After the interview Michael looked at the paper every day, but for the next week he didn’t find any article at all about the unsegregated spot, not even on the anomalistics page where strange reports of lake monsters and ghosts were given. The daily business of The Nation just happened like usual with a new school building here and a dangerous criminal that was caught there, with no reports of any revolution at all. But just when he was almost giving up, and had concluded that redaction of the paper had found that the story was either too weird, unimportant or maybe even too controversial to be published, the weekend came.

On Saturday morning he woke up early to be the first one to get the paper before his father, and he knew he had hit the jackpot: The extended Saturday paper showed a big headline ‘Unsegregated Table: men and women together!’ with a picture of an unknown cafe where men and women were sitting together. His heart started racing, and he hid in his room with the newspaper. Even his father, who usually only read sensational headlines about lake monster sightings or weird criminals, would read such a story for sure. Michael was rather unsure about how he’d react to seeing his own son the paper associated with something so outlandish. Like always, he was having second thoughts already about everything. Why had he even agreed to do that interview? He should have considered his own reputation more before doing something like that. Would there be long term problems for him now?

He snuck into his room and took the Saturday paper for a closer examination. The article filled the whole first page, and was continued on pages five and six. It was clear now that the story hadn’t been unimportant at all. But if it was more a sensational article, was there a fair portrayal of the unsegregated places for both sexes, or would it just be scandal and outrage plus a warning against it? He skimmed it, and he breathed with relief. The article was certainly no Women are Human propaganda pamphlet, but at least it tried to be neutral, and seemed to describe the situation more or less factually from a rather perplexed point of view. When he went on to page five, he saw a picture of himself and cursed. The journalist had used a sneak-cam after all. People would notice that much more than just his name. He really didn’t like so much attention, and he had reached some kind of ironic celebrity status already in school. He had hoped that things would calm down over time, but returning to normal was completely out of the question now. But on the other hand, what could he have done? If he had not talked to the journalist the guy probably would have made up his own story anyway, and added much more speculation, and the article would have ended up much deeper in the scandal and sensation side of journalism. And now The Nation had been introduced to the sexual desegregation revolution in a more or less balanced way, partly because of his own words. Things were never simple, were they?

He reread the most important part of the story. ‘These unsegregated spots popped up in four cities now, but the first ones appeared in Seventh City. Our investigators could trace everything back to one terrace on Square Plaza, which doesn’t have the biggest Unsegregated spot, but one that has been open consistently for weeks.’ A bit further he was named with his full name and grade: ‘We were able to talk to Michael Adams, Gamma-1, who according to the story is said to have started the whole rage because he wanted a place to talk with his female friends. He turned out to be an intelligent young man, engaged to a Wife School fiancee, who indeed claimed that the present females, including said fiancee, were his friends.’ ‘Blah blah blah,’ he said, and skimmed the interview.

The reporter had listened, but was still describing it as something strange, and potential subversive. ‘While one would think such ideas to stem from sources like the Women are Human activists, the views of Mr. Adams actually stem from surprising sources. He himself cited taking teachings of The Church more seriously than it does itself, and some kind of re-interpretation of our Glorious Constitution. In his own words ‘The rule is that we all are human. And that we need to treat each other with respect. As the preachers in church say, love your neighbour. And it doesn’t matter whether your neighbour is male or female. That’s from the Holy Book. And the Constitution talks about rights and freedom for every man, but it makes much more sense to just have those for every person, man or woman’ When asked how he would prevent the indecency that happens when women and men are together he had a very interesting answer: ‘If they’re decent people then nothing will happen. If they are not decent people then no rules will prevent indecent behaviour, and worse assault and rape. With all the rules that we still have these things happen anyway. Any form of sexual harassment and anything like that is evidently completely taboo, and completely against the rule of respect. Men have to respect women as women have to respect men, and then it will work out. But only if all of us believe it and act like it.’ Radical words, and whether they work out indeed has to be seen. But we will be keeping an eye on this Unsegregation movement and the other developments in Seventh city. Meanwhile some other people are rather disturbed by the unsegregation attempts. Mr. Collyns from Seventh City says it like this.’

