But let's get back to work on the writer in this novel, Michel. I don't think I'll give him a last name, since it really isn't important. I think I'll only have a few characters, and I think I can avoid calling any of them Michel too. I'm also convinced I shouldn't bother with a description of Michel. Michel is the kind of person who doesn't give much thought to his appearance, except to keep neat, so I don't see why we should give much thought to it, either. I'll try to stick to what is essential to him as a character. I think maybe he's a misogynist. He doesn't really hate women so much as he doesn't understand them. Of course, this does affect his writing. This would make me think he's not a very good writer right now. This may change, assuming he changes in the story in the right way. Of course, as a writer, he will grow and change, as all writers do, but it is difficult to be a good writer without being well-rounded in your understanding, including, and perhaps especially, women. It's not acceptable, as it was in Goethe's day, to treat women exclusively as the "other." We're not talking archaic "political correctness," but basic consideration of women as human beings.
This makes me wonder if I shouldn't show you one of his early stories right away or if I should continue with my musings as to Michel's character. Perhaps a short story by him would do both:
MICHEL'S SHORT STORY
RECIPROCATION
They herded the men of all shapes and sizes into the breeding camp. Any of them that had a spark of life left in their eyes were beaten until they too had the pervasive dullness of defeat. Perhaps that was why Abe was beaten so much. He was the only one in his company who dared look the women herding him into the courtyard in the eyes. However, a quick nudge by one of the electric prodders made him look away. As he entered the gate, though, he looked back at the woman who had hit him, caught her eye, and looked back away.
The men were quickly separated into different rooms and ordered to bathe and congregate in the main hall within an hour. They knew better than to disobey. The consequences were painful. By the end of the hour, the entire hall was full. The walls were interspersed with guards, every one armed. Almost immediately, a woman walked out on the stage and announced, "You all know why you are here. It is the quarterly breeding time. Soon, the women will be here to choose the man they want. You will each stand quietly and allow them to come and inspect you. But first, we must bow in reverence to Gaia." Everyone bowed their heads for a second, then shot them back up as she suddenly said, "Now line up!" The men lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, having done this every year since their eighteenth birthdays, or since their capture, if they happened to be a captured member of the Equity Front, an underground terrorist group of men and women, though mostly men, who were fighting against the government. They had formed within a year of the 2011 Requital Act, which, in the actual form passed, seemed innocent enough in repaying women for everything they had gone through throughout history. However, it had been quickly interpreted into women having total legal power over men. Further bureaucratic interpretation led to the complete removal of male rights, and now men could not hold property, had to work only in designated places, usually factories and mines, and were herded like cattle from place to place, whether it be to work, to their sleeping quarters, or to the breeding camps.
Abe was one of the people who had been captured. His parents had joined the Equity Front almost from its conception, and gave birth to him a few years later. He had been raised a freeman and was determined to die a freeman. But today, he had to face the fact that there was little he was going to do today except fuck someone; probably some butt-ugly bitch that weighed a ton. That was something he had noticed almost immediately when he had been captured: there seemed to be a total lack of even remotely attractive women. The Equity Front was quite a stark contrast in comparison. He had been raised around beautiful, plain, and even a few ugly women, but they did not seem to have the degree of overall unattractiveness as the women he had seen on the inside. A few women walked by him, inspecting the men closely, but he was relieved not to be chosen by any of them. Finally, a rather plain-looking woman, though astonishingly beautiful by comparison to the others he had seen since his capture, walked up to him and said, "What is your designation?"
"Abe."
She stared up at him, then touched his penis with the tip of an electric prodder for a second. It shriveled in pain as he tensed and gritted his teeth. He finally managed, "You do that again and I won't be worth anything to you tonight."
With that, she poked him in the stomach with her prodder, doubling him over in pain. "What is your designation?" she repeated.
"PBR322," Abe said, finishing in his mind with `you fucking bitch.'
"Good. I will have you then. Come along." She grabbed him by the arm and led him down the rows of naked men and out of the great hall. They walked across the courtyard and over to another large building, passing two guards as they went through the large double doors. They slowly made their way down the hall before finally reaching their destination. The woman opened the door and was startled to find a guard in the room. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.
"I was given orders to make sure everything was all right before anything happened," she answered.
"Well, as you can see, everything is fine. Now get the hell out of here."
It was the guard's turn to be startled. "Uh, yes, ma'am." She slowly backed out of the room and shut the door behind her.
As the door shut, the woman turned to Abe and said, "Come on, we haven't much time..."
"I thought we had as much time as you wanted to take."
A pair of pants were thrown at him. "Shut up and come on. I'm Barbara. Patricia sent me to get you out of here."
Abe's eyes lit up at the mention of his girlfriend's name. "You know Patricia? But how?"
"A lot happens in six months," Barbara replied as she walked to the closet. She leaned in and pulled out a large board, then looked back at Abe. "Let's go." She pushed Abe in ahead of her, then pulled the board back across the hole, making sure it was flush. She squeezed past Abe and said, "Sorry about what happened in the great hall," as she began walking through the wall space without waiting for a response.
The guard from Barbara's room slowly walked down the hall, the only thing in her mind being to ask her superior officer what she wanted done next. Instead, she was startled to find her commanding officer standing in front of her. She snapped to attention as the C.O. said, "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to keep an eye on Barbara Conti."
"I thought that you wanted..."
"Who told you to think? I told you to keep an eye on Conti."
"But she told me to leave, ma'am."
"And I told you to stay. Come on. If you're lucky, you'll only get ten years in the brig."
The two women walked back down the hall, and burst into the room. The C.O. was not surprised to find it empty. "Make that life in the brig. Now find them."
The guard began searching the room as the C.O. ran down the hall, yelling for the alarms to be set off.
