Official Greystone looked with astonishment at the weird apparition that came specifically for his desk. It was a dull Wednesday afternoon that shouldn’t have had any irregularities at all, but now he shook his head when she stood before him.

‘Hi, my dear old official Greystone,’ Eliza said cheerfully, waving a bundle of documents around. She wore one of her old oversized sweaters in combination with the orange clothes of a factory worker, and her hair looked like an ancient jungle monster. ‘Could you be so friendly to bring me to the visitation room and ask for Shirley for an official visit, my old friend.’

He looked at the papers while she talked on. ‘I know my rights and I’ve studied all relevant laws, and there’s nothing that forbids me to visit my friends, even if it might be uncommon to do so. But to be more official I have a permit-383 and everything with me that says that I can visit Shirley this afternoon.’

He took the paper and shook his head. He knew from experience that going against Eliza would be a lost cause, and it was clear that the little devil had indeed the right papers so he just nodded and gestured to her to follow him.

She followed him through the sombre halls of the E-floor and seemed to be more chatty than usual to the poor official. Greystone also realised that he had no real authority over her anymore now that she wasn’t a student any longer.

‘Oh, by the way, I had to send my greetings to you from Megan, and from Mister Adams too, we call him Michael Michaels now. They wonder if you’ve been missing them.’ He ignored her and brought her to the visitation room.

When they had reached their destination, he sighed and took the in-house phone.

‘Hi Miss Hunter, could you call Miss Shirley to the visitation room please, she has an official visit. No, Not a family member, it’s just Miss Eliza. She has a permit-383 and all the right documents, so she has the right to have a visit. No, Miss Hunter, nothing can be done against it. And sorry for the interruption.’

Eliza chuckled when she realised that Miss Hunter still felt uneasy about every little conversation she had with a man, even if it was Greystone, who was more an asexual robot than a human. She also found that he looked quite bad today.

‘You look tired, official Greystone. Maybe you’re working too hard.’ She said cheerfully.

‘It’s girls like you who exhaust me.’

‘Ah, well, you chose one of the few jobs with girls that men can have in thy.is country, in the whole Nation. Don’t complain about that then.’

‘I had no choice, Miss Eliza, I was young and it’s not easy finding a job as a lower Gamma. My back always prevented me from doing actual physical work.’

‘Ah, well, most of that can be done by robots too but a man needs a job, not? But it’s still so much easier to find a good job as a Gamma than when you’re deleted like they did with Michael, so maybe you’re protesting too much.’ She became more serious with every word now.

‘A sad case, young mister Adams could have had such a bright future, if only he had taken a more suitable wife and behaved a bit more manly.’

‘I wouldn’t insult my friends if I were you, official Greystone. Just a little warning. And by the way, I also expect that you will watch out for my friends that I still have here. Unlike Miss Hunter you might have some humanity left, somehow, somewhere, deep down, and I expect you to use that when it really matters.’

He looked away and sighed again. Eliza might be unmarriable, but she was a power of nature that you shouldn’t mess with. For the first time he recognised how much inner power the girl actually had. He had never realised how she exhibited all the theoretical marks of a natural Alpha when she was in this state, much more than most actual Alpha men he knew. But there were no part-time Alphas in The Nation nor were there female Alphas, and girls with power had no place in his worldview, so he just shook his head.

‘Eliza!’ Suddenly Shirley came running from the other hall. ‘You came.’ She said, and she looked a bit shaky.

‘Yes, I saw your message, and I, eh, arranged some papers as fast as I could. And I thought that using the official visit system would be easier than smuggling and hiding and all that.’

Greystone gave her a dirty look, but didn’t say anything, and left for his desk in the corner of the room; where a big pile of paperwork always lay ready for occasions like this one. He didn’t even bother that they were on the same side of the glass wall in the middle of the visitation room now, both girls had slept in the same dorm until less than a month ago, and keeping them apart would take too much energy. And what did it matter anyway to let those girls have a moment together? He had learned to choose energy conversation when it came to Eliza and unimportant rules.

Meanwhile the girls ignore him and his never-ending pile of paperwork.

‘I thought I lost you. I thought I was completely lost. I can’t go on without you and Megan here.’ Shirley said.

‘Hey, I might have been kicked out, but I won’t be completely gone as long as I have friends in this school. If you need me I’ll be here.’

