“The truth is, Lavi, you’ve got some guts for what you’ve done with your husband. Anyone else in your shoes would’ve got rid of him.”

Lavidia was in the Northern Territory, alongside her grandmother. This woman was tall and slender, more similar to the redhead that Laba, Lavidia’s own mother. The two women watched from a promontory as a pneumatic drill opened a deep hole in the ground to exploit the resources of an iron mine. Certain magnetic anomalies had been discovered in the area, indicating significant amounts of the mineral.

It was a cold day, and both women wore pants, boots, a thick fibre coat, and a cap.

“I’d bet he’s still bedding you,” the older woman deduced.

“You’d win that bet, Labra.”

The woman smiled and then joked:

“Really? You won’t tell me that your husband knows how to please a woman...”

Lavidia also smiled and said:

“My husband is like any other man. He neither knows how nor could he understand it even if someone explained it to him.”

“I see. So, it’s just sentimentality with him, right?”

“Call it what you want,” the young woman replied, still staring at the hole they were digging.

The drill reached a water table, and the hole filled with water. It was the moment they were waiting for, and they descended from the cliff to operate the pumps that would extract the liquid.

“But yes, you’re right,” Lavidia continued. “Usually in these cases a woman would send him back to his mother.”

“Who will try to marry him to some woman whose husband doesn’t give her daughters. Yours at least has a certificate of fitness.”

“Yes, I know of a girl who divorced for that reason and married another who’s more ‘capable’.”

“I do too...”

“But I find that utilitarianism with men disgusting, Labra. I really don’t understand how there can be women who love their sons, love their fathers, and love their brothers, and yet, with their husbands, they don’t have that feeling, even if it’s just to a lesser degree.”

“It’s the ties of blood, Lavidia. We don’t have that connection with a husband.”

The ties of blood... Those words echoed in her head repeatedly and affirmed her decision not to accept having daughters ‘from other women’. Without the blood ties, she thought, she probably wouldn’t have loved them as one should love a ‘real daughter’. If she had accepted to breed an egg from her sister, what would have resulted would have been a niece, not a daughter. Perhaps she would have been her favourite niece, but nothing more. It would have all been deception, self-deception, she thought, and at least with that decision, she avoided looking at ‘her descendants’ with suspicion throughout her life.

While another woman led the crew of men who were to insert the conduit for water extraction into the pond that had formed —among whom was Batro—, a gust of wind blew Lavidia’s hair into her eyes, and she proceeded to tuck it under her cap.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Did you leave your hair long so that others think you don’t have daughters?”

“No, how silly!” the granddaughter responded. “I did it for the cold!”

The question wasn’t trivial. Most women always kept their hair short for pure convenience. Daughters, and especially sons, often grabbed onto them frequently, giving mothers strong pulls.

The girl hadn’t finished tucking her rebellious hair when they saw the contraption again.

“What’s that, Labra?” she commented, looking at the sky.

The older woman looked to where her granddaughter pointed, and after observing it, said:

“I have no idea. A small plane, I suppose. A remote-controlled aircraft.”

“Remote-controlled? By whom?”

The grandmother shrugged. “I don’t know,” she replied.

“How long has this territory been inhabited?”

“As far as I know, just a few years. It used to be uninhabited before. Overpopulation in the warm zones is leading us to build where we didn’t use to live.”

“Yeah, I know. But is it possible to build an aircraft for human transport?”

“Not yet. It hasn’t been invented. It would be too heavy. Things like that,” she pointed to the sky, “can be lifted into the air, or even something larger. But not much more. The batteries would weigh so much that flight would be impossible.”

“Aren’t there other forms of propulsion?”

“No, Lavidia. The first energy source that was invented was hydroelectric. But this proved insufficient in dry areas, so photovoltaic panels and wind energy were invented. With that, we can recharge batteries and move cars on land and ships at sea. Why would we need to transport things through the air?”

“Well, I don’t know... to be quicker, maybe.”

“Oh! Hurry… Young people are always in a rush. In my grandmother’s time, there were no machines or computers, and you see, the species survived.”

“Of course, there was no medicine either. So many mothers died in childbirth, and so many daughters died shortly after birth. That’s why humanity was only in warm zones, and there was plenty of space.”

“Obviously. But progress has been unstoppable, Lavi. Medicine has increased longevity and population, and with more population and longer life, there’s more capacity to research and prosper.”

“Do you think we’ll run out of space someday if we keep growing so much?”

“The world is big, and its resources are plentiful, Lavidia. The only impediment might be the shortage of fresh water, but since desalination plants were invented, that’s almost solved. Moreover, the major water consumption occurs in agriculture, and I believe that, in the long run, there will be less cultivation. Natural or synthetic proteins will outcompete plants.”

“I definitely prefer them to vegetables. And you?”

“When I was young, we mostly ate vegetables. Insects were only available through individual gatherings, so we treated them as appetisers or desserts. But now, you have ways to raise them industrially and massively, and a thousand ways to process them. Honestly, there are some foods that no one could identify as being made from insects.”

“Why do you say ‘you’?”

“Because whatever comes in the future, I probably won’t see it.”

“Come on, Grandma, the future is already here.”

“That’s true. Gardens are being abandoned to build houses, and people eat artificial vitamins instead of fruits. But what can I tell you, dear! I thought the world before was much better.”