Page 66 of The Explorer
If it were up to me, we would have taken a day off from work, and gone home to make love for the first time.
Aubri might say that we were experimenting and that we should keep our feelings separated from the sex, but for me that had never been an option since I’d been in love with her for a while. All I could hope for was that her having sex with me would make her realize that we were meant to be together as man and wife.
Isaac and Simon were in conversation with our team members when we arrived at the Exploration Headquarters, and all of them looked somber.
“Are you ready?” Simon asked when he spotted Aubri and me.
“Ready for what?”
Among the French delegation, Belle and Simon had always been my favorites. Simon had a good sense of humor and we had enjoyed a lot of beers over the twelve years we’d known each other. Today, however, he looked stressed as he swung his right hand and frowned. “For teaching. We need to hurry. You’re scheduled to begin in thirty-five minutes.”
“Dancing demons, I forgot. Is that today?”
“Yes, it’s today. Come on.”
“We’ll be back later then,” I said and touched Banni’s shoulder to make him look at me.
He gave a nod and turned his back on us, giving an order to Val and Alex. It was normal for Val to hardly ever speak, but I noticed that Banni and Alex were somber and quiet too. The way they kept an eye on Isaac had me wondering what had gone on before Aubri and I arrived.
Aubri and I exchanged a worried look as we walked off with Simon.
It wasn’t our first time talking to students, but these weren’t young children like the other times. They were teenagers.
Simon, who had a senior position in the ministry of education, introduced us to the students. We gave a presentation of the Northlands before accepting questions.
There were around fifty students and almost every single one of them signaled that they had a question. I sighed, because I still hoped that Aubri and I could sneak in an hour at home before returning to work. I wanted so badly to test my theory that once I was inside her it would be like a key unlocking her heart and making her fall in love with me.
Aubri pointed to a girl with rosy cheeks who asked, “What’s it like to have a mom and dad?”
“It’s wonderful. My parents are my biggest supporters and I love them,” Aubri said.
“My parents are pretty cool people as well, but not everyone is as lucky as Aubri and I. And actually, it’s a new thing for kids in the Northlands to have parents. When my father was a kid there were a hundred thousand men for every woman. Back then, few children grew up with a mother. The vast majority of the children in the Northlands were boys without parents.”
“If you had so few women then who gave birth to the boys?” one of the students asked.
“That’s a great question,” Aubri praised him and let me answer.
“The boys were born in the Motherlands and lived in family units until the age of three. After that they were sent to the Northlands where they were raised by teachers in a school setting that favored physical strength.”
Aubri nodded as if to support my answer and then she turned to the teenagers. “Do you wish you had parents like us?”
Some of them shook their heads and one of the boys joked, “Our system is better. We’re all sisters and brothers and it’s not a matter of luck to have a good life.”
“Luck?”
“Yes, it sounds like in your society it’s a matter of luck to be born into a good family. If you’re unlucky you’re stuck with some…” He seemed to search for a word and asked the others in French.
“Amateurs,” someone shouted in answer.
“Oui.You could have amateur parents who don’t know how to raise children.”
“Do people in your country have to pass a class to become parents?” a girl asked.
“No.”
Disturbed whispering filled the room.
“But does that meananyonecan become a parent?”
