About Sisterland (46 page)

Finally, she requested a travel permit, and a day pass into Safe Space. Both Patience and Goodwill questioned her about
her reasons. However, they were satisfied with her
explanation: she had enjoyed a special relationship with the mother. If anyone could reach her and persuade her to accept the error of her ways, it was Constance.

“And who knows? I might be able to bring her round to our way of thinking,” Constance said to Harper, when she told him she had been authorised to go.

He looked resigned, and she couldn’t resist tiptoeing into his mind. She wanted him to be happy. She was mindmapping him for both their sakes.

Your way of thinking? It’s the Co-Equals’ way – not yours, Constance.

“Don’t do that!” he snapped.

“I’m sorry. I only did it because I’m worried about you.”

“Not as worried as I am about you.”

Constance told herself they just needed to spend some time together – that would ease the tensions between them. Impulsively, she suggested, “Why don’t you come with me? It would do us both good to get out of Harmony. I know Black Particle’s not supposed to be all that appealing, but maybe we could stop off somewhere on the way home. In your belt, perhaps? Why not? You could show me your forest.”

His face lightened. “The butterflies will be out now. Think of Faithful’s face when she sees them!”

She hesitated, unwilling to dampen his enthusiasm, and yet doubtful that the Co-Equals would give their daughter a travel permit. There was a grand design involving Faithful – which she hadn’t told Harper about – to take her on a procession through Sisterland, to present her to the people, when she was three years old. It was to be a choreographed unveiling of the figurehead child who represented Sisterland’s future. The Co-Equals intended to be alongside her when it happened. “Wouldn’t it be too much for her? Why don’t we leave Faithful with Devotion, and spend some time together, just you and me? There’ll be other trips we can take with Faithful.”

“We’d be gone for a couple of weeks, Constance. It’s too long to leave her. Even with Devotion. Please. Ask for a permit.”

As Constance had suspected, the Co-Equals regretfully declined permission for Faithful to go with them. Harper’s anger shook Constance.

“Even if you don’t mind for yourself, doesn’t the level of control they have over Faithful’s life bother you?” he asked.

“They’re just worried something might happen to her.”

“I’ll tell you what really bothers them. They’re afraid if they let the three of us go away together, we might make a run for it. They have plans for Faithful. You know they do.”

“I suppose they see her as some kind of totem. I try not to think about it. I’m just glad we can keep her with us.”

“How long before she’s given a formal role? How long before she’s taken away from us?”

“Harper, I’m doing my best here. For all of us. Where’s the harm in letting Patience include Faithful in some of the Co-Equals’ plans? Not now, of course. But later, when she’s older. I can protect her. Goodwill will help me.”

“Do you really believe there’s no harm, Constance? Or have you tricked yourself into believing it?”

Black Particle was not an easy place to reach, even for a sister as important as Constance. She was flown there, in a plane previously reserved for use by the Nine, craning her neck at take-off and landing to see Sisterland from the air. Black Particle was as different from Harmony as night from day. After landing in the most remote belt, she was glad of a personal carrier and guide to take her to Safe Space. No wonder the cities had grown up elsewhere.

Despite its gloomy setting, Safe Space was a well-lit complex of buildings humming with purpose. Those committed there couldn’t leave – but that didn’t mean it should be defined as a prison, according to the scrutineer who admitted her. It wouldn’t be practical to let them wander outside into such an inhospitable environment. They’d die of exposure. The locks were for their own protection.

She was brought into an area throbbing with activity. Safe Space was composed of fitness areas where constant exercise was encouraged and rewarded, to wear down excess energy. “It’s for the best – our residents have to be kept too busy to think,” said the scrutineer. “Thinking damaged them in the first place.”

Constance found the Shaper Mother in the rowing-machine section, resplendent in a bodysuit. No environment could diminish her. She showed no surprise at Constance’s arrival, although she hadn’t been informed in advance. Standing up and stretching, she led her to a refreshment zone, where they were the only occupants: everyone else was focused on working out.

“No skin, Constance? Your face won’t thank you for it, in future years.”

“I always loved the onyx box you kept yours in, mother. I hope they let you take it to Safe Space? I wouldn’t like to think of it going astray.”

“I kept the box. You look different without your skin. Younger, oddly enough.”

“You look different, too,” said Constance. The Shaper Mother had lost weight, and no longer shaved her head, which was covered in a moss of cinnamon hair. It matched her eyes. “No shawl, mother? You barely seem dressed.”

“Shawls tangle in the oars.”

Constance laughed. “That’s a disadvantage. Still, Safe Space agrees with your health. You look more rested than when I last saw you.”

“I sleep like a baby here. Speaking of which, I believe you’re a source. Congratulations. My idea, so I claim some of the credit.”

“Yes, I owe my daughter partly to you.”

Just then, a bell pinged.

“Covenant Time.” The mother stood up. “The new Sisterland hasn’t abandoned all the old ways.” She joined hands with Constance, and together they chanted, “
To universal sisterhood! And brotherhood!
”

“Some of our sisters are reluctant to add the final part,” said Constance.

“Change can be troubling.”

“Unless it’s handled properly. Mother, my daughter isn’t the only debt I owe you. You shouldn’t be in Safe Space. Isn’t there some compromise we can agree that will allow you to leave?”

“It’s not disagreeable. It operates on physical fitness principles, as an antidote to brooding.”

“Does it work?”

“It tires you out. They have a team of bodies who train us on the machines, laden down with whistles and stop-watches and heart-monitors. They’re relentless pearls. See that one over there?” She indicated a woman jogging on the spot. “She’s one of the bodies. Zealous. Like all of them.”

“That’s Benevolence! I knew her in matingplace. She used to be a thought-cruncher.”

