Isabelle 170 sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. She was tall and gangly, with large hands and feet and nose. Here she was, in the 12th decad of her 18th year, and she was unhappy. She used her room assistant to calculate how old she would have been had she been born on earth. The answer was just over 16. Given her age, it was normal for her to be unhappy with her appearance, with her life, with her parents, with her name, with her house, and with life in general, at least for brief periods of time each and every day.
"I'm too thin," she thought to herself. "Look how skinny I am. All knees, elbows, nose, and teeth. I wonder if I will ever grow up!"
Her mother was tall and regal in appearance. Many times, Isadora 144 had told her daughter that she looked just like Isadora herself had at the same age. Isabelle remembered the often-repeated lines, "The same things that make you seem awkward and gawky now will, once you fill in, make you a beautiful woman. Men will see you as a sound match because of your solid bone structure, strength, and height. Men like a strong woman who will make a good work partner."
Isabelle sighed once more and decided to go get something to eat. She went out into the common room. Her mother was at her workstation, looking at a topographical map. Isadora was a geologist. "Greetings Isabelle," Isadora spoke to her daughter. "Greetings Isadora," came the expected reply. On Greenworld, everyone was called by the given name, regardless of relationship. When a child was born, the central data processing system for that geographical unit choose a name at random, adding the year of birth to allow for names to be reused each year. "Mom" and "Dad" were to be used only by children under the age of 8.
"I'm hungry. Is there any of the fish left over from midday rations?" Isabelle asked.
"There is," replied Isadora. "And some of the bread as well. Help yourself. It is still almost a decday until evening rations."
Isabelle went into the kitchen and made herself a sandwich. She came out into the common area and talked to her mother as she ate. "Isadora, at what age did you know that you were a good match? I mean, you know, when did you look in the mirror and know that many men would desire you for a mate?"
Isadora knew that this conversation needed all of her attention. She turned from the screen and faced her daughter. "I knew from a very early age that I would make a good match for someone. For all people, there is an appropriate mate. Any pragmatist will recognize that for each person there is another person whose genes, talents, and abilities make a good complement."
"Isadora, that is right out of the book of families. I mean, when did you feel that you were a desirable match? When did you notice that marriageable men were looking at you and wanting to copulate with you?"
"Isabelle, feelings have very little to do with mating. Two people mate because they are compatible, because they each have strengths lacked by the other, because they will make a good family. Parents are good at finding compatible prospective mates for their offspring and suggesting a match."
"Mother . . .." Isabelle began
"Stop acting like a baby, Isabelle 170." Isadora cut her off. "You are of sufficient age to understand the adolescent development process thoroughly and you are certainly old enough not to call me 'mother.'" Isadora's face softened because she knew that Isabelle's behavior was mediated by hormonal factors as much as by pragmatic thinking. "Isabelle," she said quietly, "your genetic analysis suggests that you will appear as an adult very much like me. I am a striking woman of 180 centimeters in height and 70 kilos in weight. I have a good strong frame and reasonable muscle development. I have a flat stomach and my breasts are above average in size. Men find me sexually attractive. Please be patient. Your twenty-first year is coming soon enough. You will most likely be mated before your twenty-second year starts."
Isabelle knew from her mother's tone of voice that this topic of conversation was, from her point of view, complete. It would be best to acknowledge its logic and end the conversation. She said, "I accept the logic of your reasoning and thank you for your analysis. I believe I'll go to the data center to work on my history homework." She then went to her room to get her coat and gloves to go out of the house.
"Please return home before evening rations." Her mother said.
"Yes, Isadora, I will"
*****
Coats and gloves were essential on Greenworld. It was always cold and often wet as well. Isabelle dressed carefully and walked out of her house to begin the 10 minute walk to the Settlement 5 data center. She saw no one during her walk, but when she arrived at the data center, she saw George 170 from her history class. Apparently he was also here to work on his essay on the origins of life on Greenworld. "Hey, Georgie." She said quietly as she sat down at the terminal next to his."
