AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The world! Mankind! I – if I don’t join with my husband, my king, then we let down the world.”
“That’s – remember what I’ve told you?”
“Yes. I know. But you cannot expect me to wash away half a life of learning just because you say so. What if you are wrong?”
“I’m not wrong.”
“That’s what The Mother said! And Jason. Rudy, Malcolm. The masters. The manuals. The rituals. The teachings. Makiah. My parents.”
“They’re all lying.”
“And they all told me that mainstream life is nothing but a lie. You expect me to believe you, and they expect me to believe them.” Her hand trembles as she sets her fork down. “You’re no different than they are.”
“I’m not any of them.”
And I’m sure as hell nothing like The Mother.
She swallows, looking so dejected I feel bad, though I refuse to back down.
“No. You’re not. But I’m so confused.”
“Confusion is a normal response to all this.”
She perks up. “Is it?”
“I think so.”
Paigelynn’s eyes go back to the food.
I grab my plate and take a mouthful. “Eat,” I urge her around my own gooey goodness. “We have to keep up our strength.”
“For what?”
I could answer that so many ways, some of them more fun than others.
“For our marathon Upwords tournament.”
“Upwords?”
“It’s a board game.”
“Like Monopoly?”
“More like Scrabble.”
“I love Scrabble!”
“What about chess?”
“I enjoy chess, too, though I’ve been taught always to let the man win.”
“Then you were taught wrong.”
“Men have fragile egos,” she says as if that’s a fact.
“Do they, now?”
“Oh, yes. They cannot emotionally handle losing to a woman. We must always defer.”
