Becoming Chosen

“There must be an interface between the two cultures we propose to create. A controlled interface. Both need the other to survive, but there is too much danger of innovative interaction if they are not kept at arm’s length. A buffer-zone where they can interact is our best option.”

- Marta Jager’s opening remarks to the Cultural Planning Committee, Sealed Archive

Miri had always thought it would have been easy to hate Solange. She was so gorgeous. Even as a child, everyone always said so. Hair as dark as an unlit habmo, skin as smooth and pale as a bowl of milk, with bright green eyes to boot. It was rare that any of the Chosen had such light skin, which just helped make her more striking. She had a willowy grace that was breath-taking. Yes, it would have been easy to hate her if she weren’t the nicest, kindest person. It didn’t hurt that she was a little dim too.

She and Farhi were lounging strategically across from the doors of the big live-stock elevator. The back of the building they were standing next to had an odd box-like protrusion sticking into the wide road and both of them were leaning on it, showing off their curves to the young men of the herding families as they moved their animals to Habmo6 for Festival.

Farhi looked much more like Miri than she did their friend. Broad shoulders and strong arms from long days farming gave her a slightly blocky profile. She had golden brown skin and lots and lots of frizzy hair, in a different shade of golden brown. Dark, almond shaped eyes and a wide nose rode above a slightly gap-toothed smile.

“I thought more of the young ones from Six would be here,” Solange complained as the elevator doors opened. Inside were cattle and some of the families from the far end of their habmo. They whistled and called to their slightly drugged cows, getting the beasts moving for the trip up the curving floor of the Town and to the elevator that served Habmo6.

Miri and Farhi shared a knowing glance over the top of their disappointed friends head. It was just like Solange to think that just because they were old enough to look for partners that they would be coming from their habmo. The Law of the Chosen was strong against finding a partner from the habmo you grew up in. It happened, very rarely, and only with the Elders approval. For the most part you found the person you would make a life with at one of the Festivals between the time you were fourteen and twenty.

Miri had only agreed to this outing because she got to go to the Town. Being from a farm that didn’t raise livestock she didn’t have to help with moving them. But seeing how it was done, was interesting. Even if there were no suitable boys doing it. From the look of the farmers tying to move the cattle, it wasn’t any more fun than hoeing.

There was no way to get out of a habmo without going through some time in no-weight. It made for all kinds of problems, since you couldn’t have cows floating around like some of the rowdier kids did on the human elevator. They needed to be kept where they were, so the floor was slightly sticky. The cows hated that. There was also a stretchy net that had to be spread over top of them. Which the cows hated even more.

The whole thing would have been impossible without the quiet-feed they were given. Uncle Fergus’ friend Old Tyrone told her it made the cows calm and even dumber than they usually were. Of course, being drugged made the cattle even less interested in walking when the farmers started calling and whistling to them. There were plenty of open-handed whacks on flanks to go around. But eventually the animals began moving out of the elevator and down the route formed by barricades. They had to travel a quarter of the way around the wheel of the Town. Like the Habmo, the Town was a barrel, though here the floor sloped so steeply the ceiling quickly cut off the view.

After a few moments, the whole show disappeared up the curve of the street, leaving behind only the fragrant reminder that cows gave crap as readily as they gave milk and meat. It would be at least a half-hour until the next elevator came, and Miri was bored. Almost everything about farming bored her.

“Look, we’re just goin’ to see boys we know or know about if we hang around here. Why don’t we go to the market?” Miri asked her friends. The other two girls traded a look she didn’t understand.

“Sure! Let’s go!” Solange agreed, far too enthusiastically. Lately, if there were boys to be ogled, that was where Solange wanted to stay. But since she was getting what she wanted without the usual back-and-forth, Miri just accepted her good luck.

The girls turned onto the first cross street in Town, leaving the wide street that connected all four sets of elevators. Four wide streets, each a quarter of the way around the circle of the Town ran from wall to wall. Crossing them were six other streets, half as wide. Some of the Chosen found the Town’s lay-out confusing but to Miri it had always made perfect sense. Who could manage to get lost in a grid?

The street the girls were on ran in front of the Med. As they passed the second set of doors for the long building, they saw two of the Chosen coming out. Leah Seakar was helping her very pregnant new wife Lynnie waddle along. The girls stopped to exchange greetings with the two. Lynnie had grown up in Habmo3 like them.