He threw the paper away. They had been faithful in representing his words, but he knew how weird and indecent the whole thing must sound to a lot of people, and not just to Mr. Collyns, who seemed to be against all kinds of what he saw as indecency and was proud that he had never been seen in public with his wife, because some things need to be discrete. Now that must be a happy wife, Mister Collyns, he thought. But in The Nation relationships often work better when both partners don’t see each other at all. And then his thoughts went to the girls. Not only Megan and Eliza, but Angela and Samantha and the leaders of the Women are Human group would be reading the paper too. Maybe even those infamous outlaw women in the Ghost Town. What would they say? Would his little interview make it better or worse for them? It was a good thing for sure that the unsegregation of the sexes had been catching up, and that no-one had really done something about it yet. He knew that it wasn’t unlawful per se, but still very uncontroversial, and it depended on the goodwill of every individual place to open up a part of their space for a mixed company. And in a way they were rather lucky that The Nation was ruled by a conservative Computer who didn’t really make new laws. It wasn’t perfect, but for the moment he was able to live with it. And it seems things were slowly getting better.

*

‘So, how’s the Pen Pal project going?’ Michael asked Joe a few days later.

‘Ah, we are sending our first letters already between the Boys school and the SCWF. Confidentiality guaranteed and we can reach every boy or girl in this city within days. It takes some rearranging but it also has increased the trade too. Boys and girls are sending each other study books and other packages. It seems that asking for study books is becoming a standard ice breaker. At least that’s what I think, there’s many book-shaped packages.’

‘I hadn’t expected that, but it’s an interesting thing. Anything else?’

‘Well, there’s more girls who are interested than boys at the moment. And there seems to be some animosity against it from the more Real Man types.’

‘I’ve noticed such a thing. I should have expected it.’ Michael sighed, thinking of Don and John, who weren’t even Alphas themselves. ‘But that’s part of being the black market. We’ve always operated in the shadows. And while certain high Alphas speak out against it from time to time they can’t ever shut us down. The Nation needs our services, Even Connor Johnston can’t be naive about that. Even the Central Computer representatives are not above using our services from time to time I’ve heard from our First City colleagues, so I don’t think anyone would ever really try to stop us.’

Michael nodded, but something told him everything was going to change, which meant that they might not be able to hold on to their old certainties.

‘And the connection of both black markets? Does that work?’

‘It works better than expected. Andrea has been working hard to find a system of distribution points between our organisations. It’s clear that they are better organised too on the female side, so we can learn a lot from them. I must say that her girls are quite good in stealth operations too, it’s quite impressive.’

‘And it won’t ruin your trade if both markets are connected now?’

Joe shuffled his feet.

‘Eh… We agreed on an arrangement that there’s a 33% extra price for something from the other side, except when it’s a sealed package sent as post. Those things are confidential and cannot be opened.’

So a 33% tax on not having someone on the side of the other sex to personally exchange something, Michael thought. That could get interesting too…

‘Do you think the article on unsegregated spots will make any difference?’ He asked.

‘I don’t know. The article doesn’t mention the black market, but it shows a change is coming. People are picking it up. Some will be totally against it, and others will welcome it. Who’ll tell what that will mean in the end?’

*

On Tuesday he was sitting in the park with Megan on another date, with Eliza reinstated as the regular chaperon again. Both girls were impressed with how the article had turned out, and were more proud of having his picture in the paper than worried, even though not everyone had liked it in Seventh City Wife Factory.

‘Miss Hunter was not really happy, even though she didn’t even realise it was you. The journalist didn’t even bother mentioning my name for some reason… Imagine what she would have said if she’d known it was my fiancée, and the friends were mostly Eliza.’ Megan said.

‘She said that I will need to watch out with her skipping classes and has forbidden every girl in school to read it. Which means that illegal copies are circulating everywhere now, quite counterproductive of her…’

‘I know Eliza has been sneaking into the copier room tonight to make a lot of copies.’ Megan added, and Eliza said nothing, but her eyes smiled innocently.

‘I’m sure she did that,’ he said, and then his face turned serious. ‘But will this not also attract negative attention, and give us enemies?’

‘Michael, Michael, you can’t have a revolution without getting some enemies. What did you expect?’ Eliza said, playing with a curled hairlock as if she was just speaking about the weather.

‘I expect nothing. Since my last birthday I am surprised about everything, and everything is completely new to me. From being supposedly engaged and hanging out to fighting the segregation of the sexes and bringing on the revolution, everything is new, and every new step is a surprise in a new world. A good new world, but also an unknown one.’

