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Penmanship
Anna Parrish
Listing my books!
This book can be found at: http://www.lulu.com/anna082347
Daughter of the Second Son:
A science-fiction. A free copy at my yahoo group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/annaparrish082347/
Daughter of the Second Son
by: Anna Parrish
Proverbs 17: 25: A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.
Governing law number one:
"Only the first grandson of the first son may claim the inheritance of Freewater.
Sub A: If the first grandson has died or has willfully and willingly given up any and all rights to Freewater, and is therefore not able to claim his birthright, then the second grandson of the first son shall be considered the first grandson and the legacy shall become his.
Sub B: If the first son has no male children by the time he is forty, then adoption is allowed but the child involved must be between the ages of ten and twenty, and either must be adopted from within the family or must not have any living relatives if adopted from the outside."
Sub C: "Children of any off-spring other than the first son may not receive the endowment unless adopted as the first grandson of the first son.
Sub D: Females from any lineage, may not inherit Freewater."
I raised my hand. The teacher stopped reading the laws of our planets and looked at me in irritation. It was not my fault that a thousand questions always ran around in my head, was it?
"Yes, Racine?" Her voice was carefully controlled.
"That doesn't sound fair to the females." Hearing gasps, my cheeks darkened. I know, I know, I committed a blunder. Keeping my mouth shut was what I should have done, but did I ever?
No.
Well... hardly ever.
The teacher asked, quite coldly, "Are you implying our laws are unfair and unjust?"
Hanging my head, trembling just a little, I murmured, "No, ma'am."
"Racine, you will stay after school today and write five hundred times, 'Our laws are just.' Five hundred times."
I blurted out, "But what happens if the first grandson is stupid and the granddaughter isn't? Joseph can't spell; he can barely read. I have to do his math for him!"
Like I said, I never could keep my mouth closed. Bugs could flown in, it was opened so much!
Seven year old Joseph, appalled, spat, "Racine!"
"Well? I do!"
He snarled, "Shut up!" He glared at me; I glared back.
"Shall we make the punishment one thousand times, Miss Freewater?" the teacher inquired.
Looking down at the top of my desk, I whispered, "No, ma'am."
She said harshly, "I thought not." She went on to read the rest of the laws. We were studying them that month. Since I already knew them, I pretended to listen but in my head, I was day dreaming, wandering around our planet.
The mountains over on the eastern side were called Ariel, after Great, Great Granddad's mother. He was the man who bought and founded this world. He set up the rules, he invited the workers in... and then kicked them off when they wanted to change the laws. He was a very stiff, stern man, not that I ever met him, cause I hadn't, but he was talked about all the time. It was difficult not knowing about him. Heck, his pictures are everywhere and there are busts of him in every public and government building. I thought he was ugly. Of course, that was just my opinion.
The mountains over on the souther sector were named after Great, Great Granddad's sister, Hester. She was killed in the mutant wars, which was why old Grandpa left Earth in the first place. He brought over two hundred people with him, ships, instruments, building and planting material, cows and horses and chickens. It took ten ships to cart all that material in. They kept six ships as vessels for air defense, but the others, they broke up. They became instant buildings in which the people could live and work until homes and farms could be built.
They say the first five years were the worse for though they brought medicine with them, a new disease popped up. It killed over fifty of the colonists before a cure could be found. They called that disease the Lucifer disease. Don't ask me why. There are five or six reasons why they gave it that name. One is as good as the other as far as I’m concerned. None of them made any sense to me.
The huge ocean was called after old man, Great, Great Granddad himself: The ocean of Malachi. The main city, our capital, was called Malachi as well. That’s where I lived, in a tiny house on the edge of town... where the other workers lived. Joseph lived in the big house in the middle of town with his family. They had servants. We didn’t. Mom and me had to do all the work inside our home. Dad took care of the tiny bit of grass outside. I didn’t have a lot of time for playing games. None of the kids in our part of the city did. Dad and Mom worked in the fields. During the summer when there was no school, so did I. Joseph didn’t. I got all brown and callused; he didn’t. That made me mad. I asked one day, why he didn’t work in the fields like the rest of us and Dad told me, "He’s the first son of the first son."
Like that explained anything.
"But I’m your first born, so why..."
"I’m a nobody, Racine. I’m just a second son."
Staring at him, perplexed, I said bluntly, "You’re a Freewater."
"Racine, you’re old enough to understand. I am a Freewater; so are you, but we aren’t considered important."
"Why?"
"We will never inherit."
"So?"
"That makes us nobodies."
"But we’re Freewaters."
He said once again, "We aren’t important. I’m a second son."
