Irrelevant by Sarah Addison-Fox

Irrelevant by Sarah Addison-Fox

Author:Sarah Addison-Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sarah Addison-Fox


8

Cristan.

She’s hurt. Anyone could see that, but she’s open to listening which is more than I can say about a lot of people I know, Irrelevants and Relevants alike. More importantly, she probably needs to be thinking about something other than the fact her family basically allowed the G to drug her all these years.

I’m not sure where to start so I try to remember as many facts as I can. I should have thought to bring some books from the library, but she’s got plenty of time to go through all the screeds of dumped Irrelevant history we’ve saved.

“Everything you know about Gallathia’s history is tainted so you’ll think the Relevance system is a good thing,” I begin.

Her lips pucker, but she doesn’t say anything. “You were taught that after a civil war nearly destroyed our country, the government was forced to come up with a solution to increasing violence and discord, right?”

She nods and I take a breath before continuing. “Part of that is true. What the G has decided is no longer important is why the civil war nearly happened.” Her eyes open a little wider and I continue. “It started when the government slowly removed more and more freedoms we were used to, until they controlled what was broadcast and published.”

I keep waiting for her to scoff, but she just sits, her lip in her teeth, her eyes on her fingers.

“It got so bad that anyone who disagreed with the government ended up censored. When things started getting worse, and more and more dodgy things started happening, and more freedom was taken away, a section of society that still believed we deserved to have choices were forced to openly rebel.”

I don’t tell her the worst of what happened during that period. It would only freak her out even more to know what the government did, and still does, to maintain law and order. The best way I can think of is to show her what we had a hundred years ago and let her fill in the pieces in her own time.

I pull out my tablet and find a bunch of files she can read. I keep talking as I add more documents to the list. “Before, we were free to do and say what we wanted about pretty much anything. We were free to work in any job. We could live anywhere on the planet we wanted to, and we had the right to vote about who we wanted running Gallathia.” I find a couple old pictures from the twenty first and show her one of a voting booth, and a ballot with dozens of names on it. “We were free to believe what we wanted, we were free to show emotion and hug each other. We were free to say when we wanted things to be different, and we were free to have as many children as we wanted.”

I glance at her and see she’s now picking the skin around her fingernails. I know



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