The mother shrugged. “She’s a body-cruncher now. Devoted to that whistle of hers. She operates the cycling machines.”

“Benevolence!” Constance waved.

The woman ignored her.

She went across to her. “Benevolence, don’t you know me?”

Benevolence looked at her without a trace of recognition. “Have we met?”

“At the Tower. The old matingplace in Oblong.”

“You’re mistaken, sister. I was never licensed to babyfuse.”

Chilled, Constance returned to the Shaper Mother. “She doesn’t know me.”

“In Safe Space, some people forget.”

“Their memories are deleted?”

“No, they choose to forget. Nobody is forced to do anything here. Even this exercise regime isn’t mandatory. We can sit in our rooms all day if we prefer. But you start on the running machine to pass the time, and before you know it you’re rowing, swimming and cycling. The only disadvantage with Safe Space is the obvious one. You can’t leave. Well, that and the bodies. Their endless chirpiness would drive you to distraction, if you didn’t block them out. Sometimes, I take a tiptoe round their minds. Just to see if they’re as empty as they seem to be.”

“Are they?”

“Oh yes. Apart from Benevolence’s. Hers has a locked section. You’d never know it from her behaviour, though. She toots away on that whistle of hers, urging us all to go-go-go. At first, I didn’t like them telling me what to do. But then I realised they knew their business. And I didn’t have a business any more.”

“But you could if you wanted, mother.”

“I’m not a mother any more, I’m Honour 42.”

“You’ll always be mother to me.”

“I hear you bring your daughter onstage with you now at rallies.”

“It’s to illustrate the new Sisterland. To point the way forward. Faithful helps me to show sisters how rewarding it is to keep your child, and raise her yourself. Under the old system, she’d be in girlplace by now.”

“Faithful is being used, sweet child. Just like you’re being used.”

“I don’t mind taking her with me. I can keep her safe. Sisters like to see her.” Constance found she had to drop her eyes under the mother’s steady attention.

“And so the transition from Sisterland Mark I to Sisterland Mark II continues, with everyone grist to the mill. I’ll watch your new Utopia’s progress with interest. No sign of any men being invited onto your Co-Equals group, so far. You still don’t have total confidence in them, do you?”

“We have to be realistic.”

An arc of teeth flashed. “That’s what the Nine used to say.”

“You see why we need you? You challenge us. Come and work with us. Help us. Help me.”

The Shaper Mother shook her head. “There’s too much change. I prefer it here in Safe Space, where stability’s guaranteed.”

“Oh, mother, you weren’t born for stability. Think of what we could achieve, the two of us. Imagine the Sisterland we could build!”

“You really could get me out of here?”

“I think so, if I acted as your guarantor. I could ask – they like to keep me happy. I have something the Co-Equals prize.”

“You’d be taking quite a chance on me. How do you know I wouldn’t try to slip away?”

“I don’t know. But I don’t believe you’d do anything that would bring harm to me.”

“Once, you were released into my care.”

Constance sighed, and watched the exercising women for a few moments. “Tides turn. Change isn’t always for the worse.” She shifted her gaze back, moving closer to the Shaper Mother. “Why not help me with my work on behalf of Sisterland? I know you haven’t been a believer in the Silent Revolution. But you must see now that its work matters – we’re correcting the mistakes of the Nine.”

“Aren’t you falling into errors of your own?”

“Naturally, we’re getting things wrong. But we’re making progress, too. We could advance faster and further with your wisdom. Your tuition, and intuition. Together, we could make a difference. Will you help? Will you collaborate with me?”

“I’ll think about it, Constance.”

“Think hard. Remember, here you’re an exile in your own land.”

“But I choose to be that exile.” She laid a single finger on Constance’s wrist, light yet insistent. “Be careful when you speak in public, Constance.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’ve watched you make speeches. It can be an elevating experience – the orator is swept along on a tide. Take care the euphoria doesn’t become addictive.”

It was gratifying, she couldn’t deny it: the warmth of the approval, the sense of empowerment. “I do it because the leadership wants me to – and they make it worth my while. They’ve let me form a family.”

“We all strike bargains of one sort or another.” The mother fell quiet, lost in reflection. By and by, she looked Constance in the eye. “Bring your daughter to see me, if you can. Regret is not a moe I ever bothered with, but I should have liked to spend time with at least one child. I never knew any. There never seemed to be the time. And time trickles out eventually.”

“You’re still young, mother.”

“There’s only so much of it to do what counts most in life, Constance.”

“How we spend it?”

“Who we spend time with. When time starts to run short, we wish we’d spent more of it with the people who matter to us.”

Constance thought of Harper and Faithful, and how limited was the time she could devote to them because of her work for Sisterland.

“It’s good to have choices. But they bring their own challenges. Don’t they, Constance?”

A surge of irritation shot through Constance. The mother was mindmapping her again.

“Old habits die hard, sweet child.” The mother placed a hand on her breast and bowed in apology.

But, as her head dipped, Constance saw that blinding smile transfigure her face.

Harper grew thinner and more remote. One day, Constance noticed a matching pair of lines carved on his face alongside his mouth. When had that happened? He seemed content when he was occupied with Faithful. But when the little girl was taking a nap, or if Devotion borrowed her for an excursion, as she often asked to do, the strain of living in Harmony was visible. He could spend hours locked in thought, staring through a window towards the treetops on a nearby boulevard. He stopped asking Constance about her work with the Co-Equals. When Leaf became the first man licensed to teach literacy to other men, he showed minimal interest. It was the same when the remnants of the Nine were removed from power in Righteous, allowing the Silent Revolution to spread unchecked throughout Sisterland. Not even the reversal of the hooding policy could engage him. He lived only for Faithful.