Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
And big families were encouraged, while small families were shamed. The more children a man had, the more power he was given. We need to repopulate this new world The New Order created for us, after all.
As soon as we’re able to read, we’re given manuals on how to speak, how to act, and how to adhere to The New Order’s strict beliefs. Certain phrases are not allowed, certainly not sarcasm or lies. Those were punishable. No lewd behavior, no ungratefulness, no displays of anger. Not for women, anyway. Men receive much more … forgiveness for such things.
“Is there an issue with your meal, Selina?” my father asks.
My eyes snap up from where they’ve been staring at the tablecloth to find him watching me. Anytime his gaze is on me, it feels like he’s analyzing, looking for a wrong I’ve done. Seeking an opportunity to take something away from me, and as it is, there’s already so little left that I cherish.
Well, there are some. My studies. My walks through the grounds at night. I don’t want to lose those.
“No issue, father,” I reply.
“Then, eat.”
I nod and begin eating the chicken, rice, and potatoes as if they are not cold and tasteless.
We must not overindulge. That includes enjoying our food too much as well.
“I have a meeting tonight at Colonel Bayard’s home.”
I have to fight not to let my lips begin to curve up happily like they want to. Even though there will still be soldiers here, the house always feels lighter without my father in it, and if he’s gone, then I can sneak down to the library.
“Is everything all right?” I inquire.
He waves my false concern away. “Just discussing a new law being proposed.”
I don’t have to fight a smile anymore with those words. Any time there are new laws passed, things get a bit bleaker, and daily life becomes more constricted.
“Oh? A law about what?”
I know it’s dangerous to ask, and that he’s as likely to answer as he is to launch into a whole speech about how all the freedoms he’s given me have made me too bold for a woman. Have caused me to speak too much and transgress my bounds. But he must be in a better mood than usual for some reason because his eyebrows raise at my question. A clear sign that it’s something he actually wants to tell me.
“There has been considerable conversation before about restricting how much schooling the children get. They could be out of school, learning more practical things once they’ve completed their basics. Women can spend time in the homes with their mothers, learning to cook, sew, and clean so that they can be more ready to sustain their own household at an earlier age. And men could be learning a trade younger. We’ve even begun to develop an aptitude test to see early on which field they would thrive in, so they can be put in the classes which suit them.”
I have to swallow at all that he’s just said. I knew it. More restrictions. Less time being a child for the children, and more of The New Order forcing you to be an adult far earlier than you’re ready to. Other girls, just as I once was, were taught from twelve up how to do all the very things my father just mentioned, but we were still able to learn about history, math, and read the same approved books as boys. Now, he’s saying girls won’t even have that, trapped in their homes from who knows what age, taught only to be a wife with zero knowledge of the world and ignorant to everything except conforming, warming a man’s bed, and pushing out baby after baby. And boys, made into little soldiers, if not forced into some job that they never agreed to. A government cook, a welder, engineers. Just to work themselves to death in the end.
“Those all sound like what would be welcome changes.”
He narrows his eyes at me, as if he can tell I’m lying. He probably can. The only thing I ever fought my father on was wanting to be a nurse, wanting to learn how to help and heal others. When I was younger, this was a woman’s job, as we are seen as nurturers in our society. But just as I turned eighteen, the laws changed, stating that women filling this occupation allowed too much interaction between the genders, and that only men would be allowed to be nurses from then on.
A large part of me always felt it was my own father who introduced the law, just to prevent me from doing what I wanted to the most.
I continue studying, though, even now. Years later. I sneak medical books from his library and read them whenever I feel safe enough to. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to use anything I’ve learned, but I still hold onto some hope that I will.