Realizing he wasn’t going to add to anything I already didn’t know, I said angrily, "That’s not fair."
He shrugged. "That’s the way it is on our world."
Well, it ought to be changed. It was a stupid idea... first sons, second sons. I was just as good as Joseph and twice as smart. He was lazy too. Just catch me allowing anyone else to do what I was supposed to do! They let him get away with it... because he was the first son of the first son... yadda yadda yadda. All I know was that I looked like Joseph. We both had sable hair with lots of reddish high-lights. He had green eyes, my eyes were too. He had tons of freckles; I had the same amount of small brownish spots. We were both Freewaters. If he could get away with it, why couldn’t I? I know, I know, because he was the first son. Big deal! That idea created a world, didn't it? That opinion put the stars in the sky, right?
Hah! Tell that to God and let Him laugh with you.
The bell rang and we were dismissed. Outside the classroom, Joseph grabbed my arm. "Ow!" I yelped and tried to jerk away. He held on, refusing to loosen his hold.
"You’ve got a big mouth, Racine!" he said harshly.
"Oh, like no one knows how lazy and stupid you are!" I said just as harshly. I tried to pull away again but he had no attention of releasing me. "Let go!" I ordered.
"You don’t give orders to me, Racine Freewater!" he said in a hard, cold voice.
"And I don’t do your math either, do I?" I said bitterly. He was going to pull that first son of a first son business on me. I could see it on his face.
He gripped harder. I cried out and tears filled my eyes as the pain shot through my arm. Well, it hurt, didn’t it? "You keep your mouth shut, you girl, you!" He flung me away. I landed on my butt. He glared at me. "You stupid girl."
"If I’m so stupid, then why do you have me do your math?" Like I said, I never could keep that mouth of mine closed.
He jumped on me and slugged me, hard. I began to cry. Someone pulled him off. Someone picked me up. I stood there, with that someone’s hand on my shoulder, sobbing like a fool. I heard someone whisper, "Racine, you talk too much."
Like I didn’t already know that!
I looked up and saw the headmaster staring down at me, his grey eyes full of pity. "Should I call your folks?" I shook my head and walked away, crying. I had stopped weeping by the time I reached home but my face was a mess, my clothes bloody from my nose. My eye had already begun to puff up.
When mother saw me, she shook her head. "Oh, Racine! You’ve been in another fight again, haven’t you? Was it Joseph?"
My voice was loud, shrill. "It’s always him! I hate him! I wish he were dead!"
Her face paled. Her hand covered her heart. "Don’t let anyone else hear you say that. That’s treason. You know that."
"I don’t care!" I stomped my foot. "I wish he’d fall off the side of a mountain! I wish he jump in the ocean and drown! I wish..."
"Racine! You hush!" She sighed. "Let me put something cold on that eye of yours. It will be all black and blue tomorrow. It’s already beginning to swell shut."
Dad came in. "The other children said there was a fight..." He stared at me, exasperated. "Oh, Racine!"
"I hate him!"
"I told you not to say that," Mother warned me.
Dad admitted reluctantly, "To be honest, I always hated my brother too."
"Tom!" How annoyed she sounded.
"Well, I did, stupid, pompous nincompoop that he is. But your mother is right, Racine. You must never let people hear you say that. Granddad won’t like it."
"I don’t care!"
"I do. They’ll punish me too, and your mom too. If you won't do it for yourself, will you keep what you feel a secret for me?" I chewed on my lower lip. "I have to keep mine private." He sighed. "I know how hard it is. I really do. God knows how often I wanted to tell him how I felt, how often I wanted to yell at Dad and Granddad and tell them the truth, but it wouldn’t do any good, Racine. They already know anyway. The laws here are quite specific and no one’s going to change them simply because we don’t like them." Sighing deeply, I nodded. He hugged me. "That’s my girl." He looked at my eye. "You’re going to have quite a shiner tomorrow!"
And I did. My left eye was so swollen, I couldn’t see out of it the next morning, and true to Mom’s word, I was black and blue there. "Can I stay home?" I asked hopefully as I went into breakfast.
"No."
I tried again. "It hurts."
"Take two aspirin."
"My butt hurts."
"I beg your pardon?" She put my plate of pancakes and sausage on the table in front of me, right next to the glass of juice.
"When I fell, I landed on my butt. It hurts."
"Forget it; you’re not staying home."
I moped. I glared at the food, not that that did any good, but still, I scowled down at it. "Don’t you care?"
"Racine, if you don’t go, think of the feeling of conquest he’ll have."
I muttered, "Yeah."
So I went to school.
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