Page 16 of The Explorer
“You said that your mom is an archeologist.”
“That’s right. She leads some of the most extensive excavations in the Northlands and she also teaches."
“I love Christina,” Aubri told the others and smiled at me. “Indiana’s mom was the first woman to cross into the Northlands and I always admired her for that.”
“So, she’s brave?” Banni looked to me.
Indiana chuckled. “Yes, or foolish.”
“Don’t say that. Christina was a pioneer and she’s a role model for my generation of women, just like Raven.”
“Who’s Raven?” Alex asked.
“My older sister.” I felt pride when I projected a picture of my family in front of me. “She’s the one with the curly hair to the right.”
“You don’t share the same father.” Alex stated the obvious since Raven was dark-skinned.
“Raven was adopted by my parents before I was born. She’s married and has a son of her own.”
“That’s beside the point.” Aubri took over. “The reason we all admire Raven is that the men told her she could never be a police officer and she refused to give up. She was the first female police officer in the Northlands and since then others have followed.”
“That’s wonderful. I’m getting the sense that gender means a lot to you.”
I wrinkled my nose at Banni. “Don’t tell me you’re like the Motlanders, who are bloody gender neutral.”
“Relax, I meant that it seems silly that men and women can’t perform the same jobs. Unless we’re talking about reproductive matters, there’s no difference.”
“Dancing demons, I could just kiss you for that comment,” Aubri exclaimed.
It made Banni’s lips lift in a wide smile. “I’d like that.”
Cutting in between them, I said, “It’s not that we don’t value women, it’s that we’re protective. Women used to be so extremely rare that we cherished them like a dying species. We made strict laws to keep them safe and every time a woman was old enough to get married, men fought and sacrificed their lives to prove that they were worthy of protecting a woman. That mindset isn’t one you just get rid of overnight.”
Rolling her eyes, Aubri sighed. “Tell me about it.”
“But, Indiana, you just told us that you were raised by a woman from the Motherlands; surely you understand equality.”
“Of course.”
“He does on an intellectual level but ask him how he feels about Sparrow and me working as firefighters.”
“You’re a firefighter?” Alex asked as if that wasn’t a big thing.
“Yes, my best friend Sparrow and I are both volunteers. We applied to become fulltime firefighters two years ago, but they screwed us over at the testing. It was complete bullshit. As long as we’re volunteers, we won’t be allowed to work on the front line where the action is. All we get to do is preventive work.”
“What do you mean by preventive work?”
“We do controlled burnings and dig trenches to prevent forest fires and that sort of thing. It’s fine, but I’d rather be going into burning houses and saving people.”
Banni used a stick to poke at the logs on the fire. “Do you think you should have passed the test?”
Aubri snorted. “No doubt!”
I sighed. “Aubri has it in her head that the people in charge conspired to keep her and Sparrow from getting accepted, but being a firefighter is one of the most prestigious jobs in the Northlands and there’s a fierce competition to get into the academy.”
“It’s still a conspiracy when the tests were designed to favor height and strength.”
I raised my brow. “Did you expect them to change the tests to accommodate women? Maybe men are just better suited for the job.”