"Hey, Tall Timber" he replied. George was short and a bit chubby. He would have been heavier if his parents allowed him to eat whenever he wanted. George was often the butt of jokes by his classmates, as was Isabelle, both because of their appearances. They made an awkward couple in many ways; but both were unpopular, so they found comfort in each other's company.
Isabelle inserted her storage disk and called up the text that she had written so far:
Greenworld: Its Origins and Purpose
Greenworld was colonized directly from Earth in the year of planetfall, counted as the year 2896 AD under the old Earth calendar. The colonists were all part of a group of scientists who had grown disaffected by the moral turpitude, crowding and violence of old Earth society. All were members of the Society of Pragmatists, a group devoted to improving society through rational analysis. The colonists all liquidated all of their property and commissioned a ship that they named "Rationality" for the journey. They set off to found a rational utopia on a new world.
Greenworld was already know to Earth from the Interstellar Explorer expeditions that had been sent out in the year 2755 AD. The colonists knew that the planet, designated Beta 17-5 by the astronomers, was cold and habitable only in the equatorial regions. It was much like earth in that it had green plants and an atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen. You could breathe the air, even though it was always cold. There was plenty of fresh water in lakes and rivers near the equator, and there was lots of ice above and below what would on Earth have been the temperate zones. The planet rotated on its axis once every 27 hours, and orbited the star every 299 days. The humans called it Greenworld – much as the Vikings had called a frozen northern land “Greenland” in an effort to induce others to come to the place.
Within 150 years, Greenworld had approximately a million and half inhabitants, all living within 100 kilometers of the equator. There were five or six dozen small towns of 10,000 or less, but most of the people lived in small villages near their farms. There were no native vertebrate animals, but there were lots of arthropod-like creatures. Humans could not digest the native fauna, but terrestrial chickens and fish had been reconstructed from genetic material brought along on the colony ships.
The society that was founded was to be based on the principles of rationality held by the Society of Pragmatists. Decisions were to be made by popular participation, and all policies were to be Pareto Optimal. This was to be accomplished by . . . .
"Hey, Georgie," Isabelle hissed. "Are you working on your origins paper for history?"
"Yeah," he replied.
"Any progress?"
"Not much. I can't help but be pissed off by the need to regurgitate this crap right out of the text. Why doesn't the teacher let us write about something that matters -- why this utopia ain't very great." George loved to pepper his speech with emotional language. It was his special form of rebellion. He frequently complained about being cold, about not having red meat to eat (although he only knew about red meat from the things that he had read in the Earth history books). George was, as were many young Greenworlders, flirting with the idea of joining the Soul Minders.
"You want to go for a walk?"
"Naw, it's too cold out there for me. Let's go to the Soul Minders Annex. It's warm there and I want to show you something."
"You'd risk being seen going in the Soul Minders Annex!" Isabelle hissed.
"Relax, Tall Timber. My parental units understand that experimentation in thought is good for the developing psyche."
"I'm not going to do anything while I'm there," Isabelle warned.
"Look. It's warm and there are some rather interesting things to view there." George tried to make his voice sound tempting, but the attempt to lower his voice made it crack a little.
Isabelle laughed a bit at him and then agreed to go for just a while. She saved her file, retrieved her storage disk, and then logged off.
The two young Greenworlders, one short and heavy and the other tall and thin, bundled up in their coats. All bundled up, you couldn't really tell much about their looks and they preferred it that way. Off they walked to the south toward the Soul Minders Annex. They said little during the five minutes of the walk.
*****
The Soul Minders Annex was an ostentatious building, painted garish gold and green, with ornate columns and fanciful bas relief sculptures carved into the stone of the façade. The likenesses of Dionysis, Paul Prudhomme, Hugh Hefner, Masters and Johnson and, most prominently, Epicurus were in evidence. The Soul Minders were devoted to idea of life as a sensual experience. They did not encourage excess. Rather, they encouraged enjoyment of a wide variety of experiences, but each in moderation. Some of the younger members of this group favored a wide variety of experiences, but sometimes forgot about moderation.