Shirley gave her a sudden hug. ‘Oh, Eliza, it’s horrible. I’m taken. And I’m afraid he’s the worst possible sort of man. He looked drunk at the evening of the ceremony and was yelling that he wanted a blond girl as a wife. And I just happened to be the first blond girl in line that wasn’t taken yet. Oh, it’s so stupid, Emma was taken ten seconds before me, she was five and I was thirteen. And oh, I’m afraid now.’

She started crying.

Eliza gave her friend another hug, and then took on a cool and businesslike attitude.

‘If that’s really the case we will need to get you out before the first meeting with him outside. We can’t have him touching you. Are you still in for trying out the old plan with a Wife-o-matic replacement?’ Her eyes shone with mischief.

Shirley looked up through her tears. ‘What do you mean? Replacing me with a robot? That was just a joke, not?’

‘I won’t be easy, and it won’t be cheap, but no, not a joke. It actually looks like a perfect job for Michaels new wife… After a little make-over it should work.’ ‘Michael? A new wife? What do you mean?’ Shirley had stopped crying and was only staring at Eliza now.

‘Ah, didn’t they tell you we’re all unmarriable now? All three of us I mean, Megan, me and Michael too. And for a man in Manfred’s blessed country that means that he gets a robo-wife, because a man can’t live without a woman to boss around and for the mixed intimacy or some crap like that. That’s the clean version of the story anyway. So he’s now officially married to a vintage Wifebot-o-matic 2.1, they didn’t have any recent models left. I don’t think he really appreciates her as much as he should though, he refuses to refer to her with personal pronouns and locks his door at night and stuff like that. But I’ve heard him say thank you for doing chores, so at least he’s polite to poor Dorothy.’

‘Are you serious?’

‘I am serious. The pre-Nation programs are still there, so with a little make-over she can buy you some time after running away. Plus if he is indeed a creep there will be some well-deserved shocks. And the best thing is that a woman cannot legally harm a man according to our great laws, as I’ve experienced myself. We’re too harmless, you know… Only men have the privilege of being dangerous.’

Shirley fell into her chair, and for a moment she forgot about her own situation.

‘You’re kidding, no? Wow, married to a robot? So, he’s not with Megan anymore?’

‘They’re hopeless, but I’m confident their friendship will recover in the end. But that’s not important now. We need to focus on your safety now, and I actually meant what I said about the Wifebot plan. The problem is that this is a short visit, I don’t have that much time now for the complete explanation. We have to work with the pre-marriage procedure and get you out before he can touch you. Your taker will plan a visit in this room soon, the one with the stupid list of questions that no-one uses. Let me know how that visit went, and if it’s really as catastrophic as it seems we will give Dorothy the robot a make-over to replace you, and we get you out of this hell-hole before the first physical date. We’ll only need a recent picture of you, maybe you give it to Anabelle or Iris if you can’t reach her. You can pay for all the Pen Pal communication with my secret stash of boy school books by the way if you need.’

‘You are crazy, Eliza. But I love you. Just seeing you makes me feel better now, and it gives me faith that even if he is indeed a terrible creep it will be okay somehow.’

She gave her friend another hug and looked at her watch.

‘It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s what I could come up with. And it’s something I wanted to do from the moment that I saw that robot. Let me know when the first visit here with your fiancé is and I’ll arrange a new visit for us to make real plans for your escape, and for the Revenge of Shirley-Dorothy the robot.’

She looked at Greystone, who was arranging paperwork again and completely ignored them, as he had done with Megan’s and Michael’s visit too. Luckily he really wasn’t interested in what the girls had to say, but that he hadn’t even bothered to keep them apart on two sides of the glass was strange. Maybe there was indeed some humanity left in him, very deep down as she had said or otherwise he was just tired and had given up on everything Eliza-related. Either way it could only work in their advantage.

They talked for a few more minutes until Greystone stood up from his chair.

‘Girls, your time is up. Young lady Shirley will be expected in her botany classes in ten minutes.’

Eliza stood up and bowed before the both of them. ‘Greet the flowers from me. It’s a pity that I’ll never see those Cosmos seedlings in flower. Hmm, I’ll ask the women in the Ghost Town if I can sow some Cosmos flowers somewhere.’

Greystone looked alarmed by those words. ‘Don’t be afraid, official Greystone, I’m just a simple working non-Wife living in a state woman house, with Megan as my roommate. I’m not an outlaw, I’m only there for occasional computer jobs and robotics assistance, and a political meeting maybe here and there. You don’t have to fear, they are nonviolent anyway. But I have to go now too. Important things to do, and people to see, revolutions to lead. I’ll find my way out, and bye Shir. Everything will be okay.’

