The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide to New New England & Beyond

Emily

The Interconnected freed themselves from the bondage of marriage and family early in the years after the establishment of Sherwood. It has been said, in the absence of money, marriage simply lost its root. Others have pointed to the idea that in the upheaval of so many aspects of traditional life, the structures of family ceased to hold power. Our romantic notions of marriage dissolved as we let go of our possessions. The nuclear family faded away, with the notion of property. Children became the joy and responsibility of everyone. The culture of not clinging to partners, monogamy, sexual stereotypes, or ownership of things or people, defined what it was to become interconnected.

The traditionalists decried this behavior as depraved. What both the traditionalists and the Interconnected agreed upon, however, was the abomination of polygamy. The Interconnected hated polygamy because it combined the outdated bondage of marriage with the subjugation of women. The traditionalists hated it because it was not what they perceived as the biblical norm.

The pressure to lean toward polygamy rose during the fall in fertility brought on by the success of the Siberian Zika virus. Polygamist communities sprouted up worldwide, lead by men who touted the plural marriage imperative for increased chances of births. Their arguments made logical sense, but the practice overwhelmingly encouraged closed societies which oppressed women and exalted men. Horrific stories of enslaved women escaped the closed walls of these societies. Soon, polygamists everywhere were met with scorn, casting them as pariahs, and causing them to become increasingly insular.

– The Wakeful Wanderer's Guide, Vol. 6, lines 730 - 732 (unpublished)

Marto was cheating. He was also stalling. He sat with Zeke and his four wives whose names had already escaped him, Helen and Maxtor in a basement under Zeke's house. Zeke didn't seem to notice Marto had been writing in his head. He doubted Zeke would have thrown him out in the storm if he did.

The wind gathered strength outside. The basement was damp but comfortable. There were lit candles and food in jars. An awkward silence lay between Marto's party and Zeke's. Only Maxtor seemed oblivious. He ate pickled string beans from one of the jars, cheerfully waiting out the storm.

Marto gathered his courage and looked at Helen. When she had caught his eye, he said: "I'm ready."

Helen had forgotten all about the data packet. Startled by the remembrance of it she said, "Oh, okay. I'm not really sure how to..."

• • •

There is a light and a presence in the light. His mother's arms, his mother's face. He is enveloped in her presence. She is speaking to him.

"You were born Matthew Gerald Baxter."

"Your father was Ignatius Roman Baxter. My maiden name was Emily Elizabeth Fitzgerald. My father, your maternal grandfather Holden, was the last of a long line of male heirs to the Fitzgerald Oil fortune. Your father would have been heir to the Baxter mining fortune if it had not been dissolved upon the death of his father, your grandfather Lawrence."

"Your father and I met at a gala thrown by our families at the Fitzgerald summer home near Park City, Utah. Even as the world they had inherited crumbled around them, we were prohibited from dating outside of our social circles. You need to know I loved your father, regardless of the circumstances which threw us together. He was a kind and generous man."

His fathers face appears to him, without the beard, the light colored glasses framing his smiling eyes.

"We lived in the same summer home where we had been promised to each other. The remote location protected us from the Vengeance. A few of your father's friends lived with us. We had plenty of room, and everyone helped with the upkeep of the large house. Our years there were isolated, but happy."