Soul Minders reject the cold, analytical approach of the Pragmatists that dominated Greenworld society. The practice of parents carefully analyzing the practical components, including the genetics, of potential mates for their children was rejected. Love was to be the basis for mate selection. The attitude of Pragmatists that sex for was procreation and for the maintenance of the pair bond was rejected as well. Sex was one of the experiences to be enjoyed for its pleasure. Unlike the pragmatists with their meeting on each tenthday, the Soul Minders Annex was always open.
George and Isabelle entered the building just at the beginning of the sixth decday. It was going to be dark soon. George showed Isabelle where to hang her coat, and then took into the library.
"Look at this," George said as he handed Isabelle a book entitled The Beaches of the 21st Century. He had opened the book to a group of photographs in the center of the book. The pictures were of people on the beaches of old Earth.
"It must have been very warm for all those people to be outside wearing those, those . . . ." Isabelle was at a loss to describe the bathing suits worn by the people in the photographs.
"Those are swimsuits," George said. "Look, they wear a small garment to cover their genitals and buttocks. Some of the women also cover their breasts."
"What were they protesting?" Isabelle asked.
"They weren't protesting anything, silly. They were enjoying the warm sun, swimming in the ocean and looking at each other. It's only on Greenworld that something as absurd as taking off your clothes in public is a form of political protest."
"This makes me uncomfortable." Isabelle complained. In truth she felt a bit aroused by the sight of the nearly naked young men and wanted not to look any more. At the same time, she was fascinated by the images of the women. They looked so different than she did when she looked at herself in the mirror after a shower.
"Did you ever wonder what it would be like to bathe in the water with other people." George said. "They have a pool here, you know."
"I'm leaving. I told you I was not going to do anything while I was here." Isabelle turned to go get her coat. Her face was red and she felt embarrassed. George was asking her to do something that seemed harmless enough, but she could never expose herself in the presence of others like those people in the pictures.
"OK, Tall Timber. No harm, OK? I'm going to stay here a while longer. See you tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Isabelle called out over her shoulder as she left.
On the way home, Isabelle thought about what had happened. Was George asking her to swim with just him, or in a communal pool with others? Did they have those little garments George had called swimsuits at the Soul Minders pool, or did they swim naked? Did he want to have sex with her? Had George joined the Soul Minders? Was he trying to get her to join? She'd heard that Soul Minders did not think anything about having sex outside of marriage, and that some young members had sex often. She'd even heard that they took mind-altering drugs for fun. It was just too much for her right now.
*****
Isabelle was quiet at evening rations. When her mother asked her how her essay was coming, Isabelle told her that she had some thing written down, but was still working on it. Her father, David 141, offered to help with the assignment, a suggestion that Isabelle rejected quickly. Her sleep was troubled that night and her face looked even more drawn than usual when she left home for school the next morning.
As she walked to school for her morning classes, she saw George. She wasn't sure she wanted to talk to him, but nothing had happened and she saw no reason to abandon her only real friend. She fell in beside him and they walked together.
"Hey, George," she said, a bit glumly.
"What, no 'Georgie,' Tall Timber?" he replied.
"I'm a bit down this morning. I did not sleep very well last night."
"Feelin' sick?"
"No, just confused."
"Why are you confused, Tall Timber?"
Isabelle stopped and turned to face him, "I'm confused about you and Soul Minders and swimming and . . . and everything."
"What about the Soul Minders?"
"I'm just not comfortable with the whole idea and you are my only friend and you are going there and I'm not sure I want to be there and . . ." Isabelle gushed.
"Whoa, slow down, slow down." George said. "I just started going there mostly because they welcome me. You have to admit our classmates don't welcome either of us, do they? Besides that, they have all kinds of cool stuff to read, view and do there."
