Page 49 of The Genius
Shelly’s face was growing red and it was a boost to my male pride that the subject of me having sex with someone else seemed to upset her.
“I know that I was your first,” I said.
She averted her eyes. “I already apologized for that.”
“Don’t apologize. It was just a shock, that’s all. I mean, what if you’re pregnant?” The question had been on my mind ever since I found out the truth.
She shook her head. “I’m not.”
“You can’t know that.”
“It would be very unlikely. Did you know that a woman only ovulates once a month and that the sperm cell only has about twenty-four hours to find and penetrate the egg? Sperm can survive approximately five days, so in theory the sperm cells that are already inside her have a better chance.”
“No, I didn’t know that. Do you know when you’re ovumating?”
“It’s called ovulating,” she corrected me and shook her head a little. “And the answer is that I don’t know. I never worried about that sort of thing.”
“WellIworry about it. I know you said that you’d never marry me, but if you’re pregnant, Shelly, that would change things, right?”
Shelly turned her head away from me. “Marriage is only done here in the Northlands. The rest of the world ended that tradition hundreds of years ago.”
“I don’t care. If you’re having my child, you’ll marry me.”
“I’m not pregnant and I’m not marrying you.”
“For all I know, I might have super sperm and gotten you pregnant already.” I felt a rush just saying the words, but Shelly didn’t look like she believed it for one second.
“Statistically, getting pregnant the first time you have sex is unlikely. I’ve heard that in the olden days they had pills for men and women to prevent pregnancies.” Shelly wrinkled her forehead. “It’s sad how so many important inventions have been lost. Christina once told me that in the twenty-second century they had some kind of technology to stop women from having their menstruation. That was before the world went mad in that awful wave of the post-war naturalism that ruined it for all of us.”
“What naturalism?”
“Oh, you don’t know about it? Well, Modern Naturalism is believed to have started somewhere in the 2080s. There was a purge of all things artificial for your body. No hair coloring, body brandings, implants, or other beauty enhancements. Having your period was seen as something natural that shouldn’t be tampered with.” She sighed. “Those women were fools.”
“Why?”
“Trust me, Marco. If you were a woman, you’d understand how unpleasant it is to have your period. Anyway, Modern Naturalism lasted almost a century and it wasn’t until around 2170s that it became fashionable to color your hair and nails again. Sadly, by then it had been generations since women had known a life without menstruation and no effort was made to bring back the technology. To this day we still pay the price for Modern Naturalism to ruin it for all of us.”
“How bad can it be to have your period?”
“It’s different for every woman, but in general it hurts, and sometimes I get sad and emotional for no reason. I would give up my period in a heartbeat.”
“Even if it meant you could never have children?”
Shelly played with a lock of her hair. “I’m not planning on having children anyway, so yes I would.”
I widened my eyes. “Why the hell not?” It seemed like a colossal waste to have a woman not reproduce.
Shelly’s only answer was a small shrug.
“No, seriously, why wouldn’t you want to be a mother?”
“It would take time from my work.”
“You wouldn’t have to give up your work. Most of my friends are married and their wives still work while having children.”
Shelly chewed on her lip. “It’s not in the cards for me, I think. I’m not a family unit person and I would never sign up for the Matching Program.”
“Me neither.”