Abe was beginning to wonder how long the passage was, when he suddenly found himself confronted by a flight of stairs rising abruptly in front of them. They led out to a small supply shack containing a few unmarked boxes, but little else. Barbara held her hand out toward Abe and said, "Let me look around outside to see if we can make it out without being seen."
Without waiting for an answer, she tentatively opened the door, allowing a thickening beam of sunlight to peer through. After peering out, Barbara grabbed Abe by the hand and led him into a totally deserted town. The women were all at the camp. Even the young and old had gone; the former to learn how to pick out a good partner when they were old enough, and the later to give advice, whether it was wanted or not. The town was different from those he was familiar with. While it still did not contain electrical poles, flag poles, or any other long, thin object, electricity lines stretched from house to house. There must be a power source nearby. He began to wonder what it was, and asked Barbara.
"There is a coal mine near here, so a coal/electric plant was built."
"I'll have to keep that in mind," Abe said, thinking about what he and the group should do about it, if anything. It was probably government-run, as was nearly everything. If so, it was fair game. He was about to ask about this when he was suddenly pulled into an alleyway.
"I thought I saw a guard," Barbara whispered in reply to his inquiring look. "We need to get out of town as quickly as possible." With that, she pulled him down the alleyway. It was not long before he was totally lost; not that he really knew where he was in the first place. They finally broke back out on a street, near some houses. They darted through the yards, trying to get to the woods as quickly as possible.
The guards saw Barbara and Abe and patiently worked their way toward where the pair was moving. They knew they wouldn't get far. None of them were surprised to finally see them dashing across open yards toward the woods. They could have the woods surrounded in moments and move in on them. It was a matter of time. They worked their way through the woods and finally found them in a small clearing. Just as the operation coordinator was about to step into the clearing with her fellow guards, she saw Barbara pull out a small handgun and point it at Abe. The young man seemed surprised at this treachery, but did not have time to think about it as she suddenly shot him five times without flinching. Abe doubled over from the shots and fell to the ground. Barbara turned and began walking toward the O.C. The O.C. stepped out of the woods, giving Barbara a start. "Where'd you come from?"
"We were sent after you for helping a renegade escape."
Barbara was incredulous. "Don't they tell you anything? I set this entire thing up to get rid of Mr. PBR322 there. He was subversive and dangerous. Had he stayed any longer, he would have caused us problems. However, since murder is still illegal, an escape attempt had to be made..."
"I was unaware..."
"Well, on second thought, I'm not surprised. We had to make it look legitimate. Now come on. Let him rot. The bastard deserves no better." Barbara grabbed the guard by the arm and spun her around, leading her away from the clearing. As they walked away, Barbara leaned close to the guard and whispered. "If you keep this quiet, I can make it worth your while." With a quick blow and surreptitious kiss on the ear, the guard smiled in understanding. After all, Barbara was somewhat attractive.
Abe lay on the ground until he could hear no more movement. When he was certain no guards were left, he slowly stood and darted into the woods. He was not sure which way he should go, but he was fairly certain he knew which way the town was, so he headed in the opposite direction. He walked for nearly an hour when he suddenly heard a familiar sound. It was a whistle. A signal from the Front. He stopped and whistled in response, then suddenly found himself surrounded by familiar faces. All at once, he was almost tackled by a beautiful young woman. He managed to keep his balance as he gripped her in a fierce hug, kissing her passionately. "Oh, it's so good to see you Abe!"
"God, I love you, Patricia. It's been so long!"
A man from the group suddenly spoke up: "Sorry to interrupt your reunion, but it's good to see you. Sorry it took so long, but we had the damnedest time finding you."
Abe looked up at him and smiled. "Well, I'm glad you finally did." He gave Patricia a quick kiss, then put her down and walked over to his friend. "The town I came from has a coal plant."
"Government run?"
"I don't know for certain, but do you know of anything that isn't?"
"Good point. What do you suggest? It's really not that big of a town..."
"Ever been bit by a mosquito, Frank?" Abe smiled.
"Good point. We should hit at night to minimize deaths."
"Actually, it would be best to hit as soon as possible. They are at the camp getting laid. There's no one in town. If we hit now, there won't be any casualties."
Frank thought this over for a moment. "This is awfully quick, but I think we can do it. But we'll get someone else to do it. You're tired. You need to rest."
"No, man, I want to do it. I've..."
"No way. We've got plenty of people to do it. You need rest. It's been a long eight months."
Abe was about to protest, but his mouth was suddenly occupied by Patricia's. Well, it HAD been a while. "Are you sure? I mean, I..."
"Don't worry. It will be taken care of. You get some rest. No more protests."
Abe smiled. "Who are you going to send?"
"Joel..."
"Joel! He doesn't know anything about...!"
Frank laughed. "Abe, you forget that it has been eight months. Someone had to take your place in the mean time, and Joel was willing to learn. He's not quite as good as you, but he's getting there."
"Well, if you think so..."
"Don't worry about it. You come on home."
Abe lay back in a nice warm bath. Patricia walked in, holding a large towel. "Are you ready to come out of there?"
"Why don't you come in here and join me?" Abe said as he reached for Patricia and pulled her toward him. As he kissed her lips, he heard a loud explosion in the distance.
_________________________________________________________________
I have to be fair to Michel. This story was done as an exercise for a writers’ group. They had had each of the members write a first line of a story, then exchange these first lines randomly. What else could he have done with a first line like that? When he turned this story in to the writers’ group, the very woman who had written the line asked him why men always had to write dominatrix stories whenever they created a matriarchy. She wondered if it wasn’t a common male fantasy. Personally, I suspect she may be at least partially right.
But it looks like I'll have to halt these musings for a time, since my brother is calling for me to go. We have to go eat and get to Austin.
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