‘Some people don’t like new worlds. They want everything to stay the same. You should know that.’

‘Some people want to be married to a will-less slave. What do I care about what other people want if it goes against all sense?’

‘Those people are in charge, my dear boy, and the Central Computer is on their side.’

‘Well curse that rotten machine and its brainwashed acolytes. We don’t need it.’

‘That’s enough Coke for you. You can’t handle those strong drinks at your age, my little Mike All.’ Eliza said.

‘Behave yourself, Eliza!’ Megan said.

‘The problem isn’t the Nation-Coke. There’s something else that makes me uneasy. I have the feeling that something might be wrong, but I don’t know what it is…’

‘Our little boy starts spending time with girls and suddenly he develops female intuition? I didn’t know we were so contagious.’ Eliza said.

‘Stop it.’ He said, drinking the rest of his glass in one gulp, even though it almost burned his throat.

*

The first trouble came soon enough, and unexpectedly when Michael was studying for advanced robotics in his room.

‘What on Earth are you doing with all that girl stuff, son?’ His father barged in with another copy of the Saturday paper, even if it was a few days later already. This paper certainly wasn’t Michaels, his copy had ended up in the paper bin. He looked at him, but didn’t find any answer that would be satisfying.

‘What do you mean, dad?’

‘Hanging around with women, talking to them, being on a picture with them in the papers, and that stuff. That’s not manly.’ Michael looked at him. If that was already a problem this conversation would not work at all.

‘They always said I’d like girls once I’d get to know them, and that ended up being true, so I’m looking for a way to be more natural with them.’

His father shook his head. ‘You are being indecent and you are doing unnatural things, son. Its’ not healthy. Men and women should stay away from each other. That’s the natural order of things. You are a smart boy, you should know that. We are different and need to stay away from the other. Otherwise there will be chaos.’

‘Nothing unnatural about girls. Women are just people like us. And they can be friends like all people.’

‘It’s against God’s laws. It’s against common sense. Are you even a man? How can you betray us all like this?’

‘Yes, I’m a man, technically and legally. I am 18 now and I’m a Gamma-1, so who’s going to stop me here?’

It felt weird to use his rating against his dad, but he had no choice now. His father took the message, but still wasn’t convinced.

‘It’s not natural, it’s not decent. Can’t you just be discreet about hanging around with your fiancée like all men? Showing off that you meet a girl is shameful. Do you want to bring shame to all of us?’

‘I already have to be so discrete that I can’t even see my own little sister or walk around with my own mother, while the male section of the Square bar is full of creeps with their weird affairs and extramarital sex-slaves and no-one says something about that? Sorry, I can’t live like that, and such a world is just wrong. But that reminds me that I should arrange a visit for little Annie with Megan.’

His father paled. ‘You’re going to visit your little sister? In Wife School?’

‘I was planning to, why not? She’s my family.’

‘I forbid you.’

Michael waved with his badge. ‘I’m 18, and you can’t stop me. I am so through with all this nonsense. Be a Man, hah… And then you’re brainwashed into less of a person. We’re not actually men, we’re not even human anymore. There must be another way of being a man.’

‘But, son?’

‘There is a better way to be human. I know it. That’s what I’m discovering. And the girls are helping me with that; unlike you and all those idiotic Alpha idiots.’

‘You will get in trouble for all of this girl stuff, son. And if that happens I won’t be there to defend you. I gave you everything to be a good man. I even gave you a Wife School girl to marry. And this is how you thank me? I feel ashamed for having such a weakling under my roof. You really will have to move out as soon as you can marry her. And the wedding party will be small. Not going to pay for that.’

Fifteen minutes later he walked outside. His father was not a man of long talks, but he knew that their relationship was getting worse and worse, especially now that his mother had given up completely on being a mediator between her husband and her youngest son. It was clear that this situation would explode soon, and he didn’t know what would happen then. Would he be able to live there, or need to find another house? And what with his mother? She had completely faded in the background and didn’t even dare to say anything lately, as if she was just a domestic robot that was present for little jobs but not present as a person. He never understood what happened between his parents, but it seemed that his mother was much more unreachable than the women of his own age were. Was that what a Nation marriage did to a woman? Would he be able to not do anything like that with Megan? Was it even possible to have a decent marriage that didn’t destroy the woman and make the man a much worse person than he could have been? Everything was still so unclear.