[IC Inbox -- Snowblind]

[heavensreader]

Is it worki - oh. Ahem. This is Kesara Freamon. Please leave your message here and I will call back on you as soon as I can.







Wait, is it still - argh, how do I ma-

Comments

audio;

[heavensreader]

Oah, yes. And two of them are Duster and House.

[Kesara sounds remarkably bitter for an eleven years old.]

This is terrible business. I so wish we could build our own shelter.

audio;

[devoutish]

You did it once. How did you manage that? Was it only the tent, or did you reinforce it?

[heavensreader]

Only the tent. It was a very good tent. But in the morning the flap froze over and cracked, and I haven't ever found another one, or anything that's made of the same material.

[devoutish]

Now, that's a shame. But I'll keep an eye open for one, yeah? What house did you find it in?

[heavensreader]

It was right next to the southern wall. I remember because it had a lot of papers in it. I think they were things children had written, compositions for school... I could find it again, I'm sure I could.

[devoutish]

In a building, or outside?

[heavensreader]

In the building. It was one of those things you find. I didn't think it would be so good, but it was good. It must be a future tent.

[devoutish]

Yeah; future this, future that. Lots of that here.

[heavensreader]

I like it. The future seems like a terribly exciting place. Did you know they let women be doctors and police?

[devoutish]

Yeah. According to Watson, women even go into the army.

[heavensreader]

That's mad! How can a regiment full of healthy young men concentrate at all on fighting when there's a woman with them?

[devoutish]

[See Kesara, you get it.]

Yeah, seems strange, doesn't it. But it sounds like men and women interact with each other far more than they do in our time. Could be that they're used to it.

[heavensreader]

[Finally someone who has a sensible reaction!]

I don't know, Mr. Solomons, I think future women must be very different from the ones I know. That is, my teacher is better than any man, but they say that is God playing strange tricks sometimes.

[devoutish]

And what trick do you think God is playing here, with these future women?

[heavensreader]

You'll have to ask Lord Gavin. He's the one who says so. I'm only eleven, and a girl.

[And her religious education has not been all it could be, Lord Gavin also says.]

But Steph - Miss Stephanie - says that it's nature versus nurture. That it's all about how a woman is brought up. Imagine that!

[devoutish]

Yeah, that could be part of it, I suppose.

[He's a little too old-fashioned to think that's the entire explanation, but it does make sense.]

[heavensreader]

I don't know about the rest. It's a great mystery. Kunsel says - he says that in his world the races of man aren't like in mine, either. That white men and natives and black men are all the same.

[devoutish]

Watson says the same. So think of it this way, right - the further into the future you go, the better things will be for you.

[He doesn't feel so optimistic about the future himself - but he likes Kesara enough that if he can help her feel optimistic about it, he will.]

[heavensreader]

[Optimism is conditional upon believing those stories - which Kesara has some trouble with.]

But it's not that way where you are from, is it. Not with women, or with folk who aren't Christian.

[devoutish]

Oh, it's not so bad everywhere. England's all right for us.

[He means his people.]

And women can vote in elections now.

[heavensreader]

Just in England? Or, is it in other places too? Places that have elections, I mean. We don't have anything of that sort in India.

[devoutish]

I'm not sure. Ask Watson; he may know.