Isabelle shouted at him, "You just like looking at naked girls, that's all. You're not the slightest bit interested in their religion. All you are is a bunch of hormones!" She turned and left him standing on the sidewalk as she ran towards school.
*****
All the rest of that day, and for the next two days after that, Isabelle did not talk to George, or to anyone else. George knew she was angry, although he did not really know why. He avoided her. Her mother knew she was upset about something, but thought it impractical to attempt to draw her out. She knew that young girls, especially those who were not popular, could be withdrawn at times. She remembered how angry she had become when her own parents had tried to draw her out when she was in a funk and she did not want her daughter to become alienated from her.
The next tenthday, Isadora and David made sure that Isabelle went with them to the Pragmatists meeting. Lately, as Isabelle had grown older, they had not pressured her to go to the meetings with her, although they, themselves, were firm believers in the value of pragmatism. They certainly tried very hard to live a rational life.
The session today was on the weakness of emotionalism. The leader of this group of Pragmatists was Jeremiah 100. He was old, but wise in the ways of logic. He was also skilled in the use of the Socratic method.
"Let us begin. What are the four tenets of pragmatism?" Jeremiah asked as a way of beginning the session.
The group answered in unison, as they always did in performing the opening responsive reading. "Think before you act, consider all options, consider the consequences of each option, and beware emotion – it clouds the judgment."
"What is the surest way to violate these principles?" Jeremiah asked?
"To act hastily."
"What do we do if we are unsure of our course of action?"
"We seek out the advice of experts." They all knew well the litany that started all such sessions.
"What do we do if we think we are acting on emotion?"
"We hesitate."
"And what is our duty when others around us are acting on emotion?"
"We counsel them to hesitate and think."
Jeremiah's face broke into a smile, "Good, very good. Our case for today involves two young people. As you all know, the young are most prone to emotionalism, often times because of the natural process of adolescence. Now, our two youngsters, let us call them Anthony and Alicia, are angry with each other because Anthony has asked to copy Alicia's homework. Alicia told Anthony that he would not learn if he cheated and that it was illogical to cheat. Anthony's response was, 'If you cared about me, you'd help.' Alicia is upset and tells her parents about the episode. How should Alicia's parent proceed?"
Jeremiah turned to face Richard 156, a computer programmer with two small children, to ask for his first response. Isabelle ceased to pay attention. She knew that she would not be called on. Only adults participated in this part of the session. She thought about George, whom she did not see at the session this morning. She decided she should seek him out this afternoon. She felt lonely after not talking to anyone for several days.
After the session was over, Isabelle and her family went home for midday rations. When she had eaten her fill of vegetable stir fry (No one ate flesh on a tenthday), she asked to be excused so that she could go to work on her history essay that was due tomorrow. David and Isadora seemed eager for her to go. "By all means go and do your work," David said, "But don't use up all of your free time. Go have some fun as well. Why don't you go find George? You haven't mentioned his name in several days. His parents told me that you two had had a little disagreement. Go work it out."
Isabelle got her coat and gloves. It was very cold today, and there was a chance of snow as well. She shivered as she left the house. Because of her thinness, the damp cold affected her more than others.
She went to the data center and finished up her essay. It only took her about a decday to do so since she already had the introduction written. It only needed to be a couple of thousand words in any event. It was thoroughly mediocre work, and she knew it but it was not a very important assignment to her. She already had begun to focus most of her energy on chemistry anyway. History was a bore. It had no practical value to her.
_____
She left the data center at just after the start of the 7th decad. She knew that she had until the middle of the 8th decad before she had to be home for evening rations. As she began the walk north to George's house, she saw George coming towards her.
"Ah, there you are, Tall Timber. Isadora told me that you were here."
"Hey Georgie," Isabelle mumbled.
"Why so glum?"