Miri liked Lynnie, who was always patient and kind. She was very happy Lynnie and Leah had found each other. Not many of the Chosen were exclusively attracted to the same sex. For those who were it was often hard to find a spouse. There were just not that many choices. But finding a way to follow the path of the Chosen is part of what made them Chosen in the first place. She looked ridiculously happy to be having her first child.

After assuring Miri and her friends that everything was fine with the baby, the couple walked away, slowly, headed back to Habmo7 where they lived.

Solange let out a little sigh. “That’ll be us in a couple of years,” she said, her eyes as wide and dopey as the cows back at the elevator.

“Not me!” Farhi objected, “I’ll take a big strong boy, if you don’t mind!”

“Oh you know what I mean,” Solange said, “We’ll be married and havin’ our first child! It’s so excitin’!”

Miri didn’t share her friend’s excitement at the prospect of child birth. Sure, every Chosen couple had two children, a boy and a girl, but it all seemed so rushed. To Miri’s knowledge no one in her habmo had their last child later than their twenty-second year, at which point the chance of doing anything different was dead and mulched.

A few minutes more of walking brought them to the Market. It was located on the central wide street in the Town. Miri always liked to go to A section, where there were shops full of parts and finished machines. She was well known by the shopkeepers, and could browse for hours. Miri was about to turn that direction when Farhi snagged her arm and pulled her towards the dry goods shops.

“Not that way, not today!” Farhi told her before she could object. Her friend dragged her down the middle of the street, then into one of the two clothing stores. Miri didn’t give much thought to her clothes. Like everyone in the habmo, she wore clothes spun from the cotton from Habmo5 or the wool from Habmo7. Unlike most of the girls and boys her age, she didn’t have any Town made clothes. Uncle Fergus always sniffed at the idea of synth-clothes. He said it wasn’t the Chosen way, and refused to allow any of the credit from their produce to be used to purchase them.

Miri had set her feet when she saw where her friend was taking her, but between Farhi pulling and Solange pushing the three of them wound up inside in a flurry of exasperated giggles. The woman behind the counter looked up at them with her own amused smile.

“Good day, young ladies,” the woman said to them. They all muttered a slightly embarrassed hello back. “Take a look around,” the woman continued, “Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.” She then turned back to reading on a square tablet. There were a few of them in her habmo, but no single person owned one. Miri was green with jealousy. What she wouldn’t give for a tablet of her own!

Solange immediately led them to the racks of dresses. Miri almost never wore a dress. Pants were much more practical, especially in the fields.

“Miri, this would set off your eyes perfectly!” Solange said holding up a iridescent blue dress with a low square-cut bodice and nearly scandalously short skirt.

Miri laughed, “I think that’s more your style.” She looked to Farhi for support but found her friend was agreeing.

“You should try it on, Miri,” Farhi told her, a serious look on her face. Miri considered the dress for moment. It was lovely. The fabric was made of the impossibly smooth material only found in the Town. Almost all the clothes the Chosen wore where loomed and sown by hand. The families that preserved the skill of tailoring were quite skilled, but the clothes found in the Town were almost other-worldly in their perfection.

“Yes, Miri,” Solange pleaded, “Do try it on.”

It was beautiful, and truth be told Miri had always been a little jealous of the families that sported a special piece of Town-made clothing, no matter what Uncle Fergus said. And after all, what could it hurt to try it on?

“Aye, well, if you insist,” Miri said with a smile, taking the dress from Solange. She walked over to the curtained alcove to change.

After shimmying into the dress, Miri turned to look in the large mirror on the side wall of the alcove. She hardly recognized the girl looking back at her. In her practical clothes, you really couldn’t tell the shape of Miri’s body. This was not the case in this dress! It clung to her curves in such a way that it made the most of what she always considered her modest assets.

The skirt of the dress hung to mid-thigh, making her legs seem longer than they were. The color also made the edge of the fabric hard to see, which only drew more attention to her strong thighs. The waist cupped her hips perfectly, emphasizing them while still being flowing enough to move, suggesting there was more to see underneath.

Above the waist the bodice was stretchy, clinging to her middle and outlining her stomach and back. The dress had been too tight to wear her bra under, but it didn’t matter as the material not only held her breasts firmly, but conspired to push them together and up, making what could only be called average look massive!

