13

Women Unite, Take Back the Night – Anna Pride

"It is time for learning," Mistra said a few days later. Happy to be home, all she wanted to do was learning.

"We were interrupted last time. Will we be interrupted again?" asked Minna, a little scared.

"I don't think so," Mistra said, "come and let us go to the learning room."

They all went in except for Seppa, who knew she wasn't supposed to go. Mistra counted little noses. "Where is – who are we missing?"

Vidam and Trinning counted, too. "I think that's everyone," Vidam said.

"No, wait," Trinning said, thinking, "We are missing Seppa."

They all looked around. "She should join us," Vidam finally said, "for the child of one so brave should not be denied learning any longer."

"Are you certain?" Dratha asked.

"It is against what Father did. Is that an unwise choice?" Vidam asked, a little nervously.

"No, it is a fine choice," she replied, "but it is also a very different one. It is one that others will not necessarily follow or approve of, even though I understand that it is legal."

"Perhaps they should follow it, too," Vidam said.

He walked through the hallways of their home and found Seppa sitting near one of her mother's old blankets, holding it and sucking her thumb and crying a little. He scooped her up in his arms, blanket and all. "You are going to do learning today with everyone else," he said, "and you will do learning any time the rest of us do, from now on."

"I am not supposed to," she said quietly, "Father said not to. Is Father coming home?"

"I do not know. But that is the old rule. There are new rules now, maybe. I run the household. I suppose I can make any rules I wish," he said as they entered the learning room. He set her down on the seat next to Minna, who was close in age to her.

Mistra and Dratha smiled at the new addition. "This is a good day," Dratha said.

Mistra drew on the board, a Y, "Can anyone tell me what this symbol is?" she turned to face her students.

Minna pointed at her. "Mama!"

Mistra looked down and could see a little brindle-furred hand emerging from the top of her pouch. "It is a very good day!" she put down the writing implement and sat near the little girls.

Cria left and returned with a soft off-white baby blanket. "Oh, you kept it," Mistra smiled.

"Of course we kept it," Dratha said, "Minna could only sleep when she was near your smell. And we, we always wanted to believe you would be able to come home to us again." Her eyes shone a little but it was not from sadness.

"Can we help the pouchling?" Seppa asked.

"No, we must let her do this for herself," Dratha said, "but we are here in case she is in any real distress."

The pouchling slowly grasped the top of the pouch with one hand, and then another. And then she figured something out, for she pushed down a little on the top of the pouch. The top of the little brindle head began to emerge, and then the rest. She looked up at her mother first, and then out and around to her surroundings, to her family, little mouth agape.

She then scrambled a little more, holding onto the top tied part of Mistra's blouse until, finally, she was completely out.

Mistra held onto her and they got the baby onto a table. She and Dratha cleaned up the pouchling – she could no longer be called a pouchling; she was an infant – and swaddled her. Mistra picked her up to face everyone, who stood in a circle around them.

Vidam spoke first. "I am, I am the head of this household now," he said, "I am not your father. I am your half-br- your brother. You will receive everything from me," he said, following the normal pouch emergence ritual, more or less, but then stopped, "I am, that is not right, for I know you will receive many things from everyone else. So, I, I will promise to make sure you have a home."

"I am Dratha. I am the Prime Wife. I promise to guide you. My children are supposed to speak next, but I think your mother should speak now, for she has been so brave."

"I am Mistra. I am the secondary. I promise you an education. And I am your mother. From me – and I think from all of us – I promise care."

"There is no last caste wife here," Trinning said, "so who should speak?"

"I will," Seppa said, with her tiny voice. "I am Seppa and I will serve." She was copying what she had heard her mother say when Minna was born.

"But you are the child of a very brave one indeed," Vidam said to Seppa, "so you will serve, yes, but you will also grow together and learn together. I will insist upon it. That will be a rule in this house, for Father's rules no longer apply. All will have the home learning. All will know how to read and write."

"I am Trinning. I will one day run a house. And I think I will run it like this one is now being run. For it seems wrong to leave one out of the learning."

And they told the infant their names and made their promises, all down to little Minna, who said, "I am Minna. We will both be secondaries someday."

"And we will make sure that you go to the best and kindest males possible, and not just the highest bidders," Vidam said, "we are wealthy. We don't need to be bargaining over a few Stonds when it is for the health and safety and comfort and care of all of you sisters."

He looked Mistra in the eye and handed her the off-white baby blanket. She wrapped up the infant, and he asked, "What do you name this new child?"

And Mistra, who had been planning all along to name the infant Bayla, said, on an impulse, "Inta."

"A name for one who was very brave," Vidam said, "welcome to the world, Inta, and come and see all that is beautiful in it."

Mistra drew a semi-circle on the board to show all. "We will all learn. This term means female. And this term," she pointed at the Y she had drawn earlier, "it means male. And I think maybe they are both important, in their own ways."

And baby Inta, who was still very small and could not quite focus her eyes too well yet, saw her family, and could not tell male from female, or young from old, or the first born from the last, or who had been the vessel for whom.

And she could not tell castes at all.

7