"Just a little lonely -- sorry I yelled at you the other day."
"No sweat, Tall Timber. Hey, I didn't mean to freak you out the other day. I'm not trying to put any pressure on you. I just thought you'd think the Soul Minders Annex was a cool place."
"It's just too 'out there' for me. It is not at all like anything else."
"Yea, it's weird, but I kinda like it there. The people there don't think I'm an oddball or weird or anything."
"You go there a lot?"
"Yeah."
"Georgie, that's a little . . . ."
"Yeah, I know, Tall Timber, but I gotta find a place for me to fit."
"What do you parents think - I mean, David and Isadora would probably give some long lecture about the horrors of emotionalism."
"My folks aren't as heavy into pragmatism as yours. Besides, I'm almost 19 now. I'm old enough to make some of my own decisions."
"You didn't answer me, Georgie."
"They aren't real thrilled," he confessed. "Come on, I'm cold. Let's go somewhere where we can talk and be inside."
"Soul Minders Annex?" She asked with some trepidation.
"They have benches in the lobby."
The two young people, the tall thin girl and the short heavy boy walked in silence for the five minutes it took to get to the Annex. After they had hung up their coats, George took Isabelle's arm to steer her to the left where the benches were. The touch felt warm and somehow a bit naughty given where they were. After all, Isabelle was really a very young and very inexperienced girl. Such inconsequential things as a touch from a boy's hand were exotic experiences to her.
They sat down on a bench and George faced her. "Look, Isabelle, I'm not a pervert or a freak." Isabelle took notice of the use of her given name. He almost never called her that, and never in this serious tone. "I am just so tired of being an outcast. Among the Soul Minders, I am not an outcast. I am valued. The fact that I am different is valued. The fact that I want to be an artist is valued."
"You want to be an artist?" Isabelle asked.
"Yeah, I want to work in an old fashioned medium -- paint."
"Paint?"
"You know, with a brush on a flat surface. On Earth in the Twentieth Century, they painted with pigments mixed with a petroleum base on canvas. But that's not what I really wanted to talk about." George took hold of Isabelle's hand, and she did not resist. "You could be accepted for yourself here as well. They value brains and being different. You don't have to conform to the pragmatists' idea of what's good and what is not."
Isabelle stammered, "G-G-George . . . George . . . let go of my hand so I can think."
George let go and Isabelle clasped her hands together in her lap. "What is it you want me to do?" she asked.
"I don't want you to do anything. This is not about asking you to do something with me. This is about your happiness. Are you happy now?"
"Not really, but I think that I will be if I can ever get past this awkward stage."
"You are not in an 'awkward stage.' You are a perfectly normal, wonderful girl. It is only according to the artificial and cruel criteria by which pragmatists judge people that you are awkward."
Isabelle lingered on the word "wonderful" in her mind. She thought, "He thinks I'm wonderful. He thinks I'm wonderful."
George could see that she was wavering between leaving and staying. He knew that she suffered from the cold more than most because she was very thin. He had an idea. "Isabelle, have you ever yearned to be warm, truly warm all through and through?"
"Yes, George"
"They have a thing called a jacuzzi here. It is a tub of water about 3 meters by meters and about a meter deep. The water is warm, about 40 degrees, and it bubbles. The tub has little jets that pump the water to cause it to bubble up. It is warm and relaxing. You could get in and be warm, truly warm."
"Get in the water? With you?"
"Only if you want me to be there."
"What would I wear?"
"They have swimsuits you could borrow."
Isabelle's eyes grew large. "I could never wear one of those skimpy things like they were wearing in those photographs."
"These are more modest than that."
"Will there be other people there."
"Probably, the jacuzzi is a very popular thing here."
"Do these other people wear swimsuits?"
"Some do."
Isabelle's eyes were wide. She was flushed. She was close to panic at the thought of showing herself nearly naked in a public place. She also thought, "He thinks I'm wonderful." She had never though about George that way before. She screwed her courage up and said, "I would like to be truly warm."