She winked at a baffled Shirley, gave her a last hug and disappeared.

‘The botany class is in the other direction, Miss Shirley,’ said official Greystone when she walked away in the wrong direction, completely overwhelmed by what had happened.

*

The penetrating sound of the doorbell woke Michael from a small nap, and yawning he went all the way down to check who it was that had disturbed him in such a way. When he arrived he didn’t see one of the girls or some official with yet another bundle of new documents like he had expected, but a shy boy his own age who was still looking at the plate with doorbells and names in confusion.

‘Robert!’ he said, and he gave his friend a hug automatically.

Robert directly backed off.

‘Oops, sorry, I’ve only seen my girl friends lately, and they have a more physical way of showing affection than boys.’

‘I’ve noticed that already,’ Said Robert, showing him a paper with a handwritten address on it.

‘Ah, that’s Eliza’s handwriting, isn’t it? You contacted Eliza to get my address? You, with your reservations about girls?’

‘She was my last chance. No-one in school knew anything about you, your parents acted like you never existed, and Tom could only say you were working again and referred me to her. But you could say I’m not afraid to talk to girls anymore.’

Michael laughed. ‘Clearly. But she’s not really the easiest person to talk to as a male stranger. She can be intense and she’s good at making horrible first impressions on boys. I’ve seen that. She completely isn’t like the standard Wife School girl. If such a thing even exists, I think I’ve only met the rebels and the odd ones out.’

‘Ah, well, she was a bit hostile at first, and in the end she hugged me because I was such a good friend to you only minutes later. Is she always so confusing?’

‘I’ve never found her confusing, but I’ve certainly seen her having that effect on other boys. It’s not easy to get through to her. But let’s go upstairs.’

Robert followed his friend up the stairs until they arrived in Michael’s apartment. ‘Do you want something to drink? I have some beers, and fresh three herbs ice tea in my hyperisolation fridge.’

‘The three herbs from the square bar? Give me some!’ There was a moment of silence when they both drank their three herbs, and Robert looked around in disbelief.

‘Whew, I’m glad that I finally found you. I was almost giving up. You don’t know how weird it is when someone suddenly doesn’t exist anymore, and it’s even wrong to talk about him. At first Don and John were mocking you, and now it seems like there’s a taboo on your name. Even Henry doesn’t want to hear about you anymore.’ ‘Even him? Maybe Eliza was right about the whole male world abandoning me, except for you then.’

‘The atmosphere has been really weird too since you’ve gone. Also with that pen pal project taking off but no-one talking about it. A lot of boys seem to have a pen pal now in Wife School, but no-one dares to talk about it with someone else. They’re afraid of the Alphas and people like Don and John. And just affirming your existence is a bit like having a pen pal girl friend now I’m afraid.’

Michael sipped and suddenly thought of something. ‘The Pen Pal project, I should have thought of that… If Lady Martha can use it to send me a letter, I can try to write some of my male friends too. At least I can try Rafael if Henry doesn’t even want to hear my name. Maybe some others too.’

Robert almost dropped his glass. ‘Lady Martha? The head witch of the Ghost Town? She wrote to you? Using the Pen Pal network?’

‘We never planned on it to be used like that, but yes, she used it to invite me to talk to her.’

‘You’ve been invited to a Ghost Town? And you’re still alive?’ ‘They were nice to me. Some of her elders didn’t approve of it, but Lady Martha seems to like my attempts at unsegregation. I’m officially a friend of the community now.’

‘I wouldn’t go there in a million years. They are witches. They are dangerous.’

‘They’re more like Eliza. They might seem tough, but once they know you’re human, they might open up to you slowly. Or not… But Lady Martha is now convinced that one man in a hundred might be a decent human, and that we might get the benefit of the doubt sometimes. Not that I think they’ll stop defending their walls fiercely.’

‘They use magic to put people asleep. How are you not afraid of that? Wife School girls is one thing, but them woman outlaws? You’re crazy, man!’

‘I don’t know their secret yet of how they defend themselves, but we’re the twenty-seventh century, dude. There is no such thing as magic, don’t be superstitious! And they’re not witches at all. They just have chapels for some female angel as far as I know. Lady Martha’s partner is the village priestess.’

‘Priestesses? Women married to women? You find all of that normal?’

Michael shrugged. ‘I’ve been deleted already from whatever normal is supposed to be for defending my friend against sexual assault, so I don’t care about normal at all anymore. But why should I be afraid of female angels or women who are partnered to another women? They don’t even have men in their world, me visiting was already very weird, so why wouldn’t it be logical for them to settle down with another woman as their partner?’