Looking at her own smiling face, Miri saw her friends were right; the color of the dress was perfect for making her blue eyes jump out. The feel of the Town-made fabric and the change her appearance made Miri grin a wicked grin. World around! Say what you like about Solange but she could really pick out clothes.

“Don’t keep us in suspense,” Farhi said through the curtain.

Miri smiled even wider. She turned and pushed the curtain aside, keeping that arm up. She put her other hand at her waist and cocked her hip out slightly.

“Well? What do you think?” she asked.

Both of her friend’s eyes were wide. There was a moment of silence just long enough for Miri to wonder if she had been wrong about how she looked.

“It’s perfect!” Solange finally said.

“When did your chest get so big?” Farhi wanted to know.

“It’s the dress, it does somethin’ to make it look bigger than it actually is,” Miri explained. “Does it look bad?”

“Oh, no! Not at all,” Farhi said quickly. “In fact, I bet you could tempt Leah into leavin’ Lynnie!”

All three of them laughed. Miri’s feelings were soaring, but being the kind of girl she was, she knew it was temporary. She would never wear this kind of thing. Even if Uncle Fergus were not so set in his ways and mean, it really wasn’t Miri’s style. Still it had been fun to dream for a few minutes. She turned to go back in the dressing room.

“We’ll take this one,” Solange called to Townswoman.

The woman looked up and smiled. “Good choice. She’ll really make an impression at the Festival parties.”

Miri blushed and started to shake her head, “No! Uncle Fergus would never agree! Even if Gran told him to!” Miri turned to the woman behind the counter, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have tried it on. I don’t have any credits for somethin’ like this.”

“But I do,” said Farhi, holding up a plastic credits square.

“Where did you get that? Your mother is going send you to the mulch if you stole it,” Miri hissed at her friend.

Farhi just showed her a placid smile. “I didn’t steal it, this is mine. I sold the table I’ve been workin’ on.” Like her family, Farhi would be a carpenter. Most of their work was Righteous; building wagons, barns, and houses. But they also built furniture. Miri had watched in awe over the last few weeks as her friend built the most gorgeous table, with carved legs and an inlaid top. She had used different shades of wood to inlay a picture of a farm in the middle.

“You sold your Festival piece? Why?” Miri asked, completely shocked.

“I can win a youth Most Righteous patch any time, but how often can I help a friend?”

“Help me? How?”

“Come on, Miri!” Solange put in, “You have a way ’bout you that makes boys look elsewhere. You are different, but we know and love you and know how great you are. Sometimes it just takes a little more to get a boy’s attention. You didn’t pair up with anyone last festival. This time will be different.”

Miri could feel her cheeks burning from a deep red blush. It was true that she hadn’t paired up with any the boys when Habmo3 had hosted a Festival last year. There were many other parts a Festival, but young people meeting and having sex was the one her friends were talking about. The two months in a different habmo gave everyone a chance to try different partners. It was all part of finding a spouse you would spend the rest of your life with.

It wasn’t that Miri didn’t want to pair up. She thought about it quite a lot. The thing was, the few boys who had even looked her way last time were all so boring. She could easily imagine kissing and loving them, but then they would start to talk, and it was all ruined! None of them wanted anything more than they had, any more than their Mum’s and Da’s had. None of them were interested in the Town or how things worked in the habmo’s.

But if Miri was honest with herself, she had to admit there had been some jealousy when first Solange, then Farhi had come around with that dreamy look on their faces that said they had paired and enjoyed it very much.

“All the boys who were interested in you were field pickin’s. With a dress like this you’ll attract more interestin’ ones.” Solange said with absolute confidence and a complete lack of understanding of her friend’s feelings.

Could she be right? Could it be that her appearance was what kept boys who thought of more than winning a Most Righteous patch pay attention to her? She had begun to believe it was because she was strange. Maybe, just maybe it was that she didn’t give off the right signals with her clothes. What would it hurt to accept Farhi’s kindness and find out?

“If you’re sure?” Miri asked.

“I’m very sure,” Farhi said, and walked over to the counter to pay for the dress. Miri went back into the dressing room to change back into her own clothes. She felt a little like a moth going back into its cocoon.

The Townswoman gave her a cloth bag to store her dress in, and the three of them left the shop.

As they walked down the street, Farhi slipped one arm through hers. “This is goin’ to be the best Festival ever!”

Miri couldn’t help but laugh and agree.