George took Isabelle to the women's dressing room and introduced her to Harriet 162, the staffer in charge of the woman's dressing room. Harriet was to take Isabelle under her wing, find a swimsuit for her and take her to the jacuzzi. George would meet them there.
Harriet looked her Isabelle and noticed how nervous she seemed. She said in her most soothing voice, "Isabelle, the first time I got in the jacuzzi I felt like it was the first time I had ever been warm all the way to my bones. Let's see, you are just about 180 centimeters tall and have fairly big bones -- I'd guess about . . . this size." Harriet pulled out a very modest red one-piece suit and showed it to Isabelle. "Go try this one on, right in this stall. You can leave your clothes in the stall. I’ll lock it and give you the key."
Isabelle went into the little dressing stall and put on the suit. It was hard to do because the garment was such an unfamiliar shape and the fabric was so stretchy. She succeeded, but felt virtually naked. She had always hated getting dressed in locker rooms where others were dressing. She came out, shivering, not so much from the cold but from her nerves.
Harriet looked at her and exclaimed, "My dear, you are simply stunningly beautiful. You could pass for a model from 20th century Earth. I should know. I am an historian specializing in the particular time in human history. If I could take you back in time to 1990 on Earth, you could become very rich as a fashion model."
Isabelle blushed nearly as red as her suit. She had never once, in her life felt beautiful, nor had anyone ever told her she was beautiful. "Thank you," she mumbled.
"Come this way," Harriet told her and led her to the jacuzzi room.
When she came in to the room, George was already in the hot tub. "Hey, Tall timber, looking good."
"Who is your friend, George?" asked a man who was sitting in the tub across from him.
"This is Isabelle 170. Isabelle, may I introduce you to Howard 143? This is his spouse, Richard 140."
"Pleased to meet you both," Isabelle mumbled. She tried her best to hide her discomfort about meeting a homosexual couple and about being virtually unclothed in front of strangers. She also had never met a homosexual. She knew that Pragmatists had no tolerance for homosexuality and that this meant that virtually all homosexuals were Soul Minders.
Richard nudged George in the arm and said, "She's a looker, alright. You weren't kidding when you told us about her."
Isabelle blushed some more, but climbed into the jacuzzi. At least the bubbles would hide her a bit. As she stepped down into the water it seemed too hot. She gave a little squeak of discomfort and started to get back out.
"George, this is really hot. I'm not getting in."
"Relax and get in slowly. You will get used to the heat. It has to be a little warm at first to work like it is supposed to."
Isabelle got in slowly, bit by bit, until she was up her hips. She sat down slowly on the bench that was built in to the sides of the tub. She sank slowly into the water until it was up to her neck. As the water seemed less and less hot, she seemed to feel more and more warm. This was ecstasy. About five minutes after she had sat down in the water she looked at George and confessed, "George, you were right. I feel warm all the way down to my bones for the first time ever." She reached over and kissed him very gently on the cheek.
Ten minutes later she got out of the hot tub and got dressed to go home. She walked out with George and took his arm as they walked down the street together. This was something that she had never done before. It seemed that their relationship had turned a corner. They were no longer just platonic friends. George certainly liked it. She did not notice that Oliver 170, a classmate of theirs, was following them as they turned the corner to go to Isabelle's house. Oliver made sure he was not noticed. After all he had been instructed to follow them this afternoon and would received payment from Isadora later on. She had been most explicit. "Do not let yourself be seen, but follow them," she had told Oliver.
*****
At evening rations that night, Isabelle was her usual quiet self, but seemed in a better mood than she had at midday rations. David and Isadora noticed.
"Did you finish your history essay today?" David asked between mouthfuls of tofu and chicken gumbo.
"Yes, David, but it isn't very good, I'm afraid." Isabelle replied.
"No?" he responded with arched eyebrows.
