favorite is the fraternal polyandry in Tibet. I have a thing for brothers."

"Oh, I have a hard time imagining that. My brothers fought constantly when they were growing up. They couldn't even share a room. Sharing a wife would be out of the question."

Joan shrugged. "A lot of it depends on their expectations while growing up. Western cultures place more emphasis on individualism, and Eastern cultures focus on collectivism, or cooperation is another way of putting it."

"Oh, I remember hearing about this somewhere. Isn't that why they have more inter-generational households, whereas here we kick the kids out at eighteen?"

"Pretty much."

From there, Joan and the elderly lady resumed small talk until Tamara nudged Joan and told her they needed to get going. Joan kissed Michael as they parted ways and headed off to their respective destinations.