Chapter 7

Dearest Willow,

I think you know Anna O'Connor? The heavyset girl who lives across the street and a couple houses down from us? Ask her about what a pickup is like. It isn't just standing around in your tights (even if they are not much more than your all in all) while being inspected before performing on stage.

If you're at all as much of a romantic as you seem, and you decide not to pursue Tai Chi or some martial art with at least as much passion as you have for dance I suggest that you make fast friends with someone who can sponsor you. Find out who else he or she (though it is much more likely to be he) will be sponsoring and make friends with them. Build the relationship as much as you can. As soon as you're 14 you could move in with a prospective sponsor. I'd suggest against that unless you have a signed contract. The only reason that marriage can be broken so casually by the Confederacy is that they really don't understand it as a contract. I'm sure if they did they wouldn't let men put aside their wives or let women put aside their husbands. They will not allow someone to break a contract, at least that is what I understand.

They didn't shoot us at the pickup, but afterward they turned a stunner on the lowest setting possible and hit all the concubines with it. At least I think they did. Everyone who was a concubine from the pickup at the ice cream parlor got hit I think...

Marissa, Katy and I had a long talk. Mostly she's embarrassed (a lot like you I guess) that she's had to join a group for what would have been private things. The reason I was there at all was so that I would understand Katy. Marissa says that it's really important that I understand all the women in our family. She said I might defer to Holly but she'd observed that Holly rarely did anything that she thought would upset me. That was a heavy burden to drop on me. I'm not ready to be the leader of our family! Not that Marissa told Katy that she had noticed that but she explained it to me...

I don't think I'd want different flavored body washes, though Marissa embarrassed me by telling me that there are flavored lubricants! Huh!? Oh!! She explained after a bit but I don't think you want to know about the hows and whys of flavored lubricants. I was just commenting on how everyone in the bed smells subtly different.

We have a little longer in orbit as the Dawn Princess is acting as a shuttle to fill positions for a lot of different colonies. I just learned why all of us (Marissa's concubines in particular) are naked when most other concubines are wearing the ugliest gray shifts you ever saw. Atlantis-At is a nudist colony! That is that it was founded by people who are nudists. So unless whatever work I do requires clothes (or I'm a member of the military [not likely!]) I will be naked (as will everyone else including Marissa) except when she's meeting people from other colonies in an official capacity.

I tried an experiment today 'cause I didn't quite believe Marissa when she told me that the others look to me for approval. Katy has been doing school reluctantly. I told her I thought it would be important for all of us to learn as much as possible. Katy perked up and has been applying her best effort to school now. I'm glad that I didn't say that I thought it was a waste of time for us to go to school since we're concubines. Altogether too heavy for me to think about. But I have to now. And balancing my time so that no one but Marissa feels like they are getting more of it. And the only reason Marissa gets more of my time is 'cause she's my sponsor.

I don't know much about Lindy, except that she has a reputation for being an aggressive lesbian. Whether or not she lost her latest girlfriend I have no idea. Nor why she might get in a fight. She's there, and I'm here ... Not that you can't tell that :-) I do hope that John stops moping for me, but if Dad won't pay attention to him then he probably will tend to get into trouble.

I have school work to do and a drafting project to try for Marissa so I guess I'll have to sign off now,

Your brother, Will

Chapter 8 »