‘But, women with women, it’s…’

‘Actually it can never be worse than what men do to women in this rotten country’

‘If you look at it like that.’

Silence fell for a while and Robert looked around again, slightly nervous.

‘This is worse than I had expected,’ he finally said.

‘At least I have a job, and some friends. And a wife even. Pity that she isn’t human.’

Robert stared at him in horror.

‘I almost forgot. Eliza said they gave you a Wifebot.’

‘Yes, I’m unmarriable without my rating badge, and I was engaged already, and a man can’t live alone without a wife, or something like that. You can’t make that stuff up. But it’s quite handy for household chores, I give you that. Even Eliza is jealous I think, but that’s more because she’s a rare vintage pre-Nation model with special features. She’s got a weird fascination with ancient robots.’

‘You’ve already brought a girl in here, to show off your Wifebot? Man, you’re crazy!’

‘I brought her in because she knew how to deactivate them. No-one ever taught us that, not even in advanced robotics… And she showed me how, with just a standard triangle profile screwdriver. Don’t you want to see it anyway?’

‘Eh…’

'Come, don’t be shy! It’s in sleep mode I think, but I can wake it. Hey Dorothy.’

‘Yes, Michael’ A voice came out of the other room.

‘Ah, it’s finally just calling me by my name. I was getting tired of the Master Husband stuff…’

He said silently to Robert, before raising his voice to address the robot again.

‘Please come say hello to my friend Robert, Dorothy.’

A humanoid shape came in from the other room, almost human and very female in an uncanny way, quite blond too, and most probably materialised straight out of the fantasies of a lonely robotic engineer with very specific preferences. She was fully clothed though, and wearing an apron. Robert gasped when the robot bowed and tried to give him a hand.

‘Pleased to meet you, Robert. The friends of my husband are my friends.’

‘Eh, yes…’ Robert said, very uncomfortable, not knowing how to react.

‘Man, she’s so real.’

‘Yes, I am very real. I am his Wife now. I will make him very happy.’

‘Does she make you happy?’ Robert asked doubtfully.

‘Well, she has done wonders in cleaning up this dump. You don’t want to know how it looked here when I arrived. And Dorothy is very good at doing the dishes and cooking too, and stuff like laundry. They said that a Wifebot was better than a human wife, and at very specific things that might even be true. I would never have let Megan do all that work without feeling guilty and helping her. Ah, well, that’s all in the past.’

‘Oh, I didn’t even think of her, she’s not going to marry you now. How are you two now? I mean, if you’re still in touch with Eliza, you must see her too…’

‘I haven’t had the courage to talk to her yet to be honest. It’s over indeed, we’re both unmarriable, and it’s all so complicated. We should still be friends, but I don’t know how to start contact again.’

‘But that thing… is your Wife, eh, do you…?’ Robert looked at him uneasily.

‘I lock my door at night, and I’m not touching it.’ Michael said decidedly.

‘Intimacy is important in a marriage, but it seems my husband is not ready for more intimate encounters,’ the robot said, and switching to another voice it added. ‘But if you want to be able to date a human one day, you will have to learn how to be physical with a woman in a loving way. Otherwise you will never be given your dateability certificate.’

The boys looked at each other.

‘What’s she talking about? What’s a dateability certificate? That’s not Nation thought at all.’

‘Eh, that must be a glitch. It’s an old robot that was made before Nation times to re-educate men who had been, eh, inappropriate with women. Eliza told me about that. But those programs should have been overridden by the Nation Iwfebot program. Very weird… Maybe because I gave her permission to electrocute every man who touches her in the wrong way into charcoal when the robo-engineer who brought her was being weird. You can’t tell me that she’s supposed to be my wife and then assault her. I even started calling it she then, wait, I’m doing that again.’

‘Can she, it, eh? You know?’

‘There’s a program to punish men for every wrong touch with an electric shock, yes. Maybe the charcoal part is a bit of an exaggeration though…’

‘Wow, fun life you have, living with her…’ Robert looked at his watch. ‘Hmm, it’s almost time for my computer language lessons. I’ll have to go. Does this building have a phone so I can try to call you?’

‘Oh, a common one. Probably not so reliable but I’ll write down the number. But you can always reach me through the Pen Pal network, and I’m working in the bar. You should come and visit.’

‘Eh, I’m not a bar person, but we’ll keep in touch. I know how now.’

Robert was slightly nervous but relieved when he walked away from the ugly Zeroville blocks fifteen minutes later.