Totem by Darin Bradley

Author:Darin Bradley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63023-046-3
Publisher: Resurrection House
Published: 2017-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

“Aer Together,” the announcers say on the screen, “is the new rotation.”

Asha thinks it’s an odd thing for them to say, calling the football match.

“Now, if you’re unmarried without a service record, the rotation will give you more of your important years with your parents, your brothers and sisters.”

Asha feels strangely aware of how he is hearing without listening, still on the sofa with Mir in her sleeper on the floor. He feels himself not move. He sees images like concepts with his eyes closed.

“Women under thirty and men under twenty-five can now avoid rotation licensing of their own and help preserve their families until they start their own. And women can look forward to new sister-roommates once they do register as part of Sisters First! with new incentives for those who stay child-free, for a newer, more exciting way to spend your thirties and beyond!”

Asha hears it like he’s saying it to himself, and when he realizes he isn’t fully awake, the knowing of it wakes him up.

The apartment is still filled with the day—the sun hasn’t dropped below the city’s rims. The match is no longer playing on the screen. The ticker at the bottom of the feed reads 2 – 0 final, and men in suits sit before a windowed vista of the stadium as it empties of fans. They say nothing while talking—Asha muted it earlier so Mir would sleep. She moves her lips while she sleeps, and her blanket has slipped off her shoulders. The beer he opened is only half-empty, on the table beside the remote.

“Aer Together is your new future!”

It’s Nisa’s web radio. Asha hears it from the bathroom, and he can feel damp from the shower in the air. Nisa must have just only finished.

“The new regulations will take effect this rotation. Learn more at Together.aer.”

He hears the State Radio bumper, and someone begins discussing the traffic.

“Asha, you need to get ready,” Nisa says from the bathroom.

He gets up quietly, studying Mir for signs of waking, and moves to the bathroom. Nisa is rubbing cream into her face, a towel cinched around her, and another entombing her hair.

“Shh,” he says. “You’ll wake Mir.”

She doesn’t look at him. She works carefully on an eyelid she has stretched with an uplifted brow.

“She’s slept enough,” Nisa says. “She won’t sleep tonight.”

Asha watches her, and he thinks about the towel’s tucked cinching.

Nisa looks at him in the mirror.

“Don’t even think about it,” she says. “We don’t have enough time.”

Asha crosses his arms. “There isn’t time when we have it!”

“Don’t be crude,” she says. “Take a shower.”

“Why so early?” he says. “There’s plenty of time.”

“No, I want to take the car.”

“What? Downtown? We’ll have to park it.”

“Exactly,” she says. “Shower.”

“But the bus—”

“I don’t want to take the bus.”

“It’s better for Mir. The air filtration is twice as good as—”

She pulls her fingers from her face and turns to fully regard him in the mirror.

“I’m not taking the bus for a nice evening,” she says. “You think there isn’t enough sex around here? How about nights out? I’m here every day, Asha.

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