"History is not my best subject. I enjoy my chemistry more."
"A thoroughly practical attitude, I'd say," Isadora chimed in. "Another scientist in this family would be a good thing." David was a building maintenance technician, and sometimes Isadora belittled his occupation.
"Isabelle, did you talk to George today?" David asked.
"Yes, we talked. I had . . . been angry with him the other day. I was irrational and I told him that. He was not angry with me and I am glad to have him as friend again."
"You behaved rationally in acknowledging fault and promising to behave more rationally in the future. I am glad to know that both you and George know how to behave like adults in such matters." Isadora opined.
"Yes, Isadora," Isabelle replied dutifully.
"Isabelle seems to be in better spirits than the last few days," David offered.
"Yes, David. That is true. May I be excused from the table? I want to go and prepare for my chemistry class tomorrow. I have some valance equations to balance."
"Yes, you may," both parents said, almost in unison.
*****
When Isabelle was gone from the table and safely
out of earshot, Isadora lowered her voice and said to David, "It seems our
little plan is working."
"Yes, our little conspiracy with George' parents is working well isn't it. Oliver saw them go in to the Soul Minders Annex and come out about a half decad later."
"I wonder what they did in there." said Isadora. "Why don't we contact George's parents and see if they know?"
David went over to the visicomm receptacle and sent a request for communication to George's parent. George's father, Nathan 144, responded to the request in the affirmative and appeared on the screen. He was a short and powerfully built man. "Greetings, David 141."
"Greetings, Nathan 144. You are well?"
"Yes, and you?"
"Thriving, thank you. Have you had a chance to talk with George?"
"Oh yes. He came home with a very large smile on his face. He said that he and Isabelle had used the jacuzzi at the Soul Minders Annex. She even kissed him."
"She kissed him?"
"Decorously on the cheek, but for a young boy with no experience of women, this can be a big thing."
"Just what is a jacuzzi?" David asked.
"It is a tub full of hot water with jets to circulate the water and make it bubble. It is most pleasant on a cold day, or after vigorous physical exercise. It is harmless and the people wear special clothes when they get in. George knows that Isabelle is almost always cold."
"Yes, she does prefer the house to be quite warm and we do not think it prudent to waste energy in that way. It is a source of conflict for us."
"Anything else we should know about?" Nathan asked.
"No, Isabelle seemed pretty normal tonight at evening rations. It seems our plan is working."
"Yes, it does. Good. Signing off."
"Signing off." David switched off the machine. He turned to Isadora.
"I heard it all," she said. "I must admit, I had some trepidation at the thought of asking Nathan to help. After all, he so desperately wanted to mate with me when we were young. Of course, I could never have considered one so short and unattractive as him."
David appeared thoughtful, "The son looks much like the father. And, the daughter looks much like the mother. It was not a rational match then, but it might be such a match now?"
"Of course not," Isadora replied. "I have no intention of allowing those short, dark and hairy genes into my family. It would not be rational match."
"What is your intention, then?"
"I intended only to provide Isabelle with a boost to her self-esteem. Let George court her. Isn't that the old fashion word they used on old Earth? When she blossoms into the beautiful woman she will become, we can make a better match."
"What does Nathan think of your plan?"
"He thinks we are planning a match for the two young ones. I know he still has feelings for me -- he is not a very good pragmatist in this regard -- and I am using that. I do not intend to tell him what I really plan."
"You tread on dangerous ground, Isadora. We can plan a different match, but your scheme means that we lose the ability to block the match with George on pragmatic grounds. Only Isabelle would have the ability to stop the match if we waive our objections, which we have done by scheming in this way."
"I can manipulate Isabelle when the time comes -- it will not be hard once other families make their known desires to make a match for their sons with her."
Isabelle was very careful to step away from the
crack in her door. She had heard the entire exchange. Given her
knowledge, she was more committed than ever to becoming a Soul Minder.
And she was